Topps Product Cubs Since 2008

Last Thursday I recapped my 2018 Topps product Cubs cards.  I ended up with a total of 430 cards.

A comment from Jeremy asked how that compared to other years.  What a great question!  I went to my collection spreadsheet for the answer.

2008 - 155
2009 - 213
2010 - 262
2011 - 496
2012 - 259
2013 - 238
2014 - 220
2015 - 298
2016 - 615
2017 - 468
2018 - 430

You can see how the total has really grown the past three years.  The 2016 spike was because of the extra World Series things I picked up.  But 2017 and 2018 are still pretty high compared to the other years.

I should also mention the reason for the spike in 2011.  It wasn't due to any success on the field.  The 2011 Cubs were not very good.  Instead, the spike was because Topps was celebrating their 60th anniversary and they put out all those parallel sets.  I was a sucker for them and ended up with five different parallels (Diamond, Cognac, Gold, Walmart Black, Factory set limited edition).

Below I've got the different brands that I picked up from each of the years.  You can also see the growth there as Topps has really started cranking out the various brands.

2008
Topps - 51
Allen & Ginter - 10
Bowman - 16
Factory Team - 14
Finest - 5
Heritage - 39
Opening Day - 6
Stadium Club - 5
Topps Chrome - 9
TOTALS - 155

2009
Topps - 74
Allen & Ginter - 20
Attax - 11
Bowman - 19
Factory Team - 15
Finest - 8
Heritage - 37
T206 - 12
Topps Chrome - 10
Turkey Red - 7
TOTALS - 213

2010
Topps - 110
Allen & Ginter - 18
Attax - 9
Bowman - 29
Factory Team - 17
Finest - 4
Heritage - 19
Opening Day - 9
Pro Debut - 16
T206 - 13
Topps Chrome - 11
Turkey Red - 7
TOTALS - 262

2011
Topps - 274
Allen & Ginter - 35
Attax - 12
Bowman - 27
Factory Team - 17
Finest - 3
Gypsy Queen - 29
Heritage - 32
Lineage - 18
Opening Day - 12
Pro Debut - 18
Topps Chrome - 9
Topps Stickers - 10
TOTALS - 496

2012
Topps - 110
Allen & Ginter - 21
Archives - 10
Bowman - 22
Bowman's Best - 1
Factory Team - 17
Finest - 1
Gypsy Queen - 20
Heritage - 31
Opening Day - 5
Pro Debut - 7
Topps Chrome - 4
Topps Stickers - 10
TOTALS - 259

2013
Topps - 50
Allen & Ginter - 21
Archives - 15
Bowman - 35
Factory Team - 17
Finest - 3
Gypsy Queen - 28
Heritage - 35
Opening Day - 8
Pro Debut - 11
Topps Chrome - 3
Topps Stickers - 10
Turkey Red - 2
TOTALS - 238

2014
Topps - 58
Allen & Ginter - 17
Archives - 8
Bowman - 27
Factory Team - 17
Finest - 1
Gypsy Queen - 17
Heritage - 39
Opening Day - 6
Pro Debut - 11
Stadium Club - 5
Topps Chrome - 3
Topps Stickers - 10
Turkey Red - 1
TOTALS - 220

2015
Topps - 83
Allen & Ginter - 19
Archives - 10
Bowman - 21
Bowman's Best - 5
Factory Team - 17
Finest - 4
Gypsy Queen - 24
Heritage - 58
Heritage '51 - 6
Opening Day - 10
Pro Debut - 11
Stadium Club - 8
Topps Chrome - 12
Topps Stickers - 10
TOTALS - 298

2016
Topps - 134
Allen & Ginter - 30
Archives - 16
Bowman - 32
Bowman's Best - 7
Bunt - 15
Factory Team - 57
Finest - 9
Gold Label - 6
Gypsy Queen - 42
Heritage - 65
Opening Day - 15
Pro Debut - 14
Stadium Club - 11
Topps Chrome - 12
Topps Now - 140
Topps Stickers - 10
TOTALS - 615

2017
Topps - 132
Allen & Ginter - 34
Archives - 25
Bowman - 29
Bowman's Best - 3
Bunt - 17
Factory Team - 17
Finest - 12
Fire - 17
Gallery - 11
Gold Label - 9
Gypsy Queen - 15
Heritage - 81
Opening Day - 16
Pro Debut - 9
Stadium Club - 15
Topps Chrome - 16
Topps Stickers - 10
TOTALS - 468

2018
Topps - 146
Allen & Ginter - 38
Archives - 12
Big League - 19
Bowman - 16
Bowman's Best - 2
Factory Team - 17
Finest - 5
Fire - 10
Gallery - 12
Gold Label - 7
Gypsy Queen - 11
Heritage - 60
Living Set - 6
National Baseball Card Day - 10
Opening Day - 18
Pro Debut - 4
Stadium Club - 15
Topps Chrome - 12
Topps Stickers - 10
TOTALS - 430

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 16,268 Cubs cards from 155 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1969 Fleer Team Emblems Version 1  There are three version of this card.  This one has a much lighter shade of blue and the "ubs" is pushed over to the left.  In the other two versions, that blue gets darker and the "ubs" is moved to the right.

1980s: 1984 Donruss #41 Joe Carter  He is the '80s Gleyber Torres.  No regrets with either trade.  Carter to the Indians for Rick Sutcliffe was the only way they would have won the '84 division title.  Torres to the Yankees for Chapman was the only way the '16 Series is won.

1990s: 1992 Topps #110 Ryne Sandberg  I wonder if the was a home run swing or just a fly-out?  Both Ryno and the catcher seem very interested in the flight of the ball.

2000s: 2003 Topps Total #500 Sammy Sosa Sammy is really hustling out of the box.

2010s: 2014 Donruss Signatures #CR Chris Rusin  Does anyone else have an autograph of Chris Rusin in their collection?  I doubt it!  I do only because this follows my autograph collection rule.  

1992 Diet Pepsi Cubs

One of my goals for 2019 is to add more of the Cubs cards from smaller sets to my collection.  When I started I didn't want anything with less than ten Cubs cards.  I'm starting to run out of those, so I'm happy to get cards from sets with any number of Cubs.

The 1990s provides a slew of possibilities.  There are many sets with just 20-30 cards and only one or two Cubs in them.  I've been hunting down over 20 of these sets and the cards are starting to arrive.

Up today are the Cubs from the 1992 Diet Pepsi set.  As with many of these 90's sets, the Diet Pepsi set has a license from the players association but not MLB.  That means no logos.

The Diet Pepsi set was issued only in Canada, giving us bilingual cards.  There are 30 cards, but just one Cub.

It's a pretty nice action shot of Ryno going after a ball up the middle.

And that's it... the one Cub from the one year of Diet Pepsi cards.

All the Cubs from the 2018 Topps Brands

Here's the rundown with all the 2018 Cubs cards from the Topps brands that I collect.  I'll list the brands in alphabetical order:

Allen & Ginter - 38 Cubs
Archives - 12 Cubs
Big League - 19 Cubs
Bowman - 16 Cubs
Bowman's Best - 2 Cubs
Finest - 5 Cubs
Fire - 10 Cubs
Gallery - 12 Cubs
Gold Label - 7 Cubs
Gypsy Queen - 11 Cubs
Heritage - 60 Cubs
Living Set - 6 Cubs
National Baseball Card Day - 10 Cubs
Opening Day - 18 Cubs
Pro Debut - 4 Cubs
Stadium Club - 15 Cubs
Topps Chrome - 12 Cubs
Topps Stickers - 10 Cubs
Topps Flagship Set - 146 Cubs

Add up all of those and you get a total of 430 Cubs cards.

Your numbers from each set may vary.  I get the inserts from some brands, but not all.  The same goes for the relics.  So this isn't a complete master set for everyone, but it is for me.

I've put all 430 cards together in a tile.  They are sorted by brands, in the same order as I have them listed above.

2018 Bowman's Best Cubs

Bowman's Best was the final Topps release in 2018, coming out a week before Christmas.  It's a small set, with just 70 base cards and 29 more prospects.

Only two Cubs landed among the 70 current players and they were shut out on the prospects list.

 

The design reminds me of the Upper Deck X set from 2008..

WIth this being the last release from 2018, I'm ready to wrap up the year.  I'll have that tomorrow.

2018 Holiday Cubs

The Holiday set has been a Walmart-exclusive for the past three years.  I picked up the 2016 set because I needed to get everything from that glorious season.  I skipped last year, feeling that I didn't need a gimmicky parallel.  I had no plans to get the 2018 set, either.

But a coworker got me a Holiday blaster and I was able to pull six of the ten Cubs.  Being the completist that I am, I figured I might as well finish off the set.  It was a few simple clicks with Sportlots and I had the team set.

I was pleasantly surprised with the Cubs checklist because of one card...

.... Daniel Murphy.  I didn't realize that the Holiday set was an update to update.  This is the only card that I am aware of that shows Murphy as a Cub.  I'm not familiar enough with the complete checklist to know if there are any other players that were shown with their late-season new team.  Anyone know?

The other nine cards are parallels to the already-seen flagship cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There aren't any surprises or goofy rookies among the nine.  It's the big names.

2018 Chrome Update Cubs

Chrome Update came out in late October, but I just recently picked up the Cubs cards.  The set is a Target-exclusive (Walmart gets the Holiday set) and has 100 cards on the checklist. There are just three Cubs cards included and I was able to get them pretty easily at Sportlots for 18¢ each.

 

Topps included two from the All Star game and one rookie.  It is a pretty disappointing showing from this October.... something the 2018 Cubs were familiar with!