General Forum

I was thinking today how I always considered Topps to be the official set I collected for each sport.  Then there were the other companies that I could collect as well, but Topps was the "main" set for each sport.  Since I am back in the hobby, it is painful for me that Topps doesn't do every sport, so I was trying to think, what is the official company I would collect for each sport.  I don't know if I am explaining this well, but what I thought would be an interesting question for everyone would be this...for each sport you collect, what is the main "go to" set you have to start with? The question only makes sense for those who collect sets, I think.  My list is below.  If you would like to share your thoughts for the sports you collect, please do.  I find these questions fascinating and sometimes influencing!!!

Baseball - Topps (Regular base Topps, not the million off shoot sets)

Football - Score (I haven't settled in on one, but if I had to pick)

Hockey - Upper Deck (Again, the regular set, not the off shoots)

Basketball - NBA Hoops

Soccer - I haven't settled in on one yet

You'll get better answers from others. I'll chime in only to agree with Topps for baseball. Base set only. And I hope  they get their act together so I don't have to say some other brand next year. 

I'd agree with all of those.  Most annoying thing is that the UD rookies are all short print.  Annoys me to no end when companies do that to base sets. Maybe OPC is different, I don't know. 

For hockey, I would consider Toops / OPC instead of UD as it only starts in 1990. OPC was Topps sister company in Canada and has produced sets from as far back as I can remember. That is why OPC cards have a higher value, lesser printed. But between the two they are the history of hockey pretty much.

Sadly OPC is exactly the same way now, VERY frustrating. Lets buy 40 hobby boxes to maybe make a full set. But are SPs considered part of a base set? I collect as if they are not.

Honestly, I think you have to do this by year, mainly because of licensing. I can think of 3 or 4 companies you could and would almost have to choose from for basketball - in just the 1980s alone. You'd start the decade with Topps, move to Star, then to Fleer, and maybe Hoops? If you want to limit the years you're asking about, it would help us give better opinions, otherwise you'll find the answers are all over the place.

I think I would go with modern day.  I agree the older sets I would go with other choices, but I am planning my 2017 and 2018 collection sets, so  I thought I would see what people are going with now a days.

This is kind of difficult, I mainly collect baseball and non sport. But I'd have to say topps for baseball, I like GQ, Heritage, and Ginter. And I know you said sports but I hope its OK to mention non sports since its regarding sets. I like Topps for that also, although Rittenhouse looks good. But, I can find Topps at Target, not the other. When I was collecting football, I liked Topps also. Loved Turkey Red!

Non Sport is great too!  Sorry I sounded like I limited it.  I was fond of the Topps Force Awakens Series 2 set offered by Topps!

I can speak of only the NBA and NASCAR. Hoops is the flagship for the NBA but I would actually suggest "Complete", as it has more players. However, calling it complete is kind of a joke. the first year had only 330 cards, this year has 400. The NBA is a 450 man league.

For NASCAR Press Pass was the flagship for many years but they went out of buisness. Panini has the license but has not established a main flagship yet. Donruss looks like it might be it, if they continue to do it from year to year. I just wrote a review of the set yesterday, for what it's worth.