All about the Base - 1986 Topps

Year: 1986

Manufacturer: Topps 

Set: Flagship

Card Number: 780

Card Type: Base

1986 was the first year I remember actually buying baseball cards.  Up until then I was pretty much all into comics.  But even then I didn't bother to put the set together until much later.  Every so often Topps' experiments with black bordered cards.  The black borders have the effect to really magnify defects in the edges and corners.  In 1986 we get a split between a black border and a white border and you'd never guess that there are conditions issues with the set.  Centering, as always, is an issue as well, and miscentering also shows up incredibly well in these cards.   The set does feature a nice big player photos and this year we get what looks like Robin warming up catching a few balls.  While I'm neutral on the front I really do like the color scheme on the backs.  The black on red really pops and is easy to read.  Plus we get a nice sized cards number high on the left hand side for easy collation and the player name is very prominent.  

We also get a couple game winning RBI stats and there is still just enough room with Robin's career stats for one small factoid at the bottom.  No mention of brother Larry though.