Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Beckett's Top 12 - - Way Off Base

Beckett's Nov. 07 Baseball Card Guide has their Top 12 cards of the 21st Century.

What? Apparently Beckett believes that we need a progress report on the Top 12 cards of the past 7 years. Are this century's cards so great that they can't decide on the standard "Top 10" so we get 12?

Here's their top ... 12 (whatever).

  1. Babe Ruth - 2005 Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Swatch Single Jumbo
  2. Cut Signatures - 2005 U.D. HOF Baseball Legendary Lineups
  3. Josh Gibson - 2003 SP Legendary Autographs Green Cuts
  4. Wagner/Cobb/Ruth/Matthewson/Johnson - 2001 U.D. HOF Cut Signatures
  5. Babe Ruth - 2005 Sweet Spot Signature
  6. Babe Ruth/Harry Frazee - 2005 SP Legendary Cuts Dual Autograph
  7. Albert Pujols - 2001 Bowman Chrome Auto Rookie
  8. Lou Gehrig/Wally Pip - 2004 Greats of the Game Comparison Cuts
  9. Ruth/Fox/Ott/Mathews - 2006 U.D. Epic Four Barrel
  10. Joe Jackson - 2001 Legendary Cuts Bat
  11. Irchiro Suzuki - 2001 Ultimate Collection Auto Rookie
  12. Jim Thorpe - 2005 Absolute Memorabilia
My first problem with the list begins with the idea that we need a Top 12 of the Century... 7 years into it.

My second problem with the list is the card company's destruction of history! I still am not thrilled that we are destroying pieces of Babe Ruth's jersey and Josh Gibson's bat to make a trading card!

What's next? Cutting up of the Constitution for the 2008 UD Americana Card? Maybe that will crack the top 24 for the 2014 list.

4 comments:

Troy said...

I think the big problem with this list is the designation of the word "century" in the title. I agree that using that word when the century is only 7 years young is silly! Now, on the other hand as a part time collector of baseball cards, it is interesting to see what cards have value since 2000. But what the list should be called is "Top cards in the last 7 years". There going for the shock value by using "Century". To jrj, don't you like the idea of getting a piece of history cheaper than the thousnads of dollars you would have to pay to own the entire piece of memoriablia? I have card with a piece of bat that Alan Tramell used. Now could I have afforded to buy the entire bat, no, but I love having an item that was used by Trammell.

James said...

Excellent points Troy. No offense to Tiger fans, but a Trammel piece of bat isn't the same as a piece of Babe Ruth's jersey.

I'd love to have the Liberty Bell in my front yard, Abe Lincoln's top hat, and Marion Jones' syringes... but I don't think they should be cut up, glued to card board, and stuffed on a retail shelf.

Troy said...

Ah, but Babe Ruth had many jerseys to cut up and make in cards. There is only the one liberty bell and I have no idea if Honest Abe had one hat or many hats. The syringes are toxic waste and we'll never see those distributed by topps as a bonus card! I have costume cards from "Superman Returns" I have a piece of history in my posession. Does Babe Ruth rank with Superman, not even close! That's why you can get a Superman card for $20 and the Babe Ruth card that was ranked #1 in this top 12 is $2,500 on ebay.
*as a tiger fan I take no offense because I can't argue with you on that point.

LaLoosh said...

I agree with Troy about getting a piece of something I normally would not own unless they are one of a kind. You could probably afford an Alan Trammell bat though even though they all are just like new since he did not hit much.