Another project

 

 

Anyone who wished that the end of 2020 meant the end of Topps/artists projects like Project 2020 clearly didn't notice the popularity of the project.

The same goes for online-exclusive cards, "living sets" and pop culture-influenced cards. You may choose to ignore it -- and I do, all the time -- but all of the above is here to stay. There are enough collectors purchasing stuff, at least for now, for Topps to go back to the well over and over. Topps loves beating concepts to death and as long as people are signing up, Topps will ride it until even the idea itself is crying "ENOUGH!"

Project 2020 is living on in something called "Project 70," which is using Topps' 70th anniversary this year as the name tie-in.

For Project 70, Topps has added far more than the 20 artists working on the Project 2020 series and several artists have released an advertisement flyer alerting people of the project.

The catalog of artists includes ones that were in on Project 2020 and a bunch of others, a select few that I've heard of, but most I haven't. And then they've got Snoop Dog in there, which OK, Snoop Dog's addition isn't getting me to buy anything.

I'm somewhere in the middle on stuff like this. I'm not part of the knee-jerk HATE IT crowd that doesn't want artists weirding up their cards and selling them for inflated prices. And I'm not part of the crowd who bows down to anything new and can't wait to throw money at every new card of their player.

In short, I am a veteran collector and creative-type who enjoys artistic takes and design. This interests me a little and on the level of "maybe I'll buy a card or two."

The underlined part is why it intrigues me.

Supposedly, Artists get to choose their own subjects and Topps designs. At least that's how I read that. To me, that says if an artist wants to make a card of Buddy Biancalana, using the 1971 Topps Greatest Moments design in their art, then they can do that.

The practical me says that's not going to happen and the above blurb is a lie. Topps is known to have only certain players under license. Every subject that I've seen on Topps cards in the past dozen years is either a current player or a past player signed to a contract with Topps. As much as I've yelled about getting a new card of Garry Maddox or Andy Messersmith, there's a reason they aren't being made.

If Project 70 breaks through that wall, watch out: you may see nothing but Project 70 cards on this blog in 2021.

 

My guess is that most of these cards will be of current stars and top rookies.

So, anyway, I'm interested to see what it's all about. But again, I'm not a player collector and I'm not rich enough to throw 9 bucks at a card every week, so I'm not the guy they're targeting.

 

I bought exactly one Project 2020 card last year, the Efdot Jackie Robinson. But I now have three of them, since my second Sandy Koufax Project 2020 card arrived free of charge in the mail recently!

 

This came from Cards On Cards. I think Kerry landed the card in a group break and didn't know what to do with it.

I volunteered to take it. I was pretty happy with the two Project 2020 cards I already had -- one each of Robinson and Koufax. They work together quite well. But this Koufax card was interesting enough, so, sure I'll find another plastic stand to display it.

This Koufax was made by Tyson Beck, who is big on collage-style art. It gives off that scrapbook feel.

With two Koufax cards now, I'll figure out a way to display the two of them together and then display the Robinson one separately.

I received a few other modern-day Dodgers along with the Project 2020 card, including another Koufax.

This is the chromed-up version of the Stadium Club Koufax card from last year. It's kind of neat in person.

Most of the other cards that Kerry sent were 2020 cards, which I much appreciate in this era of barren retail shelves, but also I've pulled farther and farther away from the new cards and I'm starting to lose track of what they are.

These are 2020 Bowman Platinum cards, I know that now. But for awhile, I was getting these cards and had almost no idea what they were. I also couldn't be bothered to look them up. The indifference is really settling in.

 

Bowman Chrome needs. I've been very lax on Bowman checklists, both creating them and knocking off the numbers when I get the cards. These are signs of a relationship that's drifting apart.

 

I know what these are. Panini Contenders cards. Some collectors get down on these but I've always looked at the football versions and thought they were sharp.

However, this Contenders set is diminished because, for whatever zany Panini reason, the player figure is not overlapping the ticket as it's done with other sets. It looks terrible. The ticket is swallowing the player image! What is the point of that?

This is one of the inserts, Winning Tickets. It's basically the same card as the base card just oriented differently. I also don't know if the section-row-seat numbers mean anything or just randomly placed there. I'd look it up but I never want to make the effort with Panini.

 

More Panini and more Chronicles cards because there are eleventy billion of them. I think, also, there are approximately 4,268 Gavin Lux cards in this set. This is one of the reasons that I cut down on my enthusiastic team collecting about 3 or 4 years ago.

Here is another reason. This is not the only Cody Bellinger 1985 Topps card in the 2020 '85 insert set. I'm not referring to parallels here. There are multiple Cody Bellinger cards with different images and card numbers in the insert set. Why is there reason to have more than one? This wasn't a thing even five years ago. Topps killed the set collectors and is now killing the team collectors. Player collectors are going to be the only thing left.

Sorry to lump the Keibert Ruiz card in with that rant. This insert set pays tribute to the 1989 Topps draft pick cards, which is OK, I guess, if you liked those things. I didn't.

 

Final card I'm showing from the envelope. It's not my first Adrian Gonzalez bat card. But it's definitely the classiest one.

So, even though I've been pulling away from modern cards for a good five years or more now, I still dabble. And as long as Topps, or whoever, is making it interesting to me somewhere, I'll pick up a few cards.

Topps' various "Projects" show me they are trying. I don't care about "innovation" or "pushing the boundaries." I just want it to be interesting and some of the Project cards are exactly that.

Just don't expect me to buy more than 1 or 2.