the journey so far . . .
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
My first round of collecting ended before the decade of the 90s came to a close. I did have the first 5 years accounted for already, and thanks to a more recent purchase of a box of 1998 Topps Series 1, I still had a Kurt Abbott card laying around. The rest I had to find online. Despite the sheer quantity of these cards in existence, the local shows tend to favor either the latest releases or vintage cards with very little available past 1976 or so. I think the only card that Topps made a conscious effort to plan in advance for this entire set so far was the 1996 Cal Ripken Jr entry. Obviously, Ripken's passing of Lou Gehrig on the all-time consecutive games played list was a watershed moment in sports. At a time when baseball was hanging on by their collective fingernails to the game, this event was a rare sweet spot in a bitter era.
I also think that Topps purposely chose a Marlin for card #98 as the team won the 1997 World Series, but that also could have been a coincidence. They didn't repeat the pattern in any of their other 90s selections. Do you have a favorite 90s Topps set? 1991 has always been a favorite of mine - Topps stuck to their guns for one more year with the old cardstock, but took a big step into the present with the careful curation of the photos selected for the cards. 1996 seems to me to be fairly universally disliked, but if you are a fan, I'd love to hear someone defend it.
The Ripken card is most excellent. My favorite design from this decade is '92. I busted quite a few boxes of that stuff back in the day.
ReplyDeleteLike P-Town, my favorite design is 1992 Topps. I think 96 and 97 Fleer are decent, certainly better than their sets from the years before.
ReplyDeleteI think the Topps flagships designs of the 90's are the weakest out of any decade, including the 2010's. Maybe I'm jaded, because there were so many cool insert sets produced during the decade or that there were some really awesome premium products released too... but the only design I've ever really liked was the 1991. 1992 and 1993 are okay, but they can't hold their own against the top designs of the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's... or even the 00's and 10's. But that's just my 2¢.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Ripken, that's an awesome card. Kudos to Topps for planning that out in advance.