National Baseball Card Day is Coming Back!

This is the news that I've been wanting to talk about for a while! Back in late February, I read this announcement stating that Topps is going to resurrect National Baseball Card Day this year. While details are still sketchy, I've been hoping for something like this for at least a few years now. I had delusions of grandeur that maybe I could try to contact the company(or companies, if I included Panini) and try to get this to take off again, but that never happened. I've been a huge fan of Record Store Day for years, and more recently, UD's National Hockey Day. I think events like these are a great tool to keep collectors engaged in the hobby and to open the doors for new collectors. Additionally, if the decision is made to make this a hobby store promo, it supports the precious few remaining LCS's across the country. I'm going to reserve my over-the-top excitement for after more details are released, but either way I'm going to support this as much as possible in the hopes that it becomes a regular thing. In the mean time, here are some of my favorite cards that I've acquired from the previous incarnations of the event. Unfortunately, both of the previous incarnations, National Trading Card Day and National Baseball Card Day occurred during the time when I was not active in our hobby.

These are the only two cards I have from the early, cross-company, cross-sport National Trading Card Day from back in 2004. To be honest, I've eye-balled the LeBron and Carmelo rookie year issues from this set, but have never actively pursued them.

Here is a sampling of my collection of the 2006 issued National Baseball Card Day event. Personally, I'm a much bigger fan of the Baseball Card Day, focusing on the single sport. Perhaps, Panini will follow suit and set up a Football Card Day now that they hold the exclusive NFL license.

These two hail from the final year that NBCD was held, back in 2008. Other than the fact that there is not much difference between this design and the UD design used in 2006, I like these. I'm probably partial to the 2006 variety since they don't have the foil, but ultimately it's a nice design that was different than the standard Upper Deck set from the corresponding year.

I have a few hopes for this promotion.

1. Topps issues an event-specific set that is easily identifiable(a la Panini's Black Friday or Father's Day sets).
2. They create some sort of 'chase' cards within the set(a la Panini's Black Friday or Father's Day sets).
3. The cards are issued in packs, not as an entire set.
4. Topps produces some free, branded promo items(bumper stickers, buttons, window clings, hats, t-shirts, etc.) that are also given out at the event(a la record labels giving promo items away during RSD).
5. It is successful enough to establish this as an annual promotion.

Maybe I'm setting my expectations too high, but I sure hope not. I've been enjoying Record Store Day since its inception in 2008 and it's one of my favorite days that I anticipate each year. I would love nothing more than to feel the same way about a day devoted to my cardboard hobby. What do you think about this? Are you the slightest bit excited or is it just me? Thanks for reading.

UPDATE: Topps has announced that the date for National Baseball Card Day will be August 13th. No further details have been released at this time.