Every year, collectors flock to their local brick and mortar card shops and big box stores in an effort to get their hands on the latest Topps Heritage release. First released in 2001, Topps Heritage was an instant hit with collectors. The inaugural set used the legendary 1952 Topps design and was released as a way to celebrate Topps’ 50th anniversary of releasing baseball cards.
The Topps Heritage product has been released every year since, with the design for each year’s product serving as a 50th anniversary celebration of a specific Topps set. Scheduled for release next week, the 2023 Topps Heritage product is no different. With the full details of the set now available, we know the design being used is from the 660-card 1974 Topps baseball set. Before taking a look at the 2023 Topps Heritage product, let’s take a look back at the 1974 Topps Baseball product to see what we can expect.
The 1974 Topps baseball set was released much differently than any of its predecessors. Previously, every Topps product had been released in waves, or series, of roughly 100-120 cards at a time. That release strategy ended in 1973 as Topps decided to release the entire 660-card product all at once. This new strategy was used by Topps for nearly 20 years until the release of their 1993 product, which would be completely forgettable if it hadn’t included the rookie card of a Hall of Fame shortstop that spent his career in the Bronx.
The 1974 product was also the first time Topps released a factory set of any of its baseball card sets. Considering that Topps didn’t release factory sets again until 1982, it is safe to say the factory set release was not well received. Factory sets did become a popular sales strategy for selling the complete set of Topps’ flagship product in the 1980’s that continues today, not only in brick mortar shops and big box stores, but also in the secondary market on eBay.
The Topps products released in the early 1970’s had some top rate designs. The gray border in 1970, the black border in 1971, the red, orange, and yellow picture frame border in 1972, and the white border in 1973 continued to build off of the iconic designs of the previous twenty years of Topps baseball cards. The design used in 1974, however, merely served as the beginning of a downward trend in the creativity of Topps designs that continues to impact Topps to this day.
Despite the boring card design, the 1974 Topps product features nearly everything a Mets fan would want of their 1973 National League Pennant Winner. Numerous franchise legends are featured in the set including Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Tug McGraw,Cleon Jones,Ed Kranepool,Rusty Staub, and Bud Harrelson. There is the team card featuring the Mets team photo from 1973, a card of the team’s manger Yogi Berra along with headshots of the team’s coaches, League Leaders cards for Tom Seaver with Jim Palmer (ERA) and Nolan Ryan (Strike outs), an NLCS card, and a card for each World Series Game, most notably the Game #2 card that features the recently retired legend Willie Mays. The set ends with a Top Prospects cards featuring four players from each position that includes rookie cards for Mets pitchers Craig Swan and Bob Apodaca. Other Mets rookie cards featured in the set are George Theodore, Harry Parker, and Ron Hodges.
The 1973 Mets seems to be an often overlooked team in Mets lore. Having been 12 ½ games out of first place on July 8th, a team still including members of the 1969 World Champions managed to dig out of their hole and finish in first place despite finishing with an 82-79 record. They then upset the Cincinnati Reds in five games to win the NL Pennant and earn a trip to the World Series to face the defending champion Oakland A’s. Somehow, the Mets pushed the A’s to the brink and had three-games-to-two advantage, only to lose Games 6 and 7.
For the current generation of Mets fans, maybe this Mets team can do what they couldn’t do in 1973 and win the only game that really matters: the final game.
And now, get ready to mark your calendars. The 2023 Topps Heritage product is set for release on May 31. One of the year’s most anticipated releases, 2023 Topps Heritage is smaller than the 1974 Topps product, However, this 500-card set is structured much like the original.
The 2023 Topps Heritage features subsets such as League Leaders, Rookie Stars, and postseason highlights, but also much of the modern accoutrements of today’s hobby, such as parallel sets, certified autographs, image variations, short prints of all cards numbered 401 thru 500, and much more.
The Real One Autographs, which are among the hobby’s most popular, features a mixture of current and retired players. Collectors can also find dual and triple autographed cards in hobby packs.
Along with the Real One Autographs, you can also find the Clubhouse Collection memorabilia cards. A staple in Topps Heritage releases, Clubhouse Collection features relics of game-used memorabilia featuring not just the game’s hottest stars, but also some of the game’s stars from 1974.
For the Mets, this product is loaded. Topps Heritage features rookie cards and Real One Autographs of Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, and Francisco Álvarez, as well as José Butto. You can find League Leader cards of Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso, the first Mets card of José Quintana, image variations of Álvarez, and Baty, and a nickname variation featuring Alonso’s Polar Bear moniker.
As if that wasn’t enough, 2023 Topps Heritage contains two surprise inclusions for the Mets. The first surprise, card number 80 of Max Scherzer, has a short print rookie card version of Kodai Senga. This Senga rookie card will also feature the card number 80, just like Scherzer’s card.
The other surprise inclusion can be found in the short prints that are numbered as card numbers 401 thru 500. Included in the short prints are Francisco Lindor, Tomás Nido , Quintana’s first Mets card, and the rookie card of the hard throwing reliever Bryce Montes de Oca.
The surprise inclusion of Montes de Oca, along with rookie cards of all of the “Baby Mets” and Butto adds excitement despite the exclusion of Justin Verlander, David Robertson, and Omar Narváez . However, you can bet on all three of those offseason acquisitions to be included in the Topps Heritage High Number update set that will come to market towards the end of 2023.
Below is the full checklist of the Mets cards featured in 2023 Topps Heritage. The product is scheduled for release on May 31 and can be purchased at your local brick and mortar card shops, Topps.com, Fanatics.com, your local Target or Wal-Mart, as well on eBay.
Base
36 Edwin Díaz
80 Max Scherzer
124 Mark Vientos (rookie card)
127 Mark Canha
145 Carlos Carrasco
201 League Leaders-Jeff McNeil/Luis Arraez
203 League Leaders-Pete Alonso/Aaron Judge
241 Brandon Nimmo
263 Jeff McNeil
265 Brett Baty (rookie card)
266 Starling Marte
290 Daniel Vogelbach
310 José Butto (rookie card)
380 Pete Alonso
388 Francisco Álvarez (rookie card)
401 Francisco Lindor (short print)
403 Bryce Montes de Oca (short print/rookie card)
417 Tomas Nido (short print)
470 Jose Quintana (short print)
1974 Cut Signatures
74CS-TS Tom Seaver (1 of 1)
1974 Mint Relics
74MR-BB Brett Baty
74MR-FA Francisco Álvarez
74MR-Jd Jacob deGrom
74MR-PA Pete Alonso
74MR-TS Tom Seaver
74MR-WM Willie Mays
1974 Topps Baseball Oversized Boxloaders Autographs
OB-BB Brett Baty
OB-PA Pete Alonso
1974 Topps Baseball Stamps
74BS-69 Tom Seaver
74BS-70 Max Scherzer
74BS-71 Francisco Lindor
74BS-72 Pete Alonso
1974 Topps Deckle Edge Boxloaders
DB-7 Pete Alonso
1974 Topps Deckle Edge Boxloaders Autogrpahs
DB-7 Pete Alonso
1974 Topps Deckle Edge Minis
DE-14 Francisco Lindor
1974 Topps Oversized Boxloaders
OB-BB Brett Baty
OB-FL Francisco Lindor
OB-MSR Max Scherzer
OB-PA Pete Alonso
1974 Topps Puzzle Boxloaders
74PB-7 Pete Alonso
1974 US Postal Stamp Relics (serial numbered to 50)
74PS-TS Tom Seaver
74PS-WM Willie Mays
Baseball Flashbacks
BF-1 Tom Seaver
Black & White Image Variations
16 Luis Guillorme
36 Edwin Díaz
80 Max Scherzer
124 Mark Vientos
127 Mark Canha
145 Carlos Carrasco
201 League Leaders-Jeff McNeil/Luis Arraez
203 League Leaders-Pete Alonso/Aaron Judge
241 Brandon Nimmo
263 Jeff McNeil
265 Brett Baty
266 Starling Marte
290 Daniel Vogelbach
310 José Butto
380 Pete Alonso
388 Francisco Álvarez
Chrome
80 Max Scherzer
265 Brett Baty
380 Pete Alonso
388 Francisco Álvarez
401 Francisco Lindor
Clubhouse Collection Autograph Relics (serial numbered to 25)
CCAR-PA Pete Alonso
Clubhouse Collection Relics
CCR-PA Pete Alonso
CCR-SM Starling Marte
Error Variations
388 Francisco Álvarez
Image Variations
265 Brett Baty
388 Francisco Álvarez
Mini (serial numbered to 100)
80 Max Scherzer
265 Brett Baty
380 Pete Alonso
401 Francisco Lindor
Name-Position Swap Variations
265 Brett Baty
380 Pete Alonso
388 Francisco Álvarez
401 Francisco Lindor
New Age Performers
NA-12 Brett Baty
Nickname Variations
380 Pete Alonso
Real One Autographs
ROA-BBY Brett Baty
ROA-FA Francisco Álvarez
ROA-MVI Mark Vientos
ROA-PA Pete Alonso
Rookie Short Print Variations
80 Kodai Senga
Then and Now
TAN-2 Johnny Bench & Pete Alonso
TAN-15 Ralph Garr & Jeff McNeil
