2022 Baseball Card Thoughts

 Baseball card thoughts:

I finally found some 2022 Topps packs at Target and picked them up.  Since the lockout has ended, I'm still not pleased with the direction of baseball.  But I'll give it a chance to see if my fears (long, slow, boring games dominated by a few teams) come to fruition.  

I've been collecting cards since 1981.  Though I'm no longer serious about collecting, I like to pick up a few packs to check them out.

Pros:

• The overall layout is nice and clean- white border isn't too cluttered
• All of the pictures I've seen are of action shots from games, and the photography is good
• They have lots of stats on the back- not just the most recent year and career

Cons:

• I'll deal with the con specific to Topps 2022 first.  Several of the cards are upside-down.  If you organzie the backs in the same directions, many of the portrait pictures are inverted.  That's just sloppy and lazy
• Now the big problem, which not only applies to this set but to baseball cards in general.  They aren't for collectors.  They are for speculators.  
  
  16 packs cost $40.  That's insane, even with inflation.  Especially when you can buy the entire basic set of 2021 Topps for $70.  Why would anyone buy the packs?
  
  Because the packs have the special insert cards.  Besides the basic set, they also have a chance for the following parallels (same cards with different borders:)

• Gold Foil – (1:2 hobby jumbo, hobby jumbo only)
• Premiere Party
• Rainbow Foil
• Rip Party – (exclusive to Rip Party packs)
• Royal Blue – (1:10 retail, retail only)
• Gold – /2022
• Green Foilboard – /499
• Advanced Stats – /300 (select cards only)
• Orange Foilboard – /299
• Red Foilboard – /199
• Vintage Stock – /99
• Independence Day – /76
• Black – /71 (hobby and hobby jumbo only)
• Father’s Day Powder Blue – /50
• Mother’s Day Hot Pink – /50
• Memorial Day Camo – /25
• Clear – /10 (hobby only, select cards only, list below)
• Platinum – 1/1
• Printing Plates – 1/1 (each has Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow versions)

Plus the Short Print Variations.

Plus the Super Short Print Variations

Plus the Ultra Short Print Variations
Plus the autographs.

Plus the parallels on the autographs

Plus the memoribilia cards

Plus the parallels on the memoribilia cards

Plus the 1987 cards

Plus the Chrome versions of the 1987 cards

Plus the...

I'm not joking.  Go to this link and see all of the checklists.  No human being could collect them all.

That's not the point.  It's not for collecting.  It's a lottery- buy a ticket and if you're lucky, you can find something worth much more than you spent.

But the lottery is a bad investment.  And so are baseball cards.  

Too bad... I use to enjoy buying packs and putting together a set.  But I stopped doing that- and under these conditions, I won't start ever again.

2021 Topps Baseball Cards

 I'm very discouraged by the state of baseball in 2021.  But I'm also a longtime collector of baseball cards, and seeing the new sets usually bring me joy...

But baseball cards have become unusually hot lately.  Prices have skyrocketed, and cards are being hoarded.  I was lucky to find one booster pack at Target, and can check out the pack of the Topps set.  Here are my comments:

1)  The front of the card isn't my favorite.  I like the white broder and 70th anniversary emblem, but the blue diagonal stripes are a little distracting.  But at least it looks different- unlike other years, you can easily identify it's the 2021 set.

2)  The back of the cards, however... I think they look great.  They are clean and easily readable.  

3)  The new normal is a ton of varaitions and inserts.  The 2021 has 18 parallels of each card- purple to gold foil to celebrating Mother's Day to.... it's an overabundance.  

4)  And inserts... According to Beckett, the 2021 Topps has 31 different kinds of inserts. Again, it's overkill.

I'm glad I got the cards to check them out.  But I have no desire to spend the money to put together a set.  Maybe if I fall in love with a special insert, I'll go out of my way to get that.  But considering most of my favorite players were in the 70's and 80's and have been long retired, I'll most likely focus on those players instead.

Baseball Card Thoughts

Topps has released their 2020 baseball cards.  I have my $0.11 on them...

1st- they are beautiful- but to me, it's a sterile beauty.  Take a look at these two baseball cards:

The one on the left is the 2018 Mike Trout from Topps; the one of the right is the 2020 Mike Trout.  The pictures are stunning- but the cards are too similar.  Both borderless, both of the same in-game moment.  Except for the helmet, you could have told me that they were from the same at-bat, and I'd have believed you.

Below is an example from almost 50 years ago;  The 1971 Topps Johnny Bench and the 1973 Bench.  They look different; not only is one a pose while the other is in-game, but just the feel of the cards are different.  Each year had a different redesign.  You can pick out a 1971 Topps from a 1972 from a 1973... it made collecting the cards more special.

Cards have also become a legalized lottery.  Packs are expensive (my 3 packs were $2.99 apiece for 16 cards), but they all have special inserts that, in theory, could be sold for more money.  I fear we are at a stage where no one collects and everyone invest, at which point the market will fall out.  There's also so many sets that trying to be a completionist is impossible

I'm not an investor; I collect for fun. I'll pick a small group and work on them.  

One set I do want to collect is the 2020 Topps Heritage Set.  The Heritage sets have the layouts of years past, and this one is the 1971 Topps (the black bordered cards).  I want to do this the old-fashioned way; opening up a few packs at a time, putting the set together manually.  It's a bad investment- but it'll appeal to my inner 11 year old.