The other day I received in the mail two 2009 Upper Deck Icons baseball manufactured patches that I purchased on eBay for like $2.50 each. They were definitely an impulse buy on my behalf; I do no collect manu-patches, and neither Jose Reyes or Jay Bruce are really guys I collect. I bought them because the price seemed right and the cards looked somewhat appealing; or maybe the price made them appealing?

Nonetheless, they arrived on Christmas Eve and when I held the cards, something felt different — I kind of enjoyed the purchase. For more than a year I have been bitching (via comments on other blogs) about my hatred for manufactured patches. I’ve owned a few in recent years and each one I have dealt for almost next to nothing because they are not typically the type of card I chase.

But when the Reyes and Bruce arrived this week, I started thinking about what I really dislike about the Lettermen-style cards, and here’s what I came up with:

1) Signatures: Topps and Upper Deck have been guilty of producing signed Lettermen-style patches. This crap needs to stop. There is nothing appealing about seeing a signature cramped into a small fake patch. I have yet to see a signed manu-patch that actually looks good. And that’s not even counting Topps pathetic attempt last year with a certain football product that used a freakin’ sticker on the manu-patch card. Bleh.

2) Serial Numbering: I am convinced that the serial number on these type of cards are created with the sole purpose of tricking collectors into thinking what they have obtained is super rare. Most people know by now that these cards are not game-used, but someone coming back into the hobby after a year or two off is going to get duped because they just pulled from a pack or bought off eBay a card that is serial numbered to a low print run. Bottom line, ditch the numbering; either get rid of the cards or make a ton of them.

3) What they spell: I’m fine if the letters on the cards are used to spell out the name of the player; it just seems right. But don’t do what UD did with this Jay Bruce Lettermen. What’s the “G” supposed to be from? Oh yeah, Bruce Almighty. Lame.

I’m not saying that I love these cards, but what I am saying is that I can see how they can be collected and accepted. If the companies followed all of the points I brought up above, I may actually considering buying a few more. Just don’t expect me to pay “Hit” prices for these cards, after all, they are cards containing manu-patches, not actual pieces of a jersey.

This entry was posted on December 26, 2009 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Newspaperman with tags baseball, baseball cards, Jay Bruce, Jose Reyes, Lettermen, patch cards, sports, Topps, Upper Deck. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.