Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit gets first highlight card
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor | Commentary
This year’s Topps Update baseball set arrives Wednesday with the final installment of the flagship baseball brand from Topps showcasing the newest rookies and veterans who traded uniforms this season.
The 330-card set also will include highlight cards from this year’s MLB All-Star Game and a few notable achievements from the season, including Derek Jeter‘s first 3,000th hit commemorative baseball card seen here.
Seeing the DJ3K highlight card got me wondering whether baseball card sets need to include more of these season-specific cards in them — and I want to know what you think, too. Take the poll after the jump.
Loading ...Through the years, the volume of card sets has risen and season-specific moments seem to have fallen by the wayside — at least in my mind. Why? Deadlines and production cycles and probably collector interest dictate this to a degree, while highlights cards never seem to command the cash — the other more practical form of attention — from collectors.
That’s a shame because nothing documents the world of baseball more easily for more people than a low-end, comprehensive set of baseball cards. While technically an achievement from this year could — should — be highlighted in a 2012 release, we know that the sooner is always better when it comes to interest in these types of cards.
Personally, I’d rather see more highlights cards show in a set released late in the year — but that’s something that would step on the toes of a next year’s release.
Look for 2012 Topps in early February.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
I would love to see more of these types of cards. Some of my favorite cards of the 70’s and 80’s are the World Series Highlights and Record Breakers. They give the set a sense of place in time, and they break up the “slap a new coat of paint” mentality of a yearly release.
More highlights and less parallels would be awesome. It’s much more enjoyable and meaningful to showcase some great “record breakers” or highlight from the season rather than 50 different types of the same card. A good one from back in the day were the world series cards. Those are one of my favs.
I thought that these update sets originally were designed for whats mentioned here: players trading teams, rookies, highlights, etc. but……when last years included so many Pujols cards, it got a little redundant (and dont get me wrong-I enjoy Pujols….just as much as the next person). I like the base brand Topps and even enjoy a few SP cards thrown in and the standard gold parallel and even the diamond version this year (ha ha…..like the odds for a diamond ring in this years brand…….I have a better odd of winning the Powerball jackpot or pulling any card-from any pack….because I dont buy packs/boxes/cases/hi-jacked truckloads of cards/etc. anymore)
What would be really awesome, is Highlights cards, with specific Game worn memorabilia from that highlight. Or even the lineup card from that day cut up for the cards.
Boy I bet the black /60 parallel of that card will fetch a good bit. Ive got to get that card and every parallel I can find, lol
Give us MORE! Besides Jeter, Verlander comes to mind. Topps should highlight Ethier’s chase for the hitting streak too.
HAS ANYONE FOUND A DEREK JETER 2011 DIAMOND DIE CUT? I HAVE TRADED ONLINE AND LOOKED FOR THE CARD IN SEARCHING FOR CARDS AND I CAN’T FIND IT.
Topps is marketing this card because it is Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees. Far fewer players have hit 600 home runs than have 3,000 hits, yet Topps has yet to produce even one card (Updates, e-Topps, Triple Threads or whatever) commemorating Jim Thome becoming the eighth player to hit 600 home runs (and his appear to be legitimately so).
Actually, Topps didn’t market or even announce its presence in the set. It’s merely just in there.
With highlights, it’s tough because of timing. Consider:
Jeter’s 3,000th hit came on July 9.
Thome’s 600th came on Aug. 15.
There was a lot more time to change a checklist to add a highlight in July than August. There are a lot of moving, changing pieces in card sets and it was likely at the printer some time in September. Does it make sense to “stop the press” for Thome? Probably not — look at the values of his cards. His inclusion won’t sell too many extra packs on its own.
I guarantee you that Jeter will sell more cards — but you can bet both moments will have cards in 2012 Topps.