Topps Archives comparison #4 – comparing Topps 3-D

Archives 3-D – 15 cards (1:8)

My second to last insert comparison for Topps Lineage was my favorite of the standard insert sets in last year’s Topps Lineage product - the Topps 3-D set.  The 1968 3-D test set consisted of about 12 cards, and is an extremely rare find.  The current year set has 15 cards, but unlike the 2011 Lineage set, there are some retired players to go with a few current players.

One of those retired players was in the original 1968 test set, so I do have a comparison here.  I don’t have the Archives card yet, so I had to grab it from the internet, but the great Roberto Clemente was the most notable player in the test set.  He’s one of 2 Hall of Famers featured in the ’68 3D test set.

I don’t think you can go wrong with either of these photos!

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The other Hall-of-Famer in the 1968 set is Big Red Machine RBI-man Tony Perez.  This was early in Tony’s career – the photo had to have come in 1967, which was his first year playing every day for the Reds.  He did make the All-Star team that year and in 1968, so he was certainly a player on the rise.  There’s an excellent comparison here, which was one I could do last year as well.  The Reds currently have a big RBI-man at first base who is in the early stages of his career.  But Votto may be showing even more promise than the young Perez was!  He’s one of the best players in baseball and already has one National League MVP award; he’s an apt comparison here.

Boog Powell won an MVP for the 1970 World Champion Orioles.  He had his 3 best seasons (1966, 1969 and 1970) in the 4 pennant-winning seasons his Orioles had (the other being their loss to Clemente’s Pirates in 1971).  Similar to Perez, who never led the league in a statistical category, Powell had only one “black number” – he led the AL in slugging in 1964.  He hit 339 homers and knocked in nearly 1200 runners, and is one of the great Orioles in history.  Today, you can get a pretty good barbecue sandwich from “Boog’s BBQ” on Eutaw Street inside Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

I compared him to Ryan Howard last year, this year I’ll compare him to Miguel Cabrera, who was a slugging first-baseman with a few MVP caliber seasons – though he’s since moved to 3rd base with the addition of Prince Fielder.

The last group I’ll show are two Yankee pitchers.  Stottlemyre was about to have the 2nd of his 3 career 20-win seasons.  CC Sabathia has had one 20-win season for the Bronx Bombers, and he seems on his way to a potential second one this year.

Archives – Another look back at 1968 Topps 3D

This “look-back” is actually a rehash of a test set that I did last year as part of Topps Lineage – which I’m reposting because Topps apparently liked the response to their 3-D cards so much in 2011 that they did them again in 2012.  This was one of my favorites last year, and is so again this year.

Topps 3-D was a 12-card test set issued in 1968.  Like last year, I have to direct anyone with more detailed interest in these cards to the “Topps Archives” blog – there is a ton of interesting info that really does more justice to these sets than I do below.  In short, these cards were produced by a company named Visual Panographics, which later produced the Kellogg’s sets of the 1970′s.  I’m not positive, but they may have then become or started the company Optigraphics, who released the Sportflics cards of the mid-late 1980′s.  They eventually created the Score and Pinnacle products under the name Pinnacle Brands.

• Set Design: The cards measure 2-1/4″ x 3-1/2″ - just a little bit smaller than standard size – with rounded corners.  The cards were printed using a technique called lenticular printing that creates a 3D / movement type effect with the player’s interaction with the background.  The player name is in colorful block letters at the top, above a circle containing the player’s position and team.  Most cards come with blank backs.
• Packs: Topps issued the set in 2-card test packs (5¢) that came 12 to a box.  Each pack came with an easel that could be folded up to display the cards.  The picture below is from an auction last year – this may be the only known box of these remaining.
• Hall of Fame: There are 2 Hall of Famers in this set – Roberto Clemente and Tony Perez. (See below for the Brooks Robinson proof)
• Last Active player: Perez played his last game on October 5, 1986 – some 18 years after this test set was issued.
• Variations: Some cards come with a stamp on the back in either Red or Black.  The stamp says: “This is an experimental XOGRAPH card produced as a limited edition. Not for public circulation or distribution. Not for resale. To be returned to: Visual Panographics, Inc. 488 Madison Avenue New York, New York.”  There are also some small variations in the pictures used on the front.

The box has the Topps logo with an ad for “3-D Baseball Picture Cards”.  Next to that is a picture of one of the cards and the 5 cent pack price – and apparently these came with gum.  The box advertises that the cards are ”Real 3-D without glasses”.

Promo cards

• A proof card of Brooks Robinson has been found that is similar in design to the 1967 set.  The only wording is “Orioles” at the top of the card.
• There have also been 3 unissued cards turn up in uncut sheets with the 1968 design – these are Rick Monday, John O’Donoghue and Tommy Davis.
• There have also been some findings of square cornered proofs as well

Redeeming Topps Lineage #7 – comparing Topps 3-D

Topps 3-D – 25 cards (1:12)

Topps 3-D Lineagraph – 25 cards (Black - 1:446, #/99; Red – 1:30,873, #/1)

My 2nd to last comparison for Topps Lineage is my favorite of the standard insert sets in this product - the Topps 3-D set.  The 1968 3-D test set consisted of about 12 cards, and is an extremely rare find.  The current year set has 25 cards, all of whom are current players.  Of note – the two notable players from the ’68 set that I passed on below are Mel Stottlemyre and Rusty Staub. 

One thing Topps did that was a kind of neat throwback – the Lineagraph versions have the phrase: “This is an experimental LINEAGRAPH not intended to for release.  To be Returned to: The Topps Company 1 Whitehall St. New York, NY 10004″.  This is a throwback to some of the “proofs” of these cards that had this written on the back, with a different address and the term “XOGRAPH”.  Also, the player name and position are not included on the front of the Lineagraph cards.

I’ll try to primarily use cards that I’ve pulled from the Lineage product and am thus able to scan myself.  The most notable card in the 1968 set is that of Roberto Clemente, whose career was tragically cut short due to a plane crash en route to his Puerto Rico after the 1972 season.  The 2011 Lineage set has a different MVP-caliber outfielder whose career will be shorter than it should have been – this one on the front-end.  It’s good to see that Hamilton has come back, and it’s even better to see him start to turn his game back up a notch the last few weeks after an injury-plagued first half of 2011.

The other Hall-of-Famer in the 1968 set is Big Red Machine RBI-man Tony Perez.  This was pretty early in Tony’s career – 1967 had been his first year playing every day for the Reds.  He did make the All-Star team that year and in 1968, so he was certainly a player on the rise.  I don’t have it yet, so this is an ebay-swiped scan of the current big RBI-man at first base for the Reds in the early stages of his career.  That would, of course, be reigning NL MVP Joey Votto.

 

Boog Powell won an MVP for the 1970 World Champion Orioles.  He had his 3 best seasons (1966, 1969 and 1970) in the 4 pennant-winning seasons his Orioles had (the other being their loss to Clemente’s Pirates in 1971).  Similar to Perez, who never led the league in a statistical category, Powell had only one “black number” – he led the AL in slugging in 1964.  He hit 339 homers and knocked in nearly 1200 runners, and is one of the great Orioles in history.  Today, you can get a pretty good barbecue sandwich from “Boog’s BBQ” on Eutaw Street inside Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  Ryan Howard is a slugging first-baseman with an MVP award on his resume as well, and most importantly for this comparison – he can be seen all over your TV for his Subway commercials.

The last player I’ll cover is one of the most influential players in history.  Following in the footsteps of Monte Ward from the 1880′s, Flood is one of the most pivotal athletes in the battle between players and owners.  Flood was an excellent player who put together 7 seasons with over 170 hits and helped St. Louis to 3 pennants and 2 World Series titles.  But his fame came from challenging the reserve clause after he was traded from the Cardinals to Philadelphia.  He sat out a year and sued MLB, with the case eventually ending in the Supreme Court.  He didn’t win, but his case signaled the beginning of the end of the reserve clause and was one factor in the creation of free agency in Major League Baseball.  I’ll show him next to Mark Teixeira, who has done fairly well for himself with this Free Agency thing.

2011 Lineage & related sets – Big Red Machine

There are plenty of Reds in the 2011 Topps Lineage product, and 3 of them are Big Red Machine players – Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.  In total, they had 5 base cards – as Morgan and Bench both were included in the All-Star Rookie subset.

This means there are 15 regular parallel inserts – 1 each for 1975 Topps mini, Platinum Diamond and Diamond Anniversary.  This also means there are 25 “1 of 1″ parallels – a canary parallel for each and 4 colors of printing plates.

Bench was included in the cloth stickers insert set, and he also has a 1975 mini relic card – which means there’s a canary version of that out there numbered out of ten.  He also has a jumbo relic #’d out of 25, which Chris from Nachos Grande was fortunate enough to pull.  Perez also has a card and a canary version in the ’75 mini relic set.

Morgan was included in the Autograph reprint set.  It’s inserted as a redemption, and like the others, should have a canary version, though I’ve only seen the regular redemption up on eBay.

So, all told – if you wanted to collect every single Big Red Machine card I mentioned above, you’d have 52 cards to find.  If you didn’t want the 1/1′s – that number would be 27, and if you didn’t want any parallel versions of cards, you’d have 9 (I’m not counting the relics of the cloth sticker as parallels, though you could make the argument they are).  Me?  I’m collecting the complete set, the full ’75 mini set, and the cloth stickers set - so I’ll end up with all 11 of those cards.  Specifically, I’ll collect the other 10 non-numbered parallels of the BRM guys, both the Perez and Bench ’75 mini relics, and I’ll try to find the Morgan auto for a decent price.  I hope he’s pictured as a Red!  The Bench jumbo relic is probably a little out of my price range.

There are also some Big Red Machine guys in the sets that Topps Lineage pays tribute to.  There two 1964 sets (Giants, Stand-ups) are too early, and the 1980′s Topps Rookies sets are too late, though a BRM-er’s son – Griffey Jr. – is included.  And the

Topps Venezuelan

1960 Topps Venezuelan – #34 – Sparky Anderson

1964 set - #125 – Pete Rose,

1966 set – #30 – Rose, #72 – Perez, #195 – Morgan

1967 set** – #89 – Dave Concepcion**, #270 – Rose, #308 – Morgan, #327 – Perez

1968 set – #130 – Perez, #144 – Morgan, #230 – Rose, #247 – Bench, #364 – Morgan AS

* – I didn’t discuss the 1967 Topps Venezuelan set in my earlier post on the history of that set, as it wasn’t a parallel of the base set.  The first 138 cards feature players from the Venezuelan Winter League, including Concepcion – whose rookie card wouldn’t come for 4 years after this one.  Cards #’d 139-188 are retired all-stars, while the rest of the 338-card set are cards with the same photo as the regular Topps set.  The card backs just have write-ups in Spanish – no statistics.  I tried to find a picture of the Concepcion card, but I couldn’t dig anything up.  I decided to throw in a picture of the retired players – which includes card #175, Johnny Vander Meer.  In addition to being the only pitcher to throw consecutive no-hitters, Vander Meer also was part of the 1940 World Series Champions.  He’s the card on the far left in the 2nd row below.

Topps 3-D

Tony Perez was included in the 1968 test set.  A gem 98/100 version graded by SGC sold for almost $4,000 last year.

Topps Cloth Stickers

Dave Concepcion had a card printed in the 1972 test set.  The photo below shows his card.  Davey is probably the most recognizable name after the 4 Hall-of-Famers, also shown below.

1975 Topps Mini

#532 – Anderson (MG), #260 – Bench, #560 – Perez, #180 – Morgan, #320 – Rose, #17 – Concepcion, #284 – Ken Griffey, #41 – Cesar Geronimo, #87 – George Foster

#208 – Powell/Bench (’70 MVP), #210 – Allen/Bench (’72 MVP), #211 – R.Jackson/Rose (’73 MVP), #260 – Bench, #308 – Bench/Burroughs (Leaders)

As the ’75 Topps mini set is a full parallel of the regular set, and this set was in the middle of the peak of the Big Red Machine, this set has a boat load of Big Red Machine cards.  Each of the 8 players and manager Sparky Anderson are included in this set.

Up tomorrow – I’ll look at the one player from the Reds most recent World Championship included in this set.

A look back at 1968 Topps 3D

This is the last “look-back” for an older card set which has been re-created as part of the Topps Lineage product.  I’m skipping over any regular Topps sets as Lineage does have autographed reprints of older flagship Topps set cards and 1952-style cards of current players.  But that’s not really in line with the other inserts, which are of the oddball variety.  My last one is my second favorite of these oddballs – behind the 75 minis - Topps 3-D.

This was a 12-card test set issued in 1968.  Again, I have to direct anyone with more detailed interest in these cards to the “Topps Archives” blog – there is a ton of interesting info that really does more justice to these sets than I do below.  In short, these cards were produced by a company named Visual Panographics, which later produced the Kellogg’s sets of the 1970′s.  I’m not positive, but they may have then become or started the company Optigraphics, who released the Sportflics cards of the mid-late 1980′s.  They eventually created the Score and Pinnacle products under the name Pinnacle Brands.

• Set Design: The cards measure 2-1/4″ x 3-1/2″ - just a little bit smaller than standard size – with rounded corners.  The cards were printed using a technique called lenticular printing that creates a 3D / movement type effect with the player’s interaction with the background.  The player name is in colorful block letters at the top, above a circle containing the player’s position and team.  Most cards come with blank backs.
• Packs: Topps issued the set in 2-card test packs (5¢) that came 12 to a box.  Each pack came with an easel that could be folded up to display the cards.  The picture below is from an auction last year – this may be the only known box of these remaining.
• Hall of Fame: There are 2 Hall of Famers in this set – Roberto Clemente and Tony Perez. (See below for the Brooks Robinson proof)
• Last Active player: Perez played his last game on October 5, 1986 – some 18 years after this test set was issued.
• Variations: Some cards come with a stamp on the back in either Red or Black.  The stamp says: “This is an experimental XOGRAPH card produced as a limited edition. Not for public circulation or distribution. Not for resale. To be returned to: Visual Panographics, Inc. 488 Madison Avenue New York, New York.”  There are also some small variations in the pictures used on the front.

The box has the Topps logo with an ad for “3-D Baseball Picture Cards”.  Next to that is a picture of one of the cards and the 5 cent pack price – and apparently these came with gum.  The box advertises that the cards are ”Real 3-D without glasses”.

Promo cards

• A proof card of Brooks Robinson has been found that is similar in design to the 1967 set.  The only wording is “Orioles” at the top of the card.
• There have also been 3 unissued cards turn up in uncut sheets with the 1968 design – these are Rick Monday, John O’Donoghue and Tommy Davis.
• There have also been some findings of square cornered proofs as well