Friday, April 29, 2016

Topps Now...yes, yes I did



I don't have anyone who can verify this but I thought of this concept a long time ago. Maybe you did, too. Go to press with a card the day after some event and produce a limited amount ASAP. I think I got the idea from the Gateway Stamp Company who did a lot of great event-dated and postal cancellation cachets. They still do those apparently although they long ago loped me off their mailing list.

It's kind of a neat idea and when I heard Topps was doing it I figured I'd grab one as soon as an Orioles player was so honored. I believe I missed out on a Joey Rickard card (nope). This Chris Davis issue came up and it filled the bill nicely. The card shows his three run dinger in Fenway on April 11.

I love watching Davis hit. He's got that smooth follow-through that's pretty distinctive. And the card itself is fine. Nothing that makes me go 'wow' but it's got Davis, the Orioles logo and some info on his feat. I felt I'd seen it before someplace and then I stumbled across last year's Topps Baseball History inserts that appear to have inspired these. There is a limited print run and the #13 refers to the fact that Davis' card is the 13th in the series which began on Opening Day.

The Topps Now pages give the press run for each but the cards themselves don't give any indication of this. Maybe it's in the fine print down there but my old eyes can't read that.

I haven't been tempted by any of the others other than the Jackie Robinson and briefly the Mark Trumbo but I passed on both. No sense in getting into the habit of routinely nabbing $10 cards. I can see myself pouring my money into that Topps hole if the Orioles would somehow make the Series. This type of card is going to produce some cool post-season cardboard.

I had wondered what Topps would do with an exceptionally slow baseball day and today I found out. Today's issue 'honored' (commemorated is probably the operative word) the end of Jake Arrieta's shutout inning run at Wrigley which occurred yesterday. Seems like a bit of a reach but maybe not.

Bottom line. I'm happy with my one foray into this type of card but something spectacular involving an Oriole player (or maybe one of my fantasy players) would have to happen for me to be tempted again.

7 comments:

  1. I've picked up a couple of the Cubs cards but they haven't made their way to me yet. The Arrieta for his no hitter last week and the Kris Bryant 2 home run game. Of course, they were the too highest print runs so far.

    Still debating his end of the streak card for today...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I might have picked up that Arrieta no-hitter card if I had thought about it the next day. I have him on my fantasy team this year and ended up watching the game from the fifth inning on.

      Delete
  2. Much to my surprise, I find myself liking this concept... The design isn't bad, the cards look nice and it's fun to see what the press runs end up being for each card. I might even spring for one at some point, but I'm thinking it would have to be for a player I collect and probably something big like a no-hitter... or maybe for something that happened at a game I'd attended.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The idea of getting a card for an event you witnessed live is a cool idea.

      Delete
  3. If you did come up with the concept I hope you didn't have a $9.99 price point. That is a rather large buzz kill for what is an otherwise cool venture for Topps

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete