Finally, a product that is honest with itself
Look, I don’t buy boxes of premium products. If I’m going to drop hundreds of dollars on cards, I either want a good number of cards (preferably enough to build a set) or just the premium inserts that I want. I’m not in this for the gambling, so missing out on a slim chance at a big score is worth it if I can get the cards I want at a reasonable price. In the case of 2012 Topps Tier One, I spent less than the price of four boxes and got cards that are better than could be expected from four boxes, which is a win in my book.
Base Card
So beautiful
Got ya, there are no base cards! If there’s one thing that I hate in sports card products, it’s filler. No, not those blank cards that are used to thicken packs to make it harder to find high-dollar cards by feel. It’s the base cards in those one-big-ass-hit-per-pack products that seem the most pointless. I mean, how do you collect base cards when the packs cost $100+ each? Mix in a few levels of parallels and some inserts to thin things out and you have, at best, some singles you can get a few dollars for because the people who want them aren’t going to drop a few thousand dollars to pull one. That’s why it was refreshing to see Topps basically say “Look, this is a pure gamble, there’s no collecting to be done here, just a big win or a big loss,” with 2012 Topps Tier One. Each box contains one pack that in turn contains just three cards, two with autographs and one without (plus a bonus relic in every fourth box). Based on the Twitter buzz about this product, you would assume that there was a 1/1 bat knob in each pack, but that of course was not to be. There was still a lot to like about this product, when purchased on the secondary market of course (good advice for any premium product).
Top Shelf Relics / Autographed Relics
If one is boring, three is, um, also boring
Single Relic: Numbered to 399 or 150
Double Relic: Numbered to 50 or less
Triple Relic: Numbered to 25 or less
Autographed Single Relic: Numbered to 99
Autographed Double Relic: Numbered to 25
Autographed Triple Relic: Numbered to 1
Mets: David Wright (Autographed Relics have not been seen)
Non-Mets: Eddie Murray (Relics only), Gary Sheffield (Autographed Relics only)
These are the filler relic cards, with even Wright’s triple relic commanding less than $10. If you pulled one of these as your non-autographed card, well, my condolences. And stay away from the slot machines. Like last year’s cards, these are largely forgettable and don’t really get any better with more material. The usual boring gray jersey swatches don’t help much either. How long has it been since we’ve seen a pinstripe jersey card from Wright? Autographed versions may exist for some players, but the checklist doesn’t match up with what has been seen.
Prestigious Patches Relics / Autographed Relics
The thin blue line makes a crappy patch
Relic: Numbered to 10
Autographed Relic: Numbered to 10
Mets: Dwight Gooden, Rickey Henderson (Autographed Relic only), Eddie Murray (Autographed Relic only), David Wright (Autographed Relic only)
Non-Mets: Willie Mays (Relic only), Nolan Ryan (Relic only), Tom Seaver (Relic only), Warren Spahn (Relic only)
A better relic pull would be one of these jumbo relics. Most of these are patches, but Wright has large pieces of gray jersey with blue piping instead (Topps and I clearly have different definitions of ‘patch’). Gooden and Murray have nice big Mets patches, which at least explains why Murray is shown as a Met here. In general, I’m really getting tired of seeing Murray, Henderson, and Ryan shown as Mets, but I’ll allow it if the purpose is to match the material in the card.
Bat Knobs
Numbered to 1
Mets: Gary Carter, Jose Reyes, Tom Seaver
Non-Mets: Carlos Beltran, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Murray, Gary Sheffield, Duke Snider, Darryl Strawberry
And here’s the real relic draw. With going rates around $800 for most players, a bat knob pull would make up for a few boxes of garbage. It is also extremely unlikely (odds are 1 in 204 packs). Pulls of a lifetime tend to be somewhat rare. But they sure look nice.
Crowd Pleasers Autographs
Blue: Numbering Varies
White: Numbered to 25
Silver: Numbered to 10
Gold: Numbered to 1
Mets: Ike Davis, Ed Kranepool, David Wright
Non-Mets: George Foster
On the autograph side of things, you have several mostly identical insert sets. Crowd Pleasers are landscape-oriented cards featuring on-card autographs in either blue ink on a white background or White/Silver/Gold ink on a black background. These are some sharp-looking cards and have ink colors that you don’t really see much anymore now that Sweet Spot is gone. The player selection is fairly standard but better than most products, with David Wright and Ike Davis representing the current Mets and Ed Kranepool representing retired Mets. It’s always nice to see more Kranepool, but some more variety would have been welcome. Luckily, there are plenty more autograph insert sets to work with.
On the Rise Autographs
Blue: Numbering Varies
White: Numbered to 25
Silver: Numbered to 10
Gold: Numbered to 1
Mets: Jon Niese
Non-Mets: None
These are essentially the same as Crowd Pleasers, only with portrait orientation. Jon Niese is the lone Mets representative here.
Top Tier Autographs
Blue: Numbered to 50
White: Numbered to 25
Silver: Numbered to 10
Gold: Numbered to 1
Mets: Nolan Ryan
Non-Mets: Willie Mays
Same as above, more or less. Of course they throw in Nolan Ryan here as a Met…
Everything Else
Top Shelf Relics Legends
Single Relic: Numbered to 50
Double Relic: Numbered to 15
Non-Mets: Willie Mays
Clear Rookie Reprint Autographs
Numbered to 25
Non-Mets: Willie Mays
Mays never stops signing autographs apparently.
Double Autographs, Triple Autographs, Cut Signatures, Elevated Ink
Nothing worth noting.
Verdict
There’s some nice stuff here, but it feels awfully redundant sandwiched between Museum Collection and Triple Threads. It was refreshing for Topps to drop the pretense that anyone is buying these for anything other than the big hits, but what does that say about this product’s identity? For Mets fans, this product is all about the autographs, but even that is only a draw because of how little variety there’s been in other products. Outside of Archives, there’s been little to choose from in on-card autographs beyond Wright and Ryan, and even Tier 1 only adds Kranepool, Niese, and Davis (plus some very nice parallel ink colors). Beef up the autograph offerings in the other products and Tier 1 becomes completely unnecessary. Next year, Topps should drop the non-base cards from this product and come up with some new ideas. How about autographs on manufactured material, has anybody done that yet?
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