[uvaspina]

I'm with you. Upper Deck made a big splash in 1989 and the early 90s, and really changed the trading card game forever. I don't see a lot that really grab my attention since, though.

I may be in an even smaller minority than you, in that I don't mind the Topps exclusivity. I'm satisfied with the quality and variety provided by Topps at this point. I'm not sure that I'd bother with any other brands, if they were to come back. I didn't in the last few years when others were being released, either.

What Topps does well (in my opinion) is make the parallels desirable. Even in the base set, Topps includes a nice variety of parallels (black borders, golds, etc.) and SNs. In the Chrome, I like the color parallel breakdown and I make a point to collect as many different ones as I can for my PCs. Upper Deck did their own color variations, but I just didn't like them as much. -I think they did too many different ones and the significance was quickly lost on me. (Like a "gold" X die cut that included only a hint of gold and was barely distinguishable from the base).

What I do miss a bit is the variety that the various brands offered (even the ones I wasn't crazy about). When I go back through my Cabrera PC (600 and counting) I really like looking through the early years (mostly 2003-2008)- Fleer, Donruss, Ultra, UD, SP, etc. It's definitely not the same these days. By the same token, I'm not sure that I'd want the market to be flooded with short-lived brands/sets from different companies. They say competition is always good, but I like the fact that all of the current Topps brands (and their respective sets) are well-established and seem to have strong followings. The market can only bear so much and i'm not sure that we would benefit from having a bunch of different companies signing exclusive deals with certain players; having the market spread too thin. If the hobby were to start growing exponentially, I think there would be room for growth in more brands. For now, I'm happy.

[nyyankeesfan28]

Agreed, uvaspina.

[markmulder20]

I miss Donruss. And Upper Deck. And Pacific. And Fleer.

[beginesj]

I like Topps. Like uvaspina the parallels are what won me over. However, I would like to see another company just to give Topps some competition and hopefuly that will cut down on their errors.

[aprirr]

When I was a kid, before the local card shop opened up, there was only Topps, Donruss and Fleer and the neighborhood corner store(the only store I could ride my bike to) only carried Topps. Upper Deck was nice and they pretty much forced the others to improve their quality but Topps was and, in my opinion, is iconic as far as baseball cards is concerned. Since my daughter got me back into collecting a few years ago, I find it very satisfying that the same company that made the cards that I spent 50 cents a pack on 25 years ago is the same one that makes the cards my kid gets to open today. Continuity and longevity are the key for me....and she loves the different colored refractors (if only they had pink ones).

[hckydv7]

I like Topps. Like uvaspina the parallels are what won me over. However, I would like to see another company just to give Topps some competition and hopefuly that will cut down on their errors.

Ever think that Topps does the errors on purpose so as to drive interest.

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....and she loves the different colored refractors (if only they had pink ones).

Next years Topps will have a pink parallel.

[aprirr]

Next years Topps will have a pink parallel.
[/quote]

Really? She will be THRILLED! Thanks for the info!

[ja1091]

Yeah, I wish Upper Deck was still around. I remember opening different UD products as a kid and getting excited over the bazillion different inserts and stuff. Topps isn't bad, but I would love to see Upper Deck back in business.

[zeprock]

Being a collector of Hall of Fame player's cards, I liked UD's SP Legendary Cuts sets. They were loaded with HOFers and the memorabilia cards were nice looking and affordable for the most part. (There were always exceptions.) I do believe they got redundant with their photo choices at times. I think what may have led to UD's downfall was the 2008 UD Yankee Stadium Legacy and the ridiculous 2008 UD Documentary sets in which you needed to get over 4000 cards to complete the sets and the photos were redundant.
Like others mentioned earlier in this thread, I really miss Pacific. Their die-cuts were ingenious and the colors really popped on them. I also liked the 2000 Pacific Prism set with all of the different parallels.

[newfiecomicguy1]

I grew up in Canada and all I had was hockey cards made by OPC. After the boom in the early 90's OPC end up being one of the companies that stopped producing hockey cards. What a sad day for the old school long time collector. For the past few season OPC hockey has started being made again however its not being made by UD.

When I was a kid, before the local card shop opened up, there was only Topps, Donruss and Fleer and the neighborhood corner store(the only store I could ride my bike to) only carried Topps. Upper Deck was nice and they pretty much forced the others to improve their quality but Topps was and, in my opinion, is iconic as far as baseball cards is concerned. Since my daughter got me back into collecting a few years ago, I find it very satisfying that the same company that made the cards that I spent 50 cents a pack on 25 years ago is the same one that makes the cards my kid gets to open today. Continuity and longevity are the key for me....and she loves the different colored refractors (if only they had pink ones).