Is Topps Getting It Right? Herman Moore and Eric Wagenmaker Debate Debut Patches and Topps NOW
What makes a trading card meaningful?
Is it scarcity? The player? The value? Or is it the connection between the card and a moment worth remembering?
On the latest episode of the Reclaim CoLab Podcast, former Detroit Lions All-Pro Herman Moore and Reclaim Customs founder Eric Wagenmaker tackle two modern concepts from Topps that attempt to connect collectors more directly to sports history: Debut Patch cards and Topps NOW.
And we definitely don't agree on them.
Debut Patches: Preserving History or Manufacturing It?
The Debut Patch concept sounds almost tailor-made for what we do at Reclaim.
An athlete wears a specially created patch during their professional debut. Afterward, that patch is removed and ultimately preserved inside a one-of-one trading card.
Rather than simply putting a photograph from the debut on cardboard, you're holding an actual artifact that was physically present when the athlete's professional career began.
Eric loves the idea. Herman wants nothing to do with it.
For Herman, the problem starts with the fact that the artifact is deliberately inserted into the experience knowing beforehand that it will become a collectible.
That raises an interesting question:
Are we preserving history, or are we manufacturing and scripting history?
And when Eric poses the hypothetical directly to Herman, his answer is pretty definitive.
If an NFL Debut Patch had been sewn onto Herman's jersey for his first professional game in 1991, he wouldn't have given it up.
That patch would have represented his debut and his experience. He would have wanted to keep it.
That opens an even bigger conversation about memorabilia. Who does an athlete's history belong to? The league? The manufacturer? The collector? Or the athlete who actually lived it?
Topps NOW: Collecting Moments or Selling Photographs?
Topps NOW approaches the idea from an entirely different direction.
Instead of anticipating history, it reacts to it.
Something memorable happens in sports and Topps can quickly create a card commemorating that specific moment. Collectors then have a short opportunity to order the card, with consumer demand helping determine the final base-card print run.
Eric sees a lot to like here.
Rather than a manufacturer simply deciding, "We're making 99 of these, therefore they're rare," collectors themselves have a hand in determining how many copies exist.
More importantly, the card gives someone the opportunity to collect a specific moment they actually remember and care about.
Herman isn't buying it.
To him, Topps NOW is essentially selling photographs.
Why does putting a picture of something that just happened onto a trading card suddenly make it more meaningful?
It's a simple objection, but it leads to one of the best debates of the episode.
What Are We Actually Collecting?
That's ultimately where the conversation gets bigger than either product.
For decades, trading cards have largely represented athletes. Here's the player. Here's the team. Here are the stats.
Concepts like these attempt to add another layer.
A Debut Patch says:
This was there.
Topps NOW says:
This happened.
Eric sees both as potentially meaningful evolutions of the trading card. Herman sees a manufactured artifact in one and an overpriced photograph in the other.
And somewhere inside that disagreement is a much larger question for collectors:
Does memorabilia become meaningful because of the object itself, or because of the story and experience attached to it?
That's a question sitting at the heart of what we're building with Reclaim CoLab, and it's why this conversation became much more interesting than simply deciding whether we liked a couple of new card concepts.
Watch the Full Conversation
Herman and Eric get into Debut Patches, Topps NOW, manufactured versus organic memorabilia, consumer-driven scarcity and what actually makes something worth collecting.
And yes, they disagree. A lot.
Reclaim CoLab: Where Athlete, Collector, and Entrepreneurship Collide.
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