A couple of weeks ago, I posted about how much more I would love to see Sports Art as a focus of products in the future. I feel that quality paintings, with hard signed signatures could be a very successful part of a product, especially due to how awesome they usually turn out. Art is generally as visually appealing to the naked eye as most of the dynamic photography that is usually present in football, and I don’t think there is enough of it around the hobby.
Back before the catastrophe of the last decade, Upper Deck produced Masterpieces as a tribute to sports art. Although it was completely unsuccessful as a standalone product, it produced some of the most amazing looking cards of the last decade. Around the same time, Topps released National Chicle in both Baseball and Football, both of which produced some of the WORST looking sports art cards ever produced. I mean, laughable is an understated way of talking about the success of the products. What Topps should have done is model Chicle more after sets like 2002 Topps Gallery than anything, and that is putting it lightly.
Check out some of these awesome cards:
Tom Brady Topps Gallery On Card Autograph
Hines Ward Topps Gallery On Card Autograph
Chris Chambers Topps Gallery On Card Autograph
The simple and understated presentation of these cards with the hard signed autograph is incredible. Although the checklist is SEVERELY outdated, the cards look as good as any from the recent years. Chicle was unsuccessful due to stickers and terrible artwork, but these cards (if they are even artwork instead of filtered photos), make the others look bush league.
If we had a level of dedication, and dedication of funds to match, the prospects of a set or product like this would be untouchable. You just never see quality like this, and when you do get the quality, there are always stickers to take it down a few notches below where it should be. I think there needs to be a major commitment to driving quality over quantity, and I would hope ideas like this are only one of hundreds.