Ranking Topps Baseball Card Designs (2000-2009)

by Paul Semendinger

***

As we wait for the season to begin, I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the old Topps baseball card sets and rank the designs.

We're now up to 2000-2009.

Here are the designs year-by-year:

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Some thoughts:

Overall, I think this was a strong decade. Nice crisp clean designs. Clear photos. These are good cards to look at. The drawback is when the players name (or any print) are shiny. They become difficult to read when sorting cards in some (most) lighting.

2000 - It seemed they were continuing ta similar design from the previous years.

2001 - A nice looking set. The green color is original and distinctive.

2002 - The gold here is nice.

2003 - My son Ryan's favorite set of all time. Because of that (maybe) I'm a fan.

2004 - This is a really nice design. My favorite of the decade.

2005 - It seemed they tried to replicate 2004. I like the team name on top (2004) more than the player's name up there.

2006 - There seemed to be a bit too much going on with this set. One of the worst of the decade.

2007 - The design is lacking. Again, it seems they were trying too hard to be too creative and it's a miss.

2008 - The team name in circles was original, and it shouldn't work, but for some reason it does.

2009 - A really nice looking set.

***

MY RANKINGS:

1. 2004

2. 2008

3. 2009

4. 2005

5. 2003

6. 2001

7. 2000

8. 2002

9. 2007

10. 2006

How do you rank these designs?