In Defense of the Printing Plate
When it comes to hating on printing plates, I sure as hell did a lot of it during my run with Wax Heaven. Perhaps it was because back then I wanted the “one of one” to be more meaningful and harder to obtain. Whatever the case, after one year of bustin’ wax, printing plates were useless to me. Just another gimmick that had run its course in my eyes.
Perhaps my beef was which plates I was pulling. You see, 99% of the time my plate was of a no-name guy stuck in Triple-A someplace, never that future Hall of Famer or ten-time All-Star. The thing is, I just wasn’t asserting myself in trying to get rid of my plates and trading them in for something I wanted. Usually, I just gave them away as gifts to other collectors.
Today I found this sale on eBay and it really made me think. It doesn’t matter how much Sports Cards Uncensored complains about them or the seemingly endless amount of thread started on collector forums, printing plates are still a hot commodity in The Hobby, almost 15 years since Pinnacle Brands introduced them to the world.
Even if you do pull some career Minor Leaguer, odds are somebody out there wants every single one of his cards despite his .212 lifetime career batting average. You just have to know where to look. For starters, join Freedom Card Board and Blow Out Cards’ forums because they are full of player collectors dying for your unwanted cards. Odds are, they have something you need.
It sure as hell will beat selling your “one of one” printing plate on eBay and ending up like this guy. I speak from experience when I say that there is nothing worse than beating the odds by pulling a printing plate and then setting up an eBay auction only to get less than a damn dollar for the thing. Talk about a “FML” moment.
April 28, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Printing plates may not be “rare” as far as 1/1s are concerned (and nor is the 1/1 in general – I’ve got four or five, all pulled from packs and boxes, which seemingly defies statistical odds) but I think they’re pretty damn cool.
But there’s just no pleasing some people, is there?
April 28, 2011 at 6:01 pm
I don’t mind the plates when they are imbedded in the card, like the one in your post. It is the ones that are just the plate with the sticker up the back. They are equal to the “give up” auto.
Welcome back, Mario.
April 28, 2011 at 10:42 pm
[...] offers a defense of printing plate inserts at The Wax Morgue. Printing plate inserts aren’t my favorite thing, but if anyone out there [...]
April 28, 2011 at 11:49 pm
The printing plate, like many other types of inserts, is cool if you pull a good player and lame if it’s not.
The problem card producers have is that they load down their inserts and parallels with lame players that nobody wants to pull.
When designing sets, card producers need to stop and think which “hits” will actually excite collectors, not just think of them as part of a marketing campaign or way to get rid of inventory.
If I (or any other collector) am not going to be excited to pull a given insert card, then it probably has no business being in the set.
April 30, 2011 at 7:10 am
I find it interesting that Beckett has the domain name waxmorgue.com transfer to their website.
April 30, 2011 at 8:31 am
I did not know that. I will have to look into it. Thanks.