Getting "Tuckered". It has happened to the veteran collector, the kid who purcahsed his first packs this year, even the Bowman-hunting idiot who hoarded all of the new boxes of baseball cards put out in Target since March of this year. It started out innocently enough in 1998, perhaps just an oversight by an employee at Topps. Now it is just ridiculous, and nobody does a thing about it. It is time to stop that! I am going to list each and every time that Topps has Tuckered us collectors and hold them accountable. "What is Tuckering?", you say. I'm glad you asked.
Back in 1998, Michael Tucker of the Braves had a card in the 1998 Topps Series 1 set, card #19.
Really, a nice card, complete with a vertical post of him sliding. I actually pulled this card once apon a time. I must've not opened many Series 2 packs, because I missed out on pulling this next card.
That's right. Another Michael Tucker Braves card. This time it is card #410, and in Series 2. Why do we need 2 Michael Tucker Braves cards in the '98 Topps set? It would only get worse.
Fast forward a few years to 2001. Topps was going to give us a big 2001 set with 792 cards in it. Managers would get a card, many middle relievers would get a card. Michael Tucker got a card in Series 1, card #132
I pulled this one from a pack, and looked forward to getting some Series 2 packs when it came out. Unfortunately, when I busted some Series 2, this card came out of one of the packs.
That's right. Another '01 Topps Michael Tucker Reds card. Card #703. Yep. Topps did it again. I don't know why Tucker ended up with it happening TWICE to him, but for me, he is the poster child of getting 2 cards in the same set picturing him playing for the same team, so I submit to the collecting gods and powers that be for every time that this happens to be called "Getting Tuckered".
Why is getting Tuckered bad? Because as a collector who opens a few packs of most sets that are put in front of me at Target and Wally World, I want to get the most for my money. If I wanted 2 2020 card of some random player, I would buy them. I honestly don't need 2 2020 Topps cards of Ryan Braun picturing him as a Brewer, and I don't think anyone else does. Give the spot in the set to a middle reliever, or some guy on the Rays who I will never own a card of. It's bad enough that for the league leader cards they take up 3 cards instead of just one. Why do we need all of these cards that we don't want taking up space in the sets?
If you don't think Topps has Tuckered us very much, think again. Here is a list of all of the times we've been Tuckered since they started doing it to us in 1998. (I somehow don't have the 2017 and 2018 Topps sets in my findings, but wouldn't be surprised if there are a few cases in those sets. Let me know if you find any).
1954 Ted Williams
1998 Michael Tucker
Back in 1998, Michael Tucker of the Braves had a card in the 1998 Topps Series 1 set, card #19.
Fast forward a few years to 2001. Topps was going to give us a big 2001 set with 792 cards in it. Managers would get a card, many middle relievers would get a card. Michael Tucker got a card in Series 1, card #132
Why is getting Tuckered bad? Because as a collector who opens a few packs of most sets that are put in front of me at Target and Wally World, I want to get the most for my money. If I wanted 2 2020 card of some random player, I would buy them. I honestly don't need 2 2020 Topps cards of Ryan Braun picturing him as a Brewer, and I don't think anyone else does. Give the spot in the set to a middle reliever, or some guy on the Rays who I will never own a card of. It's bad enough that for the league leader cards they take up 3 cards instead of just one. Why do we need all of these cards that we don't want taking up space in the sets?
If you don't think Topps has Tuckered us very much, think again. Here is a list of all of the times we've been Tuckered since they started doing it to us in 1998. (I somehow don't have the 2017 and 2018 Topps sets in my findings, but wouldn't be surprised if there are a few cases in those sets. Let me know if you find any).
1954 Ted Williams
card #1
card #250
While doing my research, I stumbled on these cards, which I'm surprised I forgot. I guess we can't really talk about getting Tuckered by Topps before we talk about the very first time it happened with the 1954 Topps set featuring 2 Ted Williams cards.
card #19
card #410
2000 Todd Zeile
card #293
card #T107
Mike Lowell
card #133
card #392
2001 Michael Tucker
card #132
card #703
Brian Meadows
card #316
card #486
It's at this point where I want to point out that it is the exact freaking SAME PHOTO! Just moved up and to the right about a millimeter or two. The Lifetime Topps Project did a good article about the card. Back to the Tuckering.
AJ Hinch
card #469
card #T157
Matt LeCroy
card #667
card #T204
2003 Shawn Estes
card #580
card #T14
Joe Girardi
card #521
card #T26
Eric Owens
card #379
card #T104
2004 Juan Encarnacion
card #172
card #T64
2006 Fausto Carmona
card #308
card #UH157
2007 Bengie Molina
card #4
card #342
Brian Burres
card #289
card #UH330
Edgar Gonzalez
card #462
card #UH296
Ubaldo Jimenez
card #43
card #296
Steve Trachsel
card #558
card #UH5
Gary Sheffield
card #133
card #470
Mike Rabelo
card #294
card #636
Carlos Silva
card #91
card #UH29
Ron Belliard
card #551
card #UH7
2008 Jason Jennings
card #374
card #UH230
Willie Aybar
card #654
card #UH217
Darin Erstad
card #656
card #UH151
Rod Barajas
card #652
card #UH187
2009 Stephen Drew
card #39
card #345
Gaby Sanchez
card #202
card #UH278
Mike Cameron (SABR Card Blog did an article about these 2 cards)
card #162
card #346
Nick Hundley
card #101
card #514
Edgar Renteria
card #558
card #UH160
2010 Akinori Iwamura
card #256
card #UH54
Russell Branyan
card #221
card #US19
2011 Jason Hammel
card #338
card #642
Adrian Gonzalez
card #425
card #US1
2012 Matt Downs
card #522
card #US244
Mike (Giancarlo) Stanton (this one I guess I could see a reason for since he decided to change monikers after the first card was issued)
card #567
card #US154
Eric Chavez (wouldn't have got a 2nd card if he was an Athletic, would he?)
card #618
card #US45
Wade Davis
card #48
card #578
2013 Chris Carter
card #607
card #US141
Daniel Nava
card #66
card #US185
Matt Adams (This is where Topps is just getting lazy. They don't put Adams in Series 1 or 2, then they decide to give him 2 UPDATE CARDS???!!!)
card #US4
card #US213
Dayan Viciedo
card #437
card #US57
2014 Mike Olt
card #386
card #US219
Alfredo Simon
card #21
card #US112
Ramon Santiago
card #406
card #US163
Brett Anderson
card #431
card #US116
Justin Morneau
card #465
card #US165
Ryan Wheeler
card #352
card #US227
Santiago Casilla
card #636
card #US307
Jackie Bradley, Jr. (Really, Topps? A card just to have one without the Future Star notation?!)
card #439
card #US110
Adam Eaton (Again, Topps?!)
card #555
card #US62
Matt Shoemaker
card #163
card #US268
Kendrys Morales
card #156
card #US22
Dustin Ackley
card #9
card #US328
2015 Vance Worley
card #66
card #US70
Eric Sogard
card #87
card #US150
RJ Alvarez
card #689
card #US261
2016 Daniel Hudson (This is the guy Topps made a card of that had a photo of him getting injured, maybe they were just making it up to him)
card #620
card #US60
Tyler Flowers
card #701
card #US131
Chris Coghlan
card #231
card #US274
Keon Broxton (went to same high school as me)
card #364
card #US108
Jon Niese
card #145
card #US37
Pedro Alvarez
card #367
card #US8
Sam Dyson
card #389
card #US248
Steve Pearce (classmate of mine, and my favorite instance of Topps Tuckering us with not 1, not 2, but 3 cards in the 2016 Topps/Topps Update set, including 2 in Update alone!
card #303
card #US51
card #US64
(now, don't forget that I didn't keep records for the 2017 and 2018 Topps sets, so there are probably some from those years that I missed)
2019 Zach Greinke
card #222
card #661
Jeurys Familia
card #589
card #US156
Ian Kinsler
card #525
card #US22
And finally, Lance Lynn
card #532
card #US258
Now that's a ton of extra cards there, my friends. 2014 was especially bad. I haven't purchased much 2020 Series 2, but who knows, there are probably some in there, and whenever Update comes out, we will get a final verdict, but you get my point. There are way too many instances nowdays when Topps puts a card into Series 2 or Update when it doesn't need to be there because they already got a Series 1 or 2 card showing them with the same team. It just shows another instance of when Topps hires cheap people right out of college who don't follow the sport, but are just anxious to get thier foot in the door so they can get some experience, and then leave in 2-3 years for their dream data input or whatever job. HIRE SOME FREAKING BASEBALL FANS, TOPPS! You already have that Sooz lady that people sometimes talk about. That's a start. Why don't you have her or somebody like Fuji or Night Owl start making the checklists? This is almost enough to make me want to start a Twitter account just so I can @Topps this post and maybe someone will read it. This took me a lot of time and research to do, and this was just going from the '98 to '19 sets. That's only 21 years. I'm sure I've missed some. Give us some good quality product Topps! We wouldn't be seeing this if Upper Deck had a license. Actually, Upper Deck was pretty bad at Tuckering us as well. I'm not really a big UD guy, but I can think of at least a Jon Lester, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Carl Crawford, and Pat Burrell card off of the top of my head, and those are just from 3 or so sets. I'm just saying that a little friendly competition does nothing but make the product better.
With this post done, I just have to write one about my big trade with John, work up a post for another blogger, which will be seen on his blog once I finish it, and pretty much, the big projects and things blog wise are out of the way, and I'll be crankin customs out.
Thanks for checking out my latest post, and if you like the term Tuckering, start spreading it around.
Thanks for checking out my latest post, and if you like the term Tuckering, start spreading it around.
-Jeremy
Wow...I knew this happened occasionally, but I had no idea it had become so rampant. Ridiculous. A few of these, I think, are cases where the player was traded away and then came back, but only a few.
ReplyDeleteAnother one I know of is 2018 Jason Vargas with the Mets. #530 in Series 2 (https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/155909/cid/11364642/2018-Topps-530-Jason-Vargas) and #US17 in Update (https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/175264/cid/11872145/2018-Topps-Update-US17-Jason-Vargas) He was acquired in February but stayed with the team all year.
I've written about the Hammel and Wade Davis and I knew about the Aybar and Sogard. I had NO IDEA that it's happened so often (so glad I didn't try to complete the 2014 set). That's atrocious.
ReplyDeleteCrazy how often that's happened. The worst are the ones with the same picture!
ReplyDeleteThese days Topps will be the hot guy on a half dozen cards all in update alone.
ReplyDeleteYou can say that again. Get ready for some Luis Robert cards in Update. At least he’s not a Yankee.
DeleteI remember someone pointing out Pearce having multiple cards in 2016... but I had no idea this "Tuckered" thing happened so frequently. It's sad that this happens once, but certain years like 2007, 2014, and 2016 were hit extra hard. Thanks for taking the time to write about this. Great job on the research.
ReplyDelete