Oh what a year - A room full of elephants that we should probably talk about

Oh hello there, yep it's me again.  I've been sitting in the cold dark Alaskan winter contemplating life, the universe, and well, everything.  It's been a crazy couple years hasn't it?  I apologize for the lack of content.  I really just haven't felt like sitting down to write blog posts.  And the few times I have sat down to do it the post turns into a bitch session and I've been making a very concerted effort to be a positive force in the hobby and the universe, so a lot of those posts go unpublished or just get deleted.  

But here we are, a new year and there's lots to talk about.  Over the last two year's we've seen a huge gain in popularity in the trading card hobby.  Whether it was people stuck at home during the pandemic rekindling their passion for a hobby, new people finding the hobby, or people realizing just how lucrative it can be to sell and resell sport cards to make a buck for better or worse the last couple years has seen a huge shift in the hobby landscape with hints of the 90s boom.

Let's talk about what's been happening.

1. Retail trading cards become the hot new thing.  It wasn't that long ago I can remember reports that retail outlets like Walmart and Target were considering not stocking sports cards anymore because they weren't selling.  And let's be honest in the hobby retail product was a joke if you were looking for high end hits.  But retail was also a nice cheap alternative to pricy hobby boxes and packs if you were a set builder.  Now we've got fist fights breaking out in stores and Target actually halting sales of the products due to safety concerns.  People were camping out in front of stores waiting for restocks and then clearing out shelves.  Stores started putting limits on the number of boxes you could buy at one time and moved cards behind counters and registers.  Then of course a lot of this product ended up on the secondary market on eBay and being sold on Twitter accounts and the like at huge mark ups.  I personally was lucky I was able to find enough Topps Baseball to put most of my base sets together, but even up here in Alaska the shelves were usually bare.  

2. Card grading companies got swamped!!  I'm not a guy who sends in cards to get graded, but I can respect and understand those that do and the value of having a supposedly impartial 3nd party service grade a card to establish and then preserve condition.  But wow I think even the grading card companies were a little surprised by just what happened.  And I'm talking mainly about the big three, Beckett (BGS), PSA, and SGC. The companies at one time had to halt submissions and then jacked prices up to a point that it really limited what was worth send in to get graded.  Not all of these companies reacted the same, but all got blindsided with an unprecedented amount of demand while trying to tackle pandemic restrictions and dealing with employee safety.  

3. COMC.  Oh COMC.  I'm sure if you're reading this blog you know what and how COMC does what they do.  And the unique service COMC offers to the hobby can be seen by just how many growing pains the company has bumbled and stumbled their way through and survived. The first real challenge came after COMC and Beckett parted ways.  COMC had a deal with Beckett for use of their checklists for listing purposes, but COMC also used Becketts pricing information for help inform both sellers and buyers what their cards were worth.  It was kind of a golden time for the hobby because you could see the Beckett value for cards without having to pay for the service.  This is likely why the two parted ways year's ago.  But that led to a scramble for COMC to not only produce it's own checklists, but to document that production. And they did that through it's crowd sourced challenges.  This led to a long wait time for processing.  The second big hiccup I can remember is the first time COMC upgrade facilities.  Both processing and shipping times got pretty extreme, but not terrible.  But the latest hurdle that COMC had to overcome, and looks like they finally have, was the pandemic. Which saw a perfect storm for the company that was trying to move to another larger facility, coupled with operating in an area of the country with some of the most strict pandemic lock down orders, while dealing with an unprecedent surge in card submissions, sales, and shipping requests.  I made the mistake of placing an order in Jan of 2021, it took 8 months for my cards to ship!

4.  And finally the newest and biggest elephant in the room.  Fanatics.  I think we (the hobby, the royal I) and probably Topps, were really blindsided when the MLB, MLBPA, and Fanatics announced their exclusive trading card deal.  And then shortly after announcing they had acquired rights to the NFLPA and NBA and NBAPA.  I don't think anybody was that surprised with Fanatic announced it had bought Topps' trading card business.  It seemed pretty obvious that Fanatics would acquire one of the trading card companies.  In 2009, it was a big shock to see Panini, a little sticker company from Italy, scoop up the exclusive NBA license.  At least they had some experience with sports cards and stickers, but it wasn't that surprising when they bought Donruss.  And in buying Donruss Panini gained instant US brand recognition and arguably one of the deepest brand catalogues in the hobby.  So Fanatics, with no trading card experience would likely have to acquire one of the big three remaining companies.   I had joked that Upper Deck should be their goal and then they would have licenses for all 4 US major sports leagues. But Topps seemed like the obvious and likely choice.  

Since the MLB announcement there have been lots of uncertainty with what was going to happen in the hobby.  I'm not saying I'm happy that Topps will continue their baseball exclusivity into the foreseeable future, but I have happy that I'll get to put my Topps flagship set together and I am looking forward to Topps flagship football again.  What will happen to Panini and Upper Deck with this new juggernaut of Fanatics/Topps?  Who knows?  I'm a little anxious, but also very excited for the what might happen in the trading card arena.  And if it all goes to hell we still have over 100 years of vintage cards to fall back on.  

 

 

Let's Talk About Topps Project 2020

Seems the sport card world has gone a little bit crazy as of late. Especially when it comes to one of Topps newest offerings. I'll be honest I was a little skeptical when Topps announced the project.  Twenty different artists doing their take on the same 20 iconic Topps cards.  It was an interesting concept. As an artist I actually really love the idea, but a few things popped into my head before Topps issued the first card. 

First, art is subjective.  What I mean by that it not everyone is going to be into every art style.  And I'll hand it to Topps they really did a great job of finding a group of artists who's styles run the gambit.  Second I worried about only doing 20 different cards.  First you narrow your market for team and player collectors and thirdly the same cards redone over and over just seemed like it would get boring.  I also thought the $20 price tag per card was a little steep.

I guess I was wrong.  Well sort of.  The project started off pretty slow.  Not surprising there was no major advertising for this other than on Topps social media.  So those of us that follow the card world knew what was coming, but I have to say the vast majority of people probably did not.  Also this project started right at the start of the pandemic lockdowns and the card companies still had new products coming out.  So the first few weeks print runs for the cards hovered between 1 and 2 thousand.  Not too bad.  Considering what other on-demand offerings sometimes sell.  Fast forward a couple months and the market for these cards has gone through the roof.  Especially the earlier cards that were issued when no one was really paying attention.

So what the hell happened??  Well it's really a perfect storm for Topps.  The printing facility in Texas that Topps uses to produce it's big brands like flaghip Topps, Bowman, Gypsy Queen, etc.  was shut down due to the Coronavirus, but Topps' on-demand printing is done in Florida and those factories were not shut down.  So when Topps had to push back their releases consumers eyes started looking elsewhere to fill the void.  I don't know if it was a combination of breakers, flippers, Gary Vee acolytes, bored housewives, art collectors branching out, or whatever, but the secondary market for the early Project 2020 cards went through the roof.  And it's still up there as I write this.  Not only has the secondary market skyrocketed, but the print run of the new issues has also picked up big time.  With print runs in the tens of thousands now.

We are only on card 88 as I write this so we have over 300 card more to be issued for this set.  So will demand continue?  Who the hell knows?  It's unlikely, but I didn't think the project would be that big of deal and seeing early print runs I was kinda right.  With Bowman finally hitting shelves and new releases getting updated release dates, society opening back up (for better or worse)  I think the big buyers scooping up these cards will start drifting on to the next big thing, but who knows?

With the uptick in popularity I can almost say with 100% certainty we are going to get another helping of Project 2020 or will it be Project 2021?

Transcending the hobby.

I've been sitting on this post for a while now.  I was hoping that Topps would finalize the checklist so I had something more solid on the product.  Topps did confirm it's final autograph line up and promised me a full checklist weeks ago, but didn't deliver.  When Topps announced at the end of October that it would be putting out a baseball product that would retail for over $25,000, the reactions were mixed, but overwhelmingly there was a general feeling of disgust and disenfranchisement from most of us working class collectors.   But believe it or not after some deep meditation on the subject I think Topps Transcendent is good for the hobby as a whole.  Now hear me out.

Let's be honest this product is probably not for you and it's definitely not for me.  No this is more for Keith Obermann.  And I have a feeling the vast majority of the 65 box/cases available will be broken by group breakers. Random slots were going for between $150-200 a spot.  In all you get about 200 cards, over 50 autos and a base set numbered to 65 and a complete sketch card reproduction set numbered to 65.

With this product Topps launches itself to the top of the pile in the category I've seen termed the Luxury level, above Mega High End and the most expensive baseball card product or trading card product ever produced!

The previous king of the mountain was Upper Deck's Master Collection.  I've included a box break of a Master's Box and one for Panini's Eminence.  Take a look if you've never seen one of these Luxury products opened.

I've seen a lot of hate coming out about how with this set that Topps is thumbing it's nose at the common collector.  I tend to throw a lot of criticism Topps way for lots of things like quality control issues, team inclusion, and over use of the same licensed image on everything, but not on this.  For some reason we as collectors have come to expect that everything Topps produces has to be aimed at the common man.  I've fallen into this mind set as well specially when Topps tried it's 5 Star Club years ago.  But lets look at it this way.  Take any other industry that produces consumer products like the car industry.  A car manufacturer produces many types of vehicles.  Some are very affordable, I use that term loosely, with few bells and whistles while they also tend to offer very high end vehicles as well.  And even within the affordable range you can add upgrades.  I think you could carry this analogy over many scenarios, but the point is not everything Topps puts out is going to be targeted toward you or me.  So with that said Transcendent isn't a set for the masses.  Transcendent will be Topps top of the line Cadillac of card sets.  Now will it hold up, will those that are able to open this product be satisfied with what they get?  Will this blow up in Topps' face from not following through with all the hype produced about the product?  Will what's offered be worth the money ponied up?  I guess we'll find out in a few weeks.  While I won't be opening any of this product or taking part in any group breaks I will definitely be watch breaks on Youtube.

And while I'm defending Topps' decision to produce this product I do have my misgivings.  As most of you have probably noticed if you follow current releases the overall trend in the sports card market has shifted from cheaper products with large base sets and a few inserts and hits to much more expensive products that are specifically hit driven (relics and autographs) with lower card counts per box or pack and smaller or even nonexistent base sets.  Products that offer less variety of players and teams featured.  This trend is what worries me most in the hobby.  And while I actually really like the idea of a Lamborghini of a baseball card set the fact that Topps has set it's upper bounds of product pricing so high that the vacuum created from the difference to its next highest product might mean an even larger shift to much more expensive products to fill that void.  However that never happened at Upper Deck when it released it's Masters Collection, so there's hope that this is just Topps reaching for the sky and seeing if they fall flat.  What really interests me is even with 1 of 1 autos and artist sketch cards and a ton of other autographs, can this really be worth the price tag?  Feel free to comment.

TTM Success Adam Lind

I was surprised in my mailbox last Tuesday to see one of my TTM return envelopes. I was surprised because I haven't sent any requests out since Spring Training.  But luckily for me Mr. Lind signed his 2016 Topps card for me.  I sent the two cards above to him.  Adam only signed the one, which is fine.  I would have loved to had both signed as I can add the Topps card to my Brewers TTM project, but I love the way the Allen and Ginter cards looked autographed.

My TTM notes are packed away in storage so I'm not sure when or where I sent these cards.  I'm pretty sure it was in March and I'm also pretty sure I sent these to the Mariner's Spring Training address since Adam had been traded to the Mariner's in December 2015.

The cards were wrapped in a piece of stationary from the French Lick Springs Hotel, which oddly enough I've been too.  And it's not too surprising since Adam is from Indiana. I can't find the envelope anymore, but I do believe it was postmarked from Indianaopolis.

Thanks Mr. Lind.  Good luck next season.

Taking Delivery - Thoughts on Topps Now with a card in hand

Before hell froze over and Aaron Hill had a 3 home run, one of those being a game winning grand slam, day and the Brewers actually getting a card in the Topps Now set, I was pretty sure they wouldn't all season.  So I decided to pick up a card when Jake Arrieta pitched his no hitter.  I'm a closet Cubs fan, not a collector, but I've always had a soft spot for the lovable losers even when the Brewers joined their division.  So I figure I'd share what you get when you order a card from Topps Now.  First off you get an email with your FedEx Smartpost tracking number and an estimated delivery date, that was, at least for my Alaskan address, long into the future.  I don't know much about the Smartpost option but I'm guessing it's FedEx's version of parcel post.  Well I'm happy to say that my card arrived a full 5 days before the estimated delivery date, which was still 3 weeks of waiting.  

The first thing I noticed is that the post mark is from Florida, where I guess Topps has a printing facility.  The next thing is the envelope they used, it's huge.

Inside that envelope is a smaller envelope.

And in that envelope was my card in, ung, a card saver.  No penny sleeve and I could plainly see that the corners were a little dinged most likely from inserting the card in the card saver.

The card itself is very glossy.  I meant to do a gif showing the glossyness, but didn't.  If you're wondering about card thickness.  The advertised 16pt thickness is the same as a standard card you'd pull out of a pack of flagship baseball.   Other than that the card looks exactly like the mock up you see on the website.  

Overall the $9.99 price tag is a little steep, but the card was very well packaged.  I'm not sure what Smartpost costs on a single card, but it seems like some of the packaging is a little overkill and I would much have preferred a card in a penny sleeve and top loader over a card saver.

Well there you go.  That's kind of what you can expect when you order a card from Topps Now.  I'd expect shipping times to the lower 48 would be much quicker than to Alaska or Hawaii.

Oh and I did order an Aaron Hill card too.

Topps wants to give you cards right MEOW! I mean NOW.

You might have missed it. Or not.  Topps launched a new on demand service with the start of the regular baseball season called Topps Now.  What is it?  I'll explain, but you can go over to the Topps' website to check it all out or to order cards.

Basically Topps is going to pick the best happenings of the day and make baseball cards out of them.  I'm  not sure if they'll only do 2 at a time or if there will be days with more than that, but so far only 2 per day have been released.  Of course as I write this it's only day 2 in the program.  The days cards are only available for 24 hours and that's it.  Then once the ordering window closed Topps will announce the print run of each card.  Card ship within 3-5 days and so far they cost $9.99 each, but you can get that down to $3.50 if you order 20 for $70.  Shipping is included in the price which is nice.

I can't tell if people were put off from the price or just the lack of PR, although Topps did post about this on social media, but the first two cards have print runs under 400.  As a matter of fact the Liriano card has a print run of 266 and the KC World Series card of just 356.

Here are the first 4 cards.  The second two are still available for a short while.

 Here's what the back looks like.

So here's my 2 cents.  Honestly I like the idea, but.... well first there's the price.  The multiple card deal works great for dealers I guess, but who wants to order 20 cards if you don't plan on selling most of them off.  I like the comment I saw on Cardboard Connection that it would have been great if Topps had made it so you could set up an account drop $70 bucks into it and pick and choose the cards you wanted at the discounted rate, it would also make sense to be able to hold those cards instead of getting them one at a time to reduce the shipping cost burden.

I'm also worried how far Topps is going to have to stretch to find stuff worthy of making a card out of.  I'm sure there will be days were Topps might have find it difficult to choose the best of the best, but I'm sure there will be days were nothing that remarkable happens.  I mean for today's cards I could have seen the Cubs getting one or Arrieta for the 9 to nothing beating of the Angels.

Overall I think the card's design is OK.  I'm not blown away, but I'm also not put off.  I do think this will be a great way to pick up some cool rookie cards of guys who get called up.  Imagine if this had been around during the 2010 Strassmania, or Troutapoloza, or even last year with Kris Bryant.

I sure this will remind people a lot of eTopps, but with Topps not holding the card in an account and shipping them out the door in less than a week, Topps could get half way through the year and if this is disaster just shut it down pretty easily.  And as a scientist I do love a good experience.  So I have to tip my hat to Topps, in theory a neat idea, lets see how this plays out.

What do you guys think?

Edit 1:  I was just looking over Topps' Twitter feed and they answered some  questions.  First they said there is no set number of cards produced each day. I'm not talking about print run here I'm talking about subjects.  So we could see none on a boring day or 10 to 15, unlikely, but I like there is no constraint there.

Food Issues - Looking for the Ryan Braun Marketside card

Hey everybody,
I'm sure you've all heard that Wal-mart and Topps have teamed up for an official food issue baseball card set.  That's actually pretty exciting.  I've looked up here in Alaska and so far no pizza boxes with baseball cards, but I want to throw this out there for anyone who's managed to open a few of these packs if you pull a Ryan Braun card, the only Brewer in the set, I would really like to trade for it.

So leave a message or send me an email if you find one I'll make it worth your time.

2016 Topps Series 1 - Half-assed Review

So I was hoping I'd have opened a couple Jumbo hobby packs aquired from Bosco's Trade Night last night, but they hadn't gotten their shipment in so in the end I just stopped at the local Fred Meyer's and picked a handful of retail packs.  My review is only as good as the stuff I got from those packs.  I did get a nice assortment and sample of the insert sets and I did get to feast my eyes on the new base cards.

Let take a look at this years base cards.  It would be hard to follow last year's base set.  So colorful, so out of the box.  I can see from comments around the internet that last year's sets uniqueness had worn off for some, but I do still really like the set.  So this year Topps went borderless. They also went a little artsy fartsy with the fogging, but at least they didn't completely cut the player out of the background.  Over all it's a very solid design.  You've got the player name, team and position all neatly arranged and what I like to call the logo slash on the bottom part of the card.

 The backs are pretty typical.  Topps is using it's Series One designator again and I like the large card number in the upper right hand corner for easy collating.

I did notice that Topps went back and forth between which side of the card the slash was on.  I'm not sure if it's significant or just random, but it doesn't appear to be based on league or position.  I thought it might be related to numbering, like certain blocks have the slash on one side and other blocks of cards have it on the other.  Anyone know?

 It does create a cool effect if you place two cards side by side.

They could have made a cool bifold card, kind of like the ones Pacific use to put out.


Since 1992 Topps has had a gold parallel card and here is an example of this years Gold Parallel.

It might be hard to tell, but the card is a shiny foilboard and the fog is replaced by those gold hexagons.

Topps is continuing their First Pitch insert.  I guess this was pretty popular last year, although not one of my favorites.

Next up is the mandatory Topps reprint insert set.  I could be wrong, but it seems like every year we get another insert set that is just like this.  While this is not my least favorite insert set this year, it is the most unnecessary.  I'm all for honoring Sy Berger, but I think someone could have come up with something better than a reprint set.  I am happy though that Robin Yount is featured in it and it's not his 75 Rookie, or 74 (See last post).  I got two of these, Molina and one of Ripken's two from the set.

You might be asking what is my least favorite insert set this year... And sadly it's another set that my favorite player is featured in.  Meet Back to Back.  I have no idea what 's going on here.  I'm guessing that it's suppose to look like two guys backing each other up or something.  Not very well executed. This theme has been done before, most notably by Donruss and now Panini with their Back 2 Back Jacks inserts.  I'm not sure if that's what the Back to Back is suppose to mean, since when you read the back, of at least this card, Josh and Troy have never gone Back to Back that I know of.

OK enough negativity.  I'll feature my favorite insert that I've seen so far. Perspectives.  From the few I've seen and held these are pretty interesting and I mean that in a good way.  They remind me of the TV show Fringe.  Anyone remember it?  The show use to set up scenes with these cool perspective titles in the show that were angled to fit the shot.  Just like this.  This is probably going to be the one insert set I try to put together.  And the few I've seen the photos are pretty cool too.  That Polonco is just a great shot.

Next up we have Walk Off Wins.  Meh. I'm very middle of the road here, don't hate it, but meh.

A cool concept insert featuring a position player who ended up having to pitch in a game.  Although after reading Stan's write up on the back I wonder how far Topps had to reach to fill this set out.  And from what I can tell only one of the cards actually shows the player pitching.

The last insert I snagged was a MLB Wacky Packages promo sticker.  Remember when card companies would put promo cards in other sets to promote another?

Overall I like the base set design.  It's pretty solid and I can't complain.  The color parallels look pretty good.  The inserts are what they are, other than the Perspectives set not much jumped out at me, but I also haven't seen a few of the insert sets in hand yet, so maybe another will grown on me.  Plus if your a Cubs or Royals Fan there are lots of Wrigley Field and World Series insert cards to collect.

I think I'm probably going to wait and just buy a set outright instead of trying to put a set together from packs.  I figure I can save myself about $300, but I know I'll be buying a few random packs here and there.

What do you guys think of this years flagship set?

Don't make him angry....you wouldn't like him when he's angry

Love him or hate him Ryan Braun is the face of the Brewers. As a Brewers fan that fact disturbs me a little.  Mainly because we have and have had other players that could easily have replaced him.  I have forgiven him for his steroid use and the whole circus that followed. Well forgiven him to a degree, he did get a man fired for doing his job just to save his ass for a year.  But that's a whole other story.  

Regardless of Ryan's past transgressions I've wanted to add his autograph to my collection for a long time.  And up to a few years ago that would have cost me big bucks.  Oh what a few years and a steroid scandal can do.  After selling a few things on ebay I had a little money to play with and decided to see I could find.  I wasn't sure which way I wanted to go, just an auto, a relic auto, dual auto.   After looking for a few weeks I found this beautiful 2015 Topps Five Star on card auto.  Overall I really like the look of the card.  I had thought about trying to track down one of those great looking black cards with silver signature, but this card fell into my lap and I ended up picking it up for less than $10 delivered.  

Redemption

How long have you waited for a redemption?  For me it was over a year and a half for my John McEnroe Allen and Ginter auto.

So having to wait over 6 months for this redemption shouldn't seem all that bad, but I started to worry that I might not get it and even more I'd have to take a substitution.  I've been lucky enough that even if I've had to wait a while I still got the card I put the redemption in for.  I was super excited a few weeks ago when I notice Odell Beckham Jr. finally signed his stickers for Topps.  You may, or more likely, not remember since it was so long ago I ended up picking up a cheap box of 2014 Prime and pulled a redemption for this copper parallel autograph.

Fast forward to about 7 o'clock this evening and a FedEx truck pulls up and low and behold here it is.the Autographed Rookie Variation Copper Parallel card.  

Prices are still holding strong for Odell's autos, but I'll probably wait till football season to let it go. Still I'm glad I finally got it.

2015 Topps Tribute Recalled!!

Just thought I'd throw this out there.  I'm sure you might have already seen this if you follow Topps on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, but Topps has officially announced a recall of the this years Tribute Baseball.  Topps is asking for shops to return all unopened product.  It has also said that it will replace any damaged cards with cards of equal value, uh oh.

Couple of thoughts.  First, I don't know if I've ever heard of a sports card product ever being recalled.

Second, what the hell happened to quality control?  Yes I know Topps has had issues before.  Like Five Star and it's flagship product a few years ago.  As a matter of fact I've seen quite a few comments on damage in this years Series 1 baseball.  I have no idea how Topps handles it's pack out especially for high end stuff, but it seems to be that someone really dropped the ball.

Third, is Topps going to reissue this set later?  There has been a ton of product already opened, but I'm sure there is still quite a bit sitting on the selves.  What's going to happen to the base cards and hit's that aren't damaged that are being returned?

My final thought is Topps has really screwed the pooch on this one, but in the end it won't matter.  They have their exclusive deal for another 5 years and we really don't have much of a choice if we want new baseball cards.  That being said if this is an isolated incident I think Topps will bounce back alright, but if this is just a harbinger of things to come I don't know if Topps can last 5 more years putting out a crap product and having to do a full recall.

Thoughts?

I'm kind of speechless.

Topps released some images featuring the 2015 Topps Football cards. This will mark Topps' 60th and last set.  At least for the foreseeable future.

This is what they've come out with to end their run.  I really have no words to describe what I'm seeing.  

Feel free to comment on the design.

2015 Topps Series 1-- cuz it says so right on the back!

I always get excited when the new Topps flagship baseball comes out.  It's a new year, spring training and then opening day are right around the corner.  I'm not nearly as excited when Series 2 comes out or update, but Series 1, well that's all new.

I ended up going to Bosco's trade night last night.  I pondered not going, I hadn't been in in a few month and didn't have any tickets yet to the drawing, but I knew this would be the last trade night at their current location, they're moving into a new, fully renovated, custom designed nerdtopia on Valentines Day, that and Series 1 was out.

I've been trying to be good about my spending habits and I had even contemplated not buying any packs at all and just buying a cheap set somewhere down the line, but in the end I picked up 3 jumbo packs, because hey I love to rip packs!  So lets see what I got and look at some Topps.


There was a lot of talk about the base design.  After getting some of these cards in hand I really like the look of the border.  I'll give credit where credit is due and Topps really went outside their comfort zone with this one.  And I like it.  As a matter of fact I think the last time we got a base card this unique and colorful was way back in 1990.

 I also have to say they did an excellent job on the backs as well.  Large, readable card numbers in the upper right hand side will make for easy collation for those of us who still store our sets in boxes.  Topps even added the Series One over the number.  I'm not sure if that was necessary, but it really doesn't hurt, and it might foreshadow something to come in a later set.

Topps also brings back the Future Stars imprint.  Here's an example.

According to the Cardboard Connection checklist the Rainbow foil parallels fall 1:10, but I'm pretty sure you get one a pack in the jumbos.  I only found two, but I'm sure my third is still mixed in with the base.  They don't scan well and the two examples below look pretty much like their base counterparts.

 I also pulled two gold parallels.

Here's a look at the game piece for Topps' online promotion.

 Looks like once again I won't be able to participate.

Topps is once again ruining perfectly good vintage cardboard.  I pulled this 1974 Williams buyback.

 In years past Jumbo packs usually contained one of every insert, so you got about 40 base cards and 10 inserts per pack.  This year I'm pretty sure Topps scaled that back to about 5 inserts per jumbo pack.  I only pulled one of these Free Agent 40 cards in my 3 jumbos.

There seemed to be a lot of excitement over these First Pitch inserts.  I really don't understand why, the set doesn't really appeal to me and reminds me of those Fans of the Game inserts Donruss put out years ago.  I think the only one I'd be interested in would be the Jeff Bridges card, who wouldn't want a card of the Dude.

I got one of the Inspired Play inserts.  I like the overall look, design, and theme.

I also got one Baseball History.  These cards are set  up like Garbage Pail Kids with A and B versions, the A versions are World History and the B versions are Baseball history, I guess.

 I'm not sure why, but I really like these Archetypes inserts.  Maybe it's because I pulled a Hank Aaron.

Lastly I pulled 3 Highlight of the Year inserts. An interesting note on insertion.  All of the inserts were inserted in the middle of the pack, like they normally have been for years.  All except these inserts.  All three of these were inserts on the bottom of the pack.  I'm not sure if that means anything, but it did jump out at me as I opened them.

You can see I didn't really get anything to write home to mom about.  One note is that all of the inserts are numbered for this series.  Something I bitched about a lot when it seems Topps for some reason lettered all the cards in the Update series last year.  There are also a couple retail only inserts, like Robbed and the First Home Run cards.  You'll also notice Topps didn't do a mini insert this year and they also didn't do a large insert set.  I think the largest set is only 40 cards, where in years past they usually had a large continuity insert over 50 cards that usually spanned all three series.  It looks like the Highlight of the Year insert will be the only insert being continued into Series 2 and if it's continued into Update the set will have 90 cards, but that's a far cry from years past with the continued inserts sets reaching 150 cards or more.

Some of the bigger hits are just now starting to hit ebay and like usual I'm sure there are all sorts of variations and other surprises to find.  Overall I think Topps did a good job this year, shaking up the insert formula, going bold on the base design, and mixing up their insert themes so they aren't all so similar.