First look: 2014 Topps Stadium Club baseball
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
Stadium Club is back.
After six years on the bench, Topps‘ 1990s photography-showcasing staple will return to the baseball card field as the company released the first details and preview images for 2014 Topps Stadium Club on Tuesday.
With a new configuration of three mini boxes per overall box and six packs inside each, Stadium Club also will deliver the hits with an autograph in every single mini when it arrives on Oct. 1. It’s the first Stadium Club set since 2008, when it returned after several years on the bench. It did not return in 2009.
Each pack will include five cards from a 200-card base set with 12 boxes per overall case.
Each base card will have five parallels with them falling only one per mini box. There will be Rainbow (one per), Gold (one in three mini boxes), Electric Foil (one in three mini boxes) Foilboard (limited to 25 numbered copies) and one-per-case Members Only cards.
Back from the past will be Triumvirates inserts with three types of inter-linking diecut cards to be found. There will be Luminous (one in three mini boxes), Luminescent (one in four overall boxes) and Illuminators found one per case. There will be 30 players in this one for collectors to chase.
Other insert cards in this one will include Beam Team (one per overall box) with Gold parallels found one per case. There also will be Legends diecut cards one per overall box with the Gold parallels there limited to just 25 numbered copies. Also in the lineup will be Future Stars diecuts (one per box) with the same Gold parallel and Field Access inserts one per mini. Field Access will have three parallels — Rainbow (/99), Gold (/50) and Electric Foil (/25).
Autographs, which will fall three per overall box, will come from an assortment of five types of cards. The standard autographs will be parallels of at least 50 players’ base cards with on-card autos. These will have Rainbow (/50), Gold (/25) and Electric Foil (1/1) parallels.
Lone Star Signatures will showcase 10 players, with each having Gold (/10) and 1/1 Electric Foil parallels, while Beam Team returns with 15 players signing just five cards apiece. Co-Signers also are back with 10 pairs limited to just five, while 10 past cards will be bought for buyback autos each also limited to just five copies.
A preliminary checklist was not released.
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.
The base cards look fantastic. I could really get into this if they marketed it as just a premium, collectible brand with a larger base set and fewer inserts. With the current configuration, though, this is a pass for me.
This is probably going to be a really nice product….But, that “Stadium Club” branding still leaves a bad taste in my mouth from the early 90s.
Peace
I have always liked the Stadium Club releases and I love the base card design (and the base card autographs) but the inserts are hideous, I am really disappointed with the Beam Team cards.
Wow. This actually looks (dare I say it?) promising. It actually LOOKS like a Stadium Club product. I could do without the $7/pack price tag and the three AUs per box though.
Then again, considering the dingbats in Product Development, you know they’re going to gimmick it up somehow.
One of these days, Topps may wise up and is use another Stadium Club Chrome set
This doesn’t look all that different from the 2008 set (which is a good thing, because it was a nice clean design). I hope they do a retail type product with this like they did in 2008 (because I, like a couple of people above really don’t need the autos and inserts to be included in the set).
I gotta admit though… That Big Mac auto is FREAKING SWEET!
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