I really, really liked last year’s Topps baseball set. Not everybody did, but that slick, sharp, clean, modern look really did it for me. It was a bordered card that didn’t feel closed-in, it was a visually interesting card that didn’t feel cluttered. As far as base sets go, it was hard for me to… Read More More like Midds: Topps 2022 Series 1 Baseball
Late last summer, when sports apparel and memorabilia giant Fanatics came out of nowhere and swooped trading card licensing deals with NBA, NFL, and MLB, one of the biggest side stories was the fate of venerable card maker Topps. The company has produced an MLB card set (or many sets) each year uninterrupted since the… Read More The Other Shoe: Fanatics buys Topps
I have talked plenty here before about how, in my card collecting hobby, I’m drawn to beautiful, interesting cards that aren’t necessarily what everyone else is collecting (and therefore aren’t as pricey as what everyone else is collecting). This is definitely more a decision on the collecting side of things rather than the “investing” side,… Read More On the shoulders of Giants: To collect the 1964 Topps set or not collect it?
A few weeks ago, I purchased one of those “Southside” City Edition Chicago White Sox caps online. I purchased it from the official Chicago White Sox online merchandise store, which, like the online merchandise stores for every other MLB team, and every NFL team, and every NBA team, and every NHL team, and every WNBA… Read More The a-Topps-calypse is upon us: Speculation on the Fanatics takeover of the sports world
Welcome back to The Singles Mixer, an occasional feature where I write about a few notable sports card singles I’ve either added to my collection recently. This time around, I’m going to dig through my football (American version) collection to highlight some cards in advance of the start of the 2021 NFL season. Since I… Read More The Singles Mixer: Football’s back, baby!
It’s always fun when something unexpected and good pops up, right? Getting two flat tires in a week courtesy of screws laying in the road (which happened to me earlier this month), that’s unexpected and bad. Not fun. Getting a chance to look through someone’s vintage card collection for the first time (which happened to… Read More Me, Hank, and the Mick: My first experience digging through a vintage sports card collection
Last year, Topps did a yearlong thing mixing art and baseball cards called Project 2020. The concept was that 20 artists from across the art/fashion/culture spectrum would be assigned 20 classic cards from the Topps catalog, and each artist would put their own artistic spin on reimagining those cards, and the resulting 400 pieces of… Read More Topps Project 70: Déjà vu, but better
When I was a young sports card collector, I didn’t really “get” the whole Donruss Diamond Kings thing. Diamond Kings was an insert in the Donruss baseball card sets with hand-drawn/painted images of some of the day’s most popular players. I always thought the drawings/paintings looked kinda lame, and the design of the cards was… Read More SportKings, Topps Gallery, and Panini Diamond Kings: Sports cards as art
I haven’t followed baseball all that closely the last several years, but for me there’s nothing quite like the time when the first baseball card sets of a season hit store shelves. There’s an excitement and a freshness that comes with a new baseball season that seems to exceed the excitement and freshness of all… Read More 2021 Topps baseball series 1: A base set to beat all base sets
The weirdest thing to me about the modern sports card collecting industry, after having awakened from a 25-year slumber of sorts, is finding that an Italian sticker company previously unknown to the vast majority of American collectors had snuck in and taken over the hobby. I remember reading that Panini (like the sandwich?) had signed… Read More I hate/love Panini: A two-sided essay on the current king of sports cards
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