Future ESPN Films presents 30-for-30 on Baseball Cards

I can already hear the voice and intro for this ESPN Films 30-for-30 in about ~5 years...

"What if I told you... one Company controlled a multibillion dollar industry flourishing on game used memorabilia inside a baseball card... What if I told you wood and cloth from a craft store was behind the biggest scam in hobby history... What if I told you the collectors turned a blind eye. ESPN Films 30-for-30 presents... Relics and Sports Cards, presented by Infiniti."

Okay okay, maybe the craft store part was a little much but you get the point. It feels like the tech bubble in the stock market back in the '90s... it's like all we do is complain Topps is the only player in town, question if relics are real, fight off fakes, deal with crappy redemptions and complain that Topps is too far out over their skis when it comes to redemptions and as the movie Top Gun said "writing checks their body can't cash."

Sad and I hope it doesn't happen but can you image if it came out that Topps had been faking relic cards to keep up with the huge demand and they fold as a private company and we're all left holding the bag?!?!

Whoa.

lol, I'd watch it

ESPN is a MLB licensee. Topps is a MLB licensee. I don't think MLB would like one MLB licensee blowing up another.

FWIW, I don't think the GU cards Topps or other companies put out are fake in any real sense, from the lumber yard or fabric store. I do think many collectors would be surprised to learn exactly how "game used" each item is. If the Red Sox takes delivery of 60 bats from Louisville Slugger for Dustin Pedroia in the spring, there is no way of telling what bat was actually used, touched, or even seen by Dustin Pedroia. Topps buys a couple from the team. They all can plausibly be said to be "game used" in the sense that there's no way to prove a negative, especially when the evidence has been shredded into nickel-sized pieces.

Especially interesting are the old-time players. I never understood why the provenance of some pretty rare and high-profile items are impossible to know. Upper Deck could account for exactly one Babe Ruth bat. But a Koufax jersey? Christy Mathewson's pants? Leon Day's glove? Then there are the post-career pieces, where it was admitted that the definition of "game-used" card companies use is surprisingly broad.

Why do I think this film is going to majorly piss me off when I'm done watching it?

chromerookies said:

lol, I'd watch it

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That's not all you'd watch bro.

I'll keep eye out for it. The hobby could use the attention, hopefully in a mostly positive manner...

sheetskout said:

Why do I think this film is going to majorly piss me off when I'm done watching it?

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weight333 said:

I'll keep eye out for it. The hobby could use the attention, hopefully in a mostly positive manner...

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LOL, it's not a real film. Mac was just speculating if ESPN did one on baseball cards.
Although they did do that 15-minute short film on the T206 Honus Wagner trimming controversy.

:lol: Yes, this is pure speculation but I feel more and more like this could happen one day.

As for ESPN not wanting to trash Topps because they both have licenses with MLB, bullsh*t IMO. First off, this would be done after Topps basically folded as a company and second, who cares... if this happened, it would be a HUGE story. It'd be one of the biggest scams in hobby history, period. Can you think if it came out right now that 95% of all relic cards created by Topps were indeed fake and no such proof anything was really game worn, used, etc.?! I mean OMG... some collectors would jump off a bridge probably.

I don't think anyone would care about the modern stuff. That value it's nearly as tied to authenticity as the vintage stars are. That would be bad.

Brewer Andy said:

I don't think anyone would care about the modern stuff.

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Are you serious?! So nobody, including those on this board, would care if Topps came out and said "well we've been F'ing with you all this time, no relic cards of modern day players are actually real, it was all a scam" and we'd all be like "hahah crazy Topps, they're so funny, fooled me!"

I don't think so.

Of course "nobody" is an exaggeration but I think most people would get over it in short time with the proliferation of "event used", etc. these days. I feel modern gu cards that do carry value do so based on rarity of production (real or perceived), the "cool factor" of the card itself, and the need/desire of the collector to own (or collect) it. Not because the swatch was on a field somewhere. This obviously doesn't apply to vintage stars but yeah, I think most people would get over it (as few collectors as there are left anyway obviously have greater reasons to still be around as it is). I could certainly be wrong and my perception way off but again, the vintage stuff would far be a bigger deal (which just goes back to the discussion of how nice it was when Donruss would document where theirs came from)

MansGame said:

As for ESPN not wanting to trash Topps because they both have licenses with MLB, bullsh*t IMO.

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my, my how people have short memories.

Remember the ESPN drama called "playmakers". Disappeared pretty quickly because what I and a lot of people think is that the drama was far too realistic and hit too close to the NFL so the NFL used their influence on one of their national rightsholders ESPN to yank the drama off the air.

If the OP's 30-for-30 was to be made, it won't air on ESPN as long as ESPN is a MLB rightsholder becaue MLB would use their power and influence to make sure it didn't air.

A 30-for-30-like documentary about a bombshell in the trading card relics business would have to air on CBS Sports Network or air as a independent documentary and win best-of-show awards at Cannes and Sundance.

MansGame said:

Sad and I hope it doesn't happen but can you image if it came out that Topps had been faking relic cards to keep up with the huge demand and they fold as a private company and we're all left holding the bag?!?!

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It would be no different than when Fleer and Pacific went under, people would be crawling over each other to buy the scraps at auction. And within 6 months, hundreds of "new" 1/1 cards would flood eBay.

MansGame said:

Whoa.

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I know kung-fu.

Ok, so is it somewhat safe to say that most gu from 2005 and earlier are legit? Provided they weren't faked on the secondary market of course. A lot of new gu I pick up is only for the novelty aspect of it. I pick up a lot of older gu because I believe it has a better chance of being real, the designs seemed a little more thought out and there is a bigger variety of items. These days it's usually just straight up plain swatches and patches. I like gu baseballs, bases, batting and fielding gloves, shoes, and hats . You rarely if ever see that any more.

predatorkj said:

Ok, so is it somewhat safe to say that most gu from 2005 and earlier are legit? Provided they weren't faked on the secondary market of course. A lot of new gu I pick up is only for the novelty aspect of it. I pick up a lot of older gu because I believe it has a better chance of being real, the designs seemed a little more thought out and there is a bigger variety of items. These days it's usually just straight up plain swatches and patches. I like gu baseballs, bases, batting and fielding gloves, shoes, and hats . You rarely if ever see that any more.

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I think when the companies realized they didn't need the gimmicks to sell "packs" of 2 cards for $50, they just got cheap on the production side since people are still throwing money at 12 nearly identical, serial numbered, short printed color variations of the base cards and fake "error" cards.

DaClyde said:

I think when the companies realized they didn't need the gimmicks to sell "packs" of 2 cards for $50, they just got cheap on the production side since people are still throwing money at 12 nearly identical, serial numbered, short printed color variations of the base cards and fake "error" cards.

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Ugh, so true.

It's sad. I mean relic cards for baseball could be so much cooler. Reminds me of those cards where on the back there is a picture of the actual item which was cut up... I mean how cool!

I could see Topps problems, if they occur, making "Outside the Lines", but not a 30 for 30.

But I'd rather see an "30 Extra" short about the Topps "Rip Girls" and their life outside the Hobby! Preferrably HBO-style...

gt2590 said:

I could see Topps problems, if they occur, making "Outside the Lines", but not a 30 for 30.

But I'd rather see an "30 Extra" short about the Topps "Rip Girls" and their life outside the Hobby! Preferrably HBO-style...

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LOL! True... maybe outside the lines would get the piece after all.

I like your other idea better though lol

The GU pieces mean little to me. In fact, I buy any Garvey cards produced to have 1 of each and that completist approach is more of a factor than what is on the card sometimes. If they are autographed, then it is meaningful, but the GU cards are not. That said, I have paid a fair amount for certain items, more than I'd probably want to pay for something I knew to be a manufactured patch piece or a batboy jersey, but in the end I would not be devastated by it. My GU collection beyond Garvey is fairly minimal compared to many. I have roughly 2 supershoe boxes of GU cards that are not Garvey.

mrmopar said:

The GU pieces mean little to me. In fact, I buy any Garvey cards produced to have 1 of each and that completist approach is more of a factor than what is on the card sometimes. If they are autographed, then it is meaningful, but the GU cards are not. That said, I have paid a fair amount for certain items, more than I'd probably want to pay for something I knew to be a manufactured patch piece or a batboy jersey, but in the end I would not be devastated by it. My GU collection beyond Garvey is fairly minimal compared to many. I have roughly 2 supershoe boxes of GU cards that are not Garvey.

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I used to think they were the coolest damn thing in the world. That and the autos brought me back to the hobby. So I still like them. But I see that the juice just isn't worth the squeeze anymore for a lot of these companies so I enjoy a lot of the older cards. Most of what I pick up now comes in large collections or stuff I pick up for super cheap. But I've got some pretty dang cool stuff...most of it being 2005 and before. Now it's got to be something that really grabs me...or Bagwell. I do football stuff but most of the gu I pick up is rookie patches and stuff and we all know those are a joke so I don't pay much for them. And most of them are auto'd which is generally what I'm after anyways when it comes to football rookie stuff. So I've got plenty. To find out none of them were legit would indeed hurt. I just try to go forwards knowing that anything I pick up that is new is most certainly suspect imo. Not that it necessarily is. But I am just a rather untrusting individual. That's why my vintage collection has never really taken off like I'd like.