Completed insert set – 2012 Topps Heritage Then and Now

This is the third of the “standard” insert sets in 2012 Topps Heritage that I’ve completed.  After this, I’ve still got the “New Age Performers” insert set (1 more card), the Stick-Ons and the JFK variations (1 more card as well) to finish up.  Plus a few SPs still as well.

Info about the set:

Set description:  ”10 cards comparing statistical performances of a player from 1963 and a current star”.  The front shows the 2011 Major League leader in a specified category next to a player who was in the top 10 in the same category in 1963.  The reverse shows the MLB top-10 in that statistic for both years.  The players’ names are in a black box with yellow writing and a star saying “63 Then” and “Now 12″.

Set composition:  10 cards, 1:15 odds.

Hall of Famers:  8 players – every retired player in this set is a Hall-of-Famer, however, Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax are featured twice.

Koufax, Aaron, Yastrzemski, Marichal, Killebrew, Spahn, Mathews, Aparicio

How I put the set together:

4 cards from 2 hobby boxes

4 cards from trades

1 cards from Check Out My Cards

1 cards from Sportlots

Thoughts on the set:  Like a few others, this is one that returns each year for Heritage.  This set gets limited by the older players Topps signed to be part of the Heritage brand.  Still, Topps got almost every single leader from 1963 into this set.  In fact, they got all but two – they put Carl Yastrzemski on the average card instead of Tommy Davis.  Davis had the highest average in the majors, but Yaz was the AL batting champion.  And Warren Spahn is on the Shutout card instead of Koufax (whom they could have used as he was on two other cards).  Willie Mays would have been a cool option in the set, but he didn’t lead in any traditional stats in 1963.

Two things I don’t like here.  First, I hate when they don’t number sets – these are “lettered”.  Second, Topps used the same photo for the current players as the base card.  I wish they’d have either a) used a second photo, or b) copied both – meaning they’d use the photo from the older player’s 1963 Topps card as well.  I do like how putting the cards next to each other in the scan below creates an optical illusion as if the cards are slanted.

Card that completed my set: #TN-MV – Juan Marichal / Justin Verlander

I got the last card from Sportlots last month.

Highest book value: TN-KK – Koufax / Kershaw, TN-KV – Koufax / Verlander, TN-AK, Aaron / Kemp

Mickey Mantle isn’t in this set (and neither is Jeter from a current player standpoint), so all of the cards book for fairly similar amounts.

Best card (my opinion): #TN-MB – Eddie Mathews / Jose Bautista

The photos on this card are both very good.  The card with Aaron and Kemp is also really nice.  Kershaw and Kemp – Dodger Cy Youngs – is also cool.

Best Reds card: None in the set.  Kind of depressing they couldn’t get a league leader in either year.

Here’s the Statistic associated with each card and where the 1963 player ranked in the majors in that stat if they didn’t lead (and who actually did lead if they weren’t first):

• TN-AB – SB:  M. Bourn / L. Aparicio (he tied for the major league lead with Maury Wills)
• TN-AK – RBI:  M. Kemp / H. Aaron
• TN-KB – HR:  J. Bautista / H. Killebrew
• TN-KK – ERA:  C. Kershaw / S. Koufax
• TN-KV – K:  J. Verlander / S. Koufax
• TN-MB – BB: J. Bautista / E. Mathews
• TN-MS – IP:  J. Shields (Verlander was the league leader, Shields was 2nd – not sure why Topps passed over Verlander) / J. Marichal
• TN-MV – W:  J. Verlander / J. Marichal (tied with Koufax for the MLB lead)
• TN-SL – IP:  C. Lee / W. Spahn (2nd behind Koufax)
• TN-YC – SHO:  M. Cabrera / C. Yastrzemski (2nd behind Tommy Davis)

Heritage High Numbers – base cards

As mentioned yesterday, I went ahead and picked up the Topps Heritage High Numbers box.  It was a bit of a controversy on the blogosphere, mostly given the price point of 100 bucks.  Actually, it’s $99.95, which kind of sucks because you get free shipping with orders over $100 – so I ordered another item along with it.  I’ll cover that at a later date.

Anyways, it is clearly a money grab by Topps, and I do understand some of the frustration that collectors have – it’s hard enough to complete the Heritage set with the SP’s from cards 426-500, and throwing this on top probably makes people regret that they attempted it.  I think it may be a bad long-term move by Topps.  Heritage seems popular in set collector’s circles, and while they may get some short-term cash out of this move, they could run off collectors for next year’s set.  I wish that it had been announced earlier – I probably would have avoided Topps Mini if I knew this was coming out.  Topps got my money for both of their “online-only” products here, but I’m not sure I’ll fall for the same trick next year!

If the price point had been $50 – I think you’d see a lot less complaints, and even some people saying it was pretty cool to do a boxed set like what Topps Traded used to be – only for Heritage.  But there are some other things that they kind of screwed up with the product:

First – take a look at the box.  I was hoping this was just a promo photo, but they did in fact make the box in the green design of 2011 Heritage / 1962 Topps – not the yellow and red that matches 1963 Topps packaging.

Second, what the hell is the deal with the numbering?  The Topps Heritage set ends at 500.  This High Numbers set starts at 576 and goes to 675.

Both of these scream as simply not paying attention to detail by Topps.  The first one is clearly the case, whereas I’ve read the second one may be some surprise in the future with 75 filler cards.  Who knows – since they messed up the first one, you’ve got to think the numbering may just be a goof as well.  For some products like prospect-driven Bowman, stuff like this probably doesn’t matter.  For a product like Heritage – that plays on the history Topps has and people’s connection to those designs and products – it most certainly does matter!  These two things frankly bug me more than the price.  I love Heritage, and I particularly like the 1963 design.  I’m a little hesitant to pay 100 bucks, but I’m definitely willing.  I just wish when I paid that Benjamin, Topps put the attention to detail deserved by that price.

OK, all that said, it is a pretty neat buy during the off-season of baseball card collecting.  Here’s the base cards from set.  They have a bunch of players that you’d think they would from the Topps set – guys with new uniforms or rookies.

They also have some players who just weren’t in the base set – guys who had surprisingly good performances in 2012 that now get put into Heritage.  This happens when you do things like pitch a perfect game, hit a bunch of homers, come back from Tommy John surgery, step up as a solid starting catcher for a pennant winner … or … take performance enhancing drugs.

There are also a few “New England leftovers” after the fire sale trade that Boston had last season.  It certainly will be a different Red Sox team next year – Cody Ross is the only veteran in the group below, and he’s a free agent.

On the flip side, there are no photo-shopped cards of the Miami fire sale that happened a few days ago

There are 4 guys in the set who have rookie cards in this set – but the back of their card has a full set of Japanese league stats!

And you have your more traditional rookies – 4 of the 6 guys who were finalists for the Rookie of the Year award (Mike Trout and Todd Frazier were both in the 2012 regular set).  Of course the Harper is the big card from this set – and frankly he is probably the reason Topps created this set.  On a side note, I really thought Miley should have been the NL ROY.

There are a few guys who I had to wonder – could this be their last card?

Then you have some guys that would have been in your typical traded set – guys who switched teams in the 2011/2012 offseason via free agency or a trade.  This is a neat group of players – they all had a significant impact by keeping their new teams as playoff contenders.

And there were quite a few guys who were traded mid-season.  Ichiro is the most notable, though Scutaro obviously had the biggest impact on the end result of the baseball season.  Like Cody Ross two years ago – he was a mid-season acquisition whose postseason heroics led the Giants to the title.

One last thing – I did a little research, there are only 8 guys who have cards in both the Heritage regular set and the high numbers set – all because of changing teams.  That’s fewer than I would have guessed – so Topps did get a bunch of guys into the set who otherwise wouldn’t have been by doing this high numbers thing.

• Ross
• Ichiro
• Pierre
• Damon
• Edwin Jackson
• Chris Iannetta
• Abreu
• Scutaro

Heritage High Numbers – Pettitte Autograph

So I went ahead and picked up the Topps Heritage High Numbers box.  I know it’s expensive at 100 bucks, and I was a bit hesitant to purchase it – but I haven’t really spent all that much on cards in the last few months, so I’ve got room in the budget for it.

The main way Topps tried to justify the price tag was including an autograph in the box.  For today’s post, that’s all I had time to post about – I got an Andy Pettitte (regular blue version).  A pretty nice name – I’d rather have Bryce Harper to pay for the set (and then some), but I’d sure rather have this than Edinson Volquez.  I’ve put this card up on eBay to recoup some of the cost of the box.

Completed insert set – 2012 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks

This is one of the “standard” insert sets in 2012 Topps Heritage, though this one has (for the most part) nothing to do with baseball – it honors the 1963 “year in the world”.  They do this every year with Heritage.

Info about the set:

Set description:  ”10 world news moments from 1963.”

The set has a white border with a pennant in the top left saying “News Flashbacks ’63″.  The person featured is in the top right, and there is a green circle in the bottom with wording describing the event depicted.

Set composition: 10 cards, 1:12 odds.

Hall of Famers: There aren’t any baseball players in this year’s version, after Jackie Robinson was included in last year’s.

How I put the set together:

4 cards from the 2 hobby boxes I bought

1 card from a retail blister (the ones with 3 packs and 3 black parallels)

1 cards from Sportlots

4 cards from trades

Thoughts on the set: I think they’ve done this each year for Heritage – and I think it’s a good idea.  The point of Heritage is to honor a past Topps set – and having an insert set that also shows what happened in the world is great!

The things I’d change – they are the same I said when I finished off last year’s set.  First, I’d number the cards in chronological order – they don’t even “number” them this year, they alphabetized them.  I hate that.

Also, there are some other things that could have gone in this set – though I think they did a pretty good job with the content.  Things Topps could have considered:

• Iron Man debuts in Marvel Comics Tales of Suspense.  Marvel also released its first ever X-Men comic.
• The Beatles release their first album Please Please Me
• Lawrence of Arabia wins Oscar for Best Picture
• Buddy Rogers wins the first WWF championship belt after the WWWF splits from NWA
• Medgar Evers is murdered in Jackson, Mississippi by Byron De La Beckwith – who wouldn’t be convicted for another 30 years
• ZIP Codes are introduced in the United States
• The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens its doors in Canton, OH
• I left My Heart in San Francisco by Tony Bennett was song of the Year

Aside from the Beatles, and maybe Iron Man (both of which probably pose rights issues for Topps), I don’t even know if I’d really change anything from what they did include – the above are just ideas.  The zip code thing is actually featured as a cartoon on the back of each card.

Card that completed my set: #NF4 – Valentina Tereshkova

This was one of two cards in a trade from Reader Mike just before I moved to Chicago in early September.  I waited to open the package until early October; the month delay is standard for me right now.

Highest book value: #NF-JK, NF-JKE – John F. Kennedy

The 2 cards of the US President carry a little more weight than the rest of the set.

Best card (my opinion): #NF-A – Alcatraz

I love the mystique of Alcatraz – it’s intrigued me ever since Sean Connery did “the Rock” with Nick Cage.  I still wish they had continued the show from last year.

As I did last year – I thought it would be fun to take a look at each of these cards and what they represent.

NF-A – RFK order closure of crumbling Alcatraz: Alcatraz, in need of millions of restoration dollars to remain a viable prison, was ordered closed by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1963.  On March 21, the last convicts were removed from “The Rock”, which, for three decades, had housed some of the country’s most notorious offenders.

NF-JK – The end of “Camelot”:  America wept as one on the afternoon of November 11, 1963, when President Kennedy was shot and killed during a motorcade in Dallas.  With wife Jacqueline by his side in a roofless limo, the popular 46 year-old died soon after being struck by two bullets from the high-powered rifle of Lee Harvey Oswald.

NF-JKE – “Berliner” JFK pledges German freedom:  Some 120,000 Germans witnessed a landmark speech by President John F. Kennedy on June 26, 1963.  With the words “ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”), Kennedy pledged United States solidarity with the citizens of West Germany, and hailed their nation as a symbol of freedom during the Cold War.

NF-MK – MLK’s “Dream” awakens a nation: From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963, Dr. King delivered some of the most compelling and influential words in U.S. history, when he told the world “I have a dream today.”  The 17-minute call for equality among races helped animate the Civil Rights movement.

NF-MKI – MLK’s Letter “The Negro is Your Brother”: A letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in August of 1963 “The Negro is Your Brother” (also known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”) implored Americans to wait no longer for an end to discrimination.  ”This ‘wait’”, he wrote while incarcerated for demonstrating, “has almost always meant ‘never’”.

NF-PP – Conclave convoked: Paul to lead Church:  Five years after becoming a cardinal, Giovanni Montini of Italy was chosen to succeed John XXIII in leading the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Paul VI on June 21, 1963.  His election during the ’63 conclave was not a surprise, as he Montini was long-seen as a leader in ministering, teaching and administering.

NF-PS – Beloved landmark bites the dust:  Considered an architectural masterpiece when it was built 53 years earlier, New York City’s Penn Station was demolished amid considerable protest, beginning in October 1963.  The nine-acre station (named for the Pennsylvania Railroad) was leveled, in part, to make room for Madison Square Garden.

NF-UA – Feds vs. Gov as U. of Alabama integrated:  On May 16, 1963, a federal district court ordered the U. of Alabama to admit African-American students Vivien Malone and James Hood.  Governor George Wallace blocked their admission by standing in the front of the doorway on June 11, but ultimately lost his battle to keep the school a whites-only institution.

NF-UC – Cuba closed to American Travel:  After embargoing trade with Cuba in 1961 and ’62 during a nuclear arms crisis, the U.S. went a giant step further on February 8, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy prohibited American citizens from traveling to the island country.  JFK also made commercial and financial transactions illegal.

NF-VT – Pioneering Cosmonaut First Woman in Space:  Tereshkova, the daughter of a Russian tractor driver, turned her early parachuting experience into a role in her country’s cosmonaut program.  On June 16, 1963, she became the first woman in space.  Aboard Vostok 6, Valentina orbited Earth 48 times on a 70-hour mission – a journey that made her a Soviet hero.

Completed insert set – 2012 Topps Heritage Baseball Flashbacks

This is my first completed insert set in 2012 Topps Heritage.  This is one of two “flashback” insert sets – this one is the “Baseball Flashbacks”, honoring baseball news from 1963.

Info about the set:

Set description:  “10 highlights from the 1963 season.”  As always with the Heritage inserts, these cards have a loose connection to the relevant year’s Topps base design (1963 in this case).  The front shows a player inside a white border with a “Baseball Flashbacks” pennant in the top left.  The player name and team is in the top right, while the specific headline for the 1963 accomplishment is included in a green circle in the bottom right of the card.  The back describes the accomplishment in more detail.

Set composition:  10 cards, 1:12 odds.

Hall of Famers: 9.  Al Kaline, Ernie Banks, Early Wynn, Hank Aaron, Juan Marichal, Stan Musial, Koufax, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey.  Every player in the set is a Hall of Famer, but Sandy Koufax has 2 cards.

How I put the set together:

4 cards from the two hobby boxes I bought

2 cards from either Check Out My Cards

4 cards from trades

Thoughts on the set:  This is a set that Topps does every year, and I like the continuity, particularly for this product.  I actually think this year’s set has a few more interesting accomplishments than the previous set – maybe 1963 was a better year in baseball!

Here are some of the things I think they missed, or at least should have considered, in order of how strongly I think they should have made it into the set.  The first three are particularly glaring oversights.

• The Polo Grounds shut down in 1963.  The Mets played the final regular season game there September 18th, and there was a Hispanic All-Star game
• The 3 Alou brothers batted consecutively in a game on September 10th, and on September 15th, they all played in the same outfield
• Mickey Mantle hit what may have been the longest homer of his career on May 22, 1963 against Bill Fischer of the KC Athletics.  He barely missed becoming the only player to hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium.  It struck the top of the facade in right field and careened back to the outfield.
• Pete Rose made his MLB debut and finished as the The Houston’s Colt 45′s had their first season as a franchise (Topps wouldn’t be allowed to include this for obvious reasons)
• Don Nottebart threw a no-hitter for the Houston Colt .45′s in their second year of existence
• Willie Mays and Duke Snider both hit their 400th home run

Card that completed my set: #BF-WMC – Willie McCovey

I got this last card from a trade with Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse.  This card honors McCovey’s 100th home run, as he became one of the youngest sluggers to reach that mark.

Highest book value: #BF-SKO – Sandy Koufax, BF-SK – Sandy Koufax, BF-HA – Hank Aaron, BF-WM – Willie Mays

Since there is no Mickey Mantle card in this set, these guys are all valued equally by Beckett.

Best card (my opinion): #BF-SKO

I’ve got to go for the best milestone in this group, and this card honors the record-setting performance that Koufax had in game 1 of the World Series.  He struck out 15 Yankee hitters, besting the previous Series record held by Carl Erskine.

 

 

 

2012 Topps Heritage Blister Pack

I was at Target about a week ago – fully intending not to buy any baseball cards, but I saw something that I didn’t realize existed.  Not that it’s anything earth shattering – but I didn’t think Topps made these blister packs for 2012 Heritage like they did last year.  They cost $8.99, containing 3 retail packs of Topps Heritage and a 3-card pack of black parallels.  I bought one to see what the black parallels look like.

I got 2 inserts I needed and 1 base card (but no SP’s unfortunately).

2012 Heritage & 1963 Topps – 1990 Reds and Big Red Machine

There was one Big Red Machine member in the players in the 1963 Topps set – Pete Rose was the first of any of the BRM players.  This wasn’t the first, though – Manager Sparky Anderson had earlier cards from when he was a player.

Because of this card, 2012 Topps Heritage is kind of unique in a way that I’m honestly wondering is an oversight – but figure it just can’t be.  How so you ask?  Well, it’s because of the 50th anniversary buy back program Topps has for all of its cards.  For the first time since 1989 Topps, a Pete Rose card was included in a baseball card product licensed by MLB.

This is unquestionably the most notable card from this set.  The buyback card above was on eBay at the time of me writing this with a BIN of $1,999.  I’m surprised I hadn’t read more about it earlier.  It’s kind of a big deal on a couple levels – including the fact that they put a stamp on a Pete Rose rookie…

There is another Big Red Machine member in the 2012 Heritage product.  That would be Joe Morgan, who has a nickel “63 Mint” card denoting his rookie year.

There is also one player from the 1990 team.  Eric Davis was in the Mint set last year, and Paul O’Neill is in this year’s set.  He got a penny card because he was born in 1963 (and because Topps paid him money for the rights to use his likeness ).

2012 Topps Heritage Relics and Autographs

The 2012 version of Heritage is full of relics and autos of different variety.  Below is a brief description of each of the possible pulls.  Note – I included the JFK Special relics in the “variations” post I did earlier.

’63 Mint Coins – 20 cards (1:288 – Hobby only)

These cards have a coin embedded into them – note the coin is covered by a plastic seal on both sides.  The coins include:

• Penny – 2 players born in 1963
• Nickel – 2 players whose rookie year was 1963
• Dime – 2 events showcased in the 1963 News Flashbacks insert set
• Quarter – 14 players with significant achievements in 1963
• There were no Half-Dollar Hall of Fame inductees in 1963 (Eppa Rixey, Sam Rice, John Clarkson, Elmer Flick were inducted, but didn’t get cards)

I’ve been stalking this Joe Morgan on eBay, but to no avail.  There’s also a Paul O’Neill penny (birth year) on there as well.  Funny, both guys are shown in their “other” uniforms.

Clubhouse Collection – 4 levels

Clubhouse Collection – 71 cards (1:29)

This is the most common relic – you’ll basically get one of these per hobby box, unless you get one of the better pulls.  These cards have either a jersey swatch or a bat square of a current player.  I pulled Madison Bumgarner from my first box, but am shopping around for cards of Aroldis Chapman, Brandon Phillips, and Jay Bruce relics.

Clubhouse Collection Dual – 5 cards (1:9,280; #/63)

After that, the pulls are much more difficult.  This set pairs a current player with a star from 1963, with a jersey swatch from both players.   No Reds here this year – I grabbed a scan of a Posey / Mays to show here.  The older player almost always has a bat from what I’ve seen.

Clubhouse Collection Autograph – 11 cards (1:11,850; #/25)

These cards are even rarer.  There are 5 cards of current players, and 6 cards of 1963 players.  The cards are numbered to 25, and with an on-card autograph in addition to the relic.  From the Reds, Frank Robinson had a card in this set, too – but it’s inserted as a redemption.

Clubhouse Collection Dual Autograph – 6 cards (1:14,833; #/5 or #/10 – Hobby only)

These cards have a current player with a player from ’63 on the same team.  Most of these actually weren’t packed out – I’ve seen the Holliday and Gibson shown below as well as a cards of Sandoval/Cepeda and Castro/Banks.  There is a Robinson/Bruce, but it’s also been inserted as a redemption.

Flashback – 3 levels

Flashback Stadium Relic – 12 cards (1:1,459)

These single player cards all come with 1963 players with relics inserted.  Most of the guys featured have cards in the Baseball Flashbacks insert.  These aren’t jerseys or bats that the players – they are “stadium relics”.  Mostly, I think that means they are cut-ups of the seats from the stadium.  That’s pretty cool considering these tend to be old stadiums.  The card below is the Yaz that I pulled in my 2nd box – quite a good hit!

They also had autograph and autograph relic versions.

Flashback Autograph – 5 cards (1:23,480; #/25)

Flashback Autograph Stadium Relic – 5 cards (1:23,480; #/25)

Real One Autographs – 3 levels

Real One Autograph – 51 cards (1:289 – blue ink)

There are quite a few more of these this year than last year, when there were 37 autos.  Koufax, Aaron and Musial also signed for this set – those 3 are back from last year.  The biggest addition here is Willie Mays, but his card was unfortunately only packed in as a redemption.  This set is mostly older players whose 1963 cards are reprinted.  There are 2 Reds – 3rd baseman Eddie Kasko and reliever Jim Brosnan.  The one I like the most, though, is the card of Eli Grba.  As I noted in the variations post – this card actually pictures Ryne Duren on the main photo, not Grba.  But Topps got Grba to sign a reprint of the card!  Can’t you just picture him saying “That’s not me?  Wait – that is me in the corner.  OK, I’ll sign it”:

There are also about 6 or 7 current players who signed a “Certified Autograph Issue” of their base card.  Clayton Kershaw and Adrian Gonzalez are the most notable.  I found Jesus Montero’s card particularly interesting – he signed a card picturing him as a Yankee, while his base Heritage cards is photo shopped to show him as a Mariner (see the Red signature version below).

Real One Autograph Special Edition – 51 cards (1:738; #/63 or #/10)

Each of the Real One auto’s has a Red parallel numbered to 63 – except for the Koufax, Musial and Aaron red autos, which are numbered to 10.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mays is out of 10 as well, given that those are kind of a “Big 4″ as far as living legends go in the hobby.  I know first hand that another Hall of Famer signed 63 of these bad boys in Red!  Because I pulled a Juan Marichal in a retail pack, no less!

Real One Dual Autograph – 9 cards (1:5,215; #/25 – Hobby only)

These cards are designed to play off the Rookie Stars design with the floating heads.  No Reds in this set, but there are some pretty cool combinations here.

Just imagine if the MLB ban didn’t keep Topps from working with Pete Rose.  A Reds 2B combo (Rose / Phillips) card like this would be incredible.

Other Autographs

1963 Cut signatures – 10 cards (1:250,000; #/1)

Finally – the rarest pull out there.  There are 10 cut signatures from the set #’d to 1/1.  I saw one of these on eBay thus far.  Ralph Houk’s cut auto sold for $200.  Casey Stengel and Mickey Mantle are headliners here.

2012 Topps Heritage insert sets

Happy Gypsy Queen release day for everyone!  I’ve got two boxes en route that should get here tomorrow (or possibly today) – so the urge to bust those and then post about them will certainly be high.  But, I’m going to stick to my plan to finish off these Heritage posts first!  Three more card posts, and then I’ve got my usual 3 posts to cover the 1963 season.

Aside from parallels, variations, stickers, and Relics/Autos, Topps included 4 “traditional” insert sets into 2011 Heritage.  These are the same sets they had in previous years, and are included below with the write-up from the Topps sell sheet.  Odds below are for hobby packs – you’d get about 6 or 7 of these per hobby box.

One thing I don’t like about the insert cards this year – they are “lettered” (“NA-JB” for Josh Beckett instead of “NA-1″).  This is really annoying for a set collector like me.

New Age Performers (15 cards, 1:15)

“15 stars of today who are setting the new standard”.  These cards show a current player on the front with a red kind of colored floodlight background.  The reverse shows his 2011 statistics and compares his season to the 1963 campaign of a former superstar (1962 would have seemed to make more sense).

Then and Now (10 cards, 1:15)

“Comparing the statistical performances of a player from 1963 and a current star”.  Again, I think they should have done 1962, but the front of this card shows a player from 2011 who was the leader in a specified category next to a player who was in the top 10 in the same category in 1963.  The reverse shows the MLB top-10 in that statistic for both years.

Baseball Flashbacks (10 cards, 1:12)

“Highlights from the 1963 season”.  The front shows a player from 1962 and headlines an accomplishment the player made in 1963.  The back describes the accomplishment in more detail.

News Flashbacks (10 cards, 1:12)

“10 world news moments from 1963″.  They moved away from including baseball moments in the world moments for this set – a good move in my opinion.  JFK and MLK represent 4 of the 10 cards.  US vs. Cuba and the integration of the University of Alabama were related stories as well.  The closing of Alcatraz, the convocation of Pope Paul VI, the demolition of Penn Station and the first female astronaut were the other 4 stories represented.

2012 Heritage & 1963 Topps parallel sets

Unlike with the 1962 set, which had a parallel Topps Venezuelan set, there was no parallel in 1963.

However, Topps did again issue a box-toppers of cards that could be considered 1963 Topps parallels into 2012 Topps Heritage.  Topps bought original 1963 cards back from the market and stamped them as “50th anniversary” buy backs.  I always found this interesting – I know 2011 is the 50th set if you’re counting 1962 as the first set.  But that doesn’t make it the 50th anniversary – this always confuses me.  Not a big deal by any means, though.  Anyways, these cards came in “penny” 1-card packs inserted in every other hobby box (with the ad panel coming as the other potential box-topper).  Here’s the one I got in my first Heritage box.

The 2012 Topps Heritage set has a whole lot more of what we’re used to as far as parallel sets go.  In addition to all the variations I posted earlier – there are quite a few of the standard parallel cards.  There are 3 sets of Chrome parallels, and 2 25-card partial parallels that you could probably consider “variations”.  But they seem more like partial parallels to me, and the variations post I did a few days ago was long enough already!  In fact, all 5 of these sets are partial parallels – either 100 cards or 25 cards.  Odds below are for hobby packs, except for the Bordered parallels, which only come from retail packs.

Chrome – 100 cards (1:11; #/1963)

Chrome Refractor – 100 cards (1:37; #/563)

The Hanley below is a refractor – the other two are regular chrome cards.  The standard chrome cards are much more

Black Border Chrome Refractor – 100 cards (1:329; #/63)

Last year, Topps also inserted 100 additional cards paralleling the Heritage set into the Topps Chrome baseball card product.  I assume they will do this again this year.

Target Red Border – 25 cards (1:8; Target retail only)

Wal-Mart Blue Border – 25 cards (1:8; Wal-Mart retail only)

It’s worth noting – the Wal-Mart Blues and Target Reds are 2 completely different groupings of 25 cards.