It's not about securing an image, it's about paying for the rights to use his likeness. If this is the only set that Paige is being used in this year, it isn't worth Topps's while to pay his family to use his image. Ruth and Gehrig are in a number of sets, so they bought their rights for the whole year (or I guess a larger period of time through BMG or whatever). Topps just doesn't make as many HOF cards anymore, so they don't wanna pay for the rights just for a 1/1.
They're the gold standard in the history if baseball cards....it's unacceptable!
Topps doesn't sell index cards they sell flipping baseball cards! I don't care how much it costs for image rights. You pay for the rights and you put the player's image on the damn card or don't produce the card.