No Names, No Logos

 

There are several companies that produce baseball cards. However, MLB granted Topps an exclusive license in 2009 and the exclusive partnership between MLB and Topps will run through 2025. If they extend the deal before 2025, the long-term partnership will be even longer. Since it’s an exclusive license, Topps is the one and only manufacturer to produce MLB baseball cards. However, we can also see baseball cards from other manufacturers.

Earlier this year, I traveled to Japan and visited several sports card shops. Some stores were holding marketing campaigns. They produced lucky bags in which you might find relic cards or autograph cards. I bought some luck bags and got some baseball cards without MLB team names and team logos.

The main reason to see these baseball cards without MLB team logos and its name is that companies such as Panini can produce baseball cards through the deal with the MLB Player Association or with players. It creates a different way to collect baseball cards.

I don’t know how other people might think. But I do prefer to collect baseball cards with MLB and its team logos. In particular, I like to collect players from the Dodgers and it’s truly weird for me to see Dodgers players without the Dodgers’ iconic logo. Meanwhile, the photos on these baseball cards usually do not seem to be in the best quality. That somehow decreases the excitement to collect this kind of baseball card.

Nonetheless, there are still some good reasons to collect these cards. Firstly, different baseball card designs provide different joys. Some designs of these cards are really cool. It could enrich your collections. Secondly, it somehow increases your odds to get relic cards or autograph cards. In some series, there are 3 or 4 hits in a box. To make a comparison, there are normally two hits in a Topps hobby box. If you just want to get more relic cards or autograph cards and you don’t really care whether there are team names or logos, it will be worthwhile to collect these baseball cards. Thirdly, competition is good for business. Consumers have different options to collect baseball cards. Meanwhile, baseball card manufacturers have to keep producing high quality baseball cards and create marketing campaigns to attract consumers or fans.

I love to see MLB team logos. Baseball cards without team logos are usually not attractive to me, but it’s not that bad to have some of them. Collecting baseball cards is fun and collecting cards from different card producing companies is surely not a bad idea. It’s always nice to collect baseball cards of your favorite players or legendary players and of course it’s even better to get autograph cards or relic cards of them. It’s always good to have different options to decide what you want to select and collect. I usually purchase Topps products because I like cards with team logos. However, for some of my friends, they don’t care. They just want to pull some cool relic cards or autograph cards. All they want is to collect baseball cards of their favorite players. They don’t mind if there are team logos or not.