Apparently, I do.
I never really saw the point of collecting "virtual" cards. Especially since I've been making virtual cards for this blog for the past 4 years or so. But curiosity finally got the best of me and I had to check out Topps Bunt. To my surprise, I came across this Harmon Killebrew Topps Bunt Card using the same design I used for the 1971 Topps All Star Cards That Never Were.
Admittedly, the design was not entirely mine. I lifted it from the World Series cards from that set.
Nonetheless, I'm kinda stoked that they used a design that I had a hand in creating.
And I am not the only blogger who's CTNW designs were used by Topps Bunt. Over at The Baseball Card Blog, the writers created a 1965 Topps All Star set. Their design was also incorporated into Topps Bunt. Here is their design. Basically they made an All Star designation for the regular issue 1965 cards. This is The Baseball Card Blog's version of a 1965 Topps Brooks Robinson All Star card:
And this is the Topps Bunt version:
On these cards, Topps Bunt utilized the design element that we had also used to create our Cards That Never Were. But on this card of Yogi Berra, the entire card was identical to the one created by Uncle Doc's Closet. Here is the one by Topps Bunt:
And here is the Uncle Doc version:
Did some Topps intern not realize that this was a fake card? Or did he know it was fake and just didn't care? In reality, the design belongs to Topps in the first place and they probably actually paid for the rights to use Berra's image.
I can't speak for the other bloggers, but I am not the least bit upset, offended or otherwise outraged by the Topps Bunt versions of these cards. Quite the opposite. I'm hoping that they use more of our designs. The whole reason I made most of these cards is because I thought Topps should have made them themselves. With the recent addition of Archives, Heritage and now Bunt cards, Topps will have more chances to create the cards they missed the first time around.
