In Defense of Over-Printing Topps Baseball Series 1
And why it should be that way every year
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Run the presses!
That’s how I feel about Topps’ flagship Baseball product – this year or any year. It doesn’t matter what rookies or non-rookies are in the release because this should be the one product – combined with Series 2 – that should be available throughout the year for collectors.
Many have been talking about the print run of 2022 Topps Baseball Series 1 because if you look at the odds on the back, it’s clear the print run for the overall product has increased. It’s tougher to pull parallels and other low-numbered cards.
Here’s a video breaking down the odds and the number of cards that are available:
Is that a bad thing?
Not when it comes to flagship. These cards should be found in every dollar store, big box store, grocery store and toy store. It doesn’t matter where you go, flagship should be in your face.
I don’t feel this way about other products like Heritage or Chrome. Flagship is different because it caters to a broader range of collectors than any other Topps release. New collectors get a chance to dabble in cards at in inexpensive price, veteran collectors get their fill of a flagship that they have been getting for decades.
Hit seekers even get to dabble for an astronomical chance at pulling a rare card or low-numbered parallel of the hot rookie.
Running the presses on the flagship is not a bad thing as much as some want to make this the second coming of the junk wax era.
If the choices are between making enough product to meet demand so people aren’t pulling guns on each in a Target parking lot or reduce supply so demand is through the roof and cards are unaffordable, I will pick the first option every time.
The only way to make new collectors is to get the cards into their hands. That’s impossible to do if there isn’t enough product being made.
So maybe there aren’t as many color parallels in boxes anymore. Is that really going to be a deal breaker when opening flagship?
The joy in flagship is getting cards of favorite teams and players, completing a base set, and pulling a few fun inserts. The fun in flagship is being able to rip the first cards of the baseball season.
And if overproduction isn’t something that you like about flagship, there are 50 other baseball releases on the calendar to enjoy.
Wander Franco Gets the Living Set Treatment
The newest Topps Living Set card features Wander Franco. It was the perfect time to release this card with the hype surrounding Franco’s debut flagship release.
Here’s the link to the card if you want to grab any for yourself before time runs outs. It’s only available for about a week.
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I am a SF Giants collector. I have 44 binders that contain my collection plus several boxes of relics and autos. I generally tried to collect base cards from every release and as many of the inserts, parallels and hits that I can track down and fit within my budget. For years I have collected all the gold parallels and rainbow foil parallels from Series 1 and Series 2 Topps flagship and the Update set. I have also gone back and filled in the gaps since the gold parallels started in the early 90s and have a full run from 1992-2000.
I decided to stop this massive pursuit of everything Giants and focus on the other areas of my collection at the end of the 2000 release season. Retail cards started to disappear and hobby prices skyrocketed. Also the parallels I liked to chase like the gold and rainbow were tough to get at reasonable prices. Lack of access to these parallels and the rising prices of them when I did find them was a big part of my decision.
While I agree with much of what you said about wanting flagship cards to be available, there are some consequences that may drive some collectors away as well.