Giga Trade Part 5 - The Topps Edition

Wow. So many cards. I mean, really, a lot of cards were in that box Ted of Crinkly Wrappers sent in exchange for one measly little Zeenuts card. This is just a taste of the large handful of Topps cards he sent:

The oldest card Ted sent me was this 1975 Gorman Thomas card. I kind of like the colorful design of the set, kind of an homage to the hippie love of the late '60s. 1979 wasn't a bad design either. I like the old Topps logo.

John Smoltz... someone just posted that they need this card. The 1989 set is near and dear to my heart - it was the first pack of cards I remember ever opening. I was an A's and Giants fan then (Atlanta was a world away) so I wouldn't have thought twice about this card. And while many people don't like the 1990 set, I do. It defines the '80s, and while the colors don't match team colors (what's a Padre blue?) it's a decent modern design.

Topps celebrates its anniversary every year, it seems. Why do I like Topps from 1989-1992 so much? This is a pretty good simple design, ain't nothing wrong with that! I just realized that 1995 card is a ToppsGold. I was a winner in 1992 with those scratchoffs. At least Topps was smart enough to stick the Winner stamp on those cards to maintain the integrity of the regular Topps Gold inserts. I like the 1995 set design, because of the edges of the photos and the use of a handwritten-looking font. It feels more casual and fun, like baseball should be. Of course, Topps went digital with the Cyberstats concept, which kind of takes away from the theme.

I'm going to jump from this decent 1996 card - nothing really obscuring the photo except for a TV-graphic style nameplate at the bottom, to the 2009 release, which wasn't all that impressive to me. It isn't bad, it just feels like Upper Deck with a white border. In fact, so does the 1996 card.

I guess Topps realized they were getting blocky like Upper Deck and decided to go with curves the past couple of years. There's too much invasiveness with the curve in 2010, but the arcing nameplate with the circle baseball logo of 2011 really hits the spot.

Stadium Club was Topps' answer to Upper Deck - and just like Upper Deck's 1989 release, this one came in very slowly, driving prices through the roof. It featured full-bleed photography (I believe a first for major card manufacturers) and a simple, enjoyable design with gold foil highlighting. The basic design would remain similar through the 1993 release - gold foil lines with the same logo.

As you can see in the 1999 (left) and 1998 issues, the design was still simple and unobtrusive, even though the logo and foil color changed. You can see a change to more fluid, active design in these issues.

The 2008 issue was the last for Stadium Club, released after being gone for five years. It's a shame they played a big experiment, with confusing short print schemes throughout the set. I'd rather have a coherent Stadium Club set than Topps Chrome. Speaking of Chrome, there's the 2007 issue to the right. I like the refractors, but the regular Chrome sets just never impress me.

In 1993 Topps released Finest, the first ultra-premium brand. In fact, Finest and the regular Topps issues are the only baseball sets still being issued from that year. Beckett still values some of the '93 Finest Refractors as high as $500.

Topps Heritage - this still feels like a novelty concept to me, putting modern players on copies of older releases. However, Topps has a huge following on this line, and it's one of the best sets for set builders, and while it's not for me, I won't be the one calling for its end.

Topps has released several other brands over the years, including a few attempts at Bazooka, which seemed to always have at least one interesting insert to it - I liked the themed relics from the mid 2000s. And Topps '52 Style is another throwback set which focused on rookies. While the original 1952 set was groundbreaking, the design really isn't that great. I prefer the 1953 Topps issue over '52.

Gallery focused on "art" themes applied to the players, while using photographic images, for several years. Eventually they switched to actual art, and those are the years I collected. Another long-running painted set is Allen & Ginter. Ted sent one card each from '07-'10.

Total was a massive set. I think the idea was to give everyone who played a major league game the year before a card, an idea I think should be used in the base Topps set. Since Topps secured a minor league license, they've issued Pro Debut, which as you see is the same style as the regular release, with minor league team colors and logos. I wish they would put who the team is an affiliate of on the back - it says that Pelzer was drafted by the Padres, but what if he was traded before coming to the Missions? I'd have to actually check the affiliates online to figure out what teams I would like. While that's not hard to do, if I was at a card show flipping through singles I'd want a somewhat easy way of finding the team I follow.

I've talked about National Chicle a few times. I like the set. Everyone gave this set such a hard time because of the Ruth card - hey, Babe Ruth played for the Braves,  even if it was for part of a season at the end of his career. And the pose matches a Babe Ruth Exhibits card (although he was in a Yankees uniform). And a lot of people didn't like the set because of a lack of strong autographs, but several of the prospects have turned out okay so far. The art is interesting and matches several of the styles National Chicle used back in the 1930s. I'll actually miss this set this year.

Everyone knows the story of Bowman's demise, being bought out by Topps to create a monopoly. And of course, come 1989, Bowman returned. It had several problems - mainly, it wasn't attractive and didn't provide anything over what was already available (see the 1990 card to the left). Not to mention the 1989 set wasn't issued in a standard size. However, 1992 meant a better quality card with a focus on rookies, and a new monster was born. Bowman is still the home of the rookie card, although the parallel "Chrome" set tends to get the credit now.

Speaking of Chrome, here are the '08 and '09 issues. Bowman and Chrome keep the same basic design from year to year - it seems that they have a black border most of the time with a colored inner frame, and usually feature the player's autograph on the front. What I want to know is why Bowman is still released, if Chrome is so important. I'm glad see one of the two sets disappear (or make Chrome a parallel in the Bowman set, actually) - do the same for regular Topps - issue Chrome and Refractors as parallels like is done with Heritage.

Bowman Heritage was a run replicating the early Bowman sets. I'm trying, slowly, to complete the original 1948 set (patterned in the 2001 set to the left), even though it's a boring set. A black and white photo with a white border. Yawn. But it was the first post-war set, so it has significance.

I like this 2007 card. Can you guess why? Of course, it's a painted set! Or looks that way - it could be photoshopped. 

This 2001 Bowman's Best is part of a premium version of Bowman released starting in 1994. It kind of phased itself out as Chrome took over. With the end of the Best, Chrome, and Sterling sets, Platinum is the next premium version of Bowman.

I didn't even begin to show you all the cards Ted sent, giving a great view of the evolution of cards and card companies over the past thirty-plus years. My last post in this series will look at the main part of the trade, where it all got started. Stay tuned, batfans!

Giga Trade Part 4 - The Upper Deck Edition

Upper Deck could be the most hated card company out there right now. But you can't deny they brought about many innovations in card manufacturing still seen today. Here are some of the Upper Deck cards Ted of Crinkly Wrappers sent:

Of course, we start with 1989. I like this issue - it is a really nice design. The 1990 and 1991 designs weren't that exciting, but I like the 1992 design. Maybe it's the baseball fading into the picture from the logo, or the shadow design around the photo, or maybe it's because this was the first Upper Deck set I could finally afford to collect.

1994 wasn't that great for Upper Deck. Sure, they went full-bleed, but I don't like the design too much. They could have left out the squished black and white Chipper or put the team name over that picture. This is the first year that Upper Deck used a blocky, technology-oriented design. They would follow this formula through 2010. I do like the 2000 issue, though - a nice design. Notice the technology design concept - lines and dots.

2004 had too much going on around the player's name, position, jersey number, and team logo. There's some other photo used as a background there - in fact there's a scoreboard with a Budweiser advertisement on this one. 2006 wasn't spectacular, but left a lot of room to showcase the great photography. Both sets again feature blocked sections.

Now this 2008 card is pretty much perfect if you're showcasing great photography. Minimalist at its extreme - information given in foil right over the photo, except for the laser fading red light coming from the position "home plate" foil stamp. 2009 went back to a background around logos, positions, etc - a step backwards if you ask me.

The last Upper Deck issue was actually pretty nice. A font with some character and upper/lower case was used, you have a decent inset picture (instead of squished copy of the main photo), and the photo still rules the card. Again though, straight blocky sections, and fading lines return.

Collector's Choice was the backwards leap for Upper Deck, and I don't say that in a bad way. By the time Collectors Choice was released, Topps had Stadium Club, Donruss had Leaf, Fleer had Ultra, and Score had Pinnacle - every company had at least two sets, a basic brand and a premium brand. Upper Deck was already a premium release, so they put out Collector's Choice. I liked Collector's Choice - you still had interesting photography but at a cheaper price. Most of the designs weren't that great, but they weren't in-your-face intrusive like the late '80s Donruss and Score or 1991 Fleer. This 1998 design is actually pretty nice.

 SP was Upper Deck's premium brand, basically as their version of Finest or Flair. The SP brand would evolve over the years, becoming SP Authentic and spawning SP Legendary Cuts.

Legendary Cuts was all about cut signatures. However, they designed some fancy framing for the base cards and each year was pretty nice. This looks like a postage stamp, but it's still a decent design, if busy. Too bad there isn't any color to the photo.

Upper Deck dabbled in painted sets and I like both of these releases. Masterpieces is meant to look and feel like canvas paintings, and as far as I can tell, 2007 Masterpieces is far ahead of any other release yet on the number of parallels - I count 16, excluding plates. I think one of the Topps Chrome or Finest releases hit 11 one year, at most. They tend to hover around 7-8. Goodwin Champions is one of those love/hate sets, where baseball fans hate getting cards like this marathon runner but card collectors enjoy the true multi-sport branching. One thing's for sure, sets like Goodwin and Allen & Ginter bring certified autographs of many athletes who otherwise wouldn't have a card.

When I returned to collecting in 2003 after a 5-year haitus, Ovation was one of the first base sets that really wowed me. I really liked the baseball stitching image and embossing. I had seen it before (let's not forget Topps Embossed) and I've never collected the set, but I still enjoy these cards. Some Sweet Spot base sets feature the same basic idea, which makes sense given the product's concept. I like the Sweet Spot signatures, as long as they aren't fading away.

When I saw that the Baseball Heroes sets were released as premium products, I was quite disappointed. I can't afford $30-50/pack stuff. But I've always enjoyed the Baseball Heroes inserts, and I'm on a quest to build a complete set from the original 1990 releases through 2010. The easy stuff is done. I just need the rest.

That's all I have to show for Upper Deck, though Ted included much, much more. I'll finish the brand roundup with the next part of this series - Topps! With 60 years of history, it will have a good bit of images. Until then, happy collecting!

Giga Trade Part 3 - The Score and Stuff Edition

So many cards, so much to say! Now I'm going to look at the Score/Pinnacle brands cards Ted sent, and the few cards that came from a non-major manufacturer.

Score. I didn't scan these quite right - they go from right to left instead of left to right. I don't care for the first year or two of Score, it didn't provide anything other than another cheap card set. But starting in 1990, with the last 30 cards or so, they started including subsets. Dream Team, All-Stars, and other random stuff (remember the Bo Jackson black and white card?) were part of the base set. I have several of those subset cards in my This Card Is Cool collection, and eventually I will feature them here. Like many manufacturers in the 1990s, Score turned their subsets into inserts, and while some of the Score designs aren't bad (the Goose Gossage and Henry Rodriguez cards on the top, and Chipper, Bones, and Alomar on the bottom are decent designs), the sets never stood out and were always overproduced. In fact, Score, to me, defines Overproduction - 1988 Score will always be lower in my mind than 1988 Donruss, for instance. I don't think Score really ever brought anything quality to the hobby, which is probably why they went bankrupt in 1998.

Pinnacle was Score's answer to Upper Deck. The 1992 cards were glossy but unexciting. The double-fronted Team Pinnacle cards were a major hit though. I still have only a couple of them but I would like a full set. The 1993 set wasn't much better, but I like the look of 1994 (to the right).

Pinnacle kind of lost its edge and the 1995-1997 issues all looked about the same - lots of gold foil on the bottom taking up image space. Donruss - parallels. Fleer - inserts. Score - gold foil. However, the 1998 issue (right, too little, too late) was a nice design.

Score issued a few other sets in the 1990s - Select and Summit are shown here. Select was supposed to be a premium brand, but it never stood out. They even took it beyond Select, with Select Certified (really an answer to Leaf Limited and Topps Finest). Summit was just another set among the dozens released in the 1990s.

Obak is a throwback design from Tristar. I really like it but I never really buy any minor league stuff. Eventually I'll probably grab a set or try to put one together if boxes are cheap enough. This is one of three oddballs Ted sent.
Another oddball is Sportsflics, 1987 Bob Knepper shown. Sportsflics never really took off, though they made a small comeback in the '90s with a few releases.

Last for today, is this 1979 TCMA 1950s card. I really like what TCMA did in the '70s and '80s, releasing cards of retired players in topical sets. Most of the cards look the same Foster Castleman played for the Giants in New York, where this picture was probably taken (anybody familiar with the Polo Grounds?), but was traded to the Orioles when the Giants came to SF.

That's all for today - Upper Deck and Topps are left! So many cards, so many cards...