Continuing where we left off....
5. Topps - Clear (2014-2016)
Topps Flagship makes it second appearance on the list, and you know there had to be something acetate coming. This is not the first time a set has had a complete acetate parallel, two football sets, 2000 Bowman's Best and 2013 Panini Momentum come to mind, but this the the first baseball one to come to mind, and I seem to remember these being kind of a big deal when they came out in 2014.
4. Topps Finest - Gold Refractors* (1999)
The second asterisk in the list, along with Fleer Brilliants, 1999 Finest Gold is another hard to find, sought after parallel that I don't actual have in hand. The Larry Walker above showed up on COMC the day after I requested a shipment, so while I "own" the card, it won't physically be in my collection for a few moths until I amass enough cards to warrant a shipment request. The weird deckle edges add to the uniqueness of the parallel, it's really a shame how ugly Finest has been since Topps brought it back a few years ago when they used to do things like this.
3. Gypsy Queen - Mini Black (2011-2015)
It took me a while to warm up to minis, and I eventually did, but I always liked the Gypsy Queen black minis, even the 2015's (which I feel is the ugliest GQ set) look good. I was pretty disappointed when they limited them to 5 in 2015, and even more gutted when they dropped them altogether in 2016, and it sounds like 2017 won't have minis at all, so that sucks.
2. Panini Prizm - Tie-Dyed Prizms (2015)
Not much needs to be said about these, just look at them, bask in the tripped out glory. You almost don't notice there is no logos on the card (honestly these might be number 1 if they had logos). Panini has tried this with other sets in other sports, but they never got it as good as these. Numbered to 50, so they are limited, but not impossible to find or ridiculously overpriced. Sadly it looks like Panini dropped the Prizm baseball line altogether, hopefully it comes back next year with something similar to these dead-head acid-trip beauties.
1. Bowman Platinum - Prospects Camo Refractors (2014)
Throughout the original run of Bowman Platinum (so not counting the lackluster release of 2016) I thought it was consistently one of the best designed of the Topps products, with 2014 being my favorite. The purple, orange, red, green all looked good, but the camo blows them all away. Topps has done camo before and has done it since (as has Panani), but it is just borders, nothing really different, this is different. The only thing I don't like about these is that they are limited to 15, so I still need two to complete the team set.
There you go, a fun little exercise that got me to did through my collection and post some actual content. So, what did I miss, what set was way better than these that I completely whiffed on? Post them in the comments, or make your own list, I am legitimately interested in other people thoughts on this. Thanks for reading.
5. Topps - Clear (2014-2016)
Topps Flagship makes it second appearance on the list, and you know there had to be something acetate coming. This is not the first time a set has had a complete acetate parallel, two football sets, 2000 Bowman's Best and 2013 Panini Momentum come to mind, but this the the first baseball one to come to mind, and I seem to remember these being kind of a big deal when they came out in 2014.
4. Topps Finest - Gold Refractors* (1999)
The second asterisk in the list, along with Fleer Brilliants, 1999 Finest Gold is another hard to find, sought after parallel that I don't actual have in hand. The Larry Walker above showed up on COMC the day after I requested a shipment, so while I "own" the card, it won't physically be in my collection for a few moths until I amass enough cards to warrant a shipment request. The weird deckle edges add to the uniqueness of the parallel, it's really a shame how ugly Finest has been since Topps brought it back a few years ago when they used to do things like this.
It took me a while to warm up to minis, and I eventually did, but I always liked the Gypsy Queen black minis, even the 2015's (which I feel is the ugliest GQ set) look good. I was pretty disappointed when they limited them to 5 in 2015, and even more gutted when they dropped them altogether in 2016, and it sounds like 2017 won't have minis at all, so that sucks.
Not much needs to be said about these, just look at them, bask in the tripped out glory. You almost don't notice there is no logos on the card (honestly these might be number 1 if they had logos). Panini has tried this with other sets in other sports, but they never got it as good as these. Numbered to 50, so they are limited, but not impossible to find or ridiculously overpriced. Sadly it looks like Panini dropped the Prizm baseball line altogether, hopefully it comes back next year with something similar to these dead-head acid-trip beauties.
1. Bowman Platinum - Prospects Camo Refractors (2014)
Throughout the original run of Bowman Platinum (so not counting the lackluster release of 2016) I thought it was consistently one of the best designed of the Topps products, with 2014 being my favorite. The purple, orange, red, green all looked good, but the camo blows them all away. Topps has done camo before and has done it since (as has Panani), but it is just borders, nothing really different, this is different. The only thing I don't like about these is that they are limited to 15, so I still need two to complete the team set.
There you go, a fun little exercise that got me to did through my collection and post some actual content. So, what did I miss, what set was way better than these that I completely whiffed on? Post them in the comments, or make your own list, I am legitimately interested in other people thoughts on this. Thanks for reading.
The camos are sweet for sure. Good call!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen the tie dyed Prizms before... far out, man! Like, totally groovy.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on GQ black minis, though I'm about 50/50 on the designs through the years. Decided to take the plunge and started a whole set of 2012 blacks. That is one of the few long-term project sets I have going. I know it will take years and years to finish.
ReplyDeleteI like the framed GQ cards too, but only in certain colors. Was trying to remember some more by scanning a list of sets on Cardpedia, but I have to go through my collection to see them....
Good picks!
ReplyDeleteGotta admit I'm kinda glad to see Prizm go, as they pretty much drove the "metallic" look of their base cards into the ground, though the parallels always looked nice.