The “Insert” culture of baseball cards these days can easily make cards that are designed to be valuable downright laughable a few seasons later. Case in point with this John Maine card.
Before we break down the card, some of you may be wondering what an Insert, or “Hit” is in modern baseball cards. Baseball Card sets now have smaller sets within them, called Inserts that highlight some sort of theme and are significantly harder to collect than base cards, thus making them more valuable. A “Hit” is when you get a baseball card that has either a piece of memorabilia (bat, jersey) in it or an autograph on it. Sometimes an inset series also are considered hits. Increasing the “Value” of these cards is the serial number on them, showing that only a limited number of these cards have been produced.
So back to this card. It was part of the insert set “Icons” and is also considered a hit due to the autograph on it. What makes this card so funny though, is even back in 2009, would you ever use the word “Icon” to describe John Maine. Now looking back on this card, 2 years later, it is even funnier considering the way the entire Maine situation worked out. That isn't a negative criticism on Upper Deck, its is just an example of how baseball can take unpredictable turns.
