1969 Topps Deckle Edge - Pete Rose

I'm not sure which genius came up with the deckle edge cards at Topps, but I'm not a huge fan. It seems to me that the deckle edging would create a hazard for the overall condition of the card. It seems to me that a deckle edge would cause the card to tear more easily.

This was probably a precursor to the die cut cards that became popular in the nineties. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but a card that looks like an oversize postage stamp doesn't really appeal to me in the short term. I suppose in time, I could learn to love the cards. Nothing is impossible.

If I were to receive any of these cards as a gift, I would gladly accept them. I'm not ungrateful and I love oddball cards. I would classify this as the lovable misfit oddball card. It doesn't fit in with the other cards, but dammit, it's still a card! It needs love too!

Prices for individual cards from this set range from $1.50 to $20.00 in top condition. Pete Rose falls in the high end of the middle at $12.00. I'm assuming that it used to be much higher. That was before Pete was banned from baseball for life. Although, I'm beginning to realize that banned for life means banned after death too.

I wonder how many kids in 1969 got punished from their parents for ruining their cards because of these deckle edge cards? Some kid's mother spends hard earned money on a pack of cards for their offspring. When the kid shows the cards to the mother, they look abused. Little Johnny or Little Jill probably got a sore butt for these cards from parents not in the know.

I'm sure it happened to at least one kid. Drinking was probably involved on the parent's end. I'm positive one child, somewhere, has gotten the living crap kicked out of them for this card. And all Pete Rose can do is look dumbfounded on this deckle edged card as he watches from the card in horror. If you really look at the card, it does look like a kid took a pair of scissors and tried to make a doily.