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 2010-2024.
Here are the designs year-by-year:
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Some thoughts:
By the time 2010 rolled around, we were no longer buying many baseball cards in my home. Long time readers of this site might remember that there were a few years when I bought one hobby box of Topps cards and shared the Yankees cards here, along with anything fun I acquired in that box. Ethan and I did this a few times while he was away at college. But, the the hobby boxes seemed to double in price a few years ago and the whole activity wasn't worth it any longer.
All that to say that for the most part, by and large, in a very general sense, I didn't spend much time, at all, interacting with any of these sets - even the ones I bought. (For those, I opened the packs, showed the Yankees cards on SSTN, and then put the cards into a box to give Ethan.)
Looking back at the last 15 years of cards, while the designs are all different, in some ways, these all look the same to me. Some are nicer than others, but they all seem similar. They are nice looking cards, but they seem to be missing something. It is 15 years of cards that all have the same general "feel" to me.
I can look at a 1957 Topps and know what year it is. I can do that for almost every set through the 1990s, absolutely through the mid-1980s. For these, I can't tell one from the next - even though there are differences.
Ranking them was especially challenging.
Some general thoughts:
2010 - I don't like when the player names are shiny because they are difficult to read. This set is nice enough. I guess the blue shadow isn't the best. There's nothing not to like, but there's nothing to really like either.
2011 - Nice enough. I like when they use the team logos. The little circle is good. The shiny name isn't.
2012 - This seems like a combination of 2010 and 2011. Good enough, I guess, except for the shiny name.
2013 - A little different. The home plate design and infield is original.
2014 - This seems like a repeat of the previous year. They are different, of course, but to my eyes, they're the same set. I always like the Yankees logo on the card more than the script Yankees.
2015 - The marble-like background is original, but as it changes going down the card, the bottom looks like a cheap off-brand set from the mid 1980s. Topps had something here, but lost it along the way.
2016 - Nice enough. Why they had to cut the logo to fit in a shape I don't understand. It seems they were trying to make the card look like some television graphics.
2017 - They really tried to make this like TV graphics and it's a complete miss. A zero.
2018 - Seems to lack any originality. The name and such becoming pixelated is different. I don't know if it's good. This is one of those sets that looks like every other set.
2019 - Nice enough. Nothing special I don't understand the background design.
2020 - Sideways writing? A complete miss.
2021 - Again, it has the "feel" of every other set. "This time we'll do the same thing, but add diagonal bars!"
2022 - Another one of those "looks like every other set" set.
2023 - They did something a little different here with the head shot, but I don't like it.
2024 - I want to hate this set, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. This set is completely different than the others. It's original. Distinctive. Neon writing. It's not great, but it is very original. Original is good.
I think, in the end, these sets seemed to be designed more for adult collectors than kids, and I think that's why they are all less than appealing to me.
***
MY RANKINGS:
2024
2014
2013
2010
2011
2012
2022
2015
2016
2019
2018
2021
2020
2023
2017
How do you rank these designs?
