Product lines that you won't see on shelves anytime soon.

Good Sunday evening to you all, hope that your weekend was fantastic!

Well, I thought about the Blog Bat Around question, namely the sets I enjoyed and the ones I could do without for 2012.  But then I thought, well you've only been blogging for about 4.5 months, and really didn't invest in all the sets that were produced by the Kings of Production (Topps that is).

This actually got the ole creative juices flowing, which as you've likely seen from my posts lately, hasn't been all that good.

What if I won the lottery, and decided to start my own company and produce a bunch of different card lines such as Topps does (I think I counted 22 products between Topps & Bowman this year, no?).   Naturally, I would need a good R&D department to get in touch with the consumer and find out exactly what they're looking for.

Wait a minute, I'm a creative guy!  I have some ideas that might go over with the big boys and save me a bunch of $$ on a company start up.  Tell me what you think of these ideas for new card sets.

(Disclaimer: these are my thoughts only, and are not meant to represent any true or actual idea that a card company such as Topps may actually have currently, or had at any time in the past.)

1.  The Millionaire Set

Set size: 341 (and counting)

The premise behind this set was showing the collecting world in one set all the players in MLB that make a $1,000,000 or more in annual salary.

Pros:  This set wouldn't be overly difficult to complete because it doesn't contain every MLB player, although it does come close.

Cons:  There were a couple I could think of.  First, again the fans of small market or budget conscious teams such as Oakland and Houston would complain about the lack of representation, since their teams only contain 5 millionaires, while teams such as the Yankees, Red Sox and Angels would have 16, 16 and 17 cards in the set respectively.

Second, since the numbering of the set was based on the actual players salary, Joe Blanton was pissed because it was finally made known to the world that he made $10.5 M last year while playing for the Phillies. (see here if you don't believe me)

2.  The DNA set    

Set size:  infinite

Instead of pictures of actual baseball players on the card, the card would contain strands of nucleotides that would conform to the players actual DNA makeup.

Pros:  Kids would actually learn something when reading a baseball card instead of just idle statistics, biology scores across the country could actually climb because of it?

Cons:  Once again, small market teams could have a beef here, because teams like the Yankees and Red Sox  could actually afford to hire genetic engineers to clone past greats like Gehrig and Ruth and use them to create super teams (yes, even more super than they are now).

3.  The PED set   

Set size:  Who Knows?

The set would be based on any player who tested positive, was believed to have been tested positive, may not have tested positive but their huge increase in stats led the world to believe they were on PED's, or anyone else who may be popping anything from headache pills to fried chicken and beer in the clubhouse (yes, those are performance enhancing drugs, because who can play their best when they have a headache or are hungry....come on now!!!)

Pros, and a few minor leaguers would be featured in this set.

Cons:  On initial thought, this was believed to be a potential hit because the set would actually feature nothing but huge stars.  However, the set idea failed because of the length of time for athletes to actually admit that they used PED's.  Nobody wants to wait decades for a new baseball release, now do they???

Then again, maybe I shouldn't worry about creating ideas for new product lines and stick to doing what I do best...  b.s. about baseball cards that are already being produced.


Thanks for reading, Robert