Archer is one of my favorite Durham Bulls, out of the Rays relics on the checklist, this one was a must have if I am going to put these into the collection. The snowflakes in the corners of the card are a little bit more visible on this card than the two yesterday. Cool picture of Archer too.
Next up is a card from my latest set project. I am working on the 2002 Bowman Futures Games Autographed Relics. Nice looking set that I am piecing together. First addition to the set since I announced the project is kind of the oddball of the set....
The set is a relic set, like the vast majority of Topps cards produced from All-Star Game related events, the cards contain pieces of jersey. For whatever reason Toby Hall is a game used base card. I have no idea why and I am sure that I will never know. It's still a really cool card and added bonus, Hall was on the Durham Bulls at the time of the Futures Games and the production of these cards. He was a serviceable Major League catcher, but has a career OPS of .899 and a batting average of .326 as a member of the Bulls.
I will cross this card off of the checklist. One third of the set is done.
Next is another set, but this one is a new release and it's already completely put together. We are going to do a little compare and contrast with the cards.
The original Gold Label cards, or any of the original run through the early 2000s, blow these cards away in terms of quality. The card stock is thick, the edges are not chipped, and the gloss finish is much nicer. This is a card from the original.....
If there was a way for me to allow each of the readers of this blog to reach out and touch these two baseball cards you would feel the difference immediately. Unfortunately that sort of technology does not exist, so you are going to have to take my word for it, or go get your own Gold Label cards.
The backs of the cards are quite different too. I do not talk a lot about card backs, but I always enjoyed the backs of some of the late 1990s and early 2000s set. Many of them had nice finishes, color photos, and interesting designs. The original Gold Label back.....
Very well done 1998 Topps card designers. A little busy, but overall I like that the stats are a little different and you have the nice color picture of the player. Not sure what I would get rid of, maybe the factoid or the name at the top (I didn't know BJ worked out with JJK, but I did know his name was Brian Jordan), but the card seems a little busy. Again, I really like these backs though....
and the Gold Label. It's not bad, but this is supposed to be a nice product. Where is the effort? This is a passable card back, but I want another picture of Manny Machado. I want some cool stats, like his average exit velocity on extra base hits. Give me something. Anything.
Sigh. Let's talk about one more thing. This can be applied across the board to all Topps products, I just had never expressed this opinion before. It's been lingering in my head....
This is a 1990s remake set. There are current players in the set and then there are older players in the set who have retired. I get the modern players, while the original Gold Label did not have retired players in the set, I am accepting of the concept of having older players. However.....
lets look at two Braves cards. I like Hank Aaron. I like Greg Maddux. Not really. One of the players would seem to fit a little bit better into a 1990s remake set than the other. Again, I like Hank, but you are not a 1990s player. The set has Randy Johnson in a Mariners uniform and Mike Piazza in a Mets uni which I really like a lot. It has Cal Ripken in an Orioles uni, but it's an 80s Orioles uni. cartoon bird, not the black hats with the serious orange bird.
Just my two cents, but I would love to see remake sets with past players match up a little bit better. As a 1990s collector I think I would have enjoyed the checklist a little better if I had been able to see some good players from that decade. Give me Albert Belle, Sammy Sosa, Brady Anderson with sideburns.
Really, the design of the cards in Gold Label is nice and I think this is a set that is worth owning if you can find a copy of the set on the cheap. The boxes are not too bad as far as cost goes, but a few autographs and a copy of the set can be had for roughly the same amount of money.
Really, the back of the card design is probably me just being nit picky and the card stock thing is just kind of how cards are nowadays. Some of the recent Five Star sets had some nice thick card stock, but even that has thinned out over the last year or two.
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