First Look: 2015 Topps Tribute baseball cards
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
The first high-end line of 2015 will be Tribute.
Topps released the first images of 2015 Topps Tribute on Wednesday, a hit-per-pack high-end brand that the company promises will be “revamped to incorporate your feedback, suggestions and ideas” while including the “same upper-echelon technology the has made Tribute a collecting staple.”
Like past years, it will include three autographs and three Relics per six-pack box when it arrives on Feb. 19.
According to the company, there will be an “upper-echelon checklist that will excite all high-end collectors” for autographs and Relics, though a preliminary checklist was not announced.
Some names teased as signers are Hank Aaron, Roger Clemens, Cal Ripken Jr., Ken Griffey Jr. Yu Darvish, Ernie Banks, Yasiel Puig, Mariano Rivera, Manny Machado, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Javier Baez, Miguel Cabrera and Tom Seaver to name a few.
All autographs will be signed on-card for this one with Tribute Autos showcasing veterans and retired stars. These will be found with eight parallels — Green, Orange, Black, Gold (/25), Purple (/10) and 1/1 Red, Onyx and printing plate cards. (The other quantities were not announced.)
New on the autograph front are Foundations of Greatnes and Rightful Recognition autos — both will be serial-numbered and have Black, Gold, Purple, Red, Onyx and plate parallels with the same quantities for those announced.
Also new are diecut To the Victors autos, which will showcase past World Series champs and be found one per case. These will have Gold (/15), Purple (/10) and 1/1 Red parallels, while Eccentric Eye Black autos once again return in small quantity — this time just five copies with a 1/1 Red parallel.
The base set for this one will consist of 100 cards — a mix of active and retired players — with parallels found just one per box. They will have Green, Black, Purple (/10) and 1/1 Red and plate parallels to chase. Other numbering was not announced but they will be limited to 99 or fewer copies.
Lastly, on Relics, there will be one new set and three new shades of parallels. Prime Patches and Milestone Relics return — the Milestones limited to 10 — as do Tribute Relics. The newbie is Diamond Cuts, which will have a “unique Relic diecut.” All will be numbered. Parallels for Tribute and Diamond will include Orange, Black, Gold Patch (/25), Purple Patch (/10) and 1/1 Red Patches — but there could be more to come there, too.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
NOW those are badass! Will definitely be saving up for those.
This design is MUCH improved from ’14 Tribute! Might chase a few of these…
Topps is digging their own grave by flooding the market with same over priced stuff over and over. It’s sad! There is no more innovation in cards anymore, just more of the same over and over. $400 dollar boxes that most people can’t afford in this economy, and then 99% of the time you get an autograph or game-used memorabilia card that most the time won’t even sell for 1% of the box price. Do we really need more Nolan Ryan autographs? I mean Nolan is of the greatest pitchers to ever play the game, but constantly over producing these legendary Hall of Famer autographs just brings the value of them to practically nothing, meanwhile unproven, flash in the pan prospect autographs sell for thousands of dollars? Cards have lost their cool factor and the fact is as more and more collectors mature and get sick of the same garbage again and again, they’ll leave the hobby. Then who will have left? Most of the kids don’t give a rip about cards, and none of them are going to spend $300 to $400 a box, when the next big thing in electronic hand-held devices are in that same price range. Sorry for the rant, but its the truth. If people would just quit buying all of this over-priced/over-produced junk, maybe card companies will go back to what made them great, INNOVATION and a fresh approach with pricing that is in line with the current state of the economy!!
wow. topps is looking pretty strong for next year
” yawn ” woah same design different color, wow this excites me
I don’t like high-end products. I don’t feel the price tag is worth the price of admission. That being said, I happen to really like Tribute, and tend to buy plenty of my PC players’ Tribute cards on eBay. I like the look this year better than last.
I don’t get the guys who say there’s no innovation but want to get back to the way things used to be. Tribute was innovative and still looks great but if you want to go beyond what the set is today, it will cost everyone. Innovation costs money especially on the front end. The other misguided argument is that kids can’t afford high end boxes . . . of course not but there are many other lower cost choices for those with tighter budgets. And the smarter ones can simply pick off individual higher end cards off ebay or COMC at more reasonable costs.
Will the recalled 2015 Topps Tribute cards that are not sent in for replacements increase in value?