Heritage Story Booklets - A Major Disappointment

When I saw that Topps was including story booklets as an insert in the 2019 Heritage set, I was excited.  I collected most of the originals back in 1970 and really enjoyed them. 

My originals from 1970 are long gone, but I replaced them when I put my compete set together.  The set has 24 booklets.  There is one for a player from each team.  The Cubs representative is Ernie Banks.  Take a look at his complete booklet:

I was really looking forward to the Heritage versions. I was really thinking about getting all of them, figuring there would be 30, one for a player from each team.

Topps, though, killed most of my excitement.

First, they made the booklets a rare insert.  The retail odds for the booklets are one in every 972 packs.  That's 972 times harder than the 1970 originals, since there was a booklet in each pack.

Next, they limited the booklets to just fifteen players. Half the teams were left out.  Luckily for me, there was a Cub on the checklist, Kris Bryant.  But unlucky for me, since there are a tough pull, it was going to be expensive to get one.

I probably overpaid, but I got one.

When it arrived and I opened it up, I was really disappointed.  I thought I got ripped off.  The originals from 1970 have eight pages, on two sheets of paper, folded.  They aren't stapled together, so over time, it is not uncommon for the two pages to separate.

That's what I thought happened to my Bryant because there was only one sheet.  I thought the seller sent me a ruined copy.

Turns out that I got what I should have.  Topps cut the Heritage booklets to just four pages.  How could they do that??  With one page the cover and one the checklist, that leaves just two pages of storytelling.

The artist did a nice job of replicating the style of the originals.  But you can't really tell the player's story with just two pages.

What a majorly disappointing move by Topps!