It’s no secret that sports card companies such as Panini, Topps, and Upper Deck compete regularly to outdo each other by offering unique cards and experiences. While each might offer anywhere between 10-20 different series or sets in a year, there have been some unusual promotions severely lacking in card quality and design. These poorly designed products that have left most collectors scratching their heads wondering, “how did this make it to production?”
The following is my list of the 10 worst sets of PR disasters since 2000. While some people may have ripped a box open and been shorted a hit or two, those experiences have been discredited unless it was a repeating problem. This list is my opinion only and was created with the help of card collectors from social media.
The Top 10 Worst Sports Card Sets of the 2000s Pt I
#10. 2012 Panini America Artist Impressions Sketch Cards:
For reasons beyond almost anyone’s comprehension, Panini showed up to the 2012 NFLPA Rookie Premiere and asked the 35 players in attendance, including Andrew Luck, RG3, Russell Wilson, and Brandon Weeden (no relation), to draw or create art on a blank index card about the size of a typical sportscard using Crayola markers. While no one expects masterpieces or artistic ability from NFL players, the drawings looked like something an elementary student created during indoor recess. Most players didn’t even draw something but instead wrote something such as “#WhoDat” or “2012 Chicago Bears SuperBowl Champions”. Others drew their respective team logos. My favorite is Lamar Miller’s as seen here. It shows stick figures who I believe are engaged in a game of football.
To Panini’s credit, the players autographed and numbered each sketch card 1/1 on the back and Panini got them all graded by Beckett then handed them out randomly at a card convention. Panini has done the same thing with their hockey players, but the hockey players seem to have put more effort into their drawings.
#9. 2014 Topps Valor Football Cards:
Topps Valor returned in 2014 after taking 2013 off. After having a year to work on the set and rebrand, Topps managed to produce a set that seemed rushed, needing to be released in a month. For starters, Topps did not make any inserts for the set. Instead, there were base cards, plain parallels that were easily mistaken for base cards. For example, the only difference between a base card and a “strength” parallel was the word strength was printed above the name and it was numbered /499. To add insult to injury, all autographs were stickers, and most relic cards had jersey pieces the size of a dime. They were incredibly small and weren’t even-numbered.
To Topps’ credit, the card’s design was much better than 2012 Topps Valor, featuring colorful backgrounds that changed with each team’s logo and colors. Also, one hobby box came with four guaranteed hits. However, at $63 a box, that seems steep for hits that aren’t even numbered, jersey or game-used material the size of dime, and sticker autographs. In addition, the lack of inserts and boring parallels make for a bland and pedantic box break.
#8. 2012-13 Panini NBA Hoops Taco Bell Basketball Cards:
It’s not so much there was fault with this set making this list, but rather it is the bizarre partnership and manner in which one would have to go to acquire these cards. While sports cards coming as a bonus with fast food is nothing new, this marks the return of this promotion in quite some time. However, there was only one way to get a five-pack of these cards. You had to go to Taco Bell and purchase a kid’s meal. Instead of a cheap toy, Taco Bell and Panini thought a five-pack of basketball cards was what the kids wanted. I think it is fair to say that the main demographic audience of Taco Bell is identical to that of Spike TV and that, when they go to Taco Bell at 2 A.M. after smoking something funny, the last thing they are thinking about is ordering a kid’s meal. Taco Bell might have done this to save their kid’s meal, because it accounted for less than 1% of their sales before eliminating it off their menu completely in 2014.
The set is only 150 cards and does not feature any parallels, inserts, or hits, but what do you expect with a set of cards that comes as a free toy? The cards are really easy to tell apart as they have rounded corners instead of square ones. Furthermore, some thought and care was put into these as they feature updated players in the correct jersey such as Ray Allen sporting a Miami Heat jersey. Rookie cards such as Kyrie Irving do come and feature a rated rookie logo on the card. These are somewhat rare and feature above-average prices compared to their non-Taco Bell counterparts.
#7. 2007 Topps Baseball Cards:
The 2007 Topps baseball set probably received the most complaints out of any set when I asked my Twitter followers to name the set they had the worst experience with. The front of the card features a giant Topps logo that towers over the team name, while the player’s first name is barely visible above the huge last name. The front of the card doesn’t even include the player’s position on it. It is hard to argue who the best rookie is in this set, because most were busts like Daisuke Matsuzaka or Joba Chamberlain. Most collectors complained that when opening packs or boxes they got two or three checklists in it and the autographs were basically the base card with a sticker of the auto taped over the front. As if Alex Rodriguez’s ego wasn’t big enough, the 2007 Topps set features an entire insert set to Alex Rodriguez chasing 500 home runs, and it chronicles each of his career home runs. Yes, there is an entire insert set of 500 cards dedicated to Alex Rodriguez. For context, the entire set of series 1 and 2 is 660 cards.
The most famous card from this set is probably one of my favorite misprints since the 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken card. It is the 2007 Derek Jeter card that features George Bush in the stands waving and Mickey Mantle sitting in the dugout. Originally, it was believed this was done as a mistake and this was an error or short print. Topps said it was intentional and did little to nothing to correct it, thus making it about as common as the regular Jeter card. This card gained national attention and really brought awareness to the set which probably boosted sales. However, Topps accidentally gave the rookie card logo to several players were two or three years into their careers such as Ryan Braun and Josh Hamilton. Overall, the set has a bland design, weak rookie crop and repetitive inserts make 2007 Topps Baseball one of the company’s less-desirable flagship sets.
#6. 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Cards:
Many collectors have voiced that the O-Pee-Chee brand isn’t what it used to be ever since Upper Deck took it over, but that is not why this set made the list. The quality of the cards seems flimsy for starters but the real problem with this set is that the ratios of inserts and hits are ludicrous. The common parallels and inserts run anywhere from one per pack to about one in six retail for a sticker. That’s right, you would have to buy six retail packs to find a card that is a sticker and they called it an insert. The lowest possible odds of getting a hit are one in 96 packs and that is for a manufactured logo patch that the company made. These cards are not even-numbered and the patches are not even event worn let alone game-worn and each patch has six different levels of scarcity. The rarest of these patches are cartoonish in nature and fall just under 1 in 15,000 packs of pulling one! By the time we actually get to autographs or game worn jersey cards, we would need to open 192 hobby packs to find one.
I am not sure if this set was marketed towards children with cartoon logo patches and an entire insert set that is just of stickers but the insane rarity of these cards would drive anyone anyway. Furthermore, collectors reported difficulty completing the set due to a lot of duplicate cards in packs and the insane odds/rarity of pulling such cards and inserts. One even stated it took him 14 boxes (32 packs per box, 8 cards per pack) to complete the base set of 500 cards, excluding the 100 additional short prints. That dealer opened 448 packs of cards (14 boxes x 32 packs per box) and sifted through 3584 (448 packs X 8 per pack) cards before being able to complete his base set.
Check back soon for #1-5 on my list.
