SCF Official Review: 2010 Topps Heritage

[Enigma]

First and foremost, I'd like to thank our sponsors at Topps for providing us with this box.



24 packs per box
8 cards + 1 stick of gum per pack
Current Retail Price: 74.99 - 84.99 (online)

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS
- One Autograph Or Relic Card Per Box!
- 500 Stars Of Today And Yesterday On The 1961 Topps Design!
- New! Chase '61
- New! Framed Topps Stamps!
- New! Topps Dice Game Card Backs!
- On-Card Autographs & Relics From 1961 Legends & Today's Stars!
- Gum In Every Pack!

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
BASE CARDS (500) All players on vintage paper stock featuring the classic 1961 Topps card design!
- Rookies, Veterans, Legends (425)
- Short Prints (75) Inserted 1:3 Packs!

CHROME PARALLEL CARDS (300 total cards)
- Black-Bordered (100) #'d to 61
- Refractor (100) #'d to 561
- Chrome (100) #'d to 1961

NEW! CHASE '61 (32 total cards)
- Ruth Chase '61 (1 subj;14 cards)
*Relic Parallel (14) #'d to 3 - Hobby Exclusive!
- Chase '61 Dual Relic (1) hand #'d to 5
- Chase '61 Triple Relic (1) hand #'d to 5
- Chase '61 Dual Cut (1) #'d 1 of 1 - Hobby Exclusive!
- Chase '61 Triple Cut (1) #'d 1 of 1 - Hobby Exclusive!

NEW! TOPPS STAMPS (TBD)
- Topps Stamps (207) #'d to 50
- Buyback Topps Stamps (TBD) Hobby Exclusive!

INSERT CARDS (45 total cards) 6 PER BOX!
- New Age Performers (15)
- Then and Now (10)
- Baseball Flashbacks (10)
- News Flashbacks (10)

AUTOGRAPHED RELIC- CARDS (20) One Autographed or Relic Card Per Box! All Autographs Signed Directly On Each Card!
- Flashback Stadium Relics (5) hand #'d to 25!
- Clubhouse Collection Relics (10) hand #'d to 25!
- Clubhouse Collection Dual (5) hand #'d to 10 - Hobby Exclusive!

AUTOGRAPHED- CARDS (65+ total cards) One Autographed or Relic Card Per Box! All Autographs Signed Directly On Each Card!
- Real One (20+)
- Real One Spec Ed (Red Ink) (20+) hand #'d to 61-Hobby Exclusive!
- Real One Dual Autographs (10) hand #'d to 25 - Hobby Exclusive!
- Flashbacks (5) hand #'d to 25
- 1961 Cut Signatures (10) #'d 1 of 1!

RELIC- CARDS (43) One Relic or Autographed Card Per Box!
- Clubhouse Collection (40+)
- Clubhouse Collection Dual (5) hand #'d to 61
- Flashback Stadium Relics (10)
- Dual Flashbacks (5) hand #'d to 10

BOX LOADER - HOBBY EXCLUSIVE!
- Advertising Panels - 1:2 Boxes! Alternates w/Topps Stamp Album
- Topps Stamp Album - 1:2 Boxes! Alternates w/Advertising Panels
- 1961 Topps Originals - 1:2 Boxes!

WHAT WE PULLED

Part 1:


Part 2:


Washiington Nationals Stamps Panel
1961 Topps Bob Skinner Buy Back



Base: 147/425 (34.6%)
Dupes: 12
SPs: 9/75 (12%)
Dupes: 1



Chrome /1961 (5): Joe Mauer, Daniel McCutchen, Nolan Reimold, Tommy Hanson, Evan Longoria
Refractor /561 (1): Roy Halladay
Baseball Flashbacks (1)
News Flashbacks (4)
Ruth Chase '61 (6)
Then & Now (2)



Kenji Johjima Clubhouse Collection Jersey
Paul Konerko Clubhouse Collection Jersey



FINAL RATINGS

Base - 3.75/5
Design - 4/5
Fun - 3.5/5
Value - 3/5
Rebuy - 3/5

Total - 17.25/25 (69%)

Topps Heritage is back and continues to use the design of a release from yesteryear. This year focuses on 1961 Topps, the year Mantle and Maris chased after Ruth and the single-season HR record. There are various types of base cards for players, team portraits, league leaders, managers, baseball events, all-star team and MVP winners. There are 500 cards in the base set, 425 regular and 75 short prints. Short prints are cards 426-500 and have a white back instead of a cardboard back. There are three parallels, Chrome, Refractor and Black Border. They are numbered to 1961, 561 and 61, respectively.


There are four inserts set to be found in Heritage. Two of them are Baseball Flashbacks and News Flachbacks. Baseball focuses on game related events and News on noteworthy events in 1961. Next is the Ruth Chase '61 set which is a 14-card that highlights Ruth's charge to 60 in 1927. Finally, there is the Then And Now series that pairs a player from 1961 with a player from today.

Each box yields one auto or relic on average. Most boxes contain either a Real One Auto or Clubhouse Collection Relic, though there are auto/relics to be found. Lucky collectors will find Relics devoted to Ruth Chase set.

Topps has been using Heritage to showcase a set from 50 years ago for the last few years. This year has the intrigue of it being from 1961. Much like the mania in 1998 when McGwire and Sosa were going at it, 1961 had a pair of sluggers doing battle (Mantle and Maris) in the chase for Ruth's HR mark in a single season. The added bonus was they were teammates and played for the most popular team in baseball. The inserts stay relevant to 1961, instead of primarily focusing on today. Tis is definitely a set for set collectors. However, I see a couple of issues. A minor one is the inclusion of checklist cards as a part of the main set. I give that a pass as that's how they were done in the original set. The big issue is with duplicates, but not so much in regards to the regular set. It's getting one that's an SP. It's bad enough there's 75 of them. It's worse when you pull one you already got in a box. Accordingly, there's no way a box should yield a duplicate of an insert unless you have the complete set in the box. This happened in our box with the Ruth Chase '61 series as two of the six cards were duplicates.

Once again, I'd like to thank our wonderful sponsors at Topps for giving us opportunity to open and review this release. For information on their products, you can check them out at www.topps.com.

[indyreds]

I love the base cards from this set! There are very few sets that hit that I would buy without the inserts and to me the clean classic design makes this one of them! A+ to Topps!