I have been in a purchasing
freeze since December and besides the blaster boxes for my Sports Card Super
Bowl prediction I have not spent a penny on cardboard. I will admit it has been
difficult at times because I have seen some very cool cards come and go but I
keep reminding myself that the cards will show up again when I am not under a mountain
of medical bills so they will have to wait.
Now this doesn’t mean I
don’t look. To kind of help with my urges I will scan through eBay and COMC
adding cards to my want list for the future
and it kind of has been freeing because when I look I know I am not buying so I
am not keeping a price point in mind and I have been checking out cards that
normally would be outside my price range.
When it comes to my MMA
collection there are some fighters who I know I will never be able to afford
their autographs but I have been looking at Royce Gracie, GSP and Jon Jones
autographs to see what is out there and while searching COMC for Gracie’s cards
I noticed that Topps sticks with one picture through multiple releases over a
number of years. I am not sure why they are doing this because there are thousands
of images of him inside and out of the ring and this just seems lazy and not
something the first UFC Champion deserves.
Some of the cards are just parallels or variations of another card but there are enough unique cards where they used one of three images to use as pretty good examples.
Some of the cards are just parallels or variations of another card but there are enough unique cards where they used one of three images to use as pretty good examples.
2010 Topps UFC Main
Event #1
2010 Topps UFC Main
Event Autograph #1
2010 Topps UFC Main Event Autograph-Relic #1
2010 Topps UFC Series 4 Fighter Gear Relics #FR-RG
2010 Topps UFC Series 4 Fighter Gear Relics #FR-RG
2010 Topps UFC Series 4 Propaganda
Card
2011 Topps UFC Title Shot
#1
2012 Topps UFC
Bloodlines Fighting Forefathers #RG
2015 Topps UFC
Chronicles #4
2015 Topps UFC Chronicles
Victorious Debut #VD-8
A little Photoshop and
voila… nope not the same image because it doesn’t have the ATAMA company logo,
see completely different.
2015 Topps UFC Chronicles
Victorious Debut Medallions #MED-4
So here are 10 examples over a five year period (actually just three years) where Topps used the same exact image on each card. To show this isn't just a coincidence, here are a couple more where the photo was taken on the exact same day just from a different view.
2009 Topps UFC Round 1 Ultimate Gear #UG-RG
2010 Topps UFC Knockout Autograph Fighter Gear Relic #AFG-RB
How about a couple "If we flip the image they won't know" cards
2014 Topps UFC Bloodlines Historic Battles #HB-1
2014 Topps UFC Bloodlines Relics (Both regular and jumbo versions)
2014 Topps UFC Champions Octagon Greats #OGRG
2015 Topps UFC Champions Fighter Autographs #FA-RG
2015 Topps UFC Chronicles Octagon of Honor #HONOR-2
2015 Topps UFC Knockout Dynamic Duels #DDR-GS
Wow, that's a lot of similar-looking cards. I wonder if it has something to do with licensing, since his career ended around the time Topps started making UFC cards, or if it's just a matter of Topps not wanting to pay for the use of another image? I've noticed a few fighters I collect who seem to have the same image used across several sets.
ReplyDeleteI could see a company not wanting to pay additional royalty fees to use other images, I don't like it but I do understand the reasoning behind it.
DeleteI remember the early days of UFC... when Royce straight up dominated guys twice his size. It was awesome! Back in 2015, I got to meet Royce at a Bellator event and had him sign a promotional photo and a UFC glove. It was really cool to meet and shake the hand of a legend. One of these days, I'll need to go out and grab an autographed card of him.
ReplyDeleteHe was one of those unassuming guys you wouldn't think would win a contest against some of the guys that showed up for those early UFC championships.
Delete