Shoebox Memories

2023 Bowman Draft, Topps Heritage High Number Now Available

Topps released two of its most highly anticipated products a day apart in mid-December to varying levels of excitement. Collectors eagerly await the yearly release of Bowman Draft and Topps Heritage High Number every December. Bowman Draft is known for featuring top prospects and newly drafted prospects, while Topps Heritage High Number serves as the update series to Topps Heritage....

2023 Topps Allen & Ginter In Stores Now

One of the hobby’s most popular products is back with the recent release of 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter. Created in the image of the original tobacco cards made by the Richmond, Virginia based tobacco company Allen & Ginter, this product resurrects the inclusion of the non-baseball related cards and includes tobacco-sized cards while creating a card that appears hand painted instead a...

Trading Card Company Panini America Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Fanatics

It’s been two years since Topps’ attempt to go public with a $1.3 billion SPAC merger with Mudrick Capital Acquistion Corp was foiled by the announcement that Fanatics had agreed to licensing deals with MLB, MLBPA, the NBA, the NBAPA, and the NFL to become the exclusive manufacturer of trading cards. Months later, Fanatics purchased the Sports and Entertainment division of Topps Trading Cards in...

The Confounding Definition of a Rookie Card

What is a rookie card? That has become an age-old question in the hobby that has become highly subjective with an ever-changing definition over the past few decades. During the hobby’s vintage era, which is classified as when Topps monopolized the industry prior to the 1980s, the definition of a rookie card was cut and dry. A player’s rookie card was their first card. Collectors can easily point...

Shoebox Memories: DAR-RYL! DAR-RYL!

“DAR-RYL! DAR-RYL!” Every Mets fan that had the privilege of watching Darryl Strawberry don the Orange and Blue knows that chant. They remember that chant. They’ve participated in that chant. Whether it was on their couch, their backyard at a summer barbeque, a block party, or in the car.  In a bar in any of the five boroughs, or in the Tri-State area. In the Mezzaine at Shea, or on the road at...

Now Available: 2022 Bowman Draft, Topps Heritage Minors, Bowman Platinum

Topps has been burning a hole in the wallets of collectors throughout the hobby since the beginning of October with so many new releases, and they didn’t let the holidays stop them. In the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the hobby saw the releases of Topps Heritage Minors, Bowman Platinum, and Bowman Draft. Topps Heritage Minors is what it sounds like…a minor league version of Topps...

Shoebox Memories: Dwight Gooden’s Sought After Rookies

Every collector has at some point seen a card that they wanted, couldn’t afford, and thought to themselves, “I’m going to own that card someday.” I began collecting cards when I was five years old. It was 1986 and the middle of the junk wax era. Baseball cards were being printed at a rate that every person on Earth could be given 400 new cards every year without getting one duplicate. I stopped...

2022 Topps Stadium Club Continues To Impress

Mets fans have seen this picture of Keith Hernandez before. Sitting in front of locker while working on a crossword puzzle with his road jersey hanging to his left, Dwight Gooden’s jersey further to the left, and Darryl Strawberry’s jersey behind him. It makes you wonder why this picture was never used on a baseball card before.Enter Topps Stadium Club.First released back in 1991, Topps Stadium...

Strange Lineups Plague 2022 Topps Heritage High Number Release

Topps Heritage is back with its annual update set, Topps Heritage High Number. The High Number update features players that changed teams prior to and during the season in their new uniform, as well as some rookies that have made their major league debut. Unlike the Topps Update Series, Topps Heritage High Number is a true continuation of the Topps Heritage set released earlier in the year....

Shoebox Memories – 1986 Topps Tom Paciorek

We all have Aunts down in Florida.  Okay, maybe not everyone, but I do.  And recently she sent some “vintage” mid-80s Mets cards up to me in NY from a neighbor who wanted to get rid of them after her spouse passed on.  In looking through them, I came across the 1986 Mets card shown below:             Several things about this card. Firstly 1986 is not “vintage”.  In 1986...

2022 Topps Pro Debut Makes Long-Awaited Arrival

At long last, the 2022 Topps Pro Debut was released on September 30th. First released back in 2010, Topps Pro Debut is one of several products Topps releases that strictly feature minor league players. Over the years, Topps Pro Debut has found itself with a much earlier release date on the calendar, but its September release date represents the set’s latest release date. Like the flagship Topps...

Loading