Sports card articles, reviews and box breaks
Topps
60 Years of Topps Baseball Countdown – #52: 1970 Topps
May 31st
By Drew Pelto aka *censored*
Egad man! How did this set get so high of a ranking?
Yes, ninth worst is high in this case. Remember all the sets I’ve mentioned that fell victim to bad timing? This is yet another one, with a sorry design on top of it. 1970 was the first year of Topps without Mickey Mantle since the 1955 set that was competing against Bowman’s last stand. Considering Mantle was THE icon of Topps baseball cards from the beginning (and following his death on into the present), losing him was a huge blow. Granted, 1970 did still have More >
60 Years of Topps Baseball Countdown – #53: 1981 Topps
May 28th
By Drew Pelto aka *censored*
The 1981 Topps set is almost an afterthought because of the other events that surrounded that year in the hobby world. The 1975 Fleer lawsuit finally came to a close and both Fleer and Donruss entered the card market with their debut offerings. While neither was particularly memorable, the 1981 Topps set wasn’t exactly blasting past them either.
1981 was also the year of the mid-season strike, causing a loss of 713 games and a massively screwy split-season schedule. Marvin Miller, MLBPA president and architect of this strike, turned professional athlete greed into an art form that More >
60 Years of Topps Baseball Countdown – #54: 2003 Topps
May 24th
By Drew Pelto aka *censored*
2003 was the worst year of my life. My college financial aid application got screwed up, resulting in me not getting any for the first semester of my sophomore year. My then best friend and I spent 7 months not talking to each other because of the world’s stupidest fight. My parents got divorced. The Yankees won the AL Pennant in a fashion typical of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry in the years when it resembled Hingis vs. Kournikova more than Ali vs. Frasier. I went to college in the middle of downtown Boston, and lived in More >
60 Years of Topps Baseball Countdown – #55: 2007 Topps
May 21st
By Drew Pelto, AKA *censored*
Remember when an error card was just that? An error. A mistake. An honest-to-goodness “Okay, we done goofed and you caught us” moment. I remember that. And 2007 was the year of the forced error, a gimmick that nearly killed my interest in collecting.
Card making used to be a semi-serious business. You get the photo, you get the stats, maybe a fun little cartoon on the back like the 1960’s and 70’s sets had. Hockey sets were awesome for those. If someone made a mistake along the line, it was caught, the error was corrected, and More >
60 Years of Topps Baseball Countdown – #56: 1979 Topps
May 18th
By Drew Pelto aka *censored*
Having just celebrated my 27th birthday a month ago, I’ve been alive for less than half of the sets Topps has put out over the years. This is the first on my list from before my time, five years before the planet was graced with my presence.
Smashing Pumpkins makes it sound like 1979 was so cool. And I guess it kind of was, based on what I know. Disco was dying. Hip-hop and rap were on the upswing in New York City. Van Halen was the be-all and end-all of rock. Led Zeppelin was still around More >
60 Years of Topps Baseball Countdown – #57: 1988 Topps
May 16th
By Drew Pelto, AKA *censored*
Five cool things from 1988: Perestroika in the Soviet Union. Summer Olympics that didn’t feature any major political controversy (first time since 1964). Jerry Falwell lost in court in a major victory for the First Amendment. Kirk Gibson’s home run. Rihanna was born, leading to my current drooling problem.
Five not so cool things from 1988: Dan Quayle becomes known to the American populace at large. Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson tried to run for President. Poison was a popular band. I started school, leading to 14 years of hell. 1988 Topps baseball cards came into existence.
In More >
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