OK, so what do we call it...Heritage Lite?

Yes, I've been truly out of touch for the past few days.  I had no idea until today that Topps Archives had been released to the masses.  Of course, I decided to partake to see what was what.

Excuse me while I ........  yawn.........

We've already done the '54 Topps set in Heritage....quite a few years ago as a matter of fact.

The '71 Topps set will not be done for a few years with the Heritage treatment, and frankly, this guy   is paying homage to the set way more effectively than a Topps reprint could.


The '84 Topps set was OK, and the '80 Topps set was better represented back in 1980. 

excuse the granite background, I don't have a scanner

The inserts, well I'm not too sure about them as well.  The Nelson Cruz seems to pay homage to last year's Lineage set, while the Troy Tulowitzki...is a little loud to say the least.

Both have blank backs, which makes me feel like Topps is either standing on the card itself, or the company really just doesn't have anything creative to say.

The Catfish Hunter is a cloth sticker in the design of the '77 Topps set, which is the only redeeming quality I've found so far.  The Jay Buhner card worried me at first, then with a little research it appears that it is one of the all time fan favorites (high numbers), which are seeded in packs at a rate of 1:4.

Honestly, I'm not impressed.  I get the idea, but to be honest, I prefer having the Heritage lineup rather than these.

I'm also not too thrilled with the price point of these.  $3.19 for an eight card pack just isn't cutting it.  There is nothing new or original in here,  so why the same price point as Heritage?  The Heritage card stock is a much better quality, and at least with Heritage the set size is more substantial and pays homage to a much more historical set (at least this year).

Like I've said a million times while playing euchre...

Pass

Thanks for reading, Robert

Out of touch

I'm back.

For the first time since I moved to the States many years ago, I went four straight days without the internet.  Away from the posts, the blogs, the cards, and the collectors.

After spending the better part of 9 1/2 months reading, writing, and collecting on a daily basis, I went cold turkey for 4 days.

It wasn't easy, but I made it through.

The place where we were staying on the west side of Florida was gorgeous, and I spent the better part of 4 days baking in 90 degree heat, watching the fish jump out of the water, and generally relaxing.  I listened to a lot of music on the radio for the 4 days, and one of the songs that I heard was the inspiration for this post.

You're out of touch, I'm out of time, but you're out of my head when you're not around..  (Hall and Oates, Out of Touch, 1984)

Hall & Oates was on the radio, and the song made me realize just how out of touch I was for the first 4 days of my vacation.  It's amazing how little I had thought about the blog and writing.  (In case you were wondering, I didn't run into Potch here in Florida as well.)  I only stopped at a store that had cards just once, and naturally I picked up a few packs.

I had never seen a 2012 Heritage blister pack, and what piqued my curiosity was the three packs with 3 black parallels.  I wasn't aware of any black parallel version, only the Target reds and the Wal-Mart blues. More on those in a later post.

I am looking forward to a trip to a card store here in the Ft. Lauderdale suburbs tomorrow.  I'm hoping to find one of the legendary dime boxes that I'm hearing about on other blogs.   This will also be one of the rare posts that you will not find any scans/pictures of cards, since I really haven't pulled anything of note. 

I should be back in the ball game as far as posting regularly again; hopefully I've not lost anyone along the way.

Thanks for reading, Robert