2024 Topps Heritage

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by bd3d86

There are rumblings that the Heritage line is getting dropped. Even future releases, not just Heritage High this year. I would be very upset if that happens because it’s one of my favorite releases every year.

That would be a truly idiotic move by Topps/Fanatics....Heritage is probably one of its top five most popular products.

[Cracktoast]

Originally Posted by mfw13

That would be a truly idiotic move by Topps/Fanatics....Heritage is probably one of its top five most popular products.

Popular doesn't mean profitable. I can walk in 10 Walmarts right now and I guarantee you 8 of them still have 2023 Heritage on the shelf. Heritage is 100% a collector product which means the high dollar gamblers could care less about it.

[whitmm]

It doesn't make sense to have two products that are just old set recycles. That said, Heritage should be the product kept over Archives.

While they're at it, I hope they kill the 5 year rotation of the late 80's designs as the insert set/silver packs.

[rms13]

We also have Platinum Anniversary now (until they drop it). That is the best retro product now. I agree you don't need Heritage, Platinum, Archives and the retro insert/silver packs. But I would also still like to see more then one retro year per season since these are all a big part of my PC collecting

[bub838]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

Popular doesn't mean profitable. I can walk in 10 Walmarts right now and I guarantee you 8 of them still have 2023 Heritage on the shelf. Heritage is 100% a collector product which means the high dollar gamblers could care less about it.

Topps already made their money if it’s on Walmarts shelves.

[bub838]

I don’t know about the future but I’m not stressing about 24 HHN. Every release lately has been late and we know people signed for it (Yount). Just be patient.

[rudan007]

Kill Archives over Heritage. At the very least, take a year off of Heritage so it can be a true 50th anniversary product.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

Popular doesn't mean profitable. I can walk in 10 Walmarts right now and I guarantee you 8 of them still have 2023 Heritage on the shelf. Heritage is 100% a collector product which means the high dollar gamblers could care less about it.

Well...most of the hobby couldn't care less about "high-dollar gamblers".....

[base set]

35th anniversary 91 already has 2025 mockups out. Personally I like that run, which is from 83 onwards, as it is nice to see those designs printed in high quality, though I don’t care for the Mojo/Chrome/Silver Pack version. I rarely want to look at late 80s Topps with the endless amounts of just plain blurry cards created by poor print registration. I don’t care if a card has perfect centering and razor corners, if sloppy printing ruined it anyways.

As for two Heritage style products, there are currently 3 as Platinum 50th is just a relaunch of Heritage as Heritage Chrome, essentially. 4 if you count the 35th Ann. cards at 150 checklist most years.

I would doubt Heritage is in the top 5 for Topps now, though that would probably depend on if one is looking at margin or just volume. Print runs are on the way down, post-stimulus boom. 2024 Heritage retail has been quite scarce in my home state for months; Topps clearly did a better job with it of matching print run to demand. Such things are dynamic, not permanently the same. My LCS just put some 24 Heritage Hobby back on the shelf at 90.

Like everyone in this endlessly whining Hobby, people who don’t buy a product complain about its existence. Heritage is no different than Bowman Draft in that regard.

Personally I felt Fanatics butchered 2024 Heritage. The print of the card backs was abysmally pitiful and something that could have easily been corrected with normal Quality Control during production. But employee resources clearly weren’t devoted to it any more. The card images are all just heavily cropped torsos from Getty action photos thus little different from the Topps Baseball set. That is an improvement on the fake backdrop cards, and the cards of whole teams standing in the same spot for over a decade running. But the basic craftsmanship of producing a set similar to the original was completely dropped, just as 70s Topps sets continue to get better and better with increasing amounts of image diversity. Spring Training + live regular season sources, using a mix of candids, posed portraits, and action photos make for a memorable set of Baseball Cards. Selecting just one option from that menu for 98% of the set makes it quite boring to look at, all at once.

However the product had George Brett lottery tickets in it, so nobody cares about anything else in it. HHN will have Yount and Skenes. The rest can just be forgotten.

[whitmm]

Originally Posted by rms13

We also have Platinum Anniversary now (until they drop it). That is the best retro product now. I agree you don't need Heritage, Platinum, Archives and the retro insert/silver packs. But I would also still like to see more then one retro year per season since these are all a big part of my PC collecting

I forgot about that one. Had to look up information on Heritage. It could have been called Topps Gold Anniversary. Do we need a 50 and 70 year anniversary sets every year? Or Archives, which does not seem to have any logic behind what years it uses.

I guess we could all look forward to the absolute cluster in 15ish years, when the Flagship 1980s inserts are the 50th anniversary and Heritage is on those years, and Archives randomly picks one of those years.

[sportzking]

Not sure who will be a signer in or if they make a HHN. But there are a few players I would want. Sadly there won't be a Gary Carter unless they make a cut auto or sticker if they have any left.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by rms13

We also have Platinum Anniversary now (until they drop it). That is the best retro product now. I agree you don't need Heritage, Platinum, Archives and the retro insert/silver packs. But I would also still like to see more then one retro year per season since these are all a big part of my PC collecting

I love the Platinum Anniversary cards....I hate the price point. Last year it was about $1400-1500 a case (i.e. $120-130 box), which is pretty close to the top of the range for a retro product. I would love to rip a case this year and build the set that way....but it's hard to justify spending $1500 on a case when I can buy a complete set for $100-200.

As to not needing Heritage, Archives, Platinum Anniversary, AND the retro/silver pack inserts in Flagship, I think you're probably right. But given the number of high-end "hit-only" products (5-10) a year, I don't think there is any harm in keeping all four retro products.

I'd drop the 35th anniversary inserts from flagship because after 1990, Topps designs flagship designs really started to go downhill. And the 35th Anniversary designation is a pretty meaningless one. Archives has been the source of some fun inserts, but the product itself it pretty hit and miss from year to year, since it doesn't really make sense to collect it unless you like at least two of the three designs chosen. Out of the now 13 years it has been released, I've collected it seven years and skipped it six years.

Heritage and Platinum Anniversary are both products which I also collect depending on whether or not I like that years' design....for Heritage I've done the 1954/55/56/58/64/65/67/73/75 designs so far....and will do the same for Platinum Anniversary if the product stays around that long.

[whitmm]

Originally Posted by mfw13

I love the Platinum Anniversary cards....I hate the price point. Last year it was about $1400-1500 a case (i.e. $120-130 box), which is pretty close to the top of the range for a retro product. I would love to rip a case this year and build the set that way....but it's hard to justify spending $1500 on a case when I can buy a complete set for $100-200.

As to not needing Heritage, Archives, Platinum Anniversary, AND the retro/silver pack inserts in Flagship, I think you're probably right. But given the number of high-end "hit-only" products (5-10) a year, I don't think there is any harm in keeping all four retro products.

I'd drop the 35th anniversary inserts from flagship because after 1990, Topps designs flagship designs really started to go downhill. And the 35th Anniversary designation is a pretty meaningless one. Archives has been the source of some fun inserts, but the product itself it pretty hit and miss from year to year, since it doesn't really make sense to collect it unless you like at least two of the three designs chosen. Out of the now 13 years it has been released, I've collected it seven years and skipped it six years.

I'm surprised they kept going with the 35th anniversary inserts. It started as 30th, and I figured they would have just kept recycling those five years.

I don't have any problem with the retro products. I buy Heritage some years, but it's usually after the price drops.

I guess what bugs me is the lack of creativity. You've got your high end hit only/breaker products. You've got how many products that are just retreads of the flagship design. And then your only other option is just a retread of a 50 year old design? That's why I personally like Big League. Yes, it's a low-end product, but it's different and it's a set builder product.

[whitmm]

Originally Posted by sportzking

Not sure who will be a signer in or if they make a HHN. But there are a few players I would want. Sadly there won't be a Gary Carter unless they make a cut auto or sticker if they have any left.

Skenes.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by whitmm

I guess what bugs me is the lack of creativity.

Agreed.

But when breakers/gamblers buy just about everything Topps/Fanatics releases, they really don't have a lot of incentive to spend time/effort/money creating cool new products.

That said, pre-Fanatics, Topps did create a bunch of interesting new products....Living, Topps Now, Throwback Thursdays, Brooklyn, RIP, Fire, Black, Cosmic Chrome. So they haven't been completely dormant on that front.

My hope was always that Topps would do more with their non-baseball intellectual property by integrating more non-baseball designs into baseball products. They've nibbled at this with Throwback Thursday products, and the 71-72 Hockey, 72-73 Basketball, and 1965 Tall Boy designs were all used as inserts in Archives, but that's been about it.

And that's a shame because Topps has some great non-baseball designs that could be used to create terrific retro products:

- 1977 Star Wars
- 1955, 1956, 1957. 1959, 1962, 1969, 1984 Football
- 72-73, 73-74, 80-81 Basketball
- 54-55, 57-78, 67-68, 68-69, 76-77, 77-78, 78-79, 79-80, 84-85 Hockey

[RaceDog]

Topps is just begging me to leave ripping alone.

[bub838]

Originally Posted by TMQ

Zero chance it's Ohtani

[atk825]

The thing with Heritage is that once you get past 1975, the set designs all kind of stink until you get into some of the 1980s designs which have all been recently covered by the 35th anniversary product.

[rudan007]

Originally Posted by bub838

I doubt they would waste autograph time with Ohtani if they plan/intend to kill Heritage. I agree with the theory that they might be delayed due to getting autos back from players.

Still freaking annoying the way Topps/Fanatics handles product releases.....

[FatButcher]

I agree it would be silly to kill it this year, but that Ohtani is a redemption from the previously released product.

I have to ask, all of this "Fanatics is considering killing Heritage" was started by someone saying they are hearing it somewhere. Can someone point to where this was heard or any credible source that is raising it as a possibility?

Far be it for BO to run on baseless conjecture...

[dodgerfanjohn]

Originally Posted by FatButcher

I agree it would be silly to kill it this year, but that Ohtani is a redemption from the previously released product.

I have to ask, all of this "Fanatics is considering killing Heritage" was started by someone saying they are hearing it somewhere. Can someone point to where this was heard or any credible source that is raising it as a possibility?

Far be it for BO to run on baseless conjecture...

It can’t be that expensive a product to produce.

Currently Burbank Sportscards…freaking Burbank…has 2003 Heritage for $55 a hobby box. Not usually the vendor of discounted unopened.

Yet no movement on even retail 2024 Heritage. I actually got the Best Buy I’ve seen on this product on a couple mega boxes that Target had a serious discount on within a couple weeks of release. There’s gotta be a ton of this stuff that Topps is sitting on.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by atk825

The thing with Heritage is that once you get past 1975, the set designs all kind of stink until you get into some of the 1980s designs which have all been recently covered by the 35th anniversary product.

Everyone has different opinions about different designs...some designs I love, others hate, and some designs I hate, others love.

I love 75/76/77, as those were the first years I started collecting as a kid.

1978 is ok, 1979 is meh, 1980 is meh, and I love 1981 with the team caps.

But others may have completely different opinions....

[rms13]

Originally Posted by mfw13

I love the Platinum Anniversary cards....I hate the price point. Last year it was about $1400-1500 a case (i.e. $120-130 box), which is pretty close to the top of the range for a retro product. I would love to rip a case this year and build the set that way....but it's hard to justify spending $1500 on a case when I can buy a complete set for $100-200.

As to not needing Heritage, Archives, Platinum Anniversary, AND the retro/silver pack inserts in Flagship, I think you're probably right. But given the number of high-end "hit-only" products (5-10) a year, I don't think there is any harm in keeping all four retro products.

I'd drop the 35th anniversary inserts from flagship because after 1990, Topps designs flagship designs really started to go downhill. And the 35th Anniversary designation is a pretty meaningless one. Archives has been the source of some fun inserts, but the product itself it pretty hit and miss from year to year, since it doesn't really make sense to collect it unless you like at least two of the three designs chosen. Out of the now 13 years it has been released, I've collected it seven years and skipped it six years.

Heritage and Platinum Anniversary are both products which I also collect depending on whether or not I like that years' design....for Heritage I've done the 1954/55/56/58/64/65/67/73/75 designs so far....and will do the same for Platinum Anniversary if the product stays around that long.

I only PC one active player so Heritage is the least important to me for that reason. All of my other PC guys usually appear in those other products. But I do like and collect the Clubhouse collection relics and I usually try to get all the Heritage parallels for the one guy I PC that's in that product.

[dodgerfanjohn]

Originally Posted by mfw13

Everyone has different opinions about different designs...some designs I love, others hate, and some designs I hate, others love.

I love 75/76/77, as those were the first years I started collecting as a kid.

1978 is ok, 1979 is meh, 1980 is meh, and I love 1981 with the team caps.

But others may have completely different opinions....

For sure. 1981 is horrible IMO.

1975 was cream of the crop for the 70’s. 1983 is it for the 80’s.

[MotorboatJones]

Originally Posted by mfw13

Everyone has different opinions about different designs...some designs I love, others hate, and some designs I hate, others love.

I love 75/76/77, as those were the first years I started collecting as a kid.

1978 is ok, 1979 is meh, 1980 is meh, and I love 1981 with the team caps.

But others may have completely different opinions....

I’m almost in complete agreement with you here, except 77 is not as nice to me as 75 and 76. But I love the 81 as well !