2008 Topps Sterling White Suede Parallel #227

Year: 2008

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Topps Sterling

Card Number: 227 (RY11)

Card Type: Parallel 

Parallel Set: White Suede

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 25/50

I will be the first to tell you how much I hate the new trend in the trading card market.  The move away from affordable products with large base sets to hit driven, expensive, low card count products is one of the things that is slowly killing the hobby.  But back in the mid 2000's the higher products were more like going to a car showroom.  Most car companies have multiple models that are affordable and met different consumer's needs, and sure there was some overlap in the models and what they offered, but they also offered some higher end models for those clients that could afford it.  That's what the early and mid 2000's felt like.  For the most part the hobby was affordable with multiple, ok, a lot of products to choose from with some higher end stuff mixed in for those with a little deeper pockets.   Starting in 2006 Topps brought out a new Cadillac, Topps Sterling.  This was Topps' high end brand.  And it was nice.  The cards were fancy, the hits were pretty, and very low numbered, even if most players featured had lots of different cards.  And in 2008 with Sterling being HOF-centric and featuring player themed boxes, I loved it. Not enough to drop the $200-300 a box this stuff was going for, but definitely enough to seek out some of Robin's hits and all of his base cards.  The set featured a large base set with all cards numbered to 250.  You also got a few parallel sets.  The base being numbered to only 250 made the cards fairly rare, but not too expensive or hard to find, thanks ebay.  The next most common parallel is the white suede.  Numbered to just 50 copies and very, very white.  I've been slowly picking up these parallels as I find them for a decent price.  Robin has 11 base cards in the set so it been a slow process and I think I've manage only 3 so far, but the hunt is most of the fun anyway.

2008 Topps Sterling #223 White Suede parallel

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Topps Sterling

Year: 2008

Card number: 223

Player card number: RY7

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel: White Suede Framed

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 38/50

I've written about the 2008 Topps Sterling set many times before.  I think of all the high end efforts by Topps the 2008 edition of Sterling is still a bright spot as a Yount collector. Even if all the autos are stickers.  It's a set that's impossible to have all the cards from a player.  But there are so many cards in the set that you could snag a great card for a decent price, at least you use to be able to.

The concept for the 2008 Sterling set was Hall of Fame player driven and boxes feature only cards from the Player featured on the box band.

Robin has 11 cards featured in the base set, all numbered to 250. Of course there are parallels of those base cards like this white suede parallel numbered to 50, framed burgundy parallels numbered to 10, framed cherry wood, framed gold, you get the idea, and then there are all the relic autos number to 10, the white whales numbered to 1.  The point is while the cards are all low serial numbered cards, there are a lot to chase.  It took me a good amount of time to chase down all 11 base cards and when I could find them I also picked up these white suede parallels cheap.

The only difference between this and the base cards is that they are really white, as opposed to the yellow tinted frames of the base cards and they're serial numbered to 50.

 The other thing I like about this set is the numbering.  You have the cards overall place in the set #223, but also you have the cards player numbering RY7.  I also like the fact that the card is clearly marked as the white framed parallel.