To me, Topps is all about tradition. This is the one set I build every year without fail. It’s cheap (relatively speaking), it’s got consistently good player selection and it’s got complete stats. In recent years the design end hasn’t been the greatest. But I don’t expect much razzle-dazzle when I rip into my packs. It’s a concession I’m willing to make just because of the brand.
I must say, though, that my interest in the base Topps set is beginning to wane – just a little. From year to year, everything is starting to feel like the same old, same old. The design looks strikingly similar to the 2000 design, which borrowed a lot from the 1999 set, which looked a lot like the 1998 set. I’m not a big fan of the same gold borders year after year. I guess I’m still having bad dreams of 1991 Fleer. Another reason why my interest in Topps is starting to fade is the over use of nostalgic reprints and junky buy-back cards at near-impossible odds. Consistently uninspired insert sets doesn’t help matters either.
The Topps Series Two set consists of 354 cards numbered 366 through 719. My box consisted yielded an impressive 339 different base cards (96 per cent of the set) and a low 11 doubles. While it would have been nice to get no duplicates, this is Topps we’re talking about here and that’s part of the tradition. Be warned though. I got a good box. I’ve heard from others who’ve gotten upwards of 60 doubles. And I’ve heard these numbers more than the way mine ran.
As far as inserts go, I also got the good end of the stick. They ran accordingly with three Gold parallels, three All-World Team cards and one 1952 Player Reprint. I also pulled two 1952 World Series Highlights instead of the expect one.
Normally I don’t get the elusive autographs or game-used cards from my base Topps packs. Well, my luck finally changed. In my second-to-last pack there was a Prime Cuts Pine Tar Edition Xavier Nady game-used bat card. It is also serial numbered 044/200. Sure Nady is a common, but who cares. It made the box a little more worthwhile.
I didn’t get a vintage hall-of-famer buyback. That’s fine because the ones I’ve heard of include a 1987 Topps Mike Schmidt. Big deal. I’d rather have a common towards my set at the odds these come out (1:431 packs).
Even with the game-used card and the near set I received, I still don’t know if I’m going to continue buying boxes of Topps in the future. I can get a set for under $20, far less from what I paid for my box. And that’s why I buy Topps in the first place, to buy a box. Even if I were to sell (heaven forbid) the Nady and all the inserts, I’d still be paying more than $40 for the set by the time I work it out. And I got the good box. As pack prices continue to rise, even for the cheap sets, I am constantly having to adjust my collecting habits to keep within budget. I think the biggest problem facing Topps is how to keep value in their base set, the cornerstone of all baseball sets.
So if this is indeed the last box of base Topps I buy for a while, at least it was a pretty good one. At least it’s going to make my decision a little tougher come October when the first series of 2003 is released.
2002 Topps Series 2 Baseball Box Breakdown:
Packs per box: 36
Cards per pack: 10
Total cards: 360
Cards in set: 354
Singles: 339
Doubles: 11
Triples+: 0
Inserts: 10
- Gold Parallel (1:6): 3 (466. Jose Hernandez, 496. Bill Haselman, 554. Adam Piatt)
- All-World Team (1:12): 3 (AW-3. Pedro Martinez, AW-11. Luis Gonzalez, AW-20. Carlos Delgado)
- 1952 Player Reprint (1:25): 1 (52R-11. Preacher Roe)
- 1952 World Series Highlights (1:25): 2 (52WS-4, 52WS-7)
- Prime Cuts Pine-Tar Series GU Bat*: 1 (PCP-XN. Xavier Nady (044/200))
- Hall of Fame Prepurchased Card (1:431): 0
- ’52 Player Autograph*: 0
- Autoproofs*: 0
- Five Card Stud*: 0
- Ebbets/Yankee Stadium Relics*: 0
- Topps Autographs*: 0
- Team Topps Autographs*: 0
*overall odds for GU and autos 1:117
