With the way that Topps Heritage has dropped a lot of the traditions that made it so fun to collect, I kind of assumed/implied that every tribute used in the past was out the window. But that's not entirely the case.
The subsets from the chosen year still exist, the All-Star logos do, too. The design is the same -- um, sort of. And, I realized that Heritage is still matching card numbers, linking players who play on the respective team now with one who played on it then.
I don't know if it's happening as often as when I first did this comparison 12 or 13 years ago, probably not. But it's nice to know something is still right with this brand that's been the biggest disappointment of the 2026 card year for me so far.
I went through the modest amount of 2026 Heritage I have and found a handful of matches. I'll start with the obvious ones.
Each of the 2026 Heritage card shares its number with the 1977 Topps card. The italicizing of NL and removing the periods though is making me irritated.
Time to show the individual cards that match. I tracked three from my collection.
Card #57 shows Giants catchers in each case. The lack of facsimile auto on the '26 card really stands out when you show them side by side.
Card #150 in each case is a Mets pitcher. This was definitely intentional. It has Topps' typical jumping-the-gun tendencies all over it. McLean did look good last night at least. (I still don't know why the rookie logo is there, it doesn't bother me as much as others, but it could easily be placed inside the photo frame).
This is the other one at card #123. The position isn't the same but it might have been intentional.
Since I don't own a lot to compare, I went through the checklist to see if I could find others. I didn't have time to track the whole set, so I stuck with the "hero numbers," the card numbers ending in zero.
#10 - That's a match. Aaron Judge gets the All-Star banner, but he doesn't have stealth Baltimore Orioles card!
#70 - Match. I'd like to think Heritage would have made #70 Tyler Stephenson in the past, but maybe Heritage wanted the bigger name.
#100 - Yeah, it's a match but Marte was just sent down to the minors.
#110 - Definite match. But Sanchez has a way to go to get to Steve Carlton level.
#270 - Excellent match. This is exactly what I expect from Heritage.
#360 - The last of the matches I found at the zero hero numbers. This is one of two Owen Caissie cards in the set (same photo) and the short-printed one. I refuse to complete this set simply based on this.
Back when the 2023 Heritage set came out, covering the 1974 Topps set, I did a lot of comparing that also involved finding card that used similar poses or similar action shots. I didn't find any of that (again, I didn't look at every card).
This is card #200 in each set:
If that is supposed to be an action shot match, it's a stretch. This also underlines one of the things about 2026 Heritage that irked me instantly. There are a lot of close-up shots, either action or posed, that '77 Topps simply didn't have. Zoom out on the Richardson shot and it is so much more '77.
Similar deal on 300.
So, anyway, that makes me feel a little better about this year's Heritage set -- though not enough for me to start trying to complete it. But it might make me consider a pack or two again when I'm in the card aisle.
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Happy anniversary to me! Five years ago today I completed the 1956 Topps set. That deserves an updated picture. So here it is.
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