Stale Gum's Blog Bat Around Fixing Topps

I'm sure you've already seen a few of these posts.  Chris over at Stale Gum posted this Blog Bat Around:


"In the interest of full disclosure, I was going to post my annual rant about Topps Baseball. But, you've heard it all before and the last think you want to read is another anti-gimmick diatribe. So instead, I'm opening up the floor and want to hear from you. Here's the Blog Bat Around question:


Michael Eisner has just fired the entire Topps Product Development staff and chose to hire you to take their place. Mr. Eisner has given you carte blanche to do whatever you want with Topps Baseball -- as long as you keep it under $2/pack.

If you were in charge of Topps, and based upon what you've seen of 2011 Topps Baseball Series One, what (if anything) would you have done differently?"


I figure I'd throw my two cents in the ring since I can.

First lets be clear I love the ecclectia in trading cards, the weird stuff, oddballs, minis, die-cuts, ect.  I miss the food issues from the 70's, 80's and 90's and I hate the exclusivity deals in the the sports card world, all sports included. 

So what would I do?   Let start off with this year.  All the pointless crappy inserts gone.  That means, The History of Topps, Diamond Duos, 60 Years of Topps reprints, Topps Town and the Topps 60th inserts, all gone.  I like the idea of the Lost Cards.  But why make these look like the 60 YOT reprints?  Even the backs look the same.  I think it's a great concept and interesting, at least I find it interesting. 

OK lets rebuild.  First the abortion that is the Topps web presence has to go.  New website and blog.  I hire at least one full time person to run it, add content and keep it up to date.  I add current, easy to use and complete checklists for all products released and if possible upcoming.  I make the redemption center easy to use and up to date with current status of redemptions.  The Topps Giveaway sites I make easier to use and trade with fellow collectors, I put out a sane shipping policy and pricing.

Next I fire the guy they hired to handle complaints and customer service and I hire two guys (or girls) to over see quality control.  That means all cards going into packs, all hits, the quality of the hits and autographs, and customer service.  That means I don't have to provide 20 wrappers, a upc, receipt, and my social security number to get a card replaced. 

Next I start an forum where collectors can voice their opinions on what they like and dislike about the product.  A place to get feedback on what collector's would like to see and what they don't want to see. 

No more claiming that a manufactured product is a relic.  Truth on the box.  Jumbo's contain, 1 auto, 1 relic and 1 other collectible.  As stated above I like the oddballs and weird stuff.  That's why I liked the Hat Patch and Bat Barrel cards.  And why I like the idea of the glove name plates, just not the execution of the idea.

Get rid of pointless sets like Opening Day and Chrome that use the same picture's, layout, and design as the base flagship set.  I like the look of Chrome, not the with the current warping issues, but shiny is never bad.  If we are going to put out a chrome product it'll be different.  If nothing else the Opening Day and Chrome cards can be parallel inserts.  Hell lets make them numbered parallel inserts like Gold and Black cards.  And we are going back to foil number stamping.  No more of this black printed numbering.  It looks like shit and cheapens the cards.

Let's reduce the number of retro sets.  We'll keep A and G and Heritage, but no more National Chicle or Gypsy Queen and lets bring Prime over to baseball or at least the concept or maybe revamp Stadium Club. We'll make the retro card inserts instead. 


Here's a radical idea.  No more sticker autos!  As a matter of fact, to bring value back to the autos in the set, no more guaranteed "hits"  All relics and autos are numbered and limited and all autos are on card.  Now wait your saying wha? no way I won't buy it unless I know I'm getting an auto or jersey card.  Really, so the only reason you would buy that box is if you know that you'll get a sticker auto of a crappy pitcher or a white swatch relic from some unrated rookie?  What if I told you there might be a Albert Pujols auto in that box numbered to 25?  Or Alex Rodriguez, or a Hank Aaron Relic auto numbered to 5?  Still no value in the box?  Let's bring back inserts like Rookie Stars and Turn back the clock.  How about tiered inserts, oddballs, and buybacks.

Here was an idea I had for a great insert and buyback idea.  Topps has had a lot of interesting experiments over the years none so pointless as Topps Coins.  Now I don't really want Topps to put out a set of coins again but how about as an insert.  You could embedded the coin in a card, you could have a new inserts set with new coins and a buyback set with coins from the 60's and 70's and maybe stars from the 80's and 90's sets.  Comic cards, lenticular cards, holograms, stand ups, tattoos, posters, minis, triple cards that are perforated like 1980-81 basketball.  Variety.  No more half-ass rehashing a insert from last year to make it "new" for this year.


I'm torn on set size.  I'm tempted to say screw it lets go back to the early days and having 4 or 5 series'.  200 cards in each series and Series 5 will be the traded and rookie call ups series.  A 1000 card set all together.  This will let us get photos of players that have changed teams in the off season and any other things that might need to be done.  For those that say there are too many inserts this next statement won't make you happy. But reducing the series size would allow for more inserts and oddballs to be put into rotation.  Mix it up.  A reduced series size means I don't need to buy as many packs to complete the base set but if there are cool inserts and a change as a kick as low numbered auto or something else I  might be compelled to buy more packs.  Who knows.

Did I just fuck up Topps?  Maybe I don't care.  Give me quality, good customer service, access, and variety.  And for god's sake give me something new.  2011 has some new.  Kimball's and diamond parallels, but a lot of rehashed redo's, 60 YOT, Diamond Duos, and the Diamond Giveaway(opinion still pending till it gets going).

Just my opinion though and pretty spur of the moment but this is what I came up with off the top of my head.

cb out

Try Harder

Or maybe you can call this 2011 Review Redux.....


2011 Topps..... I said I like it and I do. As the newness of it all has finally worn off and my rose colored glasses have shattered, I'm sitting here thinking of what I like and don't like.  I think I gave a fairly decent review of Topps.  I'll stand by my rating.  I mean if you're a set builder this is the set.  We get all caught up in the "hits" and rightfully so considering the cost of a box of baseball cards nowadays.  I would love to have hit a personalized 60th anniversary auto or some of the other goodies, but I didn't.

So lets talk about Topps "hits" this year.  On the jumbo box it clearly states that you will receive 1 Autographed card and 2 relics.

So when did a manufactured "relic" become a relic?  By definition a sports relic is something that was game used or at least associated with the game.  There were lots of controversy over Topps using pieces of seats in Babe Ruth relic cards and calling them relics.  And I'll call bullshit on that to.  While a piece of a Yankee Stadium Seat would be a fine relic in and of itself trying to make it represent something that it is not, is not acceptable.  The same goes for Manufactured "relics".  I like the Manu-patch, Manu-bats, and even to a point these new Manu-glove cards.  They are what they are.  But they are not Relics.  And I wouldn't even be the least bit pissed if Topps just stated on its Jumbo boxes, 1 Auto, 1 Relic and 1 Manufactured collectible. 

Now lets get to brass tacks here.  The manufactured hat patches and bat barrels were a nice new concept collectible.  Well executed, if not well represented.  And while Topps put out a lot of subjects last year with hat patch and bat cards, some players had multiple designs, all the cards were numbered no higher than 99.

Here are a few examples

Remember these are the regular issue ones.  I don't think the Hat Patches had lower numbered parallels, but the bat barrels did.

Now this year.

No numbering.  And lets check out the quality.  This is a scan of the Cano I pulled from my box break.  Ignore the smudges that's from my scanner and the top loader.  But look at the stitching.

Here is the Topps teaser image release prior to the ship date

First, two things, yes this is a photoshopped image.  By Topps not me.  Second you'll notice that they took the Manufactured glove leather nameplate and changed it to just leather name plate.  And if you look at this card look how nice the lettering is.  Yes Topps did state that these would be stitched in their sell sheet but that stitching looks way nicer than the actual product, way nicer!  Look how crappy the pound sign is on the Cano card. And I doubt that it's real leather.  If it is it's super thin, it doesn't feel real.    And not being numbered means that these were produced in huge numbers.  And I guess they would have to be considering that according to the checklist there are only 50 subjects as opposed to the Hat Logo Patches that had 186 subjects alone in Series 1. 

What I find most disappointing is Topps takes a neat idea and just drives it into the ground.  The hat patch and bat barrel cards were new, looked cool, and had new and old stars, variations, and were relatively scarce. 

Yes the Leather Nameplates have numbered variations, but these are now the exception not the rule.  And I've mention this and so have quite a few other bloggers, the stitching looks cheap, shoddy, and poorly executed.  A stamped or branded name plate would have looked much nicer and probably have been a little higher quality. And hold on because we are going to get at least 50 more of these in Series 2. 

Topps continues it's "free" giveaway with the Diamond Anniversary Giveaway.  I'm not sure when that site will start for business, probably in March after the MCG is done, but if it's anything like the Million Card Giveaway or the Gridiron Giveaway I would wait a while before trying to enter your codes, so the bugs get worked out.  I'll wait till I see what starts coming out of that to pass judgement. 

The MCG started out hot and was a good idea, but one million 1987 cards later it doesn't seem so hot.  To be fair I didn't do too shabby with the codes I entered.  Yes there were quite a few 80's, 90's and 2000's in the mix, but the majority of my codes turned up 70's cardboard.  I got a few 50's and a handful of 60's.  I just got my cards in the mail, that's another post, but I'm not overly impressed with the quality of the cards I got.  I'm debating if it's worth having any more shipped to me or just saying screw it.

It seem by far that everyones favorite insert is the Kimball's Champions.  I knew I would be trying to put a set of these together when I saw them on the sell sheet.  I love minis and I love the retro inserts.  I'm still trying to finish my 2009 and 2010 Turkey Red sets.  I have a feeling that this might be even harder to finish as it seems everyone wants to collect these guys.  I have a want list up for my set if anyone has some they'd like to get rid of.  I didn't have a single double out of my 2 boxes so I got a nice 20 card base going.  Only 30 more to go.

We also have the Diamond parallels.  I guess these are officially Platinum Diamond Parallels.  Unnumbered, but oh so shiny. I like to call these the sparkle cards. 

I won't lie I like the look of these cards and I'll be trying to put together a Brewers Team set but I won't be trying to complete a complete set.  I like the feel of these cards and there not bendy like Chrome. 

 I really enjoy the base design as well.  I think this is the most important for me as a set collector. Topps put together a really nice design this year.  And looking at the sparkle cards I think it should be a great Chrome set this year as well.  As long as Topps can fix it's Chrome warping problem.  I was just looking at some Chrome from last years set and they're starting to bend so bad I think they'll be able to roll around my deck like a toilet paper rolls pretty soon.  We can hope that gets taken care of.  And since Topps hasn't been coming out with a new Football design in years I would expect this to be the basic layout for 2011 Football too.  Maybe the circle with the logo will be a football and the back will have footballs instead of circles with the card number and player picture, but pretty much the same I would assume.  I wonder if the sparkle cards will carry over into football?  I will say I would like to see some new inserts in football this year.  Maybe not manufactured relics but something innovative would be nice.

Any comments are welcome. 

CB out

2011 Topps Review and 2 Jumbo Box break

Hey did you know Topps Series 1 is out?  Yeah I know it's a little over due and I'm probably the 1,000,000th post on the subject but screw it.  This post is going to get heavy.  But it'll have lots of pictures so bare with me.  I was going to post the results of my two Jumbo boxes and do a fairly painful analysis of this years product and put it out as two separate posts but screw it.  I'll get to the hits eventually but first some insights, comparisons, and thoughts about this year's Topps set verses the last couple.

First lets check ou this years design.  I like it.  I really do.  Nothing too fancy.  I was kinda hoping for less foil, but this actually works pretty well.   The players names are large enough to read. Nice logo, position is out of the way, and out of the 800 or so base cards I got, I only noticed one foil defect, and it wasn't that bad.  I also had no damaged cards in any of the packs, so I'm pretty happy about that as well. And lots of throwback jersey's this year too.  Like the one Mr. Braun is sporting.

Speaking of the logo, Colbey over at Cardboard Collections mention this a few days ago but the logo has a 3D effect going on.

It's probably hard to see from a scan, but in hand it's noticeable.  It's not Avatar eye popping 3D, but the shading and graphics due lend to a nice optical illusion, and yes Colbey I think Topps planned it that way.



On to the back.  Nice symmetry, a cute little photo in the left hand corner, and a nice BIG number in the right hand circle.  This is a big point of contention with me.  I hate it when Topps makes it's card numbering small and hard to see.

This is what I'm talking about.  This is 2009's backs.  That number is teeny tiny and for a set collector collating a set a pain in the ass.

2011's back also put the numbering space right in the middle of the back of the card, as opposed to the last few years that had the space in the bottom left hand corner.  See above.  I still wish they hadn't gone to the printed numbers I miss the gold stamped numbers, classier.

All in all I really like the look of the base cards.  Now on to the inserts.  Oh boy.

This has been the biggest complaint I've seen around the blogsphere about the set.  Mainly that this years inserts are pretty much carbon copies of last years.  Unfortunately, that's pretty much true.  But there are a few nice inserts.

First I'll start with the Topps 60 reprints.  This is pretty much a carbon copy of the Yo momma cards or Cards your mother threw out from last year.

Here we have my first 2011 Yount card.  A reprint of his 1976 sophmore card.

Here's what the back's look like.

There are also Topps: The Lost Cards that look just like this set with almost identical backs.  I got a few of those too.  But didn't scan any. Sorry. Imagine an old baseball card that didn't exist. 

There are also original backs with these inserts, like the Yo Momma cards. I got 3 out of 20 jumbo packs so I hit about 1:7 packs or so.

Here's a look at those.

Pretty much the same as last year.  And to be honest I'm tired of all the reprint cards.  I will not be putting this set together, but if anyone has an original back Yount,  I'd be willing to trade for it.

There's also another reprint set this year and this one I do kinda like.  It's the vintage reprint set.

I got 11 out of 20 packs.  These are kinda neat. I think I like them more because the have a cardboard back.

I'm not sure what the CMGR prefix means, maybe Cards Your Grandma Threw out?  No that doens't work who knows? Looking at the selling info I see this listed as Reproduction cards.  OK, that doens't help either.

Now we get to my favorite insert in the series.  The Kimball Champions.  I love mini's and I love the retro insert.  I loved the Turkey Red inserts from the last two years as well.  These cards are pretty nice.

Just to show a nice grouping off.  I'll be collecting this set for sure. Everything else probably not.

I'll have a want list up pretty soon so if you have some you'd like to trade for let me know.

Next up probably the most hated of all inserts Ticket to Topps Town.

I'll be honest I don't hate theses cards.  I haven't hated Topps Town cards at all since they started putting players on the cards.  Do you remember when Topps Town came out in 2008 what the cards looked like.  No player just ToppsTown on one side and the code on the back.  I couldn't find one to scan and I couldn't find one on the Internet to post sorry.  Every year these cards get a little better.  This year they look like Panini make them with the shiny foil board.  I didn't see any gold variations in my packs and I'm not sure if they have one this year, anybody?

Let's take a quick look back at ToppsTown over the years.

2009

2010

See they keep getting a little better.  At least with a player on the front they are somewhat collectible.

I think my least favorite set this year are these pointless cards



Diamond Duos.  And there parents the Legendary Lineage cards from last year were very unpopular with me.  OK, the Boggs/Youkilis card I can see, but the Maddux/Hellickson?  Really what do these two have in common.  Hmmmm maybe it'll tell me on the back.

Oh Hellickson watch Maddux play. Dumb.  Pointless.  Most of these are like this with very thin association with the duo, even with players that played on the same team. Oh and there not numbered there lettered. Topps this is terrible, now I need a checklist, do you have one up at your website?  No, nothing from most of last year either?  Great.

Next we get to a insert that seems to get a lot of hate, but not by me.  I get why this insert is here and it ain't that bad. And with only 10 card in the set it's small and fairly hard to hit. 

Why it's the history of Topps!!.  20 jumbo packs 5 History of Topps cards.  At least Topps didn't put out 3 history sets this year. Remember last year with the History of the World Series, History of the Game, and Tales of the Game.  Jeez, talk about redundancy.  I get why these are here though.  Topps is celebrating 60 years so why not a Topps Retrospect.  I think I like the look of the backs better though.

They've got a comic book feel.

Lastly we get to the Topps 60th anniversary cards.

Here's a trio of Yanks for you.

I kinda like these cards they have a nice look. I'm not jumping up and down with glee for them but they're not terrible.

I think that wraps up all the regular inserts.  Now we get down to my Jumbo break.  All the above 2011 cards were part of that break plus many, many more.  I'm just showing samples of the inserts you don't need to see all 20 Kimball's or Topps 60, Reprints, ect.

But lets start with the parallels.  This year we have quite a few  if you count the ultra rare platinum cards, printing plates and canary diamonds, which I didn't get any of, and of course the new unnumbered diamond parallels.

DIAMONDSSSSSSS!  Now imagine I'm Mumm-ra from Thundercats saying that.  Very, very shiny.  I think Topps could have done away with the gold parallels and just numbered these bad boys.  Sorry the scan cut off the bottom it's hard to fit 20 cards even on a large format scanner.

The golds.  All numbered to 2011.

And one black numbered to 60.

It seems I got the Orioles box, three of my hits were Orioles and yes I consider this black parallel a hit.  One out of 20 packs.

I also got one variation.  Yastrazemski!!! Nice.

On to the relics. Each Jumbo boasts1 auto and 2 relics, but they consider the manufactured glove cards relics as well, even though they are not, I digress.

Nice, an Express relic.  I have no problem getting a jersey or pants piece,  kinda looks like a pants piece, from a pitching legend.  Nothing better than to watch a Rangers game and see Nolan dozing off now a days.

My one Brewer's relic.  The fat veggie himself  Prince Fielder.  I'm glad he's coming back for at least one more year.  I'll probably end up getting one of these from A Cardboard Problems group break but I don't care.

On to the autos.

The second of my Orioles hits.  Tillwho? 

Hey I know who this guy is.  Sweet.

Hey it's another Orioles pitcher who I don't know.  And the third Orioles hit between the two boxes.  But I do believe this is a case hit. I really like the silks it's a cool insert and being numbered to 50 doesn't hurt. Oddly enough this card was in the same box as another "case" hit.

The gloves.

These cards have been getting a little heat.  I guess rightly so.  I mean these cards aren't even numbered.  Last year all the hat patch cards and bat barrels were all numbered no higher than 99.  This year the Manuglove leather brown nameplates aren't even numbered.  I actually like the look of these though, I sure Topps had these mass produced over in China for pennies.  I'll agree the stitching seems silly.  I would have rather had the leather stamped or even better had the names burned in.  Now that would have been cool.

I do like the black parallels with the white stitching.  This worked well for the bat barrels in last year's Update Series and it works pretty good here.  It's a nice contrast.  Plus these are numbered.  I guess there's a super rare Gold nameplate version.  I'll have to look around ebay later to see if any of these have hit.

I'm pretty happy that both my glove cards were well known players.

All in all I'm pretty happy with what I got outta these boxes.  I got the black Price glove in the same box as the silk so that was a pretty sweet box.  I'm not opposed to trading for any of the cards here, but I do plan on putting most of this on ebay once the initial flood ebbs in a week or so. So if you have something kickass to offer make it quick and please don't ask me what I want for them, make an offer that's how trading works.  The gold and diamonds I'd love to trade for gold and diamond Brewers cards and I'm looking for Kimballs as well, I'll have the list up tonight.

There are also Twinkle variations as seen from postings around the web.  I spent a good portion of last night looking through my base cards and didn't come up with a one.  I would assume they would be inserted in the middle with all the other inserts and parallels, like the Yaz variation was. 

Over all not a bad flagship offering this year.  I like the base and some of the inserts.  Others not so much.  I'll give it a B for what I pulled.  We'll have to see if I can make any money back on the hits to help offset the high price of the boxes.  I think I got a fairly good price at least on release day.  I'm sure if I waited a month or so prices might come down but with Blowout selling boxes for about 135 a pop my LCS did all right by me. 

I haven't collated my set yet. I'm sure I've got at least one complete from the two jumbos maybe close to two.  There seems to be a lot of players in Series one with multiple cards in the base.  Like Strasburg, Holliday, and Rodriguez to name a few.

I'm going to give this a cynicalbuddha rating of .....

Level 3 Whaaaaa baby,  there's some good stuff in here, worth a few packs and the holy grail for set collectors so buy a box.  Maybe wait till the newness and crazy prices come down, but a nice set design and some cool stuff inside, it would have been awesome to pull a 60th personalized auto card or 1/1 but I'm not Beckett.






Comments always welcome. Did you hit anything good?