Topps Comes Through (?)

More like a "Things Done WITH Cards-style post here today, boys and girls. Here we go...

One day, many moons ago, I found that our beloved Topps Company offered, and still does, a "No Purchase Necessary" deal. How, you may ask, does it work? By digging out my magnifying glass, and squinting at the fine print, here's what I found.... "For the chance to obtain any of the cards above, (inserts) at the same odds, (from 1:3-1:40,000-there's a yeah, right insert for ya) while supplies last, hand print your name and address on a 3 x 5 card (What if I do it an a 4 x 6 card? Will they refuse to mail anything to me?)

and mail in a #10 envelope to NPN 2011 Topps Baseball...etc, etc. Only one card per envelope, mailed separately, (eh?) postmarked by November 16th, 2011 and received by November 23rd 2011..." and then it talks about how you must do a multiplication problem too if you are of Canadian descent. Yeah, sure, okay. This I did, I mailed a card in a #10 envelope, and waited. Last week, lo and behold, I received a small manila envelope.

What could be inside?

Oh, wow! It's an insert card of recently-alleged-steroid-user Ryan Braun! Cool!

Two days later... (Yes, I did this for Series one and two...I'm just crazy that way...)




Same deal with a small manila envelope and....

Ta-da! A Bob Feller 60 years of Topps insert!

So what do you think? Is this some sort of out reach thing by Topps for poor kids without 2 bucks to buy a pack of cards with? I really wonder if any actual card collectors do this...Anyone? Any and all feedback from you all would be welcomed.

The Team Card

For my inaugural post as I try to help resurrect TDTC, I have for you an exposition of the "small stuff" team card. Above I posted an image of a classic team card, the 1961 Detroit Tigers Team Card. This card sort of embodies the KISS model to me-the whole team, right there. Lately, though, especially in the years that I've started collecting (2008, 2010-2012) there's been some messing with that formula by Topps and Upper Deck. Take a look.

Here's a classic card for you. The Diamondbacks, one of the newest franchises, congregating for the timeless team photo in the bleachers. Some of them are even smiling. Imagine that!

Very next year-WHAT?!? Upper Deck portraying Scott Rolen on more than one card in a year set is enough for me to with they were out of the baseball card business! (A quick glance at the back, however shows that the next best player on the team at the time was...uh...Alex Rios. Never mind.) Anyway, there's one example of the "team" card...a player fielding spring training grounders. Any Jose Bautista Blue Jays from you in the comments section might make this a tad less awkward.

Speaking of less awkward, here's another "team" card. Tim Lincecum and...someone else. Better...but still feels like a representative sort of effort. I don't know that I like that. Why not just do away with the team card and have two player cards from this angle? On to the next card:

Here's the 2011 Topps rendition of the Detroit Tigers team. Brennan Boesch and Miggy Cabrera. I still really don't like this. Is Topps implying that the Detroit Tigers play with two players every game? On another odd observation (maybe Topps really does have too many inserts this year) these guys probably have a Diamond Duo insert somewhere...

Here's a slightly more classic example. You know what, this feels about right. It's not posed, per se, though they are smiling for the camera, and they've obviously just wrapped up a game, so they're all in uniform and (presumably) smiling after a win.

So there you have it. Here's a final Topps Heritage classic version team card.

I had a couple of other 2011 Topps cards with more players in the shots, but the White Sox card really seemed best to me. Another card I didn't post was the 2010 Tigers "franchise history" card, which (I think) showed a statue inside the ballpark. Hm. Somewhere, there's a fine line between cards in a Baseball set, and promotional cards you get in a fan pack, I think.