2014 Card of the Year!!!

My choice for card of the year is from the set I dubbed as my product of the year.  I already discussed why I think Topps bringing back Stadium Club was a great thing.  This card highlights the things I think are great about the product.  A cool picture with a story behind it.

The Red Sox won the World Series in 2013, and when you win one of the major sports titles, your team gets a day at the White House.  And it usually means the President gets a custom-made jersey of that team.  When the Red Sox went to visit Pennsylvania Avenue this year, David Ortiz presented the jersey to President Obama.  When he did, he whipped out his cell phone and took a selfie with the POTUS.  There was some controversy whether or not the event was spontaneous; Ortiz has a promotional contract with Samsung.  Regardless, it was a moment where a long-standing tradition (DC visit for sports champs) met with a new fad (the selfie).

Ortiz is my 4th winner of card of the year.  Here were the last few .

2013: Topps Heritage Real One Autograph – Stan Musial

2012: Gypsy Queen Autograph – Ken Griffey, Jr.

2011: Topps – Jay Bruce

2014 Card of the Year runner-up

I feel a little blasphemous picking a card that’s not even a Major League player.  OK – I said that wrong.  I feel a little blasphemous picking a card that’s not a real player.  That may be what kept me from calling this card of the year, and just giving it the runner-up spot.

The Major League movie cards inserted into 2014 Topps Archives were pretty sweet.  The autographs went through the roof in popularity – particularly that of Sheen for his role as “Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn.  I’m showing the regular card here, which was a pretty common insert in Topps Archives.  But I guess I’d say the autograph is probably the biggest card.

A few other cards I considered:

• Topps Opening Day – Royals Mascot card, in honor of their captivating run to the World Series
• Topps – Mariano Rivera, because it’s his final card
• Topps – Derek Jeter, which could be his final card
• Finest – Mike Trout, because I think Finest has a really cool design this year and Trout is the game’s best player
• Allen & Ginter Fields of Yore – Wrigley Field, because it’s sweet and I live in Chicago
• Topps Supreme Styling Die-Cut Autograph – Madison Bumgarner, because you had to pick some kind of card of him after that historic run in the World Series

Check out my next post for the winner…

2014 Product of the Year

Two years ago I did a post for my “set of the year” in response to a blog bat around by This Card is Cool.

A couple of things to think about.  There are over 50 baseball products out this year if you count all the MLB-licensed things that Topps did, plus products from Leaf, Panini and Upper Deck.  If you go by order of release date, here’s what came out in 2014.  Bold means it’s a new product in 2014.

Baseball “standard issue” sets (it’s a bit of a stretch for me to include Goodwin and Golden Age in here – but I’ve included them every year I’ve done this):

• Topps (Series 1) – January 29
• Topps Turkey Red – February 19
• Topps Tribute – February 21
• Donruss (Series 1) – February 26
• Topps Heritage – March 14
• Topps Opening Day – March 19
• Topps Museum Collection – March 28
• Topps Gypsy Queen – April 9
• Bowman – April 30
• Panini Prizm – May 21
• Topps Archives – May 28
• Topps Tier 1 – June 6
• Topps (Series 2) – June 11
• Bowman Inception – June 27
• Panini Golden Age – July 2
• Upper Deck Goodwin Champions – July 2
• Topps Allen & Ginter – July 9
• Bowman Platinum – July 30
• Topps Mini – July 30
• Donruss (Series 2) – August 5
• Topps Finest – August 13
• Topps Chrome – August 27
• Topps Triple Threads – September 10
• Panini Immaculate – September 21
• Bowman Chrome – September 24
• Stadium Club – October 1
• Panini Hall of Fame 75th – October 8 (used to be Panini Cooperstown)
• Topps (Update) – October 15
• Topps Supreme – October 29 (no longer Asian market exclusive)
• Topps Heritage (High Numbers) – October 31
• Panini Classics – November 5
• Topps High Tek – November
• Donruss (The Rookies Update) – November 19
• Topps Dynasty – November 21
• Topps Five Star – December 5
• Bowman Sterling – December 19

Minor league / Draft card sets:

• Topps Pro Debut – June 4
• Topps Heritage Minor League – September 19
• Leaf Perfect Game Showcase – October 10
• Leaf Metal Draft – October 17
• Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks – November 12
• Leaf Valiant – November 21
• Bowman Draft – December 3
• Leaf Trinity – December
• Panini Elite Extra Edition – January 9, 2015

“odd-ball” sets:

• Leaf Legends of the Diamond – January 31
• Topps Stickers – March 13
• Famous Fabrics Big Apple – March 28
• Topps Team Sets – April
• Leaf Cal Ripken Ironman Signature – October 10

Most of the sets that “went away” this year were from Panini.  The company didn’t bring back Triple Play, Hometown Heroes, Pinnacle, Select and America’s Pastime.  Topps didn’t do the Tribute World Baseball Classic set this year – since there wasn’t a World Baseball Classic.

Ever since Panini entered into the fray in late 2012, there are even more card sets than there were in 2011 and 2012.   Topps had a few more sets this year, too.  That’s not necessarily a good thing – the market for baseball cards has felt over saturated for 15+ years at this point.

I collected less sets this year.  Mostly because the summer was kind of lost time as far as baseball cards go.  Out of the sets above, I collected base Topps (both series and Update), Topps Heritage (including High Numbers), Goodwin Champions, Turkey Red and Topps Archives.  I didn’t collect Gypsy Queen or Panini Golden Age this year.  I plan to focus almost exclusively on my Topps project in 2015, so I may cut out Archives next year.

OK – so what was my favorite set of the year?  In 2011, it was Topps Heritage.  In 2012, it was – again – Topps Heritage.  In 2013, it was Topps flagship.  I thought 2013 was a pretty weak baseball card year.

This year?  I thought about Topps Heritage.  1965 was a great design, and Heritage was still fun to collect.  But I don’t like some of the things that Topps did with the product this year.  First and foremost, I was looking forward to the reproduction of the Embossed cards from 1965.  Well, Topps screwed that up by making them ultra-rare.  Additionally, they’ve subtly taken away some of the parallels between the current Heritage set and the original Topps set.  Far fewer card numbers match up with the old set (i.e. – Hank Aaron and Jason Heyward having the same card number).  The Real One autographs used to be only current players and reprints of the original set.  Now they’re throwing guys like Paul O’Neill or Jim Rice into the set.

I thought this year’s Topps set had an interesting design.  It wasn’t better or worse than last year, but I did think the photographs were better in 2013.  I also didn’t like the inserts as much this year.  So Topps didn’t win.

I’m going with a set that I didn’t actually collect.  Topps did bring back one product that I would love to collect if I had the chance.  I may think about buying a box or 2 next year.  Stadium Club was a really cool product back when it first came out in 1991 – it kind of hit home with the things I like the best about cards; having cool photos is key to the set.  This year, Topps brought Stadium Club back, and they made it a relatively affordable product (unlike the high-end attempt in 2008).

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that they put my favorite player on the box.

But, much more importantly, the focus was again on the photos.  Whether your seeing great action photos…

Interesting posed shots…

Or NEW pictures of retired players.

I can’t stress the last point enough!  Over the past 3 years, Topps has re-used photos to a ridiculous degree.  It’s frustrating when you pull a card from one product and realize it’s the same picture you saw from a set you bought a month earlier.  To see new pictures of Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth or Williams is refreshing.

The rest of the product is solid as well.  Sure, it has too many parallel sets, but that ship sailed for every set long ago.  There are nice on-card autographs, and the inserts bring back some great ideas from older years.  The three card Triumvirate came back with a honeycomb background.

Beam Team is back, too.

There is a die-cut set of legends and future stars that looks really nice.

There is also a set called field access that shows players down on the field before the game.  This card was pretty cool – it’s clearly the same photo shoot as the 1991 Topps card of Clemens.

The bottom line, though – is the base set.  It’s a winner!

2012 Goodwin Champions – Masterpieces finito!

I should have done this post in December of last year.  In fact, for some reason, I thought I had done this post in January 2013!  But looking back, the last post I did for the 2012 Goodwin Masterpieces was when I finally got the reproduction of the first football card ever.

I’m a big fan of Goodwin Champions.  They do a lot of cool things, most notably rare cards painted by artists.  In 2011, that was painted portraits of all 44 presidents.  In 2013 and 2014, it’s 1/1 reproductions of famous paintings.  In 2012, the best of these sets was created (in my opinion) – reproductions of the original 1888 Goodwin Champions cards.

If I was richer than rich – I’d have loved to get all 50 of these cards.  They are numbered out of ten – so it’s possible, but just too expensive.  I wanted a certain 7 cards.  First, I wanted to get the painting reproduction of the first football card ever.  This was the last card I got out of these – completing my semi-set.  The card is of Yale football captain Henry Beecher.  I discuss more detail behind this card here.

I also wanted the Buffalo Bill Cody card from this set. Like the Beecher card, Buffalo Bill kind of has his own place in this set.  There are multiple baseball players, multiple tennis, golf and track athletes.  But only one Wild West Showman!

Aside from that, I wanted to get all of the 5 boxers from this set.  They were known as pugilists back in 1888 when the original set came out.  I put together a post that shows the linkage between most of the boxers from this set and even some from the 2011 Goodwin set – see that here.  The boxers in this set are Jack (Nonpareil) Dempsey, Jake Kilrain, Charley Mitchell, Jem Smith, and John L. Sullivan.

Anyways, I never got all of these put together in one post – but here it is!  I love this set – it’s probably my favorite card set released in the past 5 years that I’ve been collecting.  I wish it was more affordable – I’d love to finish off the whole 50-card set.  But these things cost an average of $200 – and the 8 baseball players would probably be even more.  That’s not something I can go for.  But these 7 cards are pretty sweet!

Completed insert set – 2012 Topps A Cut Above

After wrapping up my 2014 Topps purchases a few posts ago – I didn’t really want to start right back up into my Lifetime Topps project since I’m so close to the end of the year.  So I’m continuing with a few more completed set posts, and then a few “end of year” posts that I’ve always done.  Mid-January, I will start 2001 of the Topps project.

A Cut Above is an insert set in 2012 Topps series 2.  Unlike almost every other set – this one doesn’t follow the gold theme Topps used throughout the 2012 product.

Info about the set:

Set description: “Striking Die-Cut Cards”.  OK, so Topps’ sell sheet doesn’t really say much.  These are colorful, borderless cards with die-cut effects that I can best describe as “caddy corner sevens” in the top right and lower left of the card.  The background is given a kind of blurry effect that keeps the focus squarely on the player. The back has a write-up as to why that player is a “cut above” with a catchy slogan at the top.  The set has 11 retired players and 14 current players.

Set composition: 25 cards, 1:6 hobby odds (series 2)

Hall of Famers: 10 – Cal Ripken, Nolan Ryan, Stan Musial, Mike Schmidt, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle

How I put the set together:

5 cards from my HTA Jumbo box

1 card from an HTA Jumbo pack

15 cards from trades

4 cards from online dealers

Thoughts on the set:  It’s nicely done and one of my favorite inserts from 2012 Topps.  Going away from all the gold is a very good thing in my opinion.  25 cards is reasonably collectible, though it’s a bit high.  I would have preferred Topps stuck with only active players for a number of reasons – one of which is that most of the retired players have very familiar photos.

Card that completed my set: #ACA-24 – Mickey Mantle

I got this card in a Beckett Marketplace purchase back in May.

Highest book value: #ACA-9 – Cal Ripken

Best card (my opinion): #ACA-19 – Robinson Cano

I’m not really big into Yankees, but this picture fits well with the die-cut design, and the stadium background is very cool.  I also really like the Schmidt and Mantle cards.

My Favorite Reds card: #ACA-20 – Johnny Bench

This is the only Reds card.  Unfortunately its a photo of Bench that has been used a few times in the past.

Completed insert set – 1994 Topps Black Gold

Topps came out with their second year of Topps Black Gold in 1994, and it never seemed as popular as the first year.  By 1994 there were much shinier things out there – Upper Deck had Michael Jordan baseball cards for crying out loud! I finished this set back in November 2013.  And it’s been sitting in my queue as a “I need to do this” draft post since then.  It seems less than that, but time can get away from you.  Well, I’m using these completed set posts to get me back into the Lifetime Topps project – so this is certainly a good one for that!

Info about the set:

Set description:  Staying in line with the Gold theme that Topps adopted in the early 90’s in the flagship product for all 4 sports, the Black Gold cards had gold foilboard at the top (the team) and bottom (the player).  The background is completely blacked out of the player photo on the front.  The Topps Black Gold logo is shown next to the photo on series 1 but is mysteriously missing on the series 2 cards.  The back of the card has another photo of the player with a his statistics and positional ranking for those stats against a wood background.  The set has 22 players from each league.

Set composition:  44 cards

Inserted: All packs of 1994 Topps.  1:72 hobby odds.  22 cards per each series (AL in series 1, NL in series 2).

There were also redemption cards inserted at a more difficult rate that could be exchanged for 11, 22 or all 44 cards in the set.

Hall of Famers: 9

Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, Kirby Puckett, Cal Ripken, Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Craig Biggio

How I put the set together:

• 2 from my series 1 & 2 wax boxes
• 3 cards from trades
• 39 cards from Sportlots

Thoughts on the set:  I like the 1993 set better.  I always thought Topps was pretty inferior to Upper Deck for card technology and for inserts in the early and mid-90’s (because they were).  And while these are decent cards, they aren’t as nice as the first year.  That may be why they didn’t stick around into 1995.

Card that completed my set:  #41 – Mike Piazza

One of 3 cards I picked up on Sportlots back in November.

Highest book value:  #18 – Cal Ripken, #27 – Barry Bonds

Best card (my opinion):  #43 – Robby Thompson

How often will you ever see a non-parallel insert card of Robby Thompson?  And it’s a pretty good photo?  Count me in.

My Favorite Reds card:  There are none.  I knew there was a reason I didn’t like this set.

Completed set & Master set – One last look at 2012 Gypsy Queen

I finished the 2012 Gypsy Queen master set (meaning the inserts and all of the , so this is the wrap-up post on that.  I finished the base set quite a while ago – but the inserts took quite a while.  The Gypsy Kings insert set was my final frontier here.

Info about my set:

How I put the set together:

169 cards from my first hobby box

88 cards from my second hobby box

4 cards from the first 2 boxes were replaced by Topps after being damaged

4 cards from a retail jumbo pack

35 cards from a trade with the Dutch Card Guy

Card that completed my set: #227 – Ralph Kiner (1 of about 20 cards I got in a trade from the Dutch Card Guy in early June).  See the picture below.

General Set Info:

Set composition: 300 cards (246 current players, 54 retired players)

Earliest active player from this set: #229 – Ty Cobb.

When I’ve done this for sets from my Lifetime Topps project, I usually do “last active player”.  For these sets I’m doing first active player.  This is easily Ty Cobb – who along with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are the only players in the set who finished their career before World War II.  Cobb debuted in 1905.

Player with the most cards in the set: There are 300 different cards and 300 different players with 1 card each :).

First Card and the Hundreds: #1 – Jesus Montero, #100 – Derek Jeter, #200 – Felix Hernandez, #300 – Babe Ruth

A former Yankee.  A current Yankee.  The all-time greatest Yankee.  And a future Yankee.  Oh, and 2 Mariners.

Highest book value: #253 – Cal Ripken Jr.

Most notable card: #250 – Ken Griffey Jr.

Hard to pick against this card – getting Griffey back into the mix after he retired was a big deal.

Best card (my opinion): #250 – Ken Griffey Jr. (see above)

For the same reasons as above – the 2nd best player ever born on November 21st in Donora, Pennsylvania.

Second best card (also my opinion): #249 – Stan Musial

Born on November 21st – in Donora, Pennsylvania.

Best subset card: N/A

Favorite action photo: #217 – Eric Thames

This was actually a really hard one to pick.  Hanley Ramirez has a really good shot, as does Matt Kemp.  There were many cards with a great level of detail considering these photos are touched up to make them look like paintings.  But this Thames card was my favorite.  The level of detail (his eyes are following the foul ball), where the bat is, the color of the uniform make this a winner for me.

Favorite non-action photo: #227 – Ralph Kiner, #241 – Larry Doby

I couldn’t decide between these guys.  I really appreciate that Topps got a couple of great Hall of Famers into this set who don’t always get cards like a Ruth, Koufax or Mantle.  And these are great photos.

My Favorite Reds card: #21 – Matt Latos

Another card with a lot of detail.

Other Notable Cards: I think I’ve covered quite a few.  Like 2011 Gypsy Queen, this is a really nice set, but I also wouldn’t call any cards particularly “notable” for a 2012 set – so there’s either too many or too few to scan.  I don’t like the design as much as the previous Gypsy set, but after going through the set again, the photos are very nice – more so than I had realized.

My “Master” Set Info:

387 cards – 300 “base”, 87 “insert”

• Insert sets: Moon Shots, Sliding Stars, Glove Stories, Hallmark Heroes, Future Stars, Gypsy Kings

How I put the additional sets together: Boxes, packs, card shows, trades and online – various sources, just like I did with the full base set.  I covered each insert set in earlier posts.  Gypsy Kings was the last insert set I finished up.

General Insert Set Info:

Most notable insert card: Glove Stories #GS-WM – Willie Mays

I don’t know if I’d call anything particularly notable in any Gypsy Queen insert set – but this card shows one of the most recognizable moments in baseball history.  Mays with his over-the-shoulder catch from the 1954 World Series.

Best Autograph or Relic card: Autographs #GQA-KG – Ken Griffey Jr.

Best Insert card of any type: Autographs #GQA-KG – Ken Griffey Jr.

The biggest news I remember hearing about 2012 was the addition of Ken Griffey Jr. to the Topps mix.  The guy who has been synonymous with Upper Deck since 1989, and he’s going to autograph Topps cards in 2012.  That was bigger than Koufax, Aaron, or Mays.  Not because his auto was worth more, but because it represented a changing of the guard in a way.  If you couldn’t move on from Topps getting an exclusive license 2 years ago – well this was a way to bolt the nail in the coffin for you.  This was the card that signified that more than anything.

Best Reds insert card of any type: Indian Head Penny #JBE – Johnny Bench

Cards with coins inserted wasn’t new for 2012 Gypsy Queen, but pairing it up with a penny from back when the original Gypsy Queen came out was a great spin on this.  Too bad it’s completely not affordable.

Completed set – 1997 Topps

I’m way behind on this completed set post – almost two years actually!  I think I forgot about posting this somewhere along the line.  I haven’t finished off the “Master Set” yet – quite a few inserts to finish up to get there.  So it’s just the “complete set” post for now.  This is a pretty cool set – and, interestingly, I think it’s the closest-looking set to this year’s version of the Topps flagship design.

Info about my set:

How I put the set together:

249 cards from the series 1 retail box

216 cards from the series 2 retail box

30 cards from trades

Card that completed my set: #261 – Lance Johnson (received in a trade from Dayf at Cardboard Junkie)

Like I said – this was a while ago, back at the beginning of 2013!

Set composition: 495 cards (441 individual ML player cards*, 16 Prospects, 13 Draft Picks, 10 Expansion Team, 4 Checklists, 1 Tribute, 10 Season Highlights)

*The 441 individual player cards include 10 All-Star Rookies

Representation of ’96 MLB season:

Out of the 441 player cards, 5 players featured did not play in the 1996 season.  Bill Pulsipher and Jose Rijo both had Topps cards, but didn’t play due to elbow injuries.  Jay Payton, Derrick Gibson and Bartolo Colon each had a Topps card, however hadn’t made the majors yet.  Additionally, 11 of the players in the Prospect subset actually made it to the majors in 1996.

The 447 players represent 39.2% out of the 1,141 players who played in MLB in 1996.

Earliest active player from this set: #42 – Jackie Robinson, #388 – Dennis Eckersley (active players)

There’s two answers to this – Eck is the earliest active player.  He made his debut on April 12, 1975, pitching the last 1.2 innings of a 1-run Cleveland loss to Milwaukee.  Eckersley beats out Denny Martinez, who debuted in 1976.

Robinson is the earliest (and only) retired player – breaking the color barrier on what has become a national baseball holiday – April 15, 1947.  In fact, that’s what this card was honoring.  In 1997, MLB celebrated the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s debut, and made a national day to honor Robinson’s accomplishment, retiring his number across the game.

Last active player from this set: #386 – Bartolo Colon (still active)

There are 6 players from this set who played on September 28th of this year.  Three of them – Derek Jeter, Paul Konerko, and Bobby Abreu, have officially announced their retirement.  Raul Ibanez and Jason Giambi are likely to follow – they at least seem to be better coaching or managerial candidates today.

My point is – right now all 6 of those guys are technically the answer.  But Colon is almost assuredly the only one who will be active in 2015.

Player with the most cards in the set: 10 players with 2 cards:

There is basically only 1 subset, with 10 season highlights cards.

Mike Piazza – #20, #104 (Season Highlight)

John Mabry – #171, #102 (Season Highlight)

Dwight Gooden – #175, #100 (Season Highlight)

Al Leiter – #280, #101 (Season Highlight)

Alex Ochoa – #298, #103 (Season Highlight)

Eddie Murray – #333, #462 (Season Highlight)

Paul Molitor – #138, #463 (Season Highlight)

Hideo Nomo – #440, #464 (Season Highlight)

Barry Bonds – #1, #465 (Season Highlight)

Todd Hundley – #145, #466 (Season Highlight)

First Card and the Hundreds: #1 – Barry Bonds, #100 – Dwight Gooden SH, #200 – Doug Million/Damian Moss/Bobby Rodgers PROS, #300 – Ken Griffey Jr., #400 – Cal Ripken

Highest book value: #479 – Adam Eaton / Eric Chavez DP RC

This is about as light as the rookie card cupboard could go – but somehow Beckett has this card listed for a bit more than Bonds, Ripken or Jeter.

Most notable card: #42 – Jackie Robinson TRIB

There were no cards from 1997 Topps in the top 60 cards that the company did a few years ago.  To me – this is easily the most notable.

Best card (my opinion): #463 – J.T. Snow

I love this card – the color is fantastic.

Second best card (also my opinion): #167 – Ryne Sandberg

This is Ryno’s last Topps card, and it’s a great way to go out for the longtime Cub.  The Wrigley Ivy in the background, him catching a ball at second base.

Best subset card: #464 – Hideo Nomo

I guess I could go with the Jackie Robinson – but I hesitate to call that a subset.  This is the best looking of the ’96 season highlight cards to me.  I’m usually a big fan of anything that highlights Nomo’s delivery.

Favorite action photo:  #65 – Chuck Knoblauch

I like the whole package with the J.T. Snow card.  But I think this Knoblauch card is the best as far as just the action going on.  This narrowly beats a very cool Royce Clayton card.

Favorite non-action photo: #450 – Butch Huskey

Signing cards for fans is cool.  Seeing the pennant he’s about to sign is cool.  And all the Shea Satdium background – including the apple that goes up when a Met hits a homer?  Very cool.

My Favorite Reds card: #373 – Jose Rijo

This card beats out good action shots of Hal Morris and Eric Davis.  The Davis card is also pretty cool, because it’s showing him during his return to the Reds for a solid 1996 season.  But you can’t beat Rijo messing around in a janitor jumpsuit.

Topps Reprints and others:

• 2001 Through the Years – Nomar Garciaparra
• 2001 Archives – Denny Martinez, Ryne Sandberg
• 2002 Archives – Tony Gwynn
• 2005 Rookie Cup Reprints – Jermaine Dye, Tony Clark, Joe Randa, Derek Jeter, Jason Kendall, Billy Wagner
• 2010 CMT – Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, Jeter
• 2011 60YOT – Mariano Rivera, Gwynn
• 2014 Topps Update Jeter Framed Reprints – Jeter

Jeter’s 3 reprints beat out Gwynn’s 2 (at least so far!)

Other Notable Cards: Aside from the Robinson tribute card, I’d say that Eddie Murray’s final card and Derek Jeter’s Topps All-Star rookie are fairly notable.

2014 Topps Update HTA Jumbo box – the hits

You get 3 “hits” per box when you get a hobby jumbo box.  And one if them is a manufactured something or other.  They tend to be World Series related, and that means they tend to be Yankees.  I got a Lou Gehrig last year – this year I got a World Series Trophy of Whitey Ford.  I always kind of like these things, and this one is no exception.

Next up is the autograph.  Another Trajectory Autograph, after I got Matt Adams in series 1, I got this dude Colabello in Update.  I’ve never heard of him, but apparently he had 27 RBI in April.  Maybe I’ll be hearing more about him in the future!

I saved the relic for last.  You’d think the relic wouldn’t be the best one I’d pull – but I got a super rare one.  A double jersey of Kershaw and Puig – can’t beat that!

This card is #’d out of 25!  Anyways, that the hits.  Not too shabby!

2014 Topps update HTA Jumbo box – inserts

On to the inserts for my next post on the HTA jumbo box I bought.  As usual, I’ll go in the order of “least favorite” to “most favorite”.

Topps has done 2 150-card insert across all three series the past few years.  One has a retro theme, and the other tends to be my least favorite.  Last year it was Chasing History, in 2012 it was Golden Moments, in 2011 it was Topps 60, and in 2010 it was Peak Performance.  All these sets have one main coincidence – they’re clearly made to “fit” relics and autos.  The set that was continued this year was “The Future is Now”. For this one, the design wasn’t nearly as relic driven – in fact, the relic or autographed versions for this set have a horizontal orientation.  And this set is only 90 cards, but each player has 3 cards, which I think is kind of silly.

The Update versions aren’t consecutively numbered – they are numbered as “CY1, CY2, CY3”.  This differs from series 1 and 2, which went 1-30 and 31-60.  As I’ve said many times before, I don’t like the “lettering” as opposed to the traditional “numbering”.  As a collector – it’s just annoying.  These cards aren’t bad, through, from a design standpoint.

The 1989 minis follow up the 87 and 72 minis from the last couple of years.  These have a die-cut theme that also makes the actual border colored instead of the white border that the original 89 design had.  I like the idea of the die-cut, though the 89 design is far from iconic in my mind.  The scanning doesn’t work out perfectly with these cards – it cuts a lot off here.

Fond Farewells is the next insert set.  These are obviously tailored for a relic, and I don’t like how much they’ve cut off the right side of these players to make that work.  But the theme is very cool – a look at how some of the best players finished up their career.

There’s another cool postseason insert set.  Last year it was postseason heroes, this is a 50-card World Series Heroes set.  Again, they went through with the lettering instead of numbering.  That particularly bugs me with this set, which should be numbered chronologically.  They should also sure as hell just add Madison Bumgarner to this set!

The next card is a remake of the old Topps Gold Label cards.  It’s kind of weird to take a set from 2000.  Is a remake of a card from 2000 a retro set?  Anyways, this is a framed variation.  It’s a gold bar with a front and back kind of glued on.  I don’t know if I like that feature.  It’s pretty cool to hold this card, as it’s very thick.  But the way the front and back are “glued” on makes it seem somewhat cheap.  Overall, very cool though with the crisp pictures here.

I like the next insert set the best – it’s called Power Players.  I just like the design here.  Topps had Power Players parallels in the first two series, and I have no idea if these are the guys who won each week or something.  But the bottom line, I like all the colors in his design!