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Wieters to have a Topps card

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BBCgalaxee

Well-known member
Sep 9, 2011
6,475
59
Cracknell | Hobby Editor

If you’re looking for Topps baseball cards of Matt Wieters in a Baltimore Orioles uniform, you’re pretty much out of luck. Other than a couple of oddball offerings and online exclusives, he has nothing. But that’s about to change. Soon you’ll be able to find cards of the Baltimore catcher in packs of Topps cards for the first time.


Licensing is a tricky thing. Sports cards are a lot more complicated that putting a picture on the front and some stats on the back. Multiple layers of deals exist, all of which have their own nuances. For the majority of card makers, when they land a license with a players’ union, it allows them to use all of the athletes in a group deal. Topps does things a little bit differently for baseball. While they have the MLBPA license to go alongside their MLB exclusive, they still have individual deals with players.

Usually, it’s pretty straight forward. But sometimes, deals can’t be reached. That’s why the early part of Alex Rodriguez’s career has everything but Topps. It’s also why there are a couple of gaps in Ichiro’s cardboard timeline with the company.

And then there’s Matt Wieters.

For whatever reason, Matt Wieters has never had such a deal. At least until now. While Topps hasn’t announced which product will be their first to have the Baltimore catcher in packs, the two sides finally agreed.

They hinted at it with a tweet for a June 30th 2016 Topps Now Baseball card and its ensuing tweet:


Wieters is one of six Orioles on the card that commemorates their June home run record.

We did confirm that this wasn’t a one-off or some sort of separate deal. Topps and Wieters are now working together.

While a lack of a deal with Topps has limited the number of Matt Wieters cards out there, he still has some. Panini has included him regularly thanks to their MLBPA license. Upper Deck also did back in his early MLB days and even further back when he was with USA Baseball. While still a prospect, Wieters was also one of a handful of young players to sign autograph deals with Razor, the company that later took over the Leaf name.

Even Topps has a couple of Wieters cards with their online programs. The most notable is a 2009 eTopps card.

Comments? Questions? Contact Ryan Cracknell on Twitter [MENTION=6139]tradercracks[/MENTION].
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mrmopar

Member
Jan 19, 2010
6,187
4,087
Does anyone care (outside of Baltimore) that there has not been any? Baseball Reference compares him to Rich Gedman after 8 seasons! I checked out his career numbers and they are awfully blah for a 3 time AS with a career high 131 hits and 23 HR in a season.
 

rsmath

Active member
Nov 8, 2008
6,086
1
why does Topps have individual deals with players? Why can't they just use the MLBPA license? Is it topps protecting themselves legally by also getting individual deals?

I bet topps offered Wieters more than $5 and a selection from the Topps catalog to ink him to a deal. ;)
 

smapdi

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
4,397
221
Topps does it this way because that's how they've always done it. Before there was a union, the PA, licensing entities, etc., players signed players individually. They were allowed to do so after the monopoly lawsuit, and after the licensing shakeups in 2004 and 2005. While this arrangement means there has been the occasional Wieters, A-Rod, or Wills, there's also been about a million times when they're the only company with a card of a player, often for years before they reach MLB and get into the PA and eligible to appear on cards from other companies.
 

gt2590

Super Moderator
Aug 17, 2008
38,656
3,240
Near Philly
Any update on this anyone? Would love for him to get a base, non-Topps Update Chrome in this year's set.

Would be cool IMO Since he couldn't have a base Topps..
 

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