Wednesday, April 9, 2025

1985 Topps 3-D

It's baseball, COMIN' AT YA! in 3-D!!!!

As an eight year old during the summer of 1985, I would go to my local drug store (which has since turned into a liquor store) and I would scour the spinning rack of comic books and pick out a few. This was when the price of a regular comic book was just seventy-five cents. If it was an annual, it could have gone as high as $2.

After my excursion into the land of mostly Marvel and DC, I would head over to the candy aisles. Yes, I said aisles. There were three glorious aisles of candy and candy related items. I would pick out something guaranteed to put me on a sugar high, then it one of those aisles were sports cards. A pack of baseball cards were either thirty-five or forty cents for a regular pack and fifty or sixty cents for a cello pack. I don't recall the year that they went up to forty cents. It was somewhere in the mid-80s. I just remember that they were forty cents in 1987.

 But in 1985, I was collecting Topps, Fleer and Donruss. Of course, I was looking for White Sox players, but I had other interests too. The father/son cards were always a welcome find. The USA team cards were on my radar. Any Fleer in action or multi-player cards were treasured. Donruss All-Stars looked cool and futuristic (nowadays they look very dated). Cards of Eric Davis, Cal Ripken Jr., Tippy Matrinez, Roger Clemens, Tony Gwynn, Alfredo Griffin, Tim Raines, Rickey Henderson and a plethora of others would elicit excitement every time I unearthed one in a pack.

I also collected the Topps stickers, Topps rub ons, Topps Super. Basically any weird baseball related merchandise, I was a sucker for at that time. The weirdest set I remember buying was Topps 3-D.

I had absolutely no clue as to how to store these cards. They were rigid, bumpy and oversized. They were truly bizarre, but I enjoyed opening each pack. As a kid I was puzzled with this set. As an adult, I'm still puzzled by this set.

The White Sox have one card in this set.

30 - Tom Seaver

 I'm showing the front and back images for this card, so you might get the full effect of this misshapen cad. Not only did the White Sox have a card in this set, but it is a Hall of Fame player, who is best remembered on another team, but it happens to coincide with the year he won his 300th game. It's just a mess of circumstances that make this an even stranger release.

This is definitely a unique set that never made it past a trial release. It's a beautiful and clumsy set. The rose tinted glasses of nostalgia are especially on for this one. This card has more attachment to the memories that it conjures rather than the card itself. I guess that could be a true test of this set. It's awkward, but makes me think of wonderful days in my past. I suppose that's all you can ask out of a card.

Good job, Topps 3-D. You've made me think of G.I. Joe and Spider-Ham comics. Looking for the discontinued Summit cookie bar (it ceased production in 1984, but I had no idea) in the candy aisles. Riding my bike to the drug store and taking the secret way past two parks. For me, this could be one of the ultimate nostalgia cards.

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

2025 Topps Series One

 

Topps flagship is always anticipated (by me anyway). I feel that it marks the beginning of the new trading card sets for the new year. There always seem to be a few late straggler sets from the previous year that get released in January. This is my signal that the new year has begun.

This design reminds me of some of the Topps designs from the early to mid-2000s mixed in with a little bit of Donruss from the same time period. Is it an homage to that time period or a coincidence? Does it really matter? Not really.

The 2025 design is pretty sharp. Geometry in baseball seems to be the general theme on the card. Baseball diamonds, warning tracks nice photos, blueprint-like outlines of words and team emblems. Sorry Panini, the team emblems really do make the card. I wish that you had both licenses.

The white borders lend itself easily to many parallels, which there are many. My word. There are so many. For those who love to chase rainbows, you are in luck. There are sixty(?!) parallels of each card.

Ready?

They are as follows:

Rainbow Foil
Diamante Foil
Holo Foil
Topps Pattern Foil
Silver Crackle Foil
Pink Holo Foil
Sandglitter
Confetti
Pink Diamante Foil
Aqua Holo Foil
Aqua Rainbow Foil
Tinsel
Gold (/2025)
Purple Rainbow (/250)
Purple Holo Foil (/250)
Blue Rainbow (/150)
Blue Holo Foil (/150)
Green Rainbow (/99)
Green Holo Foil (/99)
Vintage Stock (/99)
Independence Day (/76)
Gold Rainbow (/50)
Gold Holo Foil (/50)
Gold Diamante Foil (/50)
Canvas (/50)
Orange Rainbow (/25)
Orange Holo Foil (/25)
Orange Diamante (/25)
Wood (/25)
Memorial Day Camouflage (/25)
Black Rainbow (/10)
Black Holo Foil (/10)
Black Diamante (/5)
Clear (/10)
Red Rainbow (/5)
Red Holo Foil (/5)
Red Diamante (/5)
FoilFractor (/1)
Platinum Holo Foil (/1)
First Card (/1)
Printing Plate Black (/1)
Printing Plate Cyan (/1)
Printing Plate Magenta (/1)
Printing Plate Yellow (/1)
Spring Training
Spring Training Green Foil (/99)
Spring Training Gold Foil (/50)
Spring Training Orange Foil (/25)
Spring Training Red Foil (5)
Spring Training Black Foil (/1)
Holiday
Holiday Flowers (/50)
Holiday Eggs
Holiday Rabbit
Holiday Umbrella (/10)
Holiday Watering Can (/5)
Holiday Birds (/1)
Golden Mirror Image Variation
True Photo Variation
Team Color Border Variation

There is also a Tokyo Series Murakami Variation. Luis Robert Jr., Brooks Baldwin and Drew Thorpe have cards in this limited parallel, numbered to ten.

The White Sox have no player number variations and no big head variations.

The White Sox have nine cards in series one.

95 - Gavin Sheets
121 - Andrew Vaughn
189 - Robert Luis Jr.
190 - Michael Vargas
249 - Brooks Baldwin
257 - Korey Lee
280 - Ky Bush
320 - Drew Thorpe
344 - Andrew Benintendi 

Yet another very good design for Topps flagship. They can usually be counted on for a solid look. There are very few years that would be considered a classic design anymore, but a consistent output of very good to great can usually be expected. 2025 is no different.

I usually enjoy chasing the parallels, but sixty (and in three cases, sixty-one) is a little like Lone Star demanding ludicrous speed It's a great way to get there. You might see some pretty colors along the way, maybe even plaid some years. In the end, it's a bit ludicrous.

Friday, March 7, 2025

The First White Sox card of 2025 Is...

 

I'm not going to make you scroll down this year. Here it is. Luis Robert Jr. This is my first White Sox card of 2025.

In a way, this is fitting. After last year's debacle of a season, this is one of the few remaining recognizable names on the team (as of this writing). I was so wrapped up in other things in my life last year, that I didn't even make a first card post last year. For those of you that were disappointed and were anxiously waiting... it was Andrew Vaughn from Topps series one. I know. Now you can get a good night's sleep after an entire year.

Work, family and household projects dominated my year in 2024. That doesn't mean that I didn't pay attention to baseball. I caught my fair share of games on MLB.TV. I even attended a game with my family for the first time in awhile. We had fun, but of course the Sox lost the game 13-4. My grandson got his first in play baseball at his first game. There wasn't the usual energy in the ballpark. The air had been sucked out before the game even began.


 It was probably the worst game I have ever attended. Not because of the score. I've attended worse blowouts before. Nobody seemed to be into anything going on. The team didn't even seem to hustle much. They were on par with hits, but Detroit managed to move the runners along and score them much more often. Almost to an embarrassingly degree.

We even managed to get on television once. You'd never know it was us, unless you knew who to look for and a general location of our seats.


 After the game, my grandson wanted to get his ball signed. So he went down to the fence and started asking players walking to the dugout. They ignored him, but the Tigers manager threatened to have him escorted out of the park. Needless to say, it was a first game experience that had its ups and downs.

Despite this, he's game to go again, even though A.J. Hinch made him cry.

Maybe Luis Robert Jr. will be traded as the rumor mill suggests. Maybe he stays with the team the entire year. Maybe things will click and the White Sox will surprise everyone this season. I'll be happy with a better record than 2024 and positive signs that the team is headed in the right direction. Maybe this first card will be a positive sign.

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