Anniversary post

 

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I appreciate a good anniversary almost as much as Topps does.

From my own blog or card-collecting moments to even personal moments, I'll recognize anniversaries here because they're important. It's almost rude to ignore notable events of the past. You always hear that "don't look back" stuff -- from Satchel Paige to Don Henley -- but sometimes strictly looking forward is overrated. You need to see where you've been, too. And, we all know, baseball cards are 60 percent cardboard and 40 percent nostalgia.

 

I thought I'd recognize the sports card anniversaries that are happening this year with this post. I've probably noted a couple of these already but I'm not above bringing up the past over and over.

 

It's what I do. Let's go:

 

5 YEARS AGO

 

Five years ago, this hobby of ours was transformed into what we know now: empty shelves and people known as "flippers." The pandemic thrust these concepts into overdrive but I first got to know them in 2017.

I had hardly ever experienced going to a store looking for sports cards and finding the shelves cleared out. I certainly didn't experience it week after week like I first did in 2017. What was going on?

The culprits were two vaunted rookies for two flagship franchises, Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers. Personally I'm blaming Judge more. After all, I have almost all of the Bellinger cards from 2017. Can't say the same for Judge.

10 YEARS AGO

That product for which I have a like-hate relationship debuted 10 years ago. Topps' Archives concept had been going on intermittently since the early 1990s but the set model of issuing cards containing three-to-four past designs, plus various other designs on inserts, began in 2012.

The 2011 Lineage one-off set spawned what we now know as Archives. I'm a bit confused as to why Archives still exists as the cards rarely do an accurate job of replicating the previous sets and the disjointed nature of it repels me. But Panini cards still exist, so I'm not one to know why the card public buys what it buys.

15 YEARS AGO

Fifteen years ago, Topps was at its peak as far as tinkering with the base set.

In 2007, Topps added stealth extra base cards, repeated the same players within the set, and its flashiest gimmick yet was to insert Mickey Mantle and George Bush into the background of Derek Jeter's card, or, rather, a variation of that card.

I pulled this card seven years after it was all the rage. Now, take a look on COMC. For some odd reason, this Jeter variation is selling for around $14. The regular base card? 20 bucks.

20 YEARS AGO

Topps, and the rest of the hobby, was in the midst of the retro-set craze in 2002. Topps was also all about recognizing the 50th anniversary of it releasing the 1952 set (not the 50th anniversary of Topps being a card company).

But in the middle of all that, Topps released a set that was as close to the sets that I collected growing up as they had gotten in years. Unfortunately, I wasn't collecting then and didn't know anything about it.

Topps Total's debut packed just about every player who played for a team in 2001-02 into its set. It was 990 cards large -- maybe a little too big for someone who grew up with 660-to-792-card sets. But the spirit was the same in this no-frills set.

Seventeen years later, Topps Total returned as some sort of online-only, issued-in-stages set. That is definitely not in the spirit of the sets that I collected as a kid.

 

25 YEARS AGO

I was out of the hobby 25 years ago, so I'm sure someone will correct me on this, but the first widely available baseball card relics debuted in Upper Deck in 1997.

I know that there were some relics issued in '96 with auto racing cards, maybe there was something else. I also know very little about how available relics were in 1997 other than that they were randomly inserted into Upper Deck Series 1 packs.

But they've become as regular a part of the hobby as anything else ever since, even if 75 percent of us are sick to death of them.

30 YEARS AGO

Thirty years ago, Topps ditched the traditional dark cardboard that it had been using for its flagship set for decades and replaced it with a bright, white cardboard that looked super distinctive and instantly horrified legions of traditional collectors.

Looking back, the '92 set is a distinct moment in time. It was not UV-coated and slick like cards would become, including Topps' flagship sets to immediately follow. Therefore '92 Topps is unique in itself. Make of that what you will.

35 YEARS AGO

Thirty-five years ago, Topps released a set in 1987, like it's done every year. But, for some reason still unknown to me, you can open a pack of baseball card today and find a card resembling the 1987 design with a 35th-anniversary stamp on it. 

There is really nothing unique about this set. But I am outnumbered. Clearly everyone on the internet saw their first cards in 1987 and that is an anniversary moment -- but for them, not me. I was having too much fun in college.

40 YEARS AGO

I could come up with a lot of anniversary moments for this year. But let's go with this one: the first mascot card in a wildly released set.

Mascot cards are very familiar territory these days, issued every year, in Opening Day, in various other sets, in minor league sets. But in 1982, Donruss devoted a card to The Chicken, the famed mascot that was the first mascot I knew.

The Chicken card (he is referred to as "the San Diego Chicken" on the back and then just "The Chicken" in 1983 and 1984) baffled and amused us in 1992. A card of a guy dressed up like a chicken? In a baseball player set? What was this? Also, this is great!

45 YEARS AGO

I was three years into collecting in 1977 so everything about this year is very personal to me. This is the 45th anniversary of me discovering what rack packs were, of completing the Dodgers team set for the first time, of truly noticing airbrushing for the first time (how could I not?).

It was also the first time that Blue Jays and Mariners cards appeared in a baseball card set. We barely knew who these players in these weird uniforms were -- especially the Mariners -- but we collected them just the same, even if Rick Jones didn't look like a real guy at all.

50 YEARS AGO

Fifty years ago, one of my all-time favorite sets arrived.

I've collected the whole thing and written about it many times. I adore it. It's known for its many aspects. One of them is it contains the first "Traded" set. It's just seven cards, and it's a subset in the middle of the high series. But it's the beginnings of what we now know as "Series 3," released in the fall, and bloated to hell.

 

 

55 YEARS AGO

Another one of my favorite sets debuted 55 years ago with the 1967 Topps set.

I am collecting this set and it is incredibly daunting. One of those reasons is Tom Seaver's rookie card -- Tom Seaver's rookie card is 55 years old! -- is a high number in the set and the high numbers are stupid.

I have 70 percent of this set and completion has never felt farther away for having that much of a set finished.

 

 

60 YEARS AGO

The ORIGINAL wood-border set by Topps (keep in mind, Hires Root Beer did this in 1958) debuted 60 years ago.

I've said many times that this set looks damn old. I mean older than the other sets around it, like 1960, 1961 and 1963. I don't know why that is, but it doesn't encourage me to collect it, although I am coming around on it a little thanks to acquiring a handful of the cards the last few months.

This was also the first year of New York Mets cards ... and Houston Colt .45s cards.

65 YEARS AGO

The first 2 1/2-by-3 1/2 baseball cards debuted 65 years ago. That doesn't seem right. Seems like this size should have been around for 100 years or more.

 

 

70 YEARS AGO

 

I'm not going to regurgitate what happened in cards 70 years ago. Topps will do that for you. And then do it again. In somewhat related news, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle recently sold for obnoxious dollars again.

75 YEARS AGO

Seventy-five years ago Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and Bond Bread released a 13-card set devoted to Jackie. I would love to own even one of these cards.

OK, that's as far back as I'll go. There were barely any cards made in 1942 and the '30s are full of wonderful oddballs and minor league sets but I'm not familiar with them.

Maybe I'll do this post once a year, just to tackle maybe some of the anniversary stuff that I don't babble on about during the other parts of the year.