COVID and Cards - the 2020-21 Season

[RGM81]

Obviously each one should be it's own set as they are parallels

That would be hilarious! He did quite a few different ones, it would be neat to see them all. We need a Schmalz FWA tracker.

[creasecollector]

That would be hilarious! He did quite a few different ones, it would be neat to see them all. We need a Schmalz FWA tracker.

I think some of them were posted in the SP Authentic thread from that year. Would be great to find it now.

[30ranfordfan]

odjickfan brought up a point about hard-signed autos.

I'm on the other side of the fence here. I'm in the minority here and I am proud of it. I say KNOCK OFF with all the signed stuff!! It's too much.

EVERYTHING seems to be signed these days. Whether it's hard-signed or a sticker auto, it's still too much. Think about it...how many cards has Sidney Crosby signed for Upper Deck? Thousands. Then there's the sticker autos, which are replications of the real signature. There are multitudes of those as well from all players. It's ridiculous. Enough already. It's gotten to the point of "I've seen one, I've seen them all." I don't care how much a Crosby autograph can bring in, there is so many that it has lost the luster for me, y'know?

One particular gripe I have is with SP Authentic in the last few years. Future Watch Autos have a listed print run of 999 but an actual run of 949 because 50 are inscribed. Completely idiotic idea. They turned it into a subset within the main set and it's infuriating. Then people try to pass the inscribed cards off as a rookie card, which they are not. FWAs are hard enough to collect at the best of times, now there are 50 less of them to get. Not fun.

I'd like to see a set like 2000-01 SP Authentic. None of the rookie cards were signed that year (the first year rookie cards were signed was 2001-02). Just nice clean cards.

Sticker autos are not replicas. They signed the sticker (for real) and the sticker was applied to the card. Certainly not as nice as the card actually being signed, but certainly not replications.

You're definitely in the minority. I like autographs. I wish they would get a bigger variety of players to sign things. I'm still hoping that we see Oilers rookies Joakim Nygard & Gaten Haas sign cards before the end of the 19-20 rookie season.

[sparty07]

It looks UD released Chronology a couple years too early because 20/21 was supposed to be focused on the young players/rookies if I remember right. This would have been the perfect first half of the 20/21 card season. One option UD could do to fill in Series 1, is to release Young Guns of the veterans who never got them, or even create ones for guys like Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, Howe, etc. Let the graphic design team or to take from Topps 2020 have some artists create young guns cards that would have fit the card styles of their rookie year. They wouldn't be "True Rookies", but I think people would definitely collect them.

[30ranfordfan]

It looks UD released Chronology a couple years too early because 20/21 was supposed to be focused on the young players/rookies if I remember right. This would have been the perfect first half of the 20/21 card season. One option UD could do to fill in Series 1, is to release Young Guns of the veterans who never got them, or even create ones for guys like Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, Howe, etc. Let the graphic design team or to take from Topps 2020 have some artists create young guns cards that would have fit the card styles of their rookie year. They wouldn't be "True Rookies", but I think people would definitely collect them.

Chronolgy is such a weird set.... personally, I really like the look of the cards. I think there's some great stuff in there, and I really like the autographed cards. They are awesome.

With it being (basically) and "all hits" kind of product though, it makes for an expensive break - and there is just no way that the boxes are worth what they cost. You could get really lucky, but you probably won't. I've picked up a number of autos for $5 (or less) that I wanted for my own collection though.

The second edition, focused on young stars & rookies, is disappointing to me. I just mentioned in my last post that I like autographed rookie cards (and I do) but when I first saw this set was going to hit the market: I spent a long time looking over the checklist. Some of the highlights for me:

Kevin Lowe signing for UD (or any card company, for that matter) for the first time since 1994 Be A Player.
Charlie Huddy's first hard-signed UD cards (he did have sticker autographs in UD Edmonton Oilers collection, 7 years ago)
Brian Benning signing for a card company, for the first time (not an Oilers card, but that's okay)
Luke Richardson signing for the first time since 1998. He's got 1998 & 1995 BAP autographs, and those are two sets I don't really like the look of
Steve Staios, with a hard-signed Oilers autograph card. That's a first

I'm sure fans of other teams can find similar highlights, if they're interested in older players.

Here's a small list of players.... they guys all played for the Oilers at one point, some played as far back as the 70s, a couple are still active:

Willy Lindstrom
Reg Kerr
Ron Chipperfield
Peter Ing
Jussi Markkanen
Matt Greene
Kyle Brodziak
Ales Kotalik


These guys are all like Brian Benning for me. They're NOT insignificant players, but they're not stars either. They've never signed for a card company (Markkanen has signed a few Finnish cards).

A set like Chronology is the perfect place to include players like this. Instead we'll get a group of 30 or 40 rookies, that will have signed multiple cards in most products, and another 60 or 70 "young stars", players that are all under 25, and have already signed 1000s of cards for Upper Deck.

I mean, I guess I don't really have the right the grumble that much - I'm not the one buying the product. I'm the one that wants to pick up a few singles for $5-$10 after someone else busts a box..... but still. I just wish there was an annual set that focused on retired players, and Upper Deck was always trying to expand its list of players, bringing guys they've never worked with before into the fold.

[Leafsman]

I got a response from Upper Deck about whether the inscribed FWAs are rookie cards.

They said "it's easy to argue both ways. It's up to the individual collector."

I know I'm in the minority (and that does not bother me one bit), but I'll stick to my belief that when you add something extra to a card, you change the card. I will always consider the inscribed cards to be parallels.

The reason why isn't only because of the inscriptions; it's because asking prices of those tend to be higher, making it more difficult to acquire one of them.

[RGM81]

I got a response from Upper Deck about whether the inscribed FWAs are rookie cards.

They said "it's easy to argue both ways. It's up to the individual collector."

I know I'm in the minority (and that does not bother me one bit), but I'll stick to my belief that when you add something extra to a card, you change the card. I will always consider the inscribed cards to be parallels.

The reason why isn't only because of the inscriptions; it's because asking prices of those tend to be higher, making it more difficult to acquire one of them.

Asking prices are higher on multi-colour patch cards, jersey #'d cards, etc., some cards will always command a premium. As the kids say, "collect what you like."

[jackpot]

I got a response from Upper Deck about whether the inscribed FWAs are rookie cards.

They said "it's easy to argue both ways. It's up to the individual collector."

I know I'm in the minority (and that does not bother me one bit), but I'll stick to my belief that when you add something extra to a card, you change the card. I will always consider the inscribed cards to be parallels.

The reason why isn't only because of the inscriptions; it's because asking prices of those tend to be higher, making it more difficult to acquire one of them.

Did you really sent a message to Upper Deck asking if the inscribed FWAs were rookie cards?

That's pretty unbelievable

First question that comes to mind, why did you ask that?