Were cards that lousy 7 years ago?

The year 2007 was not a shining example of the greatness of baseball cards. Out of all of the sets that were released that year, I think the only one that stood out as memorable was Upper Deck Masterpieces.

The year also marked the real start of the variation plague that we're still dealing with today. The most famous incident is the Topps Derek Jeter card featuring a photoshopped George Bush in the stands and Mickey Mantle in the dugout. It turns out it wasn't a variation at all as Topps didn't issue a later "correction." This means that Topps had tricked collectors into spending crazy amounts of money on what was, and still is, a base card.

Because of that, and other trickery foisted on the 2007 Topps set, I don't have a great opinion of it. It doesn't help that the inserts in the set (excluding the "Distinguished Service" series) are among the worst ever. Alex Rodriguez Road to 500 and Generation Now can die in a fire. I will supply the accelerant.

However, I will not criticize the base-set design.

I know some -- probably a lot -- don't like it. Those black borders are murder, you know. And what's with the wasted border space? And the random colored squares?

But I prefer to view each card as film strip. That helps make the photos emerge as if you were viewing them on a movie screen. To me the cards are sleek, and very different. You know how much I love 1971 Topps. As far as chipping, I'm not 10 years old anymore. I can protect my cards enough to avoid chipping.

It was with all that knowledge that I encountered the 98-cent rack packs of 2007 Topps at Walmart a couple of weekends ago. They were overshadowed by the 2013 Opening Day blasters for $2.98, but I got around to them eventually.

I bought eight rack packs the other day. The All-Star rack pack exclusive cards are headed to Paul, but I was looking forward to what base cards I could find that I needed.

I wasn't expecting too many as all of the rack packs are from the first series and I did a considerable amount of purchasing the first series that year (I still remember sitting in the car waiting for my daughter to get out of school and opening '07 Topps). But, who knows? Maybe I'd get that Jeter card that has eluded me for so long.

As I opened the packs, I did find some cards I needed, maybe about 4 or 5 per rack pack.

 Those are all needs. Still don't know why Topps began the set with John Lackey.

Those are needs, too. Ah, the days when Andrew Miller was a thing.

I also pulled some team cards I needed. I miss base set team cards.

Look, it's the "rookie card" of Troy Tulowitzki!

Fielding poses in the stands are kind of ridiculous, and very 2006-07. But I like it.

He's got to find his hitting stroke. Psst, Hanley, it's a contract year!

The Tampa Bay "fog" photos from this time are so bizarrely creepy. If people are still collecting cards 50 years from now, I think these will be some of those "what the hell were they doing" cards.

And there it is.

This came out of the last rack pack that I opened. The fourth-to-last card.

I looked online and I see that it's still selling for 5 bucks or more in a lot of places.

So paying 98 cents to get this is a nice little bargain for a set that I haven't given a thought to in several years.

2007 Topps should get a little more respect than it does. We clamor for black refractors and black-border A&G minis. But '07 Topps is all black borders all the time.

I think these rack packs may be enough to make me put my '07 cards in a binder and see what I need. I have no immediate plans to collect the set -- but I know they'll look killer in a binder. It's one of those sets that's pretty useless in a box.

Hell, I need to have something from 2007 in a binder.