2015 Topps Oversized 1952 Topps Team Sets

I have tended to be critical of Topps and its online exclusives, especially in terms of those online exclusives that have not included all teams equally or fairly.  This year, Topps has at least one product that really appealed to me, at least a little bit -- the 2015 MLB Collection 1952 Tribute Oversized cards. 

The first thing that is appealing about these is their price point.  Rather than being $50 for a single cardboard poster, these are almost reasonably priced -- either 9 cards, serial numbered to 99, for $20, or 10 cards, serial numbered to 49, for $30 (plus shipping). I decided to treat myself to the Brewers "Gold" set to pick up the 10 card set.

My main impetus to getting the Gold set is right on Topps's sale page for the sets:

The "Bonus Legend Card" which is of course of Robin Yount.  So, I plunked the $30 down.  

In hand, these cards are very attractive.  Unlike some of last year's wall-art efforts such as the "For Mayor" series, which featured oversized posters printed on old-school cardboard, these oversized cards are printed on white card stock with a glossy photo side and a matte finish on the reverse side.

Here's the Ryan Braun -- both sides:

Yeah, the backs are pretty much yawners, and numbering the card as if someone will collect a complete set is pretty ridiculous, but at least we get a nice big Brewers logo.

The Robin Yount is a familiar pose though I can't seem to find a card that features it before. I'm sure the Cynical Buddha can help me out here:

The only real complaint I have is the recycling photos laziness that we have come to expect from Topps.  For example, here is Carlos Gomez's card from this set:

For comparison, here's Gomez's card from 2014 Topps Archives, his 2014 Topps Allen & Ginter, and his 2014 Topps Fan Fest All-Star game oversized cards:

For someone who often works off a visual memory of a players' cards when trying to work quickly through boxes and boxes of cards at card shows, this is incredibly annoying.  Throw in the $3-per-card cost for this special issue set, and it is even more annoying.  

But at least Topps didn't do that for any other players' cards, did they?

Well....I wish I could say that was true, but it does not look to be...

At least Jean Segura's card looks different from what's been released so far for him:

As you probably can make out, my set was numbered 10 of 49.  So, 9 other people have purchased this set so far, I'm guessing.  

These are a pretty cool set.  Don't get me wrong.  In fact, I'm very happy I bought it. I just wish -- just once -- that my immediate reaction wasn't "hey, that's the same photo for Gomez as on that All-Star card from last year" or, rather, "Okay, I know I saw that photo before...how many times has it been used already?"

I mean, if people are paying something of a premium already to get these cards, don't they deserve a new photo?  

Now, back to fighting JBF's Monster #1!  

Mail Day Post: Breaking Down the Break Down

After that post-a-day week for Gint-a-Cuffs, I was happy to take a break on Friday and Saturday from the blog and, instead, just read others' posts, catch up on e-mail, and work on my continual project of organizing my Brewers.  Sometimes, I think I should change my blog name to "Organizing the Brewers." I probably would get traffic from folks thinking I was talking about craft breweries. Considering the number of different beers I have tried, perhaps I should start writing about that.

Maybe.  But not right now.

During the Gint-a-Thon here, I actually received four packages from other bloggers.  That's good, because otherwise I'd be putting up pictures of hot girls to draw web traffic. Unfortunately, the Brewers don't seem to have any female celebrity fans.  Instead, we have a really cute dog.

So, with Hank the Dog's approval, I'm turning now to the package I got a couple of weeks ago from Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown.  He and I have swapped cards a few times, and this one as far as I can remember was a "just because" package.  

First off, he sent some Archives Brewers, which helped push me nearer to completion on the Brewers for this year.  

I'm pretty sure that these complete my Archives team set.  I'm still looking for a silver parallel Robin Yount from that set, and of course I'd be happy to take any printing plates of any of the Brewers off someone's hands.  I have one each of the Greg Vaughn and Jeromy Burnitz autographs, even.  But in terms of the base cards, I'm good.

Gavin also sent four great Bowman cards that I did not have, including one of those cracked ice variations:

Gavin even sent me a sticker I needed.

On the right side of that sticker is long-time Brewer stalwart Charlie Moore. Charlie is one of my player collections in part because he was with the team for so long and -- more to the point -- he was one of the nicest, most genuine guys I've ever met.

What started all this out, I think, was that Gavin had opened some packs of this year's Allen & Ginter and had gotten a base card of Jean Segura.  I got one in the two hobby boxes I opened, but I needed two and asked Gavin if I could get Segura.  He was happy to send the card my way:

I really liked the card when I saw it.  Since this year's cards in nearly every Topps set have doubled up on photo use -- I'm sure it isn't laziness, but rather cheapness in not having to pay Getty to use different photos for all the different sets -- I paged through my Jean Segura cards to see what other card had used this photo before.  I was surprised to see that I could not find any.

Then, on Friday, I was on my way home from a morning doctor's appointment and stopped at the local Target (with the Starbucks attached) to get coffee for the day, ground coffee for the weekends, and a blaster of 2014 Topps Series 2 in my effort to collect the base set. I got home, went through the packs -- thankfully only 3 doubles in the whole blaster -- and found this insert:

I knew the idea that Topps might use a photo only once was too good to be true.

Thankfully, the cards that came from the Breakdown were real and wonderful.  Thanks, Gavin!