09 eTopps Baseball is Live

Baseball Cards You Can Own
(without ever having them in your possession!)

With the official season of baseball already one week underway, eTopps has sprung its first week of cards. Just like in past years, the consumer voted on the front-of-card design. Boy, did the consumer pick a real stinker. Not that there were any real good choices.

Cards with a black border are "Restricted Rookie Offerings" or RROs. Not every rookie card will have this particular designation. Simply put, any player given an RRO will never be given another eTopps card ever again, unless that player is featured on a team card. For instance, Joba Chamberlain’s 2007 eTopps card is an RRO, so he’ll never be on another eTopps card ever again unless the Yankees ever make it to the playoffs with his help. On the other hand, Nick Blackburn got just a plain old regular rookie card. I guess this means we’ll be seeing a whole bunch of him. Okay, probably not.

Will you be partaking in any eTopps action? If so, will you purchase during IPO windows, through the secondary market (such as eBay), or both? Do you have any eTopps cards in hand? Are they a waste of time?

eTopps ‘09 Design: CHALLENGE!

You Decide
(how ugly your eTopps cards are this year)

It’s time once again to put on your dunce caps, get out your 3-D glasses, and bring out that old torn up calculus book you stole from high school–ya know, the one you never used. Topps wants its loyal users to decide which look will best fit the 2009 eTopps set. Anyone who has collected any of these cards know just how terrible most of the eTopps designs are. It’s almost as if they get their crack design staff to come up with as many ideas as possible, and the ones not used in retail and hobby cards are left over for eTopps. Here are the choices for this year…

I’m actually kind of digging the second option, and the first one still looks better than a lot of their designs from years past. The second design looks like it will take a bit longer to finish (having to mask a player away from the background isn’t always easy), and there may be just a bit too much white space. I’m not totally convinced that the name should be obscured, but it’s a good start.

Which would you vote for? What would you change about either design? Are you compelled to purchase any eTopps products after seeing these design choices?