Thursday, February 3, 2011

2011 Topps baseball: what's the big deal?

I've seen quite a few breaks of 2011 Topps baseball in the last few days now that it's out.  There's been a great number of blog and forum posts showing the results of hobby (including jumbo) and retail boxes, plus some loose hobby and retail packs.  Here's a few:
So there's a few to look at for those of you that haven't seen these already.

Why my question, then, "What's the big deal?"?  Well, what IS the big deal?  I know this is the Topps flagship set, and I know it's something we all look forward to every year, but color me unimpressed this year, enough that I'll likely snag a hand-built set at some point or another, instead of dropping a ridiculous amount of money on a mediocre box experience.  My take:

Pros:

1.  This is the flagship set that signifies the start of the new card year.  I've always believed that Topps makes a pretty solid base set, and this year is no different.

2.  Silk cards.  These have been around a few years now and I'm glad Topps hasn't discontinued them because I think they're a pretty cool insert for a non-"hit".
From MrOpinion's Blowout break

3.  Wrapper redemption:  in some ways this seems like a negative to me, but ultimately it increases value for the consumer, so I give Topps credit here for doing it, although having to snail mail some packs to a company that's already been questionable about redemptions seems suspect.

4.  Some cool autographs:  personally I've thought it was cool to see people pulling guys like Mark Fidrych and Al Kaline.  The overall lineup seems kind of weak and they are sticker autos, but I give them a pass here.
From PakMan916's Blowout break
5.  Minis:  I'm cool with these, not a big collector, but having them show up in a base Topps product is pretty cool.
From No One's Going to Read this Blog

(UPDATE)  6.  Here's one of the nicer hits I've seen pulled so far, a pretty nice plus.

Cons:

1.  Right off the bat:  I HATE the new manufactured "leather" cards.  Tell me you like the way this looks, I DARE you:
From MrOpinion's Blowout break
That's one of your jumbo box guaranteed "hits".  I'm definitely not necessarily against the manufactured stuff--the bat barrels last year were kind of cool, as were some of the manupatches, but this is literally a name stitched on a leather piece that doesn't really resemble anything (at least the bat barrel cards looked sort of like bat barrels).  If something like this isn't actually game- or event-used, no big deal, but give me something that wasn't just mailed in.

2.  Your non-autographed "hit":  oh boy, more boring jersey and bat cards.
Swiped from A Cardboard Problem


From MrOpinion's Blowout break
 Yawn.  A boring square piece of bat or jersey on a terrible card design.

3.  The Diamond parallel:  I liked the gold cards, and instead I get this crap:
From PakMan916's Blowout break


'Nuff said.  Moving on...

4.  Diamond Givewaway = MCG 2, craptastic boogaloo.  MCG soured me on the whole experience (I still haven't posted scans of what I got, but I wasn't terribly thrilled at the condition in which they arrived) especially the extremely flawed site design.  I'm taking a pass on these as well this year, so more for you guys, I guess.
From No One's Going to Read this Blog (except I did)
5.  Inserts:  same-old same-old or craptacular otherwise.
From No One's Going to Read this Blog
Topps 60 = craptacular
From No One's Going to Read this Blog
Yo Mama cards redux
From No One's Going to Read this Blog
Legendary Lineage (which I already didn't like) redux
From No One's Going to Read this Blog
ToppsTown (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TOPPS, GET RID OF THIS SHIT)

6.  Where's the value?  The prices for hobby boxes are astronomical right now--$73 hobby and $123 jumbo on Blowout--and those are literally twice what they should go for.  Yes, I know this is the first week of release and they'll come down, but what happened to Topps flagship boxes starting at even $50 or $60 on release?  Considering the crap you get, the value is terrible.  Collation already sounds like a problem with the jumbos and the hits aren't worth anything, meaning you need to hit an SP or get something out of your wrapper redemptions (sometime next year, I'm sure) to make boxes worth it right now.  I want to be clear that I don't mean that in the sense that an average collector is buying a box hoping to make his money back--I'm referring to paying $120+ and getting a partial base set, a couple worthless hits and a bunch of doubles of inserts.  I'm not even going to go more in-depth about what's come to be expected of their quality control, though that should make upcoming breaks even more fun.  If you couldn't tell, this is my biggest problem with the boxes this year and the reason I'm avoiding them in favor of buying a set second-hand.

My apologies for what amounts to a fairly negative post, but I'm just curious how that many people are excited about a pretty mediocre set this year.  What do you guys think?  Have your experiences been good or bad so far?
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7 comments:

  1. Justin McLeodFebruary 3, 2011 at 1:27 PM

    I like the way those cards look. See, I said it. I lied, but I never could resist a good dare.

    ReplyDelete
  2. night owlFebruary 3, 2011 at 1:35 PM

    I reserve comment until I actually see some in my hands. Not video. Not scans. With me own eyes in me own hands.

    ReplyDelete
  3. cynicalbuddhaFebruary 3, 2011 at 2:35 PM

    Ok wow, Meow. I like it though you are the contrarian. I think your the first one to say they didn't like the diamond inserts. I kinda do, but I think they could have gotten rid of either the gold or black and numbered these. Most of the inserts are just variations of last years inserts, at least no when they were young. And while Topps town is an annoying insert at least Topps as improved upon them every year, still your right takes away from some other card that could be there. On the value side your right 130 a box is way too high. I paid right round a hundred for my jumbo's and I still think that's too high, but I got caught up in the mania. Plus I'm jones'n for some new baseball. We'll have to see what stuff starts going for now that ebay is plugged with this stuff. Out of my 2 jumbos no defects and all my hits where there, score one for Topps this time. I do love the mini's I was a big fan of the Turkey Red inserts too. I think a retro insert works well, I wasn't a big fan of Topps' Turkey red sets but I love the inserts. And lastly I like the glove cards. they have a nice feel and actually in hand aren't too bad, but your right the stitching is stupid. I realize that Topps has these made over in china for about a penny a piece, I think if they'd have tried harder and burned the names into the leather that would have made a much nicer looking card. And there are variations on the glove cards too, with black versions numbered to 99, with white stitching and gold versions, I'm not sure if they are 1/1's or not. Over all I like the base card design, but your right the inserts are just phoned in. I'm going to hold off judgement on the Diamond giveaway cards till I see what's coming out of that.

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  4. Derek HillFebruary 3, 2011 at 3:48 PM

    I like the base design and I like opening packs. I won't mind picking up a few packs at a time when I'm out shopping and seeing if I can put the set together that way and by trading.

    I don't love the inserts, but don't hate them either.

    The main thing for me is its the first cards of 2011, football is pretty much over and I don't care about it the way I love baseball. These cards tell me pitchers and catchers report soon and spring training starts shortly after. Baseball season and a reason to watch sportscenter are again on the way!

    ReplyDelete
  5. LaurensFebruary 3, 2011 at 10:28 PM

    Good stuff - I feel the same exact way.

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  6. AnonymousFebruary 4, 2011 at 1:02 AM

    I like the base design and the minis. You can keep the rest. I think I'm going to wait for the factory set to come out and just buy the minis on COMC or eBay.

    ReplyDelete
  7. JeremyFebruary 7, 2011 at 1:36 AM

    The Keith Hernandez auto looks pretty nice for a sticker auto. I actually like the base set better this year than last. Since this might be the only I'm interested in this year besides A&G I'll probably try and build this one myself. Topps seems to have lost some originality on the inserts this year though. Legendary Lineage and Diamond Duos is the most obvious.

    ReplyDelete

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