Topps Rookie All Stars!
My love of baseball cards is obvious...put a shiny little trophy on it....
...my reaction is simple:
This is one group of cards I do not keep in binders because most years there are 10 or 11 rookie all stars and only nine pockets on a page, thus ruining the whole visual makeup I like to maintain. I might change my mind on this eventually, but for now they are all in 150-count cubes for my periodic ogling.
In 2005, Topps released one of my favorite niche sets off all time, Topps Rookie Cup! (you can tell I love something by my overuse of exclamation points to describe it) It's as though they made this set just for me. Kind of a crappy design, but I don't care, they all have that fantastic little trophy on it.
I bought this complete set on ebay and it has resided in a place of honor in one of my set binders ever since. One thing I love about it is that players from "the dark period" (1974, 1979-1986) when they inexplicably didn't put the damn trophy on the cards finally get their hard-earned little golden idols. If I had any sort of design skills, I would scan and make cards from the dark times with the proper recognition. I am sure if I look around the interwebs there are plenty of lunatics who have done this, but I have not been that curious or motivated. Yet.
Then, in 2008, Topps outdid themselves by making a two series insert set for the Rookie All Stars' 50th anniversary with 110 modern and vintage players. The design mirrors the original 1959 cards, has the original trophy, and is five hundred kinds of wonderful. I put this set together myself by pack ripping, trades, shows, and COMC.
Alas, Topps love affair with the Rookie All Star was short lived and no further sets have followed. In fact, in 2010, they briefly changed the trophy (for worse) and started to forget to put it on some of the cards like they did in the old days. 2011 brought back the proper cup, but 2012 seems to have the problem of forgotten cups yet again. I could ramble on and on about these cards, but we both have lives.
I have updated the wantlist page with the All Star Rookie cards I don't have. If you have any I need, shoot me an email and let's make a deal.
6 comments:
One of the few "rainbow" series I own is from the Rookie Cup set:
http://canthavetoomanycards.blogspot.com/2010/11/santo-saturdays-rons-rainbow.html
I think you meant the "dead period" was from 1979-86.
See, I don't have as much of a life as you thought I did.
Yes, 1975, '76, '77, and '78 all had the cup, but 1974 was the first year when there was a RAS team without a cup. So we are both right. And we both need a life.
They still have the cup in 2012 - and they actually haven't missed anybody that I know of.
In 2010 they started doing something I don't particularly like. If you make the Topps ASR team, you get two cards in the set. So Stephen Strasburg has a base card with no rookie cup in Topps 2011 - and a different card with the rookie cup. The backs look identical (except for the different card #). Essentially, it's a separate subset that doesn't look like a separate subset.
(Lifetimetopps)
Ugh. Thanks unknown commenter. I noticed they did that the last couple years and I was hoping they had cut that crap out. I pulled a Desmond Jennings from the 2012 set without a cup and thought they were forgetting cups again. Instead, they are giving them two cards. Lame, Topps, very lame.
I never understood the point of the "rookie cups," especially when they started tagging other cards with "RC" or "Rookie Card." And even THOSE cards are rarely true rookie cards. My inner child is so confused!
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