This is the binder label that I made for this year.
I'm fine with the design of the cards. This is the third consecutive year with a borderless card, and I doubt Topps will ever go back to borders. They have Heritage for that.
The names are readable, a team logo is prominent, positions are listed... that's all good for a front. Truth be told, even if the cards were ugly as sin I'd still buy the set. For me it's not about the design, it's about having the cards. And since the design is a one-and-done, there's always next year to look forward too.
One thing I've noticed more lately has to do with the numbering. Back in the day, the players were numbered so that you wouldn't have players from the same team numbered closely to one another. They were spread apart by at least 20 numbers. The rare exception was if a player was traded and Topps make a quick fix to show the new team. New numbers weren't given.
Today you get players from the same team very close to one another. I counted ten instances of players from the same team with consecutive numbers in series one. That takes some getting used to for me, seeing two Cubs (or Red Sox, Mariners, etc.) right next to each other on a binder page.
I've got another "you kids get off my lawn" type observation. I couldn't find one picture among the 350 cards that shows a player wearing stirrups. As a traditionalist, that makes me sad. Not a single player looks like a real baseball player, at least to me.
2018 also makes 50 years of me collecting cards, although I don't have 50 years of binders...that's a magnificent accomplishment for sure.
ReplyDeleteI always complain that Topps (and other cad companies) should place their photo types (vertical/horizontal) into groups of 9. Seeing a binder page that has 8 vertical photos and 1 horizontal photo really makes me cringe. Perhaps that's just my OCD speaking. I hadn't thought about stirrups, but I was just recently thinking about how ballplayers have seemingly almost abandoned the traditional eye black stick in favor of stickers. If I really looked into it, I would be willing to bet that even the stickers are starting to go away, too. Sad days.
ReplyDeleteNo stirrups? That's a shame. One of my favorite things about wearing my baseball uniform was rocking my team colored belt and matching stirrups.
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