[rentzington]

I don't have one specific player, just a specific category.

Retired players.

Here's the deal ... I respect the history of baseball, and the players that played it.

I respect vintage cards ... and feel in many ways they are the "real" baseball cards.

But, it's 2013. I only want players who play in 2013.

I bought a $9.99 blister pack of Topps (hanger pack?) the other day, trying to pull one of the exclusive "foil board" Chasing History inserts of Mike Trout, my favorite PC guy these days.

These come four per blister/hanger ... and my four were Matt Cain and ...

Stan Musial, Mike Schmidt and Roberto Clemente.

Great players, Hall of Famers? Of course.

I just don't need to pull their cards in 2013 products!

If anything, with Topps currently being the monopoly it is, seems like they could do a more inclusive base set of current players (think Upper Deck 40 Man, or just what Topps used to do, LOL) and keep the legends in their own set.

They will literally sit in a box forever ... they're not "vintage," so most of the older collectors don't care about them, and they're not the hot new rookie or current star, so the majority of the younger collectors don't care about them, either.

And when the exclusives come in a limited number per pack/box or whatever, I sure as h-ll don't want them getting in the way of players I actually collect.

Completely agree, I could do without all the retired players. You want to make current cards of retired players then make a special set for that like panini has with Cooperstown or in the high end sets with relics

[cross4444]

I agree with you both on retired players. It makes me wonder what the goal is with these for Topps. Are they trying to bring old collectors back? The goal should be to bring in young collectors.

I'm fine with retired players mixed in in base sets for products like A&G and Gypsy Queen.

[rjcj2017]

I agree with you both on retired players. It makes me wonder what the goal is with these for Topps. Are they trying to bring old collectors back? The goal should be to bring in young collectors.

I'm fine with retired players mixed in in base sets for products like A&G and Gypsy Queen.

Yeah, I just want one base set with inserts/autos/relics where it's all current players ... I mean, I like Bowman and everything, but for every Puig/Harper/Trout over the years, there are hundreds of prospects who never make the majors.

What I think Topps could do is keep its current brands, but just revise them.

Take Archives, for example ... continue the same formula (three or four different retro "designs" per set, and make them all retired players. Like, a Mickey Mantle base card would look cool in the 1987 Topps design, for example. And all of the inserts/relics could be vintage/retired players as well.)

[swjrp10]

I don't have one specific player, just a specific category.

Retired players.

Here's the deal ... I respect the history of baseball, and the players that played it.

I respect vintage cards ... and feel in many ways they are the "real" baseball cards.

But, it's 2013. I only want players who play in 2013.

I bought a $9.99 blister pack of Topps (hanger pack?) the other day, trying to pull one of the exclusive "foil board" Chasing History inserts of Mike Trout, my favorite PC guy these days.

These come four per blister/hanger ... and my four were Matt Cain and ...

Stan Musial, Mike Schmidt and Roberto Clemente.

Great players, Hall of Famers? Of course.

I just don't need to pull their cards in 2013 products!

If anything, with Topps currently being the monopoly it is, seems like they could do a more inclusive base set of current players (think Upper Deck 40 Man, or just what Topps used to do, LOL) and keep the legends in their own set.

They will literally sit in a box forever ... they're not "vintage," so most of the older collectors don't care about them, and they're not the hot new rookie or current star, so the majority of the younger collectors don't care about them, either.

And when the exclusives come in a limited number per pack/box or whatever, I sure as h-ll don't want them getting in the way of players I actually collect.

...i couod use um for my hof pc lol

[rjcj2017]

...i couod use um for my hof pc lol

I KNEW someone would say that, and I am totally not surprised it was you, my man!

If you get ahold of the Trout from that set, you can have all three.

[swjrp10]

I KNEW someone would say that, and I am totally not surprised it was you, my man!

If you get ahold of the Trout from that set, you can have all three.

Prolly wont happen i dont bust enough decent wax anymore lol

Btw your card is on its way!

[rjcj2017]

Prolly wont happen i dont bust enough decent wax anymore lol

Btw your card is on its way!

Very good sir, thank you.

[djohn]

I agree that I would like to see most retired players in special sets only and not in every new release. In terms of which modern players could I do without in every set, it is tough to say as there are collectors for just about every player. Aside from rookies, I would rather see cards of players who actually performed well the year before, rather than the same names every year regardless of how well they have been performing. Overall here is what I would like to see Topps do in each set:

Base, Update, and Chrome: As many different current players with a few subsets for All-Stars, Record Breakers, and Highlights (like they used to do).
Archives: Retired players on card styles that they were never on
Heritage: Old-style set with modern players
All Bowman products: Full of prospects, rookies and nothing else
Gypsy Queen, Allen & Ginter, or other retro named product: A mix of current and retired players along with non-baseball and all the other fun stuff that matches up with what the original product had in it
Five Star, Tier One, Triple Threads and any other higher end product: Top name current players from the year, rookies and HOFers

What I definitely don't want to see is a high end product with retired semi-stars who never had even an inkling of a shot at the HOF. You can put them in Archives, Fan Favorites or some other similar product but please don't put someone like Benito Santiago or Mark DeRosa (unless he just had a couple back to back amazing seasons) in a high-end product.

[zeprock]

I don't have one specific player, just a specific category.

Retired players.

Here's the deal ... I respect the history of baseball, and the players that played it.

I respect vintage cards ... and feel in many ways they are the "real" baseball cards.

But, it's 2013. I only want players who play in 2013.

I bought a $9.99 blister pack of Topps (hanger pack?) the other day, trying to pull one of the exclusive "foil board" Chasing History inserts of Mike Trout, my favorite PC guy these days.

These come four per blister/hanger ... and my four were Matt Cain and ...

Stan Musial, Mike Schmidt and Roberto Clemente.

Great players, Hall of Famers? Of course.

I just don't need to pull their cards in 2013 products!

If anything, with Topps currently being the monopoly it is, seems like they could do a more inclusive base set of current players (think Upper Deck 40 Man, or just what Topps used to do, LOL) and keep the legends in their own set.

They will literally sit in a box forever ... they're not "vintage," so most of the older collectors don't care about them, and they're not the hot new rookie or current star, so the majority of the younger collectors don't care about them, either.

And when the exclusives come in a limited number per pack/box or whatever, I sure as h-ll don't want them getting in the way of players I actually collect.

This is the only reason I buy Topps. I collect HOF players and potential HOFers. I buy the complete Topps Factory set each year and only buy packs hunting for the HOFers for my PC. I agree they have way too many of them and I get overwhelmed by all the unnecessary parallel versions and I am not opposed to them being in their own set but if not for the HOF inserts, I personally wouldn't buy more than one or two packs of Topps product. Then again I may not be the prototypical "today's collector".

I pulled a Trout HoloFoil Chasing History. I'd rather have gotten Musial, Schmidt and Clemente. Different strokes...

[tate31nym]

seems there is a lot of Jose Bautista but no interest