Pack Break Week 2: 2011 Topps Lineage

So this week, I decided to go ahead and open one pack of cards that I bought last weekend at Target. Yesterday, it was the first of 16 packs of Topps Stickers.  Today, it's my first ever pack of Topps Lineage.   

The base set is fantastic, the design would have made a good base design for an eponymous Topps Baseball Card product (or even a Topps Total type set).  This set should have been retired-players only set.  But because MLB Properties won't allow for that kind of set, there is a mix of current players too. But you wouldn't know that based on the pack that I opened.  Here is what was waiting for me when I opened my pack of 2011 Topps Lineage:

The cards that came out of the pack are (in the order of how they were packaged):

• #25 Whitey Ford
• #16 Walter Johnson
• #7 Mickey Mantle (did you ever doubt that #7 of ANY set would not be of the Mick?)
• #107 Chad Billingsley Platinum Diamond (I have no idea what parallel this is...anyone???)
• Ryan Howard Stand-Up insert (no #)
• #182 Frank Robinson
• #154 Fergie Jenkins (finally, a Cubs card)
• #168 Delmon Young (the only base card of a present-day player in this pack)

My thoughts. If I had this much luck pulling retired legends out of either Topps Series 1 and 2 (for 2009, 2010, and 2011), as I did in this one pack, I'd be extremely happy.  I'm not sure what parallel the Billingsley card is.  It doesn't look like the regular diamond anniversary cards that they were mimicking from the eponymous set.  I love the design (have I said that enough).  This would make a great set builders set, if the prices for boxes weren't so darn high.  I think I'll wait for the prices of master sets to come down a bit before making a purchase.  I guess that I can't make Ryan Howard Stand-Up, can I?  Is that even allowed in today's collecting world?
That's another pack down, and three more to go. Next up, is the pack of Topps Attax. I'm not even sure what to expect here (other than more cards for the off-season Topps Attax sessions my children and I are going to have).
Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

2011 Topps Lineage...A Tribute to Inserts from Years Past

Word comes out from the Number One Source in the Hobby about a new product coming in August, 2011 from Topps that, if preview images are to be believed, will pay homage to a number of the "unusual" products that Topps has either inserted in regular packs of Topps over the years, or created as a seperate product entirely during the course of their 60 Year reign as Kings of the Baseball Card World. Introducing 2011 Topps Lineage.

A 200 card base set featuring past and present day players, including a 10 card subset of players selected to an All-Time Rookies team (preview images show Cal Ripken as part of this subset). Could this answer the question of who actually won the voting from 2008 for the All-Time Rookie Team? But it is the inserts that will be included in this set that are at the heart of this set, hence being called "Lineage". To wit, some of the insert sets (the ones announced anyway) include:

• Topps 3D cards (from 1968) Topps Cloth Stickers (1972, and other years)


• Topps Venezuelan (Spanish variations)


• Topps Rookies (the insert cards found in blister packs during the 80's and early 90's)


• Topps Stand-Ups (from 1964)


• Tributes to the 1975 Minis, and the 2011 Diamond, Platinum Diamond, and Canary Diamond cards are used for parallel sets for this product.

Autographed cards will be either reprint cards from Topps' 60 Years history, or based on the 1952 design (and that continuity autograph set with congrats from players will be included here as well). Relic cards honor the 1964 Topps Giants set (box-toppers) as well as 1975 Topps Mini set.

As soon as images of the sell sheet appear (found another website that has them), I'll post them here. It sounds like an interesting set to collect, especially if you were collecting the oddball Topps sets in the 60's and 70's.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama