I don't get why companies started to cut letters and numbers in half.

[Gaborik10]

I guess it makes for double the card output, but I'd much rather have a shot at a 1/1 card with an A, C, or whatever than get a 1/2 card with half of a letter. To me, a letterman is a letter, not a half, that would just be a patch card to me. Does this annoy others or would you rather have the piece seperated onto two cards?

 

[frankiefives]

I find it looks nicer when the 2 cards are put together to complete the letter than to see it on a single card but that's just my opinion

 

[Fritz]

Measure a C and measure a card. I'd bet that's why

 

[FrozenInferno]

I guess it makes for double the card output, but I'd much rather have a shot at a 1/1 card with an A, C, or whatever than get a 1/2 card with half of a letter. To me, a letterman is a letter, not a half, that would just be a patch card to me. Does this annoy others or would you rather have the piece seperated onto two cards?

Amen brother!

I'm in the "leave them intact" camp as well. To me, once you cut a nameplate letter or captains patch in two it's no longer a letter, it's just a patch. It loses it's unique appeal of being the complete letter from a players jersey and it's no different than seeing nameplate patches in Cup Limited Logos or whatever.

 

[Bossy22]

I like them cut, even better I love what ITG/Leaf did with Draft prospects where they have parts of letters cut up sideways as well or 2 letters together. Its the first time I have ever went for a nameplate!!!

 

[sedinfan]

Measure a C and measure a card. I'd bet that's why

Indeed... for example, hope Chillychow doesn't mind me borrowing from his amazing thread over in the Show n Tell section (go check it out if you haven't seen it, definitely drool-inducing!)...




There's just no way that "A" fits nicely on a single card, putting together the complete print run of 2 is really neat.

I can definitely see both sides... I love nameplates when you can read them, this effort by ITG was solid:

You basically have no room for any picture though, even with scrunched up text and very thin margins, ITG still had to crop the letters a bit and just barely squeezed them in.

Compare the above to UD's horrid attempts in their By The Letter cards... (and putting aside the fact that they couldn't be bothered to adjust the cardboard to not have extra scraps around the letter I's, or put an I in upside down, or used letters from two different jerseys on the second nameplate)... the cropping is just atrocious, the "S" is barely recognizable, both "E"'s are hacked so that it looks either like a right-side up or upside down "F", the "D" looks more like a "U"... only really the I's and N's work (ignoring the utter butchering of the execution on the I's though)...

Panini did marginally better in Prime...

Of course even when they do split things across two cards it's possible to do a sloppy job of it... Panini could have done a much better job of straightening the swatches here, and it's rather annoying having a gob of empty cardboard on the top right, would've been much nicer if they'd either kept presumably the shoulder seam in, or properly adjusted the cutout to frame the material better.

For me, I'll take anything for my PC - letters on single cards or split across two cards, but I just wish the manufacturers would take the care to do it right. Clearly ITG was able to for example crop the "I" in Sedin by adjusting the cutout narrower than all the other cards, I'm hoping in the final release of Prime that's about to release that their game-worn letter cards are properly done.

 

[mjanko3800]

All of my letters are pretty good looking and are just 1 card.....if you can do it that way and it loks good, imall for it....obviously the Captain C's won't fit, or older team letters....in that case I don't really mind, although. .....A LOT harder to complete and costs twice as much...just my opinion

 

[Frendo]

I can understand that many disliking to cutting up those letters or numbers in half, but all teams uses different fonts/sizes so not easy to have an perfect fit for everything on the cards especially when companies uses different designs on their cards like some with bigger windows while others gets smaller ones then.

 

[brian045]

This print run was clearly not as big as prime is, but they took the time to make the card look right and not leave any backing showing. Compare.

 

[gobuffalo2331]

I would much rather have the numbers and letters as one card than cut in half. It's understandable though when it's too big to fit onto one card.

 

[JoexBondo]

I would only do the letter in two cards if they were placed in the same box, allowing one collector to have the full letter. Otherwise it's useless. Not everyone wants to search the earth for the second half of a letter, but that's just my opinion.

 

[30ranfordfan]

It depends on the letter (or number).

If it will fit in card, then keep it whole. If it won't, cutting in half is no problem IMO. Better than the letters getting cut off trying to make single cards from them.

 

[Hama]

Captain's Cs or As are a standard 4" letter - based on the kits provided for the NHL - which could be up to 4 1/2" if it uses 3 layers. It's just not logistically possible to do it unless they cut the letter down and waste it - in which case the torches come out for not using the whole piece...

 

[S4Kh4r0v]

I gotta admit, the last time that Paul Kariya was in a By The Letter subset, I was disappointed to see the cards...



However, once I put them all together, I kinda enjoy the "puzzle" effect. I would probably have been bummed though if I didn't put the whole set together.



Or if I crop the cardboard out :

 

[GabbyGuy]

Personally....I like the whole Letter of a nameplate to be on the card.

ITG always put nameplate FULL Letters, but only did halves with the Captain's C, or alternate "A".

The only half letter I have....I have a half of Mikko Koivu's "C":

--Curt

 

[RGM81]

I would only do the letter in two cards if they were placed in the same box, allowing one collector to have the full letter. Otherwise it's useless. Not everyone wants to search the earth for the second half of a letter, but that's just my opinion.

It depends on the letter (or number).

If it will fit in card, then keep it whole. If it won't, cutting in half is no problem IMO. Better than the letters getting cut off trying to make single cards from them.

I will take both of your thoughts and combine them.

If they can do the full letter on a single card without it looking awful, do it.
If they cannot, and if it's a nameplate, make booklets for each letter. That way you get to have a full letter with a single pull AND still get to assemble a cool-looking chase set that will be consistent when done.

 

[Frendo]

I gotta admit, the last time that Paul Kariya was in a By The Letter subset, I was disappointed to see the cards...



However, once I put them all together, I kinda enjoy the "puzzle" effect. I would probably have been bummed though if I didn't put the whole set together.



Or if I crop the cardboard out :

Very nice card design indeed but the windows are too small, they could easily made those windows a lot bigger with no problem without disrupting the design then, there're al ot of spaces remaining on those borders....

 

[Gaborik10]

Upper Deck sucks at letterman because they think their border is more important than the card. Having that much of your card dedicated to the border when your sacrificing material looks terrible. As Brian said, they can be done right and look awesome when time is taken to do so, but a lot of time, it simply isn't.

 

[BillInDallas]

Like Frank, I like the look of having them broken into two cards. That, and I like the chase element. Speaking of which...