By now, you’ve seen that Jackson Holliday card from 2024 Topps Series Two. You know, the one that’s a tribute to the infamous 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken, ahem, “error” card. You might be surprised to know, especially after I’ve spent the last decade and a half ripping Topps left and right for dumb gimmicks, but I love this card. I love the concept. I love that there are multiple variations of the card (just like the original). I love that they even got the pose right – albeit on the wrong shoulder. (To be fair, Jackson hits left, while Billy was a righty).
It would be nice if this were Jackson Holliday’s rookie card though. Because it’s not. It’s a “KRC.” Allow me to introduce a new term to The Hobby: The Kayfabe Rookie Card, or “KRC.”
Kayfabe is an old carny term meaning “Be Fake” and is probably best known and best used in the context of professional wrestling. Pro wrestling is not a legitimate sport – I know, you’re shocked. It is a staged entertainment event where the outcome, 99 44/100% of the time, is predetermined. But wrestling is presented as if it were a legitimate athletic competition. We all know that the Undertaker isn’t a seven-foot-tall dead guy with supernatural powers, and he’s not at all “fighting” his younger brother Kane whom Undertaker nearly burned to death as a child. And yet, we the audience, the announcers, the referee, everyone involved, we all suspend our disbelief and pretend that what we’re seeing is real. That’s kayfabe.
We all know, despite the presence of the familiar “RC” icon, the Jackson Holliday “Fun Face” card from Series Two is not a “real” rookie card. We also know that his other Series Two card, the one showing him batting, as well as the S2 cards of Jackson Chourio, Jackson Merrill, and Wyatt Langford are also not real rookie cards. And yet, Topps would have us all believe these are these player’s legitimate rookie cards. I mean, it has the “RC” icon, it must be a real rookie card, right?
Wrong. They are all Kayfabe RCs.
Kayfabe RCs are, of course, nothing new and have been plaguing Topps products – especially Series Two – for over a decade. See if you can detect a pattern. 1) Johnny Hotprospect makes the opening day roster or, more likely, opens the season in Triple-A for service time manipulation purposes, but makes his MLB debut early in the season – early enough that he could be included in Series Two. 2) Topps issues a provisional checklist for Series Two, but Johnny is nowhere to be seen. 3) Series Two goes live, and by gosh darn it wouldn’t you know it, Johnny Hotprospect “rookie” cards begin emerging. 4) About a week after S2’s release, Topps issues a cynically timed press release spilling the beans on what we already knew: Johnny Hotprospect was a surprise “late inclusion” (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) in Series Two, and that, despite all their best efforts, Topps could only include Johnny as a short-print. (And if you believe any of this, I have a bridge in Duryea, PA I’d like to sell you.)
It’s what happened with Bryce Harper’s “661” card in 2012 Topps Series Two. And also what happened with the “full swing” Ronald Acuna, Jr. card in 2018 S2. And also with Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.’s “NNO” card in 2019 S2. And also the five “high number” rookies in 2022 Topps Chrome. (Bobby Witt, Jr., Julio Rodriguez, Spencer Torkelson, Hunter Greene, and CJ Abrams). All presented as RCs, all KRCs.
(Probably the dumbest Kayfabe RC was the 2010 Stephen Strasburg, which was only available by – and I’m not making this up -- digging for virtual diamonds on a Topps website. Even worse, Topps botched it even further by not making the card available on the website until after the Strasburg’s debut game was over. Plenty of collectors wanted that card and wasted their chances by digging for it during the game. #THANKSTOPPS!)
Of course, Topps could have (and should have) put these cards in the base set – and there is no excuse for them not to have. They could have produced them all in the same quantity as the rest of the base cards, with the full complement of parallels. They chose not to. Topps chose to Kayfabe you, the collector.
We’ll have to wait until Update for Jackson Holliday’s real rookie card. It would have been great if it were in S2 though. Instead, we got Kayfabed.
Last year around this time (can you believe Hobby News Daily has been around for over a year!) I wrote an advice column for attending that year’s National Sports Collectors Convention. Well, this year’s NSCC is coming up, and I recommend you go back and re-read that article.
Go back and re-read it, because I’d like to make some Cleveland-specific amendments for this year’s NSCC.
You’re not in Rosemont anymore. Heck, you’re not even in Atlantic City. If this is your first Cleveland NSCC, be prepared for a completely different experience. The International Exhibition Center (a.k.a. I-X Center) is a World War II-era bomber plant out by the end of Hopkins Airport. And when I mean “out by the end of Hopkins Airport” I mean out by the end of Hopkins Airport. It is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by acres of parking lots.
I hope you took my advice from last year and got a VIP package. Since the I-X Center is in the middle of nowhere, you’re going to need that free parking pass that comes with a VIP ticket. Unlike Rosemont or A.C. you will not be able to walk back to your hotel room, nor are there any places to eat – other than at the I-X Center itself – within walking distance. Also, there is no public transportation available. Most of the “airport district” hotels are on the other (North) side of the airport. In other words, just to get there, you’ll need a car or else you’re Ubering everywhere. Like I wrote last year, the VIP package’s parking pass pays for itself.
It's a great facility to have an NSCC. Like I said, the I-X Center is an old WWII bomber plant. Unlike The Stephens Center, with its many different rooms and oddly-shaped compartments, the I-X Center is one giant room – not unlike Atlantic City. It should be simple and easy navigate your way around.
They got rid of the Ferris wheel. Oh well. More room for tables, I guess. I just hope they didn’t get rid of the Frog Bar.
There’s not much else to do in Cleveland. You know that fake “Cleveland Tourism” video that went viral a couple of years ago. (The one that said Cleveland’s economy revolved around LeBron James?) Well, they weren’t lying. On the bright side, the Guardians are at home to the Tigers the first two days of the NSCC. And if you’re willing to drive, the Columbus Crew – one of the better MLS clubs -- are playing Aston Villa of the Premier League in a friendly on Saturday night. And finally…
Buy new socks and underwear. Consider this an amendment to bullet point #3 on last year’s list – the one about basic hygiene. Besides, you probably need new socks and/or underwear anyway. Make it a new habit to buy new ones every NSCC.
As is tradition, there will be another special edition of Hobby Hotline live from the Mike Berkus stage at NSCC. Stay tuned for the day or date. To wrap-up, if you got any questions, comments, trade offers, you can slip into my DMs, or shoot me an e-mail.
Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
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