Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sunday fun: completed sets: 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites

I promised a while back that I would show off this set that I completed not too long ago, so here it is:  a much-anticipated look at 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites.

Unlike the Topps Archives sets of a couple years prior, ATFF didn't simply reprint old Topps cards--they took a group comprising HOFers, stars, "fan favorites" that were generally loved only by their teams' fans, managers and GMs, umpires, commissioners, idiots (Rudy Giuliani and Joe Buck, for example) and more, then printed their cards using designs from the last 50+ years of Topps sets.  It was actually a fairly cool concept and worked pretty well, as you'll see in this post.  So here they are, all 150 cards from 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites!  (sans comments for your viewing pleasure and my sanity)


















16 comments:

  1. I love that set, but there are several that do not make sense.

    1. Brett Butler listed as a Dodger and shown as a Dodger, but with Giants colors on the card

    2. Harold Baines should have been with the White Sox.

    3. When was Billy Beane a fan favorite for the Twins?

    4. When was Fay Vincent a fan favorite for ANYONE?

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    Replies
    1. Johnny,
      I totally agree with you, and I almost made similar comments about this set because I thought in some cases the team selections were weird, such as Dwight Gooden with the Yanks and not the Mets, Jeffrey Loria AT ALL, etc.

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    2. Dale Murphy with the Phillies. Hated it then and hate it now. LOL. Cool Set though.

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    3. Ok, now I almost feel bad for posting those because there's so many players on the wrong teams!

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  2. What a great set, full of some truly great and some truly ridiculous cards. Thanks for posting this.

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    Replies
    1. Dustin,
      No problem, I figured people would like to see this set because, like you said, a lot of the cards end up looking very cool. Thanks for the look.

      Delete
  3. Really ........ Boggs a yankee????? Yuck

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, that's another one I thought was sort of strange--this set had enough Yanks as it is, and I'm sure most Sox fans forgive him enough that they'd prefer to see him in a Boston uni. This set sort of reminds me of HOF hat selection as some of them are good and some just plain bother you.

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  4. The set that got me back into collecting modern cards. Looking at the whole set like this reminds me of how many I still need to complete it.

    And, yes, the Joe Buck card almost completely ruins the set all by itself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I know what you mean--it was a fun set before they focused on making everything so unaffordable. I could really do without the Buck, Loria and Skeletor (Sheppard) not to mention Giuliani and Sy Berger. Despite their presence and the questionable team affiliations for some players, it's still an excellent set. If you still need a bunch you should just do what I did and go on Sportlots, unless there's a blogger/collector out there who still has some of these handy.

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  5. There are a few clunkers but overall it's a great set as are the other two, particularly the first, from 2003. I ran an 8 part series of posts of my favorites A-Z from the combined sets a couple of years ago. If anyone's interested just search "fan favorites".

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    Replies
    1. http://canthavetoomanycards.blogspot.com/search/label/Topps%20All-Time%20Fan%20Favorites will get you to the posts he mentioned.

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  6. Thanks for sharing... I love this set. My favorite card is the Dave Stieb... definitely a fan favorite (especially in San Jose).

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    Replies
    1. Cool, thanks for looking. I had a feeling this would be a popular set and I was hoping people would drop comments about their fan favorites in the set.

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  7. Joe Buck is the single worst thing to happen to sports in the last 10 years.

    It's fitting they used the butt ugly 1998 Topps design for his card.

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    Replies
    1. Given the choice between the Buck and the Sheppard/Cryptkeeper, I'd take the latter...

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