Saturday, February 25, 2012

TOPPS.....being sued?

I found this article today on deadspin.com and was rather surprised at the article. You can find the article here regarding a former Topps Employee. A copy of the article is down below if you do not want to click on the link. The link has a copy of the legal documents that were filed.




Topps Sued For Firing Employee, Then Putting Him On A Trading Card

In the fall, Topps released a handful of very odd cards. Dubbed "American History Relics," they were five-card runs of John Henry, Pecos Bill, and Leif Ericson. Despite their rarity, the cards were a flop — one sold for $84 on eBay — perhaps because they were so strange. Card collectors like collector's items, but they mostly like baseball.
That's not our story. The story is the creation of the cards, which you might have noticed feature one man who died 1000 years ago and two men who never existed, and as such were probably hard to photograph. But that's a real human being up there as John Henry, the steel-driving man. His name is Christopher Holmes, and he used to work at Topps, and he never gave them permission to make him John Henry, and now he's suing for $4 million. That lawsuit is below.
Topps Sued For Firing Employee, Then Putting Him On A Trading CardHolmes was a brand manager in Topps's marketing department, and had been with the company since 1994. One former employee says Topps was "not the most diverse work environment," and as such, Holmes was the go-to when the art department needed a black guy. In 2008, he posed as "Wheelbarrow Walker," a fictional baseball player (what is with Topps and cards featuring nonexistent people?) and was happy to do it. He was told of the idea behind Wheelbarrow Walker, posed for the photoshoot, was shown the proofs before the card was printed, and signed off on them.
In July of last year, Holmes posed for another photo. It's not clear if he knew what this one would turn out to be for, but he claims he specifically prohibited the use of his likeness until he could see the finished product. In August, Holmes was fired from his job of 17 years, one of many casualties of Michael Eisner's restructuring (Eisner had purchased Topps in 2007.) In September, the "American History Relics" were released, featuring Holmes as John Henry.
"TOPPS never obtained the written authorization of Plaintiff for the use of his picture in the subject promotion nor did the Plaintiff provide his consent in any manner," says Holmes's lawsuit. "TOPPS knew, or should have known, that Plaintiff did not and would not consent to the use of his likeness, image, portrait, and/or picture to depict him as a former slave."
Holmes is seeking lost wages, royalties for the card, and a whopping $3,000,000 in punitive damages. The question will be whether he knew what he was posing for, and whether Topps still required his cooperation after firing him. We'll leave that to the American justice system, but we'll also note — as pointed out by a former employee — that "the only other black person on the floor" also sued Topps after being fired.


Thursday, February 23, 2012

My addictive itch has been unleashed and is out of control!!!

Well now.....let's just see what my itch has made me open in the last few days!

1. Case of Topps Supreme football
2. A jumbo box of 2012 Topps Baseball
3. A total of eight 2011 Topps baseball value boxes (which 4 of them had autographs------SO WRONG)
4. I bought a rack pack of 2011/12 UD Hockey and pulled a Ryan Nugent Hopkins Young guns rookie!
5. Bought 3 boxes of STARGATE UNIVERSE SEASON 1, 1 box of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SEASON 4, and a box of STAR TREK Quotable movie cards. All from BLOWOUTCARDS.COM
6. A box of 2011 BOWMAN BASEBALL DRAFT PICKS AND PROSPECTS.
7. A Jumbo box of 2011 BOWMAN BASEBALL.
8. A box of 2011 Topps USA Baseball set (7 auto's- very sweet)

I will post the results in my next posting on here. There is some colors and numbers that are just plain SICK in what I pulled. Oh YES......let's just say my Cam Newton hot streak has continued! MORE TO COME!!!

Monday, February 6, 2012

The NY GIANTS do it again!!!

MY BELOVED NY GIANTS HAVE PROVED THE DOUBTERS WRONG ONCE AGAIN!!!


THE CRITICS SAID THE PATRIOTS WILL WIN ANOTHER SUPER BOWL..........HAHA!

Victor Cruz said...................TIME TO SALSA DANCE


Then this guy had to do a little "tiptoe through the tulips"


In the end.........this was all that really mattered:


Thank You BIG BLUE!!!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Things are getting back to normal...........I think.

It has been a very rough couple of months emotionally for the Hertzog family. My Fiancee (future Mrs Kahuna) had lost a family member in the beginning of November due to long term illness. Then my mother had passed away unexpectedly on Nov. 15th. Then my Fiancee's Grandfather passed away on Dec. 30th from Pancreatic Cancer. I had not been through so much rough and raw emotions since I had lost my 2 uncles and Grandfather months apart in 1989. Things have appeared to calm down now and hopefully we can find some comfort and peace in our lives again. Start healing again.

My Mother......I miss her everyday. I keep thinking it's a dream. It's like I am going to walk in the front door of her old place and see her sitting in the chair waiting to tell me a new joke or tell me about how she was able to do a little bit more cooking in the kitchen. Perhaps my phone ringing is her calling to tell me she needs help getting back into her chair again as I was her lifeline for many situations that she got herself into like that......and yet.......the voice I hear...... is not of who I had hoped it would be. Yes, I can find peace in knowing that she is free of the disease and suffering and pain that she endured and that she is "home" and in the arms of the Angels. She is no longer bound to her chair and I am quite certain that when she looks at her feet she can see all 10 toes and not just 5 as she wiggles them in the tall dark crisp green Kentucky style grass. No cancer or diabetes or dialysis to hold her back. I am sure she can hear the laughter of children and the sweet sounds of the heavenly orchestras and not the monotonous continuous noise of "ringing" in her ears. I can even begin to imagine the 1960's hairstyle that she used to have like I saw in her school pictures which consisted of thick plentiful dark brown hair on her head. She's probably even now saying under her breath to me, " I still have more hair than you son " in her own sense of humorous way (my hair is thinning out and she used to say that I was catching up to her). My mother wore wigs to cover the bald patches because she tried to hide her illness and always made her self look good because she didn't want people to know just how much of a battle she was fighting with her health. My mother did so much for me.........so much. Thank you mother for my life. I love you Mom and I miss you dearly. One day we will meet again........and when we do.......you'll probably still have more hair than me!