The person responsible for what must surely be an over saturation of the market is Chicagoan Juan "But But" Romagoza.
The AKA set was Juan's pet project for years, but never got off the ground. Only when Juan agreed to limit the set to 100 cards in its first year was it finally approved. The resulting AKA set proved to be one of OsChar's most sought-after base cards last year. All this with initially no chase cards. Only after early enthusiasm from hobby shops were refractors inserted into hobby boxes. These remain highly sought after. Collectors chased the orange refractor of The Watchtower (Pioneer Ollie Long) in the AKA series just as they did, if not more, on OsChar's Flagship series.
Romagoza had created a market. He had created value on relative and heretofore and probably still unknowns such as Lyonya Ritikov, aka Twinkletoes and Herkermer Homolka, aka Sesame Cake. The Cappaletto Guide places the base version of those cards at $1-$2 versus $.50-$1 for the same player's card in their flagship set.
Romagoza knew that K-Toy, among others, were already copying them. For the 2063 season, K-Toy released a massive set called "Alias." And K-Toy beat them to the market, too. It irked him to no end.
With his mind in a state, Juan drifted to his terrible nickname in grade school: "But But." He hadn't thought about it in decades, but being project lead on a set focused on nicknames tended to let his mind to think about his demeaning and defining one from elementary. While people thought the nickname referred to his posterior, it actually referred to his frequent protestations against some random unfairness or misunderstanding.
"But, but that's the Canadian spelling!"
"But, but we didn't get a chance to go outside!"
"But, but our regular teacher does it this way!"
Juan couldn't help but be amazed at these embarrassing reminisces and, in some small measure, be embarrassed all over again.
"But, but my dad told me to bat left handed."
"But, but the glove isn't worn in."
And always:
"But, but you said I could ... ."
What was it that he wanted his best friend Addison Rice to do?
"But, you said I could ... "
Or was it something that he had done that now wasn't acceptable? Had he really misunderstood?
He shook his head to get out of the past. Dig too deep and you might find skeletons.
He took a breath. What was he thinking about? Oh, yes: K-Toy.
K-Toy's Alias set promised something upwards of 500 cards. To get that many cards, they'd have to go down to the Charley Pegler League. That's single A. It seemed insane but also on brand for K-Toy. Nothing is niche to them. Here's the company that produced cards for Juan Orquiz, who had 1 hit for the Zombies last year. The fact that it was a 3-run HR made for a nice stat line in the back of the card.
Juan didn't like the idea of mixing career minor leaguers with major leaguers, but a quick scan on K-Toy's checklist confirmed it: K-Toy's Alias set did indeed include players in Single-A.
Juan clicked and saw that K-Toy produced a card for Barton Sharp, Chicago's 20th round pick in 2061. Barton Sharp's nickname is "Big Hoss." For single-A Huntsville, he pitched 52 innings to the tune of a 6.40 ERA and a 2.04 WHIP.
Romagoza was a collector and a die-hard Chicago Black Sox fan, but even he couldn't imagine chasing a card for reliever Barton Sharp. Still, looking at the card on auction on the Viz, he thoughts: "That's some mustache on the guy."
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After the first 8 sims, the Chicago Black Sox are 30-22, 2 games behind Nashville and Twin Cities. After 8 sims just two years ago they were 19-29, 11 games behind Omaha.