06 'pps

The last of the boxes I received a few days ago was a 2006 Topps rack box.

Inserted in each pack were vintage Topps cards.

Oooooooh vintage !  That’s a good thing, as I don’t have any cards from the 50s and 60s, so come to papa.

Let’s see…oh ok, so in 2006, vintage means 1990, 1983 and 1982.

I doubt they included any key rookies (Ripken, Sandberg, Gwynn, Boggs), but it did allow me to have my first Sutton, Rose and Carew cards. I wonder if kids in 2006 could possibly be excited by those cards. I hope so. Maybe they’ll want to grow mustaches after that.

There was a Griffey in there. Not the right one, but close enough.

Apparently, the creative team for inserts at Topps decided to go on strike. They designed one card for each idea they had, and then called it a day. That’s how you end up with the almost exact same front for those Mantle cards that document all of his HRs. They had to be careful and make sure the number on the upper left hand changed each time, so that took probably a couple of minutes.

Same thing with that US Constitution insert. I wonder if Benjamin Franklin is considered a star or a semi-star.

I don’t mean to be overly sarcastic or negative, but come on….I’m all in favor of on-card autographs, but why did they create only half a card ? It does leave a nice big space for the autograph, but this is very wrong. Maybe it’s the light green. I don’t know.

Good, now we’re getting somewhere…a little shiny, but nice design, plus  3 out of 4 are players I really like (and Bagwell and Griffey always make it to the binder). But wait….hold on…

Ok, so they decided not to make different card backs for each player, save for their name appearing. Very well. Once again, half a card should be largely enough.

The cards from the base set are actually ok. The usual Topps photography with some nice moments. But the thing that strikes me the most is the fact that the back of the cards are filled with stats and info. Go figure…maybe they were just tired after all that effort and deserved some time off. I’m sorry Topps, I won’t make fun anymore.