Topps is bringing back their tribute to the iconic T206 set from the early 1900s after a ten year hiatus. This time, the set is an online exclusive print on demand. Series 1 had a print run of 74,997 packs. Each wave is on sale for a four week window, with shipping advertised in a short period after that. The pandemic has delayed and spread out the shipping quite a bit, with some people receiving their shipment direct after the Series 2 order window had completed.
This release consists of mini cards, in the size of the original tobacco issue. It comes in small packs of ten in silver packaging within a box resembling a cigarette box. While there are some available autograph pack-ins, they are not in any advertised ratio. Two of the cards are Piedmont backs, leaving eight regular base cards, which do not feature any retro advertising on the back. Other backs are available, some with a limited print run and some at a certain pack ratio. Any additional parallels are in place of a normal base card.
This release comes at a strange time in 2020. Normally, the season has been rolling along for almost three months, and some new rookies have started to emerge. This year, due to the global pandemic, no regular season games have been played by the release date in late June. Summer training will begin the first week of July, with fan free games starting in late July at this point.
The pandemic has caused other problems within the hobby. Many releases such as this one have been delayed, and there seems to be some quality issues while trying to rush and catch up. This release is a continuation of series one, with another 350 card base set, the usual expected parallels, and many of the same insert sets duplicating numbers unfortunately.
This entry level product returns for another year, after a bit of a delay due to the global pandemic. It’s the same basic card set, but this time the complete base set has been reduced to 300 cards. The configuration of the box has also changed a bit. Instead of the standard 24 packs per box from years past, this year we see 18 packs of 10 cards. The price seems to have dropped a similar amount, so all is not lost.
There are possible hits in this product, but that’s not really what drives it. A hobby box does not contain any hits, but it does come with a few parallels and insert cards. Overall, it’s a fun little set to collect that won’t set you back nearly as much as most of the other regular releases.
Wave 2 of Topps Total was a bit of a mess, so even with a few errors, this one is an improvement. Two players have a number different from the checklist, resulting in two numbers doubling up. The parallels are continuing without the letters used in wave 1.
With a print run of 3702, this wave sees a bit more than the previous wave, but still well below the first wave. This wave includes stars such as Clayton Kershaw and Paul Goldschmidt, while featuring Bo Bichette as top rookie. Again, the release has a base set, with red, black, and gold possible parallels. There are also a limited number of autographs as well as a retired legend as available inserts. Each pack is advertised to have ten cards. Any inserts or parallels are an additional card in the pack.
The print run is down significantly from wave 1, with only 3289 packs this time. With headliners like Anthony Rizzo, Albert Pujols, and Gavin Lux, this wave actually stands out for other reasons.
This release is filled with, let’s call them irregularities. This pack contained two that stood out, and there are others where the player named does not match the player pictured or the team labeled. This pack contained one player with the wrong team logo, and another card mis-numbered as part of wave one. That’s not all, though. Last year, as well as wave one this year, featured a different numbering scheme for all the parallels, including different letters for each type. Those are all gone for parallels in wave two.
