Hobby Musings: Onyx bringing collectors top prospects with Vintage – For the past several years, Onyx has been giving collectors a chance to land some of baseball’s top prospect autographs. A popular favorite, their Platinum Elite product has featured autographs from top youngsters like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ronald Acuna. This year though, Onyx has something a little different on deck with Vintage. To find out more about what it has to offer, I had the chance to catch up with Onyx’s Lance Fischer. The following interview was conducted via email.
KS: Lance, why make the decision to produce Onyx’s Vintage product?
LF: We wanted to take a different spin from what we have done in the past. Collectors seem to really love the look and feel of Vintage looking cards. It really brings the adult collectors back to when opening packs and pulling a favorite player would bring a certain type of excitement.
KS: How would you say Vintage differs from Platinum Elite?
LF: First, the checklist this year is extremely strong with a good mix of top 10 prospects and under the radar guys. The cards themselves are very different from Platinum Elite due to the card stock and printing technique.
KS: In your last couple of Platinum Elite products, you’ve used a smaller, but impactful autograph checklist. Why did you make the decision to use a larger signature checklist for Vintage?
LF: We had so many guys this year at our disposal that it was impossible to narrow it down to 11 or 12 players. With such a strong prospect core and guys you will hear about soon, we had to go with a larger list.
KS: You’ve been showing off a lot of the players who have signed for the product on social media. I know it may be hard to pick, but out all of them, who would you say is the biggest name?
LF: Wow. That’s really difficult. I would say fast forward 5 years and it will be Wander Franco. This year, Eloy Jimenez.
KS: While some of these names are pretty well known to baseball fans and prospectors, who’s a name of someone who’s a little more under the radar that you would advise your customers to look out for?
LF: I’ll give you two. Antonio Cabello of the Yankees and Marco Luciano of the Giants.
KS: You’re also featuring some buyback cards from your previous products. With some big names including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Victor Robles, how do you go about inserting them into a current product?
LF: We will randomly insert them into cases (random packs). With the redemptions, we have a mix of remaining cards and buy back a few from time to time.
KS: You’re also keeping the case hit feature in Vintage. In the past, it’s featured some pretty significant rookie cards. What are some of the highlights from the case hit products for Vintage?
LF: Very similar to years past. Look for Koufax, Rose, Reggie Jackson rookies along with others!
KS: Prospecting is such a significant part of the hobby. With that in mind though, why do you continue to focus on producing prospect products 
and not branch out more into veteran and retired players?
LF: Our specialty has always been taking the prospect approach. We have a pretty good following for our product and the value it brings to the collecting community.
KS: How would you say your products differ from others in the hobby like Bowman?
LF: You can get our on-card autograph version of the next wave of players for a better price! We really try to focus on bringing guys who do not have autograph cards or top tier prospects.
KS: Besides Vintage, what else does Onyx have in store for 2019?
LF: Watch for game-used products and more mystery signed baseballs! Also, keep an eye out for us in the Corporate area at the National this year.
Collectors will find 2019 Onyx Vintage Collection Baseball Cards in stores on Friday, March 29th, 2019. For more information, please visit the product page.
Stay up to date on all things happening at Onyx by following them on Twitter @Onyx_Authentic.
For more Hobby Musings, follow Kelsey Schroyer on Twitter @KelSchroy75.
Hobby Musings: Onyx bringing collectors top prospects with Vintage
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