The 2016 Topps Heritage release features the 1967 Topps design, with many throwbacks to that era. The set has never really been about hits, though it does advertise one autograph or relic per box. Instead it focuses much more on the base cards, with a few hidden short print variations.
There are no real surprises here, but that might be what makes it popular. The set always delivers on what it is meant to be, and this year is no exception. Once again, a hobby box contains 24 packs of 9 cards. A full base set is 425 plus an additional 75 SPs.
This release is pretty much what you’ve come to expect over the recent years. It’s a modern release on old fashioned cardboard stock. The base set is 500 cards, with an additional 100 SP cards featuring marquee rookies and legends.
The box has 32 packs of 8 cards, but no guaranteed hits. There are a few parallels included, but not much in the way of inserts really. This is much more a set builder release than many of the other current options.
This is a little bit different kind of release. Panini is releasing these for a number of different schools. The full 50 card set features recent and historic players from the University of Michigan’s storied history, in baseketball, baseball and football. There are also the occasional school history cards, but no hockey players are included. There is also an Honors insert line, featuring award winning players, as well as memorabilia and autograph cards. The memorabilia and autograph subsets feature a pretty small checklist, but it sounds like some of the more desirable players are in shorter supply.
This box advertises 10 packs, with 8 cards per pack. There should also be one autograph or memorabilia per blaster box.
This is a little bit different release for this year. Normally, the Topps Heritage release features a single year from the past, and shows current players on cards from that design. Every year, the normal set design moves up one year, but this one is a bit different. It seems to be a one-off to just feature current players on 1951 Topps designs, in a box set format.
The box features
1 Full 104 card set
10 Mini Red Back Parallels
5 Mini Blue Back Parallels
3 Mini Green Back Parallels
2 Mini Black Back Parallels
1 Mini Gold Back Parallel
1 Autograph Francisco Lindor
The Topps Update set is an old favorite from this time of year. You expect to see a lot of mid season rookies and players who are traded. It has a pretty good selection, but some major names, like Schwarber, are curiously missing. I suppose it is just an effort to keep some rookies in series one next winter.
Another major change you find this year is the expansion of the base set to 400 cards, after many years at 330. Even series 1 and series 2 were only 350 cards each this year. One thing that really stands out to me this year, involves the stamped buyback cards in the packs. I like the idea, but it seems like they should really up their game a bit. I realize some of these are are 55+ years old, but I’d still hope they would at least not have rips through the cards and other serious damage. It’s fun to pull an old card, but it loses quite a bit when it looks like it was pulled out of a garbage pile.
The box has the standard configuration for jumbos featuring ten packs of 50 cards each.
