At least years Q&A I called out Topps for under representing certain teams in favor of others. I understand you’ve gotta market to what sells, but with a league license that runs through 2020, there’s more than just the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs, World Series teams, and whatever team the hot prospect is on to issue cards for in flagship.
I think in particular Bowman was the one that ticked me off the most. Since 1948, the Senators/Twins have always had a ‘base’ card…until 2017. Now we can argue in Bowman, whether the Prospect/Chrome Prospect set is part of the ‘base’ set or not – of which the Twins did have a few – but the true ‘base’ set not having any was extremely discouraging. Why should I bother to buy a box if my team isn’t in it?
Now sure, Bowman’s a prospect heavy set and others are free to collect how they like – but there’s plenty of team collectors, player collectors, prospect collectors who care what cards get issued each year. Not everyone is chasing the Aaron Judge auto – while it might be nice – some prefer to knock out the 1-xxx base card set. To binder the set and be able to flip through it later brings joy to these people. Again, the Topps’ suits will market however they want, but it only makes sense to not dispirit anyone from buying your product. Regardless of why they want the product, your job is to sell it.
With that said, for this year’s Topps Series One, it seems they were listening in one category. Sure the base set is a little top heavy with the usual suspects mentioned in the first paragraph, and the insert set is none helped with Derek Jeter and Kris Bryant 30 card retail sets. However, an area Topps seems to have taken notice is with this year’s short print/super short print – a better name is really needed here…
Broken down, there are 75 SP as of writing, and 25 SSP. Of those 75 SP, each team has at least one, and if you average the 75 by the 30 MLB teams, it comes out to an even 3.33, repeating of course. Of course with only 25 SSP, there’s a few teams missing – Athletics, Blue Jays, Brewers, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Padres, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers, Twins, and White Sox. But, at least they’re listening at the Q&As! Now, about those Blood Diamonds… :D.
SP:
| Cubs | 5 |
| Nationals | 5 |
| Yankees | 5 |
| Mets | 4 |
| White Sox | 4 |
| Astros | 3 |
| Dodgers | 3 |
| Marlins | 3 |
| Phillies | 3 |
| Rangers | 3 |
| Rays | 3 |
| Red Sox | 3 |
| Royals | 3 |
| Twins | 3 |
| Angels | 2 |
| Blue Jays | 2 |
| Brewers | 2 |
| Cardinals | 2 |
| Diamondbacks | 2 |
| Mariners | 2 |
| Orioles | 2 |
| Rockies | 2 |
| Tigers | 2 |
| Athletics | 1 |
| Braves | 1 |
| Giants | 1 |
| Indians | 1 |
| Padres | 1 |
| Pirates | 1 |
| Reds | 1 |
SSP:
| Cubs | 3 |
| Red Sox | 3 |
| Dodgers | 2 |
| Marlins | 2 |
| Mets | 2 |
| Phillies | 2 |
| Yankees | 2 |
| Angels | 1 |
| Astros | 1 |
| Braves | 1 |
| Giants | 1 |
| Indians | 1 |
| Mariners | 1 |
| Orioles | 1 |
| Pirates | 1 |
| Rockies | 1 |
Vintage Twins 