Night Owl Cards

I have been looking forward to 2015 Stadium Club ever since I saw the image of the Fernando Valenzuela card that Topps released months and months ago. The news just got better as I learned that 2015 Stadium Club would be a retail product, for the first time since 2008. I also received an advance look at some of the photos going into the product because A Cardboard Problem blogger Sooz is working at Topps and she showed a few of them because her mission was to select photos for the set! Given her newspaper background (we know a little something about selecting pictures at newspapers), I knew this set was in good hands. The only bit of information that concerned me was the release time -- June. This would conflict with the release of Topps' Series 2, which is also traditionally in June. And with Allen & Ginter following a month later, I knew I couldn't possibly collect all of those. Well, here it is, the end of June, and the task is even more daunting. I actually ...

With all of the Topps tributes to itself over the last 15 years, I have no idea which original Topps design has reappeared the most. But if this were the 1980s, my guess would be the 1975 design. During the early '80s, as a budding collector becoming more and more aware of what was available in the hobby, I would see various '75 Topps style mockups in advertisements when companies were illustrating that they had cards for sale. And there were also actual sets that mimicked what Topps did in 1975. Plus, I distinctly remember one of those tiny ads that used to appear in Baseball Digest, saying "Your FACE on a baseball card!" and showing some unknown boy on the 1975 Topps design. In short,  the '75 Topps design was instantly memorable and iconic the moment it hit packs. And folks recognized it by paying homage. That has continued to this day, helped along by Topps' undying love for itself. But I won't complain, because the 1975 Topps set is my all-ti...