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(More customer reviews)The first set of Topps baseball cards came out in 1951, and consisted of 52 Red Backs and 52 Blue Backs that measures 2 x 2 5/8 inches. The cards allowed you to play a baseball came where if you flipped over Warren Spahn it was a ball, Monte Irvin was a double, and Hank Sauer was a home run. Fifty years later the cards are now standardized at 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches and there are 790 cards in the set (the other five cards are one of three bonus sets having to do with future stars). Topps celebrated its 50th anniversary with a lot of baseball card sets that year: Topps Traded, Topps American Pie, Topps Archives, Topps Archives Reserve, Topps Chrome, Topps Chrome Traded, Topps Fusion, Topps Gallery, Topps Gold Label Clas 1, Topps Heritage, Topps Opening Day, Topps Reserve, Topps Stars, and Topps Traded. These are really just the general categories, because even when you are dealing with the basic 2001 Topps set you have Topps Gold, Topps Home Team Advantage, Topps Bawe Hit, Topps Golden Anniversary Autographs, Topps Hit Parade, Topps King of Kings, Topps Originals, Topps Team TOops Legend Autographs, and Topps Limited.
This explains why I just collect the basic Topps set each year and forgo the rest of the madness. This is how I remember what happened each season, so when the cards are laid out in the binder the first one is for the World Series Champion New York Yankees (#406), followed by the other six cards with highlights from the playoffs. Then come the five Season Highlight cards (3.g., Randy Johnson reching 3,000 strikeouts), and the eight League Leaders cards. Then we get to the cards for the Yankees, followed by the other teams of the American League in the order that they finished. In between the two leagues are the 20 Golden Moments cards that highlight some of the most memorable events in baseball history. Mention the names Bobby Thomson, Don Larsen, Bill Mazeroski, and Roger Maris and baseball fans know what the moments in question have to be (they all come from the 50 years that Topps has been around, which is why you do not get the likes of Babe Ruth in this sub-set). In the back come the speculative cards that many collectors seem to pay attention to the most. There are 25 Prospect cards, each featuring three players, with Barry Zito and C.C. Sabathia sharing a card (#363), and Ben Sheets (#364), Travis Hafner (#371), Milton Bradley (#376), Roy Oswalt (#727), Jake Peavy (#728), Michael Cuddyer (#730), and Vernon Wells (#736) also appearing. There are also 16 Draft Pick cards, but none of them are big names yet.
As most collectors know by know, the Topps set does not have a #7 card any more because it was retired to honor Mickey Mantle. The key card in the set is clearly the Ichiro Suzuki rookie card (#726), which is the only card to date going for double figures (it sure looks odd to see his last name on a card). If you banked on Hee Seop Choi (#366), his stock has gone down, while that of Jake Peavy (#728) has gone up. When you are talking about cards of active players there are not any in this set who are already in the Hall of Fame because that is really cutting it close on the five-year waiting period. But Cal Ripken (#1) and Tony Gwynn (#220) are on deck, and the same would be true of Rickey Henderson (#105) if he would ever really retire. But Randy Johnson (#75), Roger Clemens (#170), Greg Maddux (#660), and Mike Piazza (#706) should all be entering Cooperstown in the next decade. Just remember, it takes a while for the players of today to become part of our nostalgia and that it does not matter how much your baseball cards are worth if you are not going to sell them.
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Each factory sealed set contains 790 cards featuring 640 Veterans, 30 Manager, 30 Team Photo, 7 Post Season Highlights, 8 League Leaders, 50 Draft Picks & Prospects, 5 Season Highlights, and 20 Gold Moments as well as 5 of 20 Topps Future Archives Rookie reprint cards (Bonds, C. Jones, Ripken, Jeter, Sosa, Gwynn, Ramirez, and others).
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