My thought on gimmicks

I think that gimmicks are good. There. I said it. The Rudy Giuliani Sox card is great. It draws more attention to the hobby, and more people are interested in buying a pack of cards when they know they could get a cool card like that. I myself was drawn to the hobby after a 15 year hiatus because of the Alex Gordon cut-out card, and mistakenly purchased a 2005 Topps Updates and Highlights blaster box instead of the 2006 Series One. (I also got the box at Target instead of Wal-Mart). Anyway, I pulled a Brian Roberts jersey card and fell in love immediately with the hobby again. That would be the one card that would stay in my PC forever. Gimmicks drew me back into the hobby and I'm sure that there are many people just like me who start liking the hobby because they are allured by the possibility of pulling an "in-demand" card. The Rudy card is good for the hobby. Period.