For us autograph collectors, a product like Topps Heritage is like buying a veggie burger when you love eating meat. It just doesnt make a whole lot of sense to go running to the shop to buy a case. Although its been around for years and years, the focus of the set is not delivering autograph content (it does have some), but giving set collectors something to chase. I am not a fan of these sets and usually stay quite far away.
Here are some of the bigger hits:
2014 Topps Heritage Keith Olbermann Auto SSP
2014 Topps Heritage MIke Trout Gold Embossed Insert /15
2014 Topps Heritage Derek Jeter Action Photo SP Variation
2014 Topps Heritage Bryce Harper Black Refractor Chrome Variation
First off, I am a big fan of the 1965 design, as my dad had a bunch of them when I was growing up. It was the year the Twins went to the World Series, so he had the whole team set. I think its a pretty iconic year for Topps, and I can see why people were excited. I have always liked when retro designs are applied to modern players in this fashion
, and when it comes to the base cards, 2014 heritage is nice.
The different variations are plenty, including a chrome version with refractors of every base card. Transferring these cards to chrome stock has been a staple of the product, and I only wish the autos were on the chrome too. The rare refractors tend to sell for tons of money
, and it has a lot to do with how many people out there build the set each year.
There are also Gold Embossed box loaders and cards, which look horrendous to me. This is all understanding of the fact they are updates from the original set
, but people are going nuts over them. I guess they are impossible to pull, and have autographed versions as well. Personally, I would be happy to pull one, only to turn around and sell immediately to avoid having to look at its ugly presentation.
Not much has popped up yet, but we will be getting some really ugly cut autographs which include living players, as well as even uglier autograph relic cards. Topps does as much as possible to keep the set design close to what the cards would look like in the year of release, but I hate the way these cards look. Big yellow boxes dont sit well with me.
As I mentioned above, Heritage and I are never going to be a match made in heaven, but with all the hoopla, you might want to check it out.
The Topps Heritage Baseball following remains HUGE. It is one of a very few products where the commons are collected by many set builders. And, there are a number of master set builders who buy everything this product has to offer.
There is a local case buster who tells me this is a product where he always makes money selling master sets, sets and singles. I wish more products performed this well.
Love the 65 Topps design. Will have to try a box of this! Thanks for the review.