Forgive me, but there is profanity in this post....please be forewarned...if it offends, I apologize, but it's going to help me (hopefully) get my point across. (Or maybe just make me feel a little bit better...lol)
Reading blogs during the day today regarding the '12 Topps series 1 release drove me to insanity. I had to scratch the itch and head to the LCS on my lunch break to pick up a couple of packs.
First off, I will say that there were no animals involved in this post what so ever.
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| 100% Schumaker, no squirrel by products |
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| Stretch Matt stretch!!! |
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| 80's Astros unis still rock |
What the fuck does everyone want out of Topps? Come on, be honest people...tell me!!!!
The packs are still $1.99. There is still 10 cards in a pack. This is the base set. We are not painting God damn Mona Lisa's here.
I think that too many people took to heart the statement that this season's set was going to be the "game changer". Tell me something, look at the past 10 years worth of sets...outside of the design, tell me the difference? If there is a major difference apart from the set design that I'm missing, and somebody points it out to me, I will gladly apologize publicly on the blog for this rant.
As many of you regular readers know, I am a pretty positive person. I'm pretty sure that it is reflected in my blog. So for me to rant like this, you have to be sure that I'm a little bothered.
For those of you who don't care for 2012 Topps because of the way it looks, or whatever the reason is that you don't care for it, I say bravo. You are more than entitled to your opinion.
But to expect that Topps base set was going to be different this year than all the past years, and yet the price point and card count still are the same, well whom ever thought that is quite delusional.
LOL...by the way, I do not work for Topps, nor do I accept free product from them.
Bitch fest over.....if you made it this far and haven't decided to say "screw this guy"...Thank you very much!!
Finally...I made one more promise to another blogger that I would plug his new blog today. So here it is.
Our friend Martyn from across the pond has started a blog that a numbers junkie like me loves. It is called 1,000,000 Hits. He's about a dozen posts in, and what he's doing is posting cards of players, and adding up the career hit totals. For example, today's post is Tony Gwynn and his 3.141 career hits. The blog so far is up to 33K of hits, so hop on over and check it out....from where I sit it's cool...
As always, thank you for reading, Robert
Yeah man, I agree. Expecting Topps to change completely was a bit out of touch. Sure they could have had more inventive inserts this year which card designs didn't revolve around relics or autos but hey, it's their set, let 'em. They did extremely well on the 87 minis though and as a collector who was swimming in that set when it came out, it holds a huge piece of nostalgia for me. The base set is exactly just that, the basic set. Personally I'm a big fan of the base set each year and go on to collect it. Inserts are a different story but there is usually a couple I like.
ReplyDeleteGood rant though and I don't understand the hate either, as I went over in my blog post a few days ago.
It's almost like its cool to hate Topps this year. I'm not one of the cool kids (never have been) so I'm not hating on Topps this year. After reading so many negative posts the last couple days I almost feel like I should be embarrassed for purchasing and basically liking 2012 Series 1. I guess I didn't get my hopes way up so I wasn't crushed when it didn't come out exactly how I would have liked. Topps can't please everybody with every product.
ReplyDeleteI'm having fun busting my hobby box. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get 14 more hobby pack wrappers so I can send them in for a redemption pack.
Robert, nice post. I am with you, the joy of collecting cards is building a set, reading some stats and enjoying the pictures. I don't need my game changed. Oh, man, I feel like Dana Carvey's grumpy old man character.
ReplyDeleteIn the 90's, everyone did go overboard trying to "change the game". The 90's have some of the fugliest cards ever made. I have really enjoyed the last 4-5 years of cards. If they'd combine the photos of the main set with the designs and cardstock of a Heritage set, I'd be in heaven.
There's nothing wrong with the 2012 Topps flagship. It's the exact same set they've put out the past six or seven years at least. That's the problem. Every year the same thing happens. Woo, new baseball card set! ZOMG! Special cards! They is rare! Lookit the eBey prices! Maybe I can pull a special card and become RICH! (tons of packs later) Well... no rare cards. Still need cards to complete the base set. Got a lot of inserts though, not a complete set of any one, but a lot of 'em... Rince, repeat, wipe hands on pants. Same thing every year. And a lot of us are still missing one card from our 2006 base set. And remember the eBay prices of the first squirrel card. And see what that card sells for today. Ya get weary of it all after a while, ya know?
ReplyDeleteI'm not buying wax this year. For a good portion of the past 30 years I had to rip some wax every week if not every dang day. Seriously, in the early '00s there was probably at least one year where I bought packs 300 days out of 365. Ripping wax is fun. It's a rush. Looking for that big hit. I'm just tired of it. It's fun but dang expensive and honestly I can put my collecting dollar to better uses. If you like it and have the money to spend and are having fun, then more power to ya. I like ponies, I can't say NOTHIN' about what other people should like. I'm just not doing it this year. This is my 31st year collecting cards and I'm just not interested in the rat race anymore for new products. I'm taking a year off to see if I miss it and in '13 maybe I'll go back to ripping wax. Maybe I'll pick up a few '12 boxes on January 1st 2013. Maybe Topps will never see another dime from me. Who knows, man?
An excellent photo of Matty.
ReplyDeleteHell yeah! I was getting ready to write a similar post. I love baseball. I love baseball cards. It's flagship. It's back. Woohoo.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest the only thing I don't like are that the golds aren't numbered, is that correct?
ReplyDeleteThanks for plugging my blog! I'm glad somebody other than myself likes the idea!
From the limited sampleI've opened, I love the photography. There are a good number of play at the plate shots, so that's good for me. I won't be collecting all the insert sets (too many Yankees!), but I'm going to collect the base set and the hits or inserts of my team/players. Topps is what Topps is. They aren't changing anything and that includes "the game".
ReplyDeleteI feel you, Robert. The best thing about regular old Topps is that it's just a regular old set. In a market with so many specialized sets, it's nice that there's still something that resembles what collectors were doing 20 years ago. Sure, it would be nice if we had at least one additional company out there to put out a flagship set, just so things don't get stale. It's kind of nonsensical that there are 3 retro sets, 3-4 mid-high end sets, 3-4 prospecting sets but only 1 'flagship' set.
ReplyDeleteMy only complaints with Series 1 so far are just a few little nit-picky things with some of the design choices and then maybe some of the insert concepts. I'm actually happy to see that the gold parallel is the only high-volume parallel (instead of gold, diamond, cognac.) No problem with the black and wood parallels.
Once Topps starts rolling out their other products, nobody will be bitching about the flagship. But since it has the stage to itself at the moment, everybody's piling on. Of course, there are those out there who are just bitter and negative no matter what, but you know what haters' gonna do.
I posted that I don't like them. I liked the style of the fronts when I saw the promos on the web, but when I got them in my hands they just don't pop. The inserts are tired and boring, to me. Seems like stuff from the early to mid-'90s. I do like the minis. I like that they took the 1987 set and shrunk it. I've read where some think they should have modeled them after the 1987 League Leader minis, but I disagree. Right now, the minis are my favorite part of the flagship issue. Of course, I'd love some hits, but doesn't everyone? Another personal preference, I'd rather have legends for SPs instead of the things they did in this set.
ReplyDeleteThe design is weird...but my main complaint is that they will likely use it AGAIN in 2012 Topps Football. Weak Sauce.
ReplyDelete