Even though collectors are feverishly ripping through packs of the all-new 2010 Topps Baseball Series 1 and Opening Day is still over a month away, it’s never too early to start talking about…2010 Topps Baseball Series 2!
Whether people are collecting for the excitement of the Million Card Giveaway, all the cool inserts, the hobby and retail exclusives, the great photography or all of the above…one thing is for sure: Topps, the exclusive producer for MLB Trading cards, and its flagship brand, Topps Baseball, is loaded with excitement. And Series 2 features everything collectors love about Series 1 and much more. (image attached)
From the addition of T206 cards in the Million Card Giveaway to the all-new 4th of July Hat Logo cards, Series 2 plans to pick up the momentum of one of the best Topps baseball products in years.
Here’s a closer look:
BASE CARDS (330)
PARALLEL CARDS
- Gold Parallel (330) sequentially #’d to 2010
- Black Parallel (330) sequentially #’d to 59 HOBBY ONLY
- Platinum Parallel (330) Platinum-bordered cards #’d 1 of 1
- Printing Plates (330) Printing plates of the base cards #’d 1 of 1 HOBBY ONLY
- Silk Collection (100) sequentially #’d to 50. HOBBY ONLY
- Black Background (330) WAL-MART ONLY
- Throwback Parallel (330) TARGET ONLY
INSERT CARDS – PAST (TOPPS AND BASEBALL HISTORY)
- The Cards Your Mom Threw Out (58) Inserted 1:3.
- The Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs (58) 1 per box
- Topps Vintage Legends Collection (25) Retired legends featured on vintage Topps designs on which they’ve never appeared. (1:4)
- History of the World Series (25) Inserted 1:6.
- Turkey Red (50 subjects) (1:4).
- 1962 Mickey Mantle Reprint Relic (1 subject) Sequentially #’d to 62.
- Legends Cut Signatures #’d 1 of 1.
- Hall of Fame Buybacks (500) Repurchased cards of Hall of Famers are inserted in packs.
- Legendary Lineage (30) Inserted 1:4.
- Legendary Lineage Relic…Sequentially #’d to 50.
- Peak Performance (50) Inserted 1:4.
- Peak Performance Autographs (30)
- Peak Performance Relics (40)
- Peak Performance Relics Blue Parallel (40 subjects) Sequentially #’d to 99.
- Peak Performance Dual Relics (15 cards) Sequentially #’d to 50.
- Peak Performance Jumbo Relics (20) Sequentially #’d to 20. HOBBY ONLY
- Peak Performance Autographed Relics (10) Sequentially #’d to 50. HOBBY ONLY.
- Red Hot Rookies (10 subjects) Redemption cards for the ten hottest rookies of the new season, to be announced as the season progresses. (1 per box) HOBBY ONLY
- Sketch Cards #’d 1 of 1. HOBBY ONLY.
- Manufactured 4th of July Hat Logo Cards (160) #’d to 99. HOBBY ONLY.
- Topps Attax plus pin code (30 subjects) 1 per pack.
- Topps 2020 (20) Kid-focused foilboard cards featuring the stars of today on their 2020 Topps base cards. (1:6).
- Million Card Giveaway 1:6
- Create Your Own Sketch Card 1:24.
- MLB Logo Man Manufactured Patch Card Continuity Program – 5 subjects. #’d to 50.
- Manufactured Event Patch Cards (50) 1 per Retail Value Box.
- 1951 Topps / Walmart (15)
- 1951 Topps / Target (15)
- Cereal Box Chrome Refractors / Wal-Mart (10)
- Cereal Box Chrome Refractors / Target (10)
My take: Those of you who thought that there were too many insert sets in Series 1 are really going to hate Series 2. The Cards Your Mom Threw Out return and are joined by cards of legends on set designs they never appeared in. Mike Schmidt on a ‘52 Topps? Why not! George Brett on ‘61 Topps? Sure. These could be cool, but I’ll have to reserve judgment until I start seeing some of them. It looks like these take the place of Tales of the Game from Series 1.
History of the World Series replaces History of the Game. Turkey Red continues through Series 2 as do the 1951 Red and Blue Walmart and Target exclusives. Peak Performers continue as do all of the relic and autograph versions of these cards.
The 1962 Mantle Reprint Relic seems odd. This is the type of card that Topps has previously included as a bonus card in factory sets, but this time the card is going to be extremely limited with only 62 copies existing.
The Million Card Giveaway continues through Series 2 and is joined by 500 Hall of Fame Buybacks. I guess Topps went overboard and ended up purchasing 1,000,500 cards. There are an awful lot of Hall of Famers in the 1997 set isn’t there? Just kidding. If they do as good a job on these as they have with the cards being awarded on the website, collectors will love these, but with only 500 available it won’t affect many box breakers.
I’m disappointed to see Red Hot Rookies return after Topps did such a blah job with them last year. I don’t think any of them were autographed and they weren’t even refractory. For the amount of time that you have to wait on these, couldn’t Topps slap stickers on 2 or 3 of them or on 10% of the print run of each card and then send those out randomly as they are redeemed. I’m at the point where I’m about fed up with redemption cards. Who knows what year it will be when my 2009 Finest Tommy Hanson autograph will show up. If I’ve waited this long for it to arrive with a sticker on it, I’m going to be pissed.
For some reason sketch cards are going to be in Series 2. Other than being 1/1, is there really a big demand for sketch cards of baseball players? I just couldn’t picture someone going to a comic book convention and asking an artist to sketch Albert Pujols for them. Then again, a Todd McFarlane drawn piece could be awesome. Maybe I should have had Terry Moore sketch Big Papi for me instead of having him draw Francine from Strangers in Paradise. Nah!
There’s also a one-per-box Create Your Own Sketch Card which has been done before in Collectors Choice packs. Depending on what they are like, these could be cool for sending out to artists for commissions.
The very popular hat logo cards return, but this time they are 4th of July Logos which I think means that the logos will be red, white and blue. These will be cool if this is it, but if Topps keeps revisiting this idea year after year then people will tired of these as quickly as they have plain white swatches and sticker autos.
Topps Attax looks like it replaces Topps Town. If these cards look as good as the inserts in Opening Day then this is a huge upgrade. Heck, it’s a huge upgrade even if it’s only the gold versions of the inserts that look that way.
Topps 2020 looks like it replaces When They Were Young. Unless the 2020 design that they come up with is really sharp, I don’t see this as being a popular insert set.
I don’t see myself putting together any of the insert sets other than Turkey Red, but I’ll be buying a jumbo box right when they are released. Maybe I’ll be lucky and 2 out of 3 of my hits won’t be Yankees next time around.
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