I’m glad to see Stadium Club as a regular offering. It really fills a niche that Topps otherwise doesn’t address. You get top not photography on full bleed cards, with a glossy high quality stock. There’s a lot to like about it. Add in that you’re starting to see recurring insert sets, and you really start to get a feeling of continuity, You get a nice mix of current stars, rookies, and stars from the past.
The full set is 300 cards, so it’s not a real easy set, but at least there are no SPs involved. Each box contains 16 packs of 8 cards, including 2 on card autographs per box.
Topps Archives is back with another release featuring designs from various years with current and past stars. This year, the 310 card set features three past sets. They’re not exactly my favorites, but they do span quite a long time, including 1953, 1979, and 1991.
Once again, the set contains various insert designs from other sets. There is also a small insert set dedicated to the movie Bull Durham, including autographs of many of the stars.
The box advertises 24 packs of 8 cards, including two on-card autographs.
Not a lot of surprises with the regular Bowman releases. The 150 card base set features a few top rookies and a handful of players from around the league. This release has always been much more about the prospects, however. You’ll find some top prospects, but for the most part, the majority of these players are pretty far away from the majors.
You can definitely find some hidden gems, but you may not notice it for a few years.
We get a pretty standard release from Topps this time. Topps Opening Day is an entry level release with a lot of fun features for a very affordable price. You miss out on the guaranteed autographs and relics of the more expensive releases, but you get fun insert sets featuring the team mascots or players blowing bubbles.
That’s not to say there are no autographs. There is a limited autograph checklist, but you do find some stars. The hits are few and far between, but that’s not really what this set is about. For the price, it’s tough to beat.
It took a couple of years, but it seems the yearly Donruss release is becoming a low key fan favorite. It offers a nice and fun alternative to the Topps baseball monopoly. It would be impossible to dethrone Topps, at least while there is no mlb license, but it still offers a lot of affordable features. I know some people are completely turned off by the idea of no team names and logos, but there is really so much more than that.
Once again, Donruss offers a mix of current players along side recent stars from the 80s and 90s. They also take advantage of the lack of MLB license. What other set do you see featuring Pete Rose? You can even find special San Diego Chicken memorabilia cards!
