General Forum

suomibear8, your tag line says it all by the fact there are 1469 plus cards of one player, having a PC for multiple players or even team sets could get astronomical in size and $$$

Mike Davis, a 2014 Oakland Raider "Rookie", cut after the third preseason game in 2014, never to play in the NFL. He has 470 cards!!  167 of them are from the 2015 issues...WHAT??!!

That is why I collect only the base sets and a few inserts that I like each year. I sell or trade or give away my extras I gave up try to collect all the cards years ago. It will drive you crazy trying to collect it all.

Meanwhile, recent HOF inductee Will Shields has 85 cards.

C2Cigars wrote: Mike Davis, a 2014 Oakland Raider "Rookie", cut after the third preseason game in 2014, never to play in the NFL. He has 470 cards!!  167 of them are from the 2015 issues...WHAT??!!

 I agree the number of sets is insane, but if Topps wasn't making money doing it I'm sure they wouldn't.  They figure if collectors are crazy enough to spend $100 apiece for a Kris Bryant card, then why not turn out a hundred different Kris Bryant cards?  As for my purchases, I'm a Cub collector and I usually pursue just the base sets.  If I happen to come across an insert or a parallel I'll pick it up if it doesn't cost too much.  I guess when one is a team collector you already know going in you'll never get every card, so you just work on getting and enjoying the cards you can.

This threads shows exactly why I stopped buying new MLB releases when Topps got the exclusive license. Pretty much all of my baseball cards newer than 2010 are Cardinals cards that I got in trades. I knew Topps would flood the market. The only way they can succeed as the only cardmaker is to produce tons of releases. The only way to convince people to buy them is by adding inserts and parallels to chase. They have just taken it way overboard though.

Panini is no better. One of the NBA releases this year had (I think) 38 parallels....and each of the inserts had the same parallels as it was one of the chrome based sets  Can't remember if it was Select or Spectra.

I think the right number of parallels for a base set is 4...one common, standard one per pack. One numbered to a high number, say 1000. Another numbered to say 500 or 250, and one rare one numbered to 10. No 1 of 1 unless it's a printing plate. Although I've been lucky enough to pull six 1 of 1s in my time in the hobby, they are more frustrating than fun because most of the time you can never find them.

For Topps I'd love to see them make the standard parallel a Chrome card and the second rarist parallel the refractor of same. I wouldn't mind if they did that with inserts either.

I started back in the hobby 2 years ago after being out since the early 90s. Realizing there were so many different sets and inserts and parallels blew me away. My first thought was.. why? 

I dont chase inserts or parallels or rainbows. I buy the base sets off ebay usually. I figure its helping those case breakers who are enjoying the idea of busting cases in search of that rare 1/1 or some other huge hit. My goal is to get every base set each year. If someone Im buying from has an interesting looking insert set for a few bucks and I dont have to pay extra postage, then I might grab an insert set. I have never bought nor do I own any colored parallels. 
 

It does amaze me that somehow the market hasnt oversaturated. Topps releases a new baseball set every month of the year now. But there must be profit in it since Panini is also in the game even without the license from MLB. 

That said. I would love to see 2 more sets added. Actually one would be a change to a current set. I hate the way Topps does Opening Day. Same pics of as their base set. Back in 1987 Donruss issued an Opening Day set. It featured cards for every player in the starting lineups of every team on opening day. I would love to see Topps do that. Release it sometime in May. 

The other concept I would love to see brought back in the Major League Debut sets. Topps ran this idea for 3 years in the early 90s. Every player who made their major league debut the previous year appeared in the set. With the way Topps does things now, some lesser players never get a card even with the bajillion sets out each year. IMO, if you make it to the majors, you should get to see yourself on a Topps card at least once. Set like this would allow the rookie collectors to go gaga over another kind of rookie card, while still allowing for every player to have a card at least once. 

The good thing about those sets you mentioned is that they were put out by different companies. But I agree; I liked the sets that commemorated something that actually happened in the season. I'm personally annoyed that Topps is doing four WWE sets this year. I will want some of each, but I can just about guarantee that many of the heritage cards will have the same pictures used in Topps and Topps Chrome, which is so annoying.

What I meant to say above is FIVE WWE sets. Not four. I forgot about Road To Wreztlemania.