Stufff Joe Collector Likes: #8 Topps Gimmicks

As previously mentioned, Bowman Chrome is a product Joe Collector eats up. There's nothing Joe enjoys more than collecting cards that have already been issued, b ut are shiny and cost four times as much. After all, it's BowChro and it's worth something. But there's one thing Joe loves even more than BowChro and that's unannounced short-prints. They're also worth something.

So what happens when Topps combines both Bowman Chrome with gimmicks. What else!

BOWCHRO GIMMICK-JO!!!!

Imagine Joe's excitement when checked eBay and found that there are not one, but two new gimmick cards of Kosuke Fukudome for him to chase after.

Oh sure, he heard the rumors that Topps was about sign Fukudome to an autograph contract; and that all those unsigned base cards with "NOT VALID WITHOUT STICKER" were probably made in anticipation of Fukudome's signature; and that all those sticker-less cards must have been inserted into packs as an "accident."



Yeah, accident. That's the ticket.

But the other Fukudome card, well, Joe just about shit a brick when he saw that Fukudome BowChro card in his WBC jersey.

But wait, the madness isn't just limited to BowChro. Oh no. Joe had heard a while back that Topps was going to insert into factory sets of 2008 Topps a special Fukudome card. (You know, to try to make it up to collectors who were insulted that Topps would demean itself by gimmicking-up their flagship product.) Since Joe hardly ever bothers with regular Topps, he thought nothing of it. After all, it's not Chrome and it's actually affordable; ergo, it's not worth something.

But it is regular Topps, and Joe buys a factory set of it when it comes out anyway -- if only to pretend to know what it's like to collect cards that aren't worth something.

So imagine, if you will, Joe's excitement when he ripped open his factory set, found the Fukudome bonus card, and saw that it was sequentially numbered "UH1" on the back.

"OMG!!! DO YOU BELIEVE TOPPS ACCIDENTALLY INSERTED FUKUDOME'S UPDATES AND HIGHLIGHTS CARD IN MY FACTORY SET!!! THAT CARD'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE OUT UNTIL NOVEMBER!!!! I HAVEN'T SEEN ONE ON EBAY YET, SO MINE MUST BE AN ERROR!!! IT'S....

FUKU-JO-ME!!!!!!

He immediately went out and bought 20 sets, ripped them, picked out the KosFuku card, and posted them all on eBay as some sort of variation card blissfully unaware that every Topps factory set has this card.