Baseball Cards, Topps

2009 Topps Baseball Series 1 Comprehensive Review

There are more than a few reviews of Topps’ flagship product, 2009 Series 1 Baseball. Unfortunately, most of these reviews focus on the cards in the 2009 set that few will ever see. Very few, if any reviews, take a look at the common card itself — the base-card. The base-card composes the majority of the set, and I’ll review what you’re actually getting, and how it compares to what many deem it’s most direct competition: 2009 Upper Deck Series 1.

If you’re a collector on a budget or a collector in a town without a hobby shop, your choices are limited. If a store carries baseball cards, it carries Topps and Upper Deck Series 1.

Topps 2009 Series 1 Set, and Design

DESIGN:

It’s fairly clear to see that 2009’s version of Topps Series 1 Baseball rises far above the previous incarnations of their bellwether product.

The design itself eliminates almost all of the wasteful space, and returns the baseball card to it’s simplest possible manifestation: the Baseball Picture Card.

While the pictures themselves will be discussed later, the bounding box frames the subject in a manner pleasant to the eye.  It may be an oversimplification, but your eyes should be drawn to the picture rather than to the useless colored boxes.

Angular lines keep the card modern and allow the Topps card company to get away with such a simple design in the year 2009.  Thankfully, the eye is drawn secondly to the team logo which isn’t overly embellished, just simply set on simple home-plate design. A hint of foil in the upper corner, while useless, compliments the foiled player and team name that are the third and final stop for your eye.  Topps resisted the urge to showcase their logo and instead blends it nicely into the background.  It appears as though they’ve finally clued into the fact that card collectors know which product they’re purchasing and that their logo should capture the eye after the photo, team, and name.

The Base – Card Set of Topps Series 1

The set itself, isn’t terribly ground breaking but it does remain small enough for the average person to collect for under 100 dollars.  It’s also large enough for the hobbyist or set collector to not be completely cheesed by the amount of doubles collected while trying to collect the sub-sets.

There are some problems with the set, even if some of the industry wide mistakes are discounted.  Series one, whether it be Upper Deck or Topps, refuse to update team rosters even if a player has signed on the first day of free agency.  It may be a ploy to sell additional series two cards. It may be a schedule issue, where the designers require the photo by such and such a date, and the printers by another date.  Who knows why this happens, but it happens every year.

This has however resulted in the White Sox set essentially containing: A.J. Pierzynski and Jermaine Dye, with  Javier Vazquez, Joe Crede, Juan Uribe, and Ken Griffey Jr. all moving into new zip-codes.  I’m sure collectors on the south-side of Chicago are quite pleased, but at least they got a Barrack Obama shortprint.

While the Obama short print is nice, I’d trade it for an all encompassing checklist any day.  It’s quite annoying having to collect the cards in order to find out what cards you need, or how much you should be looking to spend.  I took a night out to do the checklists which you can find here: Series 1 Base Set, Turkey Red, Legends of the Game and Ring of Honor.

The Set itself gets a very Solid B, being just deep enough to get the new collector hooked and providing enough variation for the set collector.

The Photos

This is where Topps is outdone year in and year out by it’s main competition, Upper Deck.  I’m not certain as to how the photos are commissioned but many of Upper Deck’s photos seem to come straight from the leader in sports photography, Getty Images.

A good photo consists of quite a few variables. Whether it’s a close up or a wide shot, the photo must force perspective and place the hobbyist as close to the action as possible.  A good photo captures either extreme athleticism through action shots or equally extreme detail.

You’ll notice the Pujols photo to the left captures a moment in baseball; the ready position for a first basemen who’s defense is often overlooked.  While I’m generally against defensive photos of offensive players, this photo is a perfect example of a baseball card photo.  Your eyes are drawn to the subject, and the background isn’t terribly busy.

Topps also got it right with this Rich Harden photo, which is probably the most interesting in the set.  It’s unfortunate there aren’t more photos that force perspective to such an extreme.

The problem that plagues Topps Series 1 throughout the set however, is a lack of bokeh. Briefly, bokeh is a photographic term to describe a camera lens’ ability to naturally blur the background using a shallow depth of field.

This may seem like trivial photo-speak, but it’s what makes the Upper Deck cards pop and the Topps cards  flat.  It’s what draws your eyes straight to the subject of the photo while the background pleasantly fades into a mish-mash of colors.

Topps also lags behind in the post-processing category, which by no means is a negative.  Upper Deck increases contrast and may well add extra blur to the background while Topps sticks firmly to a realistic portrayal of the player.

Here’s an example in both the difference in Bokeh, and the difference in post-processing between Upper Deck 2009 vs. Topps 2009.

You’ll notice you can still make-out the background faces extremely well in the Topps shot, yet in the Upper Deck shot the entire background is blurred.  Obviously, the background is further away in the Upper Deck shot but that just comes down to picking photos.

Joakim Soria pops out of the photo as the background is nothing more than a mish-mash of colors.  The Topps shot has such a busy background that your eyes can’t help but be drawn away from Juan Miranda.

This is of course an extreme example, but you’ll find it across the Topps’ set.  Either Topps is terrible at choosing photos that showcase their athletes, or they’re cheaping out on the commission.  Either way, you’ll find that far too many of their photos present the background in too much detail.

Other than this, both companies seem to capture action and perspective incredibly well while presenting refreshing photos.  Topps has made a few blunders, namely the Hunter Pence photo, but overall the photos convey action adequately.

Verdict: Topps lags behind Upper Deck for sheer beauty, and while the trademark Upper Deck Sheen may be too much for some, it still presents a far nicer photo than Topps’ offering.

The Inserts or Hits for 2009 Topps Series 1

It’s easiest to start with the pack odds that are more than a chore to read on the foiled package.  2009 Topps Baseball Series 1 Pack Odds for Autographs and Relics:

Approximate odds per pack of finding (* Sequentially Numbered). Gold Parallel (1:7), Black Parallel (1:76), Platinum (1:13,500), Printing Plate (1:925), Turkey Red Insert (1:4), Base Card Variation (1:95), WBC Redemption Card (1:95), Legends of the Game (1:6), Legends of the Game Gold Parallel (1:1,975), Legends of the Game Platinum Parallel (1:8,200), Legends of the Game Stamp Collection (1:1,555), Sketch Cards (1:203), Framed Silk Collection (1:241), Ring of Honor (1:6), Ring Of Honor Autographs (1:4,000), Career Best Autographs: Group A (1: 6,708), Group B (1:416), ‘52 Autographs (1:62,000), World Champion Autographs (1:20,000), Legends of The Game Cut Signatures (1:142,000), American Legends Cut Signatures (1:142,000), World Champion Autographed Relics (1:11,400), Career Best Autograph Relics (1:1,210), In the Name Relics (1:2,975), ‘58 Mantle Relics (1:50,000), Legends of the Game Commemorative Patch (1:343)

Each smaller hobby box, which consists of 36 packs of 10 cards per, contains your standard one autograph or relic per box.  These boxes come in at around 65-70 bucks.  Topps also has the jumbo packs, which contains 10 packs of 50 cards each.  These come in on the wrong side of 100-bucks but the 3 (on average) auto/relics plus a guaranteed legends of the game patch may make it worth it.

Legends of the Game and Ring of Honor:

Neither of these cards are particularly appealing to the eye. I’m not sure why, as I like both the base Green/Black color-scheme for LOTG and the Orange/Red/Black for RH — but these cards just do not fit with the collection.

The Patches for Legends of the Game are nice enough, and spell out whichever nickname Topps deemed appropriate.  Originally, I couldn’t figure out where the M was in HONUS WAGNER, but then realized they patched out THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (I found the M in that, cause I’m smart like whoa).

These letter patches are going for around 15-20 bucks, and while pulling one might be nice — I don’t think I’d bother purchasing one. Topps still hasn’t sold me on buying old fabric cut in the style of the era the player played in.  I’m pretty certain that everyone’s grandmother could whip something like this up in 10 minutes, and she’d only want a hug and a kiss in return.

The Turkey Red Sub-Set:

This isn’t even really an insert at this point.  The Turkey Red sub-set goes to 50, and there’s a great player selection.  You can get the entire set on eBay for a reasonable price, but for your average collector you may just want to buy a couple here and there.

No one liked the idea of Turkey Red as a set unto itself, but it is a beautiful little insert.  However, the Turkey Red is dwarfed by the next insert, a moderately original addition to the Topps Collection:

The 1/1 Sketch Card:

The Odds on pulling one of those are about 1 in 200 packs, but I’ve found them to be quite a bit less than that.  I’ve purchased a box and a few jumbo packs, and have had great luck with these sketch cards pulling two and a redemption.

All of the sketch cards are technically 1 of 1, but their value is going to vary greatly depending on the artist.  With 1 Sketch Card per 200 packs, there are going to be a fair amount of sketch cards floating around.

Topps excelled in choosing artists, as these were the best sketch cards in any set that I’ve ever seen.  There is a beautiful mixture of your typical comic-book illustration and realism portrayed in beautiful monochromatic color-schemes (B&W, Sepia or Sanguine).

To the left is a Ty Cobb by Dave Hobrecht who I can’t help but openly declare as the best sketch card artist employed by Topps.  Not only is this a card, but it’s a beautiful piece of art as well.  On the other hand, I also pulled a Miguel Cabrera which has much more of a comic book feel.

Topps Autos and Game Used for 2009:

The autos and game used relics are nice enough, and the player list is solid enough.  Unfortunately, it’s still incredibly easy to pack search which is obvious by the hot-packs for sale on ebay.  The Jumbo packs must be more difficult to search, so good on Topps for that. Topps has included my favourite player, Travis Snider’s Auto — Good on ‘em for that too.

Unlike Upper Deck, Topps decided against crowding the hell out of their Autograph/Relic Cards with useless visual effects.  It’s a plain-jane, simplicity is a beautiful thing, autograph card.  In the 50 packs I purchased, I was rewarded with a Scott Kazmir Jersey and David Wright Bat — which didn’t leave me feeling too ripped off.

The extra-large game used card, while not innovative, is nice.  Obviously, it makes easily identifying the card a bit more difficult, but most people who pull or buy a game-used jersey take the time to read the actual card.  The Cards will look nice in displays, or make a nice addition to collectors who focus solely on a player.  If you’re able to pull 100 of these cards, you should be able to get that grandma of yours to make a full jersey for you.

The Walter Johnson Cut-Auto is beautiful, and is already close to 1000 dollars with a day left in the ebay auction.  As with most cut-autos, if you pull one — you’re golden.  The Ring of Honor autos are also fairly nice, but I’d rather have Dwight Gooden’s autograph on nicer card.  There’s a nice Orlando Cepeda up on Ebay, for 60 Bucks which Topps probably could have doubled given an innovative, eye-pleasing design.

2009 Topps Series 1 Career Best Autograph List:

Travis Snider, Prince Fielder, Luke Hochevar, Pat Neshek, Dustin McGowan, Steve Pearce, Aki Iwamura, Zack Greinke, Greg Smith, C.J. Wilson, Mat Gamel, Curtis Granderson, Josh Hamilton, Jose Reyes, David Ortiz, Eddie Kunz, Garrett Atkins, Dallas McPherson, Ryan Braun, Sean Rodriguez, Nick Markakis, Ronny Paulino, Yovani Gallardo, Shane Victorino, Armando Gallaraga, Aramis Ramirez.

This set has a nice mixtures of All-Stars, Rookies, and Future All-Stars. Guys like Zack Greinke and Yovani Gallardo as filler really add value to this set.  There’s only a few duds in the set which isn’t too bad.

Gold, Black and Platinum Parallels

Parallels aren’t my thing, but they add a little bit of extra bang for your buck.  Collectors may find some value in a David Price Platinum Parallel numbered to 58, but I’m not feeling it.  The real value here is for the kids who are buying single packs and not pulling Autos or GU Relic cards.  A Gold Parallel popping up once every 6 packs or so should keep the kids from complaining too much while nurturing and developing their OCD, so that one day they too can become grown men spending far too much money on cards.

Printing Plates

Printing plates are among my favorite inserts, with each plate being technically a 1 of 1.  Each card however has 4 plates, for each color in the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and key or black) printing processes. Personally, I find the Key or Black printing plates to be the nicest, but depending on the card the other colors may stand out. The plates are all numbered 1/1 and should retain value well enough.

Junk Inserts or Filler: Topps Attax & Toppstown

The Toppstown cards have their own parallels, but aren’t particularly appealing to the eye.  Topps has introduced an innovative, but cheesy, idea to the realm of card collecting: 3-D Cards.  The 3-D cards have been covered by all of the major news outlets, like the Boston Globe and New York Times. Both of the links provide a nice little write-up and a link to this video:

The idea behind it is neat enough: You put the card in front of your web-cam after signing up for a Toppstown account and play away.  Each pack contains a Toppstown card and corresponding code, and you’ll collect more than your fair share of codes.  While the 3-D card currently only works on Windows PCs, an Apple/MAC version is expected in the next couple weeks.

There are also World Baseball Classic redemption cards which fall fairly often into the packs.  I haven’t seen the cards yet, but if they’re anything like what was given away at the Skydome during the WBC — You’ll be sorely disappointed.  The redemptions are selling for between 5 and 10 bucks, and it might make sense to grab yourself one off ebay once the cards start coming in.

The Verdict On Inserts:

The Inserts work well enough.  The mid-range inserts are going to piss you off, but you won’t feel cheated.  In the small Hobby Box that I grabbed, I was more than pleased with the Sketch Card, Kazmir Game Used, and WBC Redemption. The handful of parallels, and Turkey Red’s provided added value to the solid base set.

Topps has essentially achieved perfection with the Inserts and Hits with their Series 1 Product: The Customer doesn’t feel pissed off or cheated.  The inserts do not have to be stellar, but after removing the price of your base cards you shouldn’t end up feeling like you’ve been ripped off.  Occasionally one insert will pay for the box, or the case, or a house but so long as your inserts at least theoretically get you close to the price of the box when combined with the base-set value, you wont feel ripped off.

You are however playing the lottery, and you have to expect the possibility of a loss considering there’s a one in one-hundred thousand shot of pulling a cut-sig. Obviously you won’t always be pulling terrific hits, and this probably isn’t the set you want to drop 500 dollars on if your sole intention is to sell the hits on eBay but for the average collector with a limited budget, this is a great set.

Topps, We Have A Problem – Qualms and Quibbles

The BIGGEST problem with 2009 Series 1 Baseball isn’t a problem with the card at all.  It appears to be a problem with the manufacturing process.  For some reason, the cards on either side of the Inserts end up with bent edges and corners.  It’s not a direct result of pack searching, as I’ve seen it repeatedly in both loose packs and hobby-box packs.

Normally this isn’t a problem, because it’s generally just your 5th Juan Uribe card with a bent bottom but if this card isn’t a base card, and instead a base card variation — then we’ve got a problem.  The insert better be damn good if it’s going to relieve the pain of viewing your Obama or Jackie Robinson short-print come out of the pack as a card that’d grade as a 5.

The whole collation problem, isn’t a huge issue. Every time I’ve pulled a Joe Maddon, it’s been surrounded by an Edgar Gonzalez and Bud Black.  I now have 5 of each card, yet not a single Yadier Molina. This is just a small problem, and I haven’t yet become frustrated to my minds end. If I pull another Maddon, Gonzalez, Black trio we may have a problem.

Price Point: A Few Final Notes for Collectors, Kids, and Parents

This set has a tremendous price-point, and it makes a perfect set for a collector on a budget or a parent purchasing the cards for their kids.

The single packs containing 10 cards are coming in at about $2.00 CDN.  It’s fairly easy to give your kid a couple bucks, or a twoonie, eh! and send them off to the shop.  For 10 bucks a week, you can bring your kid more than his fair share of cards.

The larger jumbo-packs contain 50 cards but may be a better bet if you’re going to buy the packs for your kids instead of letting him buy ‘em.  The Jumbo-Packs seem to guarantee all the stuff the kids like, and are collated in an interesting way.  In the middle of the pack, there’s your shot at an insert, a gold parallel, a turkey red, and checklists/playoff cards on one side with your rookie cards on the other side.  On each side of this little “insert pack” base-cards fill out the pack.  Unfortunately, it’s not as fun to open a pack as all of the even moderately valuable cards are right there in front of you. These jumbo-packs come in at a little over 10 bucks Canadian and contain 50 cards.  Solid value.  The Upper Deck packs come in at a bit more, at about 6 bucks per 20 Card pack.

Final Verdict on Topps Baseball Series One

The value of this set largely depends on what your collecting motives are, and more so what your collecting budget is. Topps Series 1 is definitely an A if you’re keeping your hobby to under a Box or Two.  If you’re collecting budget is under 100 dollars, there isn’t a better set out there.

If you’re going for hits, and inserts.  Topps probably comes in at a solid enough B+.

Realistically, this is a GIANT step forward for Topps and hopefully Series 2 continues the trend.  The Flash of Upper Deck will still catch the eye of most people.  Topps’ improved packaging may sway impulse buyers to actually choose Topps over UD.

The slight blunder of sticking A-Rod on the boxes is negated by the beautiful blue foil thats adorned with Teddy Ball Game and the Babe.  Finally, Topps has a nicer looking, SIMPLISTIC, package that will sway buyers towards their product rather than away from it.

Only time will tell whether or not you can actually have “too much of a good thing” as Topps stacked their packs with low-worth inserts.  Sketch cards are beautiful, but they’re one of the most common inserts.  I’m sure the nicer sketch cards will maintain their value, but the sketch of half of Ubaldo Jiminez’s face may not accrue value.  While the patch-cards are nice, when next year’s cards come out will they still have value?

In the end, you can’t be dissapointed pulling a nice card even if it’ll be worth the same amount 5 years from now, especially when you’ve got a shot at a cut-signature.

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