Topps changed up this release a little bit this year. In recent year, the hobby boxes have featured a single autograph, but this year, we’re seeing two autographs. The trade off does seem to be a bit at the expense of various parallels, though. It’s a nice release if you follow prospects, but it’s not really for you if you’re looking for many current big leaguers. Yes, the base set does feature regular players, but that is not really the bread and butter of the release.
This box contains:
Even though it’s a familiar release, they’ve added a little wrinkle this year, in order to include some of the hottest rookies who came up during the year. There is a 200 card base set, but an additional five cards numbered 201-205 are included as short prints.
Otherwise, the release is very much like the ones in recent years we’ve come to expect. The box advertises twelve packs of thirteen cards, with five autographs per box.
The 2015 release represents the tenth year of Topps’ Allen & Ginter offering, and they plan to celebrate it. Aside from the normal assortment of baseball players, other sport stars, and pop culture figures, buyback cards from the previous nine years are featured, as well. It does seem a little bit odd to pull a one year old buyback card, paying tribute to the history of the set, which itself is paying tribute to the history of the vintage set.
After last year’s returning Stadium Club release was met less than enthusiastically at the release price, Topps seems to have gone back to the drawing board for this release, and the results do not disappoint.
Last year, the cards were rather flimsy, but the first thing you notice opening a pack this year, is that the cards feel like Stadium Club. They have the thicker glossy feel of the original Stadium Club releases in the 90s. It’s still updated to include multiple parallels and insert sets, as well as two autographs per box. It’s not a perfect release, though. I don’t care for the black and white parallel of a set already containing some black and white photography, for instance, but the good seems to far outweigh the bad.
This box advertises 16 packs of 8 cards, with each pack containing one insert or parallel. The box contains two on-card autographs. This box contained:
Topps changed up the Archives release a little bit this year. Once again, it is a familiar set up with three vintage designs used in the main set, 1957, 1976, and 1983. The base set has 300 cards, with an additional 30 SPs, bringing the full set to 330. Unlike previous years, the SPs are a much more difficult pull. In previous years, they were available in roughly 1:4 packs. This year, it’s moved to 1:77! Well, so much for making a full set.
The main inserts have a 1990 Topps theme, but there are also Will Ferrell cards mixed in, commemorating his spring training adventure.
The box features 24 packs of 8 cards, with two on card autographs per box.
This box contained:
