Topps Marquee: Yay or Nay? - Plus Finest and new Allen and Ginter sketches!

Three upcoming Topps baseball products have been revealed in the past week or so. Most people have already seen the details on Finest.

 I'm guessing the base cards will look something like the autographs. They look decent.

 I like large patches! And these two cards both  follow the same basic design, tying the set together.

 I've always been on the fence about the Finest Moments autographs/relics. They usually look decent, but I might want to recognize a different moment. With Halladay, I would want his autograph for my Perfect Game collection. This card kind of ruins that. On the other hand, if I just wanted the autograph for a Roy Halladay player collection, it wouldn't matter.

I haven't bought a Topps Finest pack/box in several years. I don't think I'll be any different this year, though I will enjoy this set more than in recent years. I don't think any set can compare to the 1993 edition, though. Depending on how those parallels really turn out, I may try for my first player rainbow with this set.

Now on to something totally new. Let's start with the Allen & Ginter. These are preview images of the "Baseball Highlights" sketches.

I like these sketches. Vibrant and lifelike, though they look more "National Chicle" style than Allen and Ginter. If this set isn't impossible to obtain I will probably put it together.

Last, the newest addition to the Topps line: Topps Marquee. Apparently it will be in the mid-level price range. What does that mean? If it's around $100 a box, you can count me in. I'll take a "risk" at $25 a hit. Each box should have an on-card autograph, autographed multi-relic, jumbo relic, and quad relic.

 The base card has a simple design. If the photography is on the level of Stadium Club, I want the set.

The on-card autographs. Are the gold autographs going to be ultra-thick? Will all cards be that way?

Here's a sample jumbo relic. I'm guessing most of the jumbo relics won't be patches. I would love to pull a nice big patch like this, though.

 These autographed relics look just like Tribute. This set kind of gives me the impression of being a poor man's Tribute. But that's okay - I like Tribute, but I'm a poor man.

Last, the quad relics. I need to get something out of the way, now that we've seen these three cards. Dual, triple, quad, six, twenty-five relic cards, you name it. If your card features one player, and there are two or more pieces of something that are exactly the same, those two pieces don't count as "dual" relics. In my mind, the Hernandez and Mauer autographed relic cards (as presented) each contain one relic. And the Ichiro has three. If you're going to include multiple swatches, use different colored jerseys, jerseys and bats, etc. Whatever happened to using gloves, shoes, balls, walls, etc? I loved some of the unique relics I could pull several years ago. And if they are using pants and jerseys, label them. It's not that hard. Donruss did it.

These could be my favorite relics ever. This isn't my card, by the way. But you have six different relics, from six different items.

Marquee is scheduled for a late August release.