There are a lot of sets I look forward to each year.
I go after the base set and some or all of the inserts from Topps, Gypsy Queen, Donruss, Diamond Kings, Gallery, Stadium Club, Allen & Ginter, and Goodwin Champions.
Topps Heritage has News Flashbacks, Museum Collection has Canvas Collection, and Pro Debut has Fragments of the Farm.
Opening Day also has some appealing sets every year. It's a budget option, but several of the inserts end up commanding decent premiums.
Of course, the base set design copies the flagship Topps design, with a couple parallels. There are short print variations as well. But I'm not really interested in the base set.
Along with the regular Opening Day Autographs set, you can find Ballpark Profile Autographs, with 11 announcers and broadcasters. I had to get myself a copy of the Chip Caray card. There are also autographed relic cards and autographed parallels of some of the inserts.
And along with the usual relic set and memorabilia parallels of inserts, there is Diamond Relics, with a little bit of dirt from 26 players' home ballparks. And Major League Mementos has relics from eight stadiums. I would love to have full sets of the Diamond Relics and Mementos sets.
Dugout Peeks has shots of players in the dugouts, and is a relatively rare insert. Mascots returns, with 24 costumed characters. I like the Opening Day At the Ballpark insert set, with 15 cards showing the Opening Day ceremonies... at each ballpark. Photography on that set is relatively unique from other cards. As is the Teams Traditions and Celebrations set, with 10 unique sights found at ballparks.
Spring Has Sprung is a good idea, too - 25 players, past and present, photographed during Spring Training. One interesting note about this set: when you look at the images of long-retired players, you see them working in fields. The Ruth card above: they're in a field. Koufax looks like he's pitching on a rec field. Even into the 70s and 80s you can see a lot of fans. For many of the modern players, they're just on Spring Training fields. Big walls, no fans. (To be fair, some active players are shown signing autographs.)
The Lighter Side of Baseball has photos of players smiling, and Walk This Way! rips off the Aerosmith song title to show players celebrating walk off victories. Finally, you can find 2020 Topps Sticker previews.
Sets I already have: Opening Day, Team Traditions and Celebrations.
Single I already have: Chip Caray autograph.
Sets I want: Diamond Relics, Major League Mementos Relics. Spring Has Sprung if it's cheap.
What are your thoughts on Opening Day?
My favorite thing about Opening Day are the mascot inserts. But I do like the announcer autographs this year... and the ballpark dirt relics are neat too.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in the mascot inserts, but I'm kind of sick of mascots after living in Japan for so long. I'm holding out for the MLB cheerleader sets. I wonder if such sets could be issued these days in the States.
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