Topps Cards of Shame Release - Off Topic -

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Posted By: Jeremy

I just caught this on CNNMONEY.com --

It appears Topps will be issuing through their Allen and Ginter line, a series of cards based off world's greatest crooks (Sign of the Times, huh !?)

Cards of shame
They're not your usual baseball cards. Topps Company will be issuing trading cards of confessed swindler Bernie Madoff as part of a series featuring the 'world's biggest hoaxes, hoodwinks and bamboozles,' due out early this summer. Here's a sampling.

Charles Ponzi
Ponzi's pyramid scheme lured thousands of New England residents in the 1920s with the promise of huge returns in a matter of just a few months. The Ponzi card is the first in Topps' series of "World's Greatest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks, & Bamboozles."
By Yuval Rosenberg

Bernard Madoff
Madoff has admitted to bilking investors out of billions in Wall Street's biggest Ponzi scheme. "Madoff is actually the last subject that we've added," says a Topps spokesperson.

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

Wow, with April 1 around the corner the timing is pretty good...

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Posted By: Patrick McHugh

Will there be cards of the CEO,S of Citi, Bank of America, Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns, AIG,Fannie and Freddie, Merrill , Goldman, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and all the others that have been a part of the Ponzi Scheme?

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Will there be cards of the idiot investors, the living-beyond-their-means homeowners and the AIG lynch mobs?

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Posted By: Jim VB

"Will there be cards of the idiot investors, the living-beyond-their-means homeowners and the AIG lynch mobs?"


Jeff,

You know the answer to that! The people you list are the target market. That's who Topps hopes to sell the cards to! Can't make fun of them.

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Posted By: Anthony S.

Jeff,

You mean my Driver's License?

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Posted By: Fred C

Jeff,

Tell us how you really feel? If a card was made of each idiot living beyond their means then I'm sure that collecting the set may be a bit challenging because there wouldn't be enough room to store all the cards.

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Posted By: Richard Dwyer

Will there be a Bush card?

BTW, Bush has a new book: The Bush Administration - If we did it, here's how it would have happened.

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Posted By: Tim

So when can I expect the Topps Hottest 50 Women set? They're sure to capatlize on that like Maxim and FHM magazine. What will an Angalina Jolie or Megan Fox go for?

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Posted By: Steve

Tell us how you really feel? happy.gif If a card was made of each idiot living beyond their means then I'm sure that collecting the set may be a bit challenging because there wouldn't be enough room to store all the cards.





Upper Deck is doing that set.


Steve

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Posted By: dennis

is there a coaches corner card?

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Posted By: Erick Lewin

Will there be a Curt Schilling card with a bloody sock? j/k Red Sox fans.....(maybe)

E. Lewin

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Is there an Obama card?

How about Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barney Frank.

Also Al Gore and Joe Biden belong in there.

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Posted By: Rob D.

Nip it, nip it ...

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Posted By: Ted Holden

As long as somebody decided to cast the first stone with Bush, your list is appropriate. You did leave out Acorn however.

Texas Ted

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Posted By: Marty Ogelvie

Actually, I think there is a set of Obama cards.. not sure if they are TOPPS or not but I do recall seeing some..

marty

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Posted By: dennis

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Posted By: leon

Do we really need another 200 post political massacre?

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Leon,

I say no but when leftists slam a great Texan or the ceos of our financial institutions I am going to respond as to the really shameful people in this country....and yes Texas Ted Acorn is on the list as well.

Jim

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Posted By: Jeremy

Here is the full article on the Topps Allen & Ginter's...

Bernie Madoff on a baseball card
Topps will issue trading cards featuring the 'world's biggest hoaxes, hoodwinks and bamboozles' this summer.

Cards of shame
They're not your usual baseball cards. Topps Company will be issuing trading cards of confessed swindler Bernie Madoff as part of a series featuring the 'world's biggest hoaxes, hoodwinks and bamboozles,' due out early this summer. Here's a sampling. View photos
More from Fortune
Bernie Madoff on a baseball card

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- "I'll trade you two Bernie Madoffs for a Derek Jeter and David Wright."

Baseball card collectors could soon be saying something along those lines as the Topps Company will be issuing a trading card of confessed swindler Bernard Madoff as part of a product due out early this summer.

The Topps 2009 Allen & Ginter release will include cards of some 260 baseball players along with cards of historic figures and "world champions" from realms outside baseball. This year's product, though, will also nod to Madoff's financial chicanery as part of a group of cards featuring the "world's biggest hoaxes, hoodwinks and bamboozles." Among the other do-badders in the subset are Charles Ponzi, The Runaway Bride, and Enron.

"These cards feature 20 perpetrators of some of the most notorious pranks, dubious claims, and outright frauds of the last 2 centuries," boasts a Topps sell-sheet for the collection.

That means collectors who open a pack of the cards at their local hobby shop could find Madoff right alongside notable sluggers like Alex Rodriguez or Albert Pujols. Packs of the cards will sell for $3 apiece at retailers including Target (TGT, Fortune 500) and Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500). The odds of finding a Madoff will be one in 12 packs on average.

The hoaxes subset, originally inspired by the case of 1970's skyjacker D.B. Cooper, was in the works even before the Madoff scandal hit the headlines, according to Topps spokesman Clay Luraschi. Madoff, in fact, was a late addition to the checklist, Luraschi says. "Ironically, the economy takes a dive and all these characters start washing out, like Bernie Madoff. We thought, hey, if anyone should be in this set it should be him."

The Madoff card is not the only gimmick included in the set. Topps will again be issuing so-called DNA relics, cards featuring actual hairs of historical subjects including Napoleon, King George III, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Edgar Allen Poe, George Washington, Jefferson Davis, Geronimo, Abraham Lincoln and Beethoven. But the Madoff card is the one most directly linked to current headlines.

"I think it will add some interest to the hobby in terms of non-collectors, more mainstream people getting into it just because of those cards," says Chris Olds, editor of Beckett Baseball, a publication for collectors. "They try to touch on unusual things that people would latch onto -- stuff that's out of the ordinary, especially stuff you wouldn't expect to find in a pack of baseball cards."

Some collectors on one popular trading-card blog seemed less than eager to see Madoff captured on cardboard.

"I think if I pull a Bernie Madoff card it will be getting burned or shredded," one poster noted.

Another collector noted that Madoff isn't the first infamous criminal to be featured on a trading card.

"I was pretty appalled when I found out about the Bernie Madoff card too," that blogger wrote, "but they've had Jesse James and Jack the Ripper in previous sets so I guess Bernie is the designated scumbag criminal for this year's set."

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Posted By: Steve Murray

Rarely do I like to get involved in political threads but for someone to suggest that it is just the "leftists" that are slamming "...the ceos of our financial institutions..." is evidence that someone is totally out of touch with reality.

Steve Murray
Not a "leftist" and mad as hell!!!

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Posted By: JimCrandell

I am mad as hell too Steve --at Obama and the rest of the radical left and the way they are transforming this great country of ours...and if you don't see this...well I guess you're just out of touch with reality.

Jim

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Posted By: bbigelow

...chiming in that there's at least this one recent (non-Topps) card of Megan...



...don't believe that Angelina's in the set...the few of these that I've seen are younger actresses...