[rjcj2017]

Gem Fire Banger Brothers in Baseball,

So this whole season, Elly de la Cruz's cards, be it Topps or Panini, have not featured the "RC logo" because Topps decided for some reason to hold his "rookie cards" until 2024.

(Yes, I know the callup date rules ... blah blah blah blah)

Panini went along with it ... until this morning, when I pulled this nice Spectra single out of a 2023 Chronicles blaster ...





So what do we do now, gents?

I mean, technically it's not a "rookie card" because the Chronicles subsets are not recognized as such by Beckett, other than the Chronicles base card itself.

But but but but ... it's got a RC logo!!!

Doesn't the presence of a RC logo override all rules and common sense?

I actually laughed when I pulled this.

Can we all maybe agree that this entire situation is ridiculous, regardless of where you stand on the issue?

Either way, I am definitely one and done on this product - got far more retired players than prospects or "rookie cards," which I don't want or need.

[bonds20001]

I used to open most products every year..but when Panini announced they had NO active players, I decided to not open any Panini..no Donruss, Prizm, Select or Chronicles..etc.  And I love Chronicles with all the different sets..but no more..

Saved me some $$ too as the Topps cards this years are MEH in my opinion.  Same old..same old..

[rjcj2017]

Agreed … one of my 6 packs in the blaster was all retired players.

I get Panini is in a weird spot with licensing these days, but of my 30 total cards in the blaster it felt like at least 60 percent of them were retired players.

In fact, I’m starting to think these companies need to start putting the retired players in their own products and leave them out of current player releases.

It’s especially bad in Prestige football this year … as much as I like the Dan Marinos and Warren Moons of the world, those guys had their time in card sets.

I would much rather have these companies go further down the current rosters.

Case in point - two of the best players on my beloved Detroit Lions are guard Jonah Jackson and punter (!) Jack Fox, if you go by things like Pro Bowls.

Neither one has ever had even a draft pick card, much less a rookie card in Lions gear.

If these companies were smart - which, let’s face it, they’re not - they would take some of these players from further down the roster and sprinkle them separately in different sets.

Meaning, in the example above, if you wanted a Jack Fox card, he would only be in Score; if you wanted a Jonah Jackson card, he’d only be in Elite; etc, etc

That way collectors would be forced (in a good way) to try different products to get their various PC guys.

So simple …