General Forum

I know it has been said so many times, but God how I hate the amount of insert sets in the modern set.  I am logging my 2017 Topps baseball and I just noticed, 155 insert sets.  Really?  What the heck does anyone need 155 insert sets for?  I don't even know where you get half of them.  3 or 4 would be cool, with maybe one or two auto sets.  I don't dislike insert sets, but this is just out of hand.  Nothing new to read here, just someone wondering how we got to this, yet again.

To me, it's just saying that you're not supposed to collect all of the insert sets.  These days, people are just used to having many options.  

I'm kind of conflicted. On the one hand, I remember a time when you collected the base set, and that was it...you were done. Nothing else to look for.

On the other, being a set collector, it's frustrating. completing even base sets is almost impossible now. I've found that I have turned my focus more to my project of getting at least one card of each different person and it's been very much a personally rewarding project, even though I know I'll never be able to complete it due to the early days which I can't really afford to collect. It's still been a great project. But I digress.

I would rather have more cards to chase but when it gets to the point when the differences are so small that you need a cheat sheet to figure out which version you have, then maybe it's too much.

I'm guessing that you mean total insert sets (which includes the parallels of all those sets). If you aren't including parallels into that list, that number would be mind-blowing and completely stupid on Topps' part. Personally, I am more PO'd by the massive numbers of parallels to EVERYTHING from Topps and Panini! I am okay with 4-5 insert sets and then a few more of AU and MEM insert sets. I am NOT happy with each of those sets having 10 or more versions of every single card!!! MANY parallels of everything are destroying my interest in anything new in sports cards! I haven't bought a hobby box of MLB or NFL of any "new" release since 2010 for mostly that fact and partially b/c the so-called "HITS" are always "event-worn rookie MEM's" or AU's of someone that will never be a star or even a starter.

The collectors keep b!tch!ng about these things, but the producers don't care to listen! The only reason it keeps going is b/c of the case-breakers that only want to sell what they pull. Most of the case-breakers are not collectors, they are just sellers! They keep biting on the possibilty of that huge pull that will pay for the case!

If no one bought these, the case-breakers would stop doing this. Then the company would stop producing these.But for as long as there is a market, the cycle will continue.

I for one don't care what is coming out now.  The only way I have any is through a large purchase of someone else's collection.  I rather chase the achievable, the older cards of the 50s to the 90s.  By the time I achieve that goal, the new stuff will be easily found in large sell offs or I will be dead.

case breakers = cheap commons

I heay ya Muskie.  They get on my nerves as well.  What makes it harder for me is trying to figure out what in the world I have!!  Lots of research just to put a card in my collection.  Another reason for a BIG THANK YOU to all the scan uploaders!!!

I think the number of player- and team-collectors exceed the number of set-collectors, so they need something to keep people buying.  I don't like it, but it's good business.  You don't want a collector to be done with your product after their first pack because they opened the only card of the only player they collect.  If all you wanted was Joey Votto cards, it makes sense that there would be many Joey Votto cards to pursue.  But at the same time, through the use of our site's Filters system, I see that Joey Votto has 579 cards in 2017 alone!  No thanks. I bet at least 25% are 1/1 parallels and printing plates.

Equally frustrating are the Topps Now code redemption cards that turn out to be losers. I would rather have a duplicate insert card than that.

I think they did it right around 1996.  You had your base set, usually in two series. You had sometimes one parallel. Occasionally two, with one being one per pack and the other was one per box, and they were easily distinguished from the base.  You had a few insert sets of varying degrees of difficulty, with the odds on the wrapper. You genuinely felt like you had a chance of building any set you wanted, yet there was enough of a challenge to keep you interested.  And even if he wasn't a big star, your favorite players had plenty of cards because there were several manufacturers providing each other with competition.  Sure some failed.  That's the business world.  But there weren't forced monopolies like today.  If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today...