Celebrity Predictors - A This Card Is Cool Feature

This Card Is Cool Features bring you the sets I find worth collecting. This is third in the series.

 Inserting cards of celebrities in baseball card products is usually met with mixed reviews. However, many early sets contain athletes of multiple sports and plenty of actors and actresses. The modern baseball card set almost exclusively features baseball players. In the past decade, celebrities and non-baseball athletes have been making cameos in various baseball sets. Topps' American Pie sets featured a mix of historical and baseball legends. Then Playoff began the Fans of the Game series (a future TCIC feature). These days, most baseball sets seem to contain at least one insert set devoted to subjects other than baseball.

This is the 2010 Upper Deck Celebrity Predictors set. Each of the 10 cards in this set features two caricatured celebrities, designed as two half-size cards. The cards can be separated by the perforation that runs down the middle. While the cards don't specifically name the celebrity pictured, it isn't difficult to figure out who's being satirized. How many celebrities named "Tom" jumped on a couch while professing his love? Being paired with their significant others makes it even easier. Cards have nice small touches added to the artwork - caterpillars as eyebrows and Megan Fox's toethumb are just a few of the "Easter eggs" on these cards.

  I'm a fan of art cards, and the caricatures of celebrities are amusing. Upper Deck certainly follows the gimmick trends. During the 2008 presidential elections, similar full-card-size cartoons of the candidates were inserted into packs featuring the oval office hopefuls playing baseball. The "Predictors" part of this set is a bit of a misnomer because there is no predicting occurring. It would have been more appropriate if they paired up more obscure couples - budding romances, on-set rumors, and perhaps a Tom Cruise-John Travolta combination.

 Each of the eight normal insert cards (shown) are valued at $4 each by Beckett, and the two "SP" inserts are valued at $15 each. But the cards can be had for much less. If you are a non-sport collector who has interest in PopCardz and Americana, this insert set may fit in your collection.