What should be the final post on the Topps CMG lawsuit

Sports Collector’s Daily readers found this a week ago. I just found it today, and thought I’d share it with you in case you missed it.

First, a recap. CMG and Topps signed an exclusive agreement allowing Topps the exclusive use of images and names of a number of deceased baseball players in their products. Upper Deck’s Legendary Cuts release was designed when Upper Deck still had the rights to those players, and it contained cards with players they no longer had the rights to. According to the Daily article, Upper Deck made changes to the release :

Upper Deck’s product development team then removed images of those players controlled by CMG from the Legendary Cuts product, keeping only cards with cut signatures and no images. Topps still felt the cards were in violation of its deal with CMG, but the court ruled otherwise.

Sport’s Collectors Daily obtained a copy of the ruling which they quote at their site. The short version is, the judge ruled that the financial damage to Upper Deck by keeping these cards off the market far outweighs the damages that Topps would receive if they won the lawsuit based on the small amount of cards that may violate the Topps-CMG agreement. The judge also ruled that the public’s interest is served best by allowing these cards to go forth

The judge also takes issue with Topps process in seeking the restraining order. You can read more about that part, if interested, at Sport’s Collectors Daily.

The end result appears to have Legendary Cuts back in the hands of collectors with no references to the product on Upper Deck’s website and the removal of players covered by the agreement from Upper Deck’s Yankee Stadium Legacy release. Not exactly what Topps was looking for, but still damaging to Upper Deck and to their future releases.

Upper Deck SPx rookies 5 & 6?

In the previous thread I asked you to guess who the 3 remaining SPx rookie redemptions would be. Harner from Cardboard Mania suggested Geovany Soto, who I left out only because I thought he was part of the regular set. So I went to the Upper Deck website to check it out, for whatever reason, Upper Deck lists the cards up to 150 as follows:

• 146 Jay Bruce
• 147 Carlos Gonzalez
• 148 Evan Longoria
• 149 COLBY RASMUS
• 150 KOSUKE FUKUDOME

I’m no genius, but I’m guessing that RR4 is going to be Rasmus (once he’s called up) , and RR5 will be Fukudome. Soto does seem like the early favorite for RR7, then, but it’s possible Upper Deck has a Rasmus like prospect waiting in the wings as well.

Upper Deck SPx Rookie Redemption #4

Chris Olds tells us that Carlos Gonzalez is the 4th announced Upper Deck SPx rookie redemption. Gonzalez is actually RR2, and will be #147 if you are chasing down the set.  Carlos is also the early winner of the nicest looking auto in the set.

With the forth card announced, there’s only three to go.  Fukudome will no doubt be one of them, and I think Johnny Cueto is a good possibility for a card, too.  I’m stumped to this point as to card number three.

Place your wagers in the comments below.  Winner gets the satisfaction of knowing he got them all right.

The cards so far:
RR1 – Jay Bruce #146
RR2 – Carlos Gonzalez #147
RR3 – Evan Longoria #148
RR6 – Clayton Kershaw #151