It's time to start!

First off let me preface this post with this.  I don't hate Topps.  Not one bit.  What I hate is the lack of choice and exclusivity in general.  Second I'm only going to direct this toward baseball cards, not hockey or basketball.

If you read my blog regularly (thank you by the way) you may have notice the countdown I put up on my blog a few years ago.  That's right my "Countdown to the end of Topps Exclusive MLB License" has been sitting over on the sidebar for well over 2 years.  You may also have noticed that we are under 365 days till Topps' 3 year deal ends.  It's been an interesting 3 years under Topps' reign.  I  plan on dissecting it.  I've started going back to some of the original articles from Beckett, SCD, and other news and hobby outlets looking at claims made and how things actually worked out.  I plan on talking to my two LCS's and seeing how the deal has worked out for them.  I plan on writing letters to the Commissioner of Baseball, Bug Selig, and the Exec. VP of Business for Major League Baseball, Tim Brosnon.  Not that they care what I think, but at least there will be some feedback going their way.  It occurred to me way back in '09 that the MLB never bothered to ask us the fans and collectors what we wanted.  I understand from a business standpoint at least for Topps, having almost no competition is a boon, but for us...well I'll talk about that too.

I guess this is the first post of my crusade this year.  Until  MLB decides if Topps gets another multi-year exclusive deal or they let some others in on the fun too.  And while I have no desire to see the hobby go back to the was it was about 10 years ago, with so many products crowding the shelves it was impossible to choose.  I surely think that there is a happy medium compared to now where it seems like there's barely anything on the shelves at all.

So get your torches and pitchforks ready.

cb out.