2016 Topps Heritage Baseball surprises and other things to watch for

By Ryan Cracknell | Hobby Editor

Not everything makes it onto a sell sheet when a product is first announced (and somethings things that are on a sell sheet don’t materialize). As 2016 Topps Heritage Baseball starts to surface, there are a few things you might want to look for like retail-exclusive inserts, some returning parallels and a new type of variation that fixes a major issue a lot of rookie cards had in the 1960s.

Single-Player Rookie Variations

The 1960s and ’70s gave us plenty of great players whose rookie cards are diminished a little because they share the space with someone else. And usually that someone else isn’t nearly as good — and that’s being polite. 2016 Topps Heritage Baseball stays true to the original 1967 format on the base card checklist, pairing up rookies.

However, the product also introduces new Single-Player Rookie Variations for a few key rookies: Stephen Piscotty, Aaron Nola, Luis Severino, Kyle Schwarber and Corey Seager. The concept behind these are simple. The rookies appear on a variation alone with a design that looks like regular base cards. There could be more but early reports suggest these are the only five, but this could change.

Retail Exclusives

Depending on where you buy your cards, 2016 Topps Heritage retail packs have three different exclusives. All have roots in 1967 inserts and premiums.

Basic retail packs include randomly inserted Bazooka inserts once again. This is the fourth year in a row for Bazooka Minis.

Target packs have 1967 Stand-Ups inserts while WalMart packs are the only place you’re going to find 1967 Discs inserts.

Gum Stained Back Parallels

You have another chance to scratch and sniff your cards as the Gum Stained Backs return for a second year in 2016 Topps Heritage Baseball.

These are a subtle parallel that have a small smear on the back of the card that, when scratched, smell like bubble gum.

Reverse Stock Parallels

Reverse Stock parallels are a little trickier. It’s like the sheet the card was printed on was flipped. This leaves the fronts with the texture you’d expect to find on the back and backs are a little bit glossier.