2018 Topps Archives - Topps Rookie History

Year: 2018

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Archives

Card Number: NNO (223)

Card Type: Insert

 Insert Set: Topps Rookie History

Still working through the last of my big COMC Black Friday haul.  Got a little sidetracked with a doosey of a cold, but I'm back.  Here's the most modern card I picked up from COMC.  It's Robin's Topps Rookie History reprint card from 2018 Archives.  No surprise Robin has another rookie reprint card in this year's Topps Series 1.  One of these days I'm going to take the time and figure out how many times Topps as issued a reprint of some sort for Robin's rookie card.  The cards are not numbered in the set, rather they have the original card numbering from whatever set they were originally issued in.  Other than the obvious foil stamp on the front, the Topps Reprint on the bottom of the back and the current copyright information, it's basically an exact replica.  These cards did come with color foil variations, some of them serial numbered.

2003 Topps Shoebox Collection

Year: 2003

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Shoe Box

Card Number: 65

Card Type: Base

I'm back!  Just spent a glorious 2 week in Hawaii and came back to Alaska for an 80 degree difference.  Ahem that being said let's jump back into my COMC black Friday haul.  Again we have another card I could have sworn I already had in my collection.  But after looking through my master spreadsheet and digging through the collection it looks like I was wrong.  Which could be easily understandable.  Even by 2003 Robin's 1975 Topps card had been reprinting probably over 100 times and he had a couple reprints in other sets around the same time.  The Shoe Box Collection was basically a complete set, with a box containing all 96 reprint cards and some other goodies.  

This reprint and set is easily distinguished from the other 75 reprints by the nice big foil logo stamp on the front of the card.

All about the Base - 1975 Topps

Year: 1975

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: 223

Card Type: Base

Over the course of the next few weeks I want to feature each of Robin's Topps Flagship cards in chronological order, from 1975 to 1994.  It's something I've wanted to do for awhile now and I know I've probably feature a few of the cards before, but what can you do?  I'm also toying with doing this for his Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, and Score cards, but I'll probably break up the series'.

First up is Robin's rookie card out of the classic 1975 Topps set.  Robin broke into the league in 1974.  As a matter of fact Robin was on the roster and played during the Brewers opener on April 5th, 1974, they lost to the Red Sox.  So why wasn't Robin in the '74 set?  Well 1974 was the first year Topps switched from issuing their product in series' and put the whole set out all at once.  So where Robin might have been in one of the later series', there was none. And the traded set was exclusively for traded players.  Robin had to wait till 1975 to grace cardboard.

The 75 set is pretty iconic and a hobby favorite.  I didn't realize the card I chose to scan was so mis-cut, but I wasn't going to dig out another card.  I currently have 5 1975 Topps Yount rookies in my collection all in varying conditions.  But it's so true what they say,  "You never forget your first."  I would love to say that the card scanned was my first Yount rookie, but to be honest I can't remember which one it was anymore.  But I vividly remember when I picked my first rookie up.  

I was living over seas in Germany.  My father was in the army and stationed in Berlin.  We got there just after the Wall fell in December of 1989.  Berlin was a divided city not just East and West, but in the Western sector between the British, French, and Americans.  The US didn't have a centralized base in the city, rather it was spread out in what they called Kasernes.  I can remember going over to the Air Force Kaserne, called McNair, and they hosted a periodic sports card show.  It's there I met a guy who had a ton of vintage cards there with him and he was going around asking what people collected.  I had set up a table selling as many singles as I could from my dupes.  The guy had asked me who and what I collected and I told him I was a Brewers collector and really liked Robin Yount.  He came back a few minutes later with a 75 Yount rookie.  We talked for awhile and I took the card home for about $50.  I thought I'd gotten a good deal then.  Robin's rookie cards were still commanding around $200 and while the one I got wasn't in mint condition it was a card I'd never thought I'd own.  I can say that's the most I ever spent on one of my rookie cards, but it's still a great memory.

1993 Highland Mint Bronze card

Manufacturer: Highland Mint

Set: The Highland Mint Baseball Collection

Year:  1993

Number: 223

Type: Bronze Mint Card

Serial Number 1511/5000

Found another great oddball while digging through the collection. This time it's a 1993 Highland Mint - Bronze 1975 Topps Mint-Card.

The "card" comes in this neat portfolio.

You can see that the product was produced with Topps, MLB, and the MLBPA.

Another cool thing is the number on the bottom of the spine, 1511, is the serial number of the piece.

There's a little bit of wear and tear on the inside spine of the case.

The cards come in a thick lucite holder and are very nicely done.  The bronze edition is limited to 5000.
There is also a silver edition of this card according to the Standard Catalog.  The silver card are limited to 1,000 copies and have 4.25 troy ounces of silver in them. I thought that there was also a gold level issued, but I that might just have been for the 1994 Michael Jordan set.

Each piece come with it's own COA as well.

The MSRP for these was $50 for the bronze back in 1993 and $235 for the silver. Both cards can go for much less now, with bronze cards ranging in book price from $15 to 50 depending on the player.  Robins card back in the 2011 Catalog booked for about $40.

The Holy Grail?

As a Yount collector there is one card that I consider THE rookie card. And that is Robin's 1975 #223 Topps card.  I've got a few in my collection and I've got just about every other 1975 card of Robin too, trust me there are more that just this card.  But Yount's 75 Topps card is the IT card for a Yount collector and growing up it was my Holy Grail. It was the pinnacle, the zenith, you get the idea. It was the card I lusted after and because at the time it booked at over $200 it was way out of my reach.  Anywho...

 I saw this beauty up on ebay. I'm guessing that centering doesn't count in the grade, otherwise this card is probably the nicest example I've ever laid my eyes on it.  According to PSA this is one of threeYount rookie ever to get the Gem Mint 10 grade.

You can check out the crazy price it's going for here.

Great Moogaly Googaly, Graded 75 cello pack with Brett on top and Yount on back.

I saw a post by Sports Collectors Daily on Facebook about this auction up on ebay right now.

A PSA 9 1975 Topps Cello with George Brett on the front and Robin Yount on the back.  

You can follow the auction HERE.  As I'm writting this the auction is already over $1700 with over 4 days left to go.  SCD called it a holy grail of cello packs.  Maybe for a Brett collector, but for a Yount collector the Yount would have to be on the front.  Still pretty neat, and well out of my price range.