I have to say, when I first saw the solicitation for Topps Tier One, I was excited for a product that featured as much on card autograph content as it was touting. I also discussed the lack of presence for high end products in baseball recently, and thought that Tier One could be the start of something awesome.
I was very wrong.
There are a few bright spots to this set, but overall, I am beyond disappointed when I saw that there were so little differentiation in the cards a collector could pull out of a box. You either get a relic card that all look the same, or an autograph card that is one of two subsets. There are rare hits of course, but for the most part, this is set is an oversimplified attempt to deliver what Ultimate Baseball was able to overdeliver in 2009. I would go so far as saying that I wouldnt break boxes of this product, even if someone handed me a box for free. I once believed that on card autos were ever-forgiving of content, but a set like this shows a lack of imagination.
Here are some of the big hits:
Sandy Koufax Top Tier Autograph /199
Manny Pacquiao Inscription Auto Insert
Tier One Rookie Freddie Freeman Gold /25
There are definitely a few cards I would buy if I had the money, dont get me wrong, but when you consider the product as a whole, it seems to be representative of the latest non-set builder products that Topps has released since the exclusive was granted. Even though the content is relatively terrible for what I was expecting, the design of the three major aspects of the set are great. I love the look of the veteran autographs, and the rookie style isnt bad. However, the veteran autographs are case hits, and it has to get boring pulling the same type cards over and over again. After reviewing the case break threads on Blowout, its not pretty at all.
When considering the presence of an exclusive in any sport, I think the evidence in basketball and baseball is overwhelming. Not only is it a terrible idea, it is conducive to the creation of products that have no merit as a stand-alone. Topps has been Tier One in their football products so far this year, but I dont see them trying as hard with baseball. Why should they, right? When someone is the only game in town, its difficult for me to believe that they would put in the same type of effort. The presence of Panini’s MLBPA license could be made as an argument, but I fail to see that being a road block.
Wow some of these designs are epically bad. The one style seems very Inception-esque. The Koufax tho is looking great.
I disagree with you on this one. Product content distribution is very similar to Topps Inception Football. The negative on this product is that I like the Inception design much more than Tier One. And from my collecting view, like all topps baseball products, there are too many hits that are prospects. At the same time, in baseball, prospects are the driving force for the success of products such as Topps Chrome, Bowman Chrome, etc..
From my view, where Topps Tier One content blows Topps Inception away, is the inclusion of memorabilia and cuts Hall of Fame greats such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Tris Speaker, George Sisler, Rogers Hornsby, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Nolan Ryan and tons more. Although I don’t know the odds of pulling these historical relics, at least they are in there. 2011 Topps Tier One is the one and only 2011 product with a good chance of pulling a piece of baseball history for less than half the cost of a car payment (Triple Threads is $185).
Although I know major league baseball, a lot of these prospect names are a fuzzy to me. I have to look them up on eBay to find out if they are of any value. And like Bowman and Topps Chrome products, you may have to wait a couple of years for some of these prospects to become high demand names.
Because base cards are numbered to 799, it is easy to calculate production at about 22,000 boxes (Back in the 1990s we had more than that many baseball collectors in San Antonio alone.). These boxes have been busted and singles have been listed eBay really fast (I typed in Topps Inception and got 2485 results. Typing in Topps Tier One gave me 2592 results and release date was just yesterday.).
I believe both baseball prospect collectors and baseball vintage will buy these (22,000) up quickly. I like 2011 Topps Tier One.
I find this set disappointing as well, but I love the Crowd Pleasers veteran autos. After looking at the card images from the preview sheet a while back, this set looked pretty awesome. But it seems Topps pulled a Panini with that preview, showing some of the best cards from the set that were more of the exception than the rule.
This set is better than Marquee, but that’s not saying much. I’ll definitely pick up some Crowd Pleaser autos off of Ebay, but I doubt I buy any boxes of this stuff.