2011 Topps and Topps Heritage

Ok, I am overwhelmed. When I first started this blog I was planning on sorting all my 70's and 80's cards and filling in some gaps and letting it be at that. Then I started buying some cards on eBay and then a few more and next thing you know I have piles of cards I haven't even looked at while my old cards are being neglected (not that they aren't already used to that). So while I am still turn my nose up at "relic cards", I think some of the insert sets are really tempting. Then I made the mistake of buying some of the Topps Heritage cards to see what all of the fuss was about. Boy, those are cool! The photography suffers a bit with the intentionally retro look, but the cards "feel" so thick and substantial. The backs of the cards are really interesting. And there are only 10 years of cards, so it is conceivable to collect them all, right? Not so fast... It turns out (which is news to no one but totally out of touch me) that a large minority of the cards are hard to find (intentionally short-printed) to drive the chase and thus sell more cards (obviously!) Then there are the "Chrome" sets, which are even harder to find without buying huge amounts of packs, or scouring eBay and emptying your wallet.

So is card collecting too complicated? Is it ruined? I don't think so. I think the last 10 years must have woken up the card companies company. The cards have vastly improved, the subsets are (mostly) great. And there is something to stimulate everyone, from the base sets all the way to the "master" sets and then even more with parallel sets, autographs, etc. I don't like the feeling of never being able to "finish" your set, but I think the variety more than makes up for it. I for one find card collecting a lot more fun with all the new options.

I also am greatly relieved to find Topps as the sole baseball card producer. I never really like Fleer/Donruss/Score etc. and resented Upper Deck for being "better" and making me feel that Topps was old-fashioned and stodgy. I don't miss that at all.

I am going to try to make lists of "wants" and "doubles" for trading, which I would love to see pick up again. Send me your lists! Look at mine and feel free to contact me...