I’m not a hockey guy, not even close, but I recently saw the new logo for the Seattle Kraken and it is phenomenal! The alternate logo is also rather impressive. If you like a good sports logos, I highly suggest you go check it out. There was also this video I saw that introduces the new team and logo. It seriously gave me the chills when I watched it and made me want to be a hockey guy, or at least I thought it over. But I only have the mental bandwidth for one winter sport and that will always be basketball, sorry Kraken.
Seeing the new Kraken logo did get me thinking about NBA logos and some basketball cards that have done a great job incorporating team logo’s into their cards. I don’t know when this first started, but I feel like its a fairly new move in the sports card industry and, for the most part, I’m a fan. There is such a thing as too much logo, and I don’t like when the logo takes up too much card real estate, but in general I like the presence of a well placed or well incorporated team logo.
I’d love to see Panini at some point feature rookies in both their college uniforms and pro uniforms. I think it would look cool to also incorporate both college and pro logos, if that’s even legally permissible. I’m picturing something akin to the “Career Lineage” cards they are debuting in the 2019-20 Panini Illusions set. Make it happen Panini.
So today I’m focusing on 3 cards, all featuring logos in a slightly different fashion. Unlike yesterday’s post, all these cards are affordable and can be acquired for $325 or less. However, it’s doubtful that any of these cards have PSA value history, so I’m only going to focus on present day value for today’s cards.
The first card up is the most expensive, and it’s Chris Bosh‘s 2003-04 Upper Deck SP Signature Edition Rookie Logo Autograph, limited to 25 copies. As you can see from the image below, they did a nice job designing this card and the logo patch really pops. It looks almost metallic in the photo and I’m not sure if it was designed specifically for this card or if it comes from something, but it is certainly a good looking logo featured prominently on the card. The logo featured is the original Raptors logo, and while I prefer their newest logo, this card is still a prime example of a logo used well on a card. This card was also selling on eBay for a Buy It Now price of $325, so it isn’t cheap, but it also isn’t prohibitively expensive.
My one complaint is I wish they’d given the autograph card design a bit more thought because that autograph looks pushed off to the corner. All in all, this is an interesting way to incorporate a team logo onto a card and I generally like the approach. My guess would be the same autographed card featuring Lebron could fetch something up in the six-figure range, especially how super limited Lebron rookies are popping off these days. But I did not see a Lebron SP Signature Edition Rookie Logo Autograph selling on eBay and I doubt I will see one anytime soon.
The next card I want to feature with a prominent logo in its design is John Wall‘s 2010-11 Playoff Contenders Patches Rookie Ticket Autograph (#101). To me, this card has a lot of design flaws. For one, it’s too busy and they looked like they tried to pack too much onto this card. The image up at the top shows both an action shot and a static shot of Wall’s face. That’s a perfect design if that’s all you’re doing on the card, but with such limited space for this card I’d rather they just choose one picture and make it count.
Then they have Wall’s autograph on this card, but the body of the card is built on top of the space used for the autograph so the autograph gets cut off. Where on earth is the sense in that? That is a huge design mistake, since autographs are generally one of the coolest, if not the coolest feature on any card.
And then they have the logo patch down at the bottom. I like logos, but a logo patch sewn into or ironed onto the fabric just doesn’t do it for me, especially on the small scale needed to fit the logo onto this card. Plus the patch on the card has a lot of white space around it that could have been put to better use. This card is currently selling on eBay for $80-$180, but given the many design flaws I’d look for other autographed Wall rookies before dropping close to $100 on this one.
The last card up is a very affordable Jordan card that can be purchased for less than $10. The way Upper Deck incorporates the Bulls logo is super simple, but it’s also pretty cool and really stands out. The card I’m referring to is Michael’s 1994 Upper Deck Decade of Dominance card (#44). All in all, this is a pretty great logo card featuring the GOAT himself, and it’s a very affordable Jordan, which is becoming a rare thing these days.
There are a few things Upper Deck could have done to improve this cards design. For one, they could have either had Michael sit in a different position or they could have taken the photo from further out to capture the full Bulls logo. The shot of the Bulls logo without horns is just weird. Also, the position Jordan is currently in for this photo makes it look like he doesn’t have arms. I had to do a double take before I could see that he was propping himself up with his arms extended behind his back and you can see his hands are in line with his shoulders.
The other design change I would have made would have been having Jordan wear a white (home) uniform. The red (away) uniform against the red bulls logo is way too much red and Jordan kind of gets lost in a sea of red. But, for a $10 Jordan, especially if you like the Bulls logo, this is a great card.
I’m excited to see if an how Panini and other sports card companies will incorporate logos into card designs going forward. I’d love to know the best logo designs people have in their collections, so if there are epic logo designs I missed (which is very likely), please be sure to tweet Ballout or leave a comment below.
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