1986 Topps Baseball Forum

1986 Topps is OK, I like ALL Baseball Card Sets.  However, hands down, in the 1980's, the 1983 & 1984 Sets were the best by far, among experienced Collectors (those of Us that have been collecting Baseball Cards for at least 30 years) . . .

Yours in The Hobby - Felix

87 Is my favorite topps design and I think it has to do with that was my first complete set box. However, when it comes to new releases I think that on the newer cardboard and cards, 86 looks great compared to 87.

But I must emphasis too it is not just an easygoing collecting experience; there is also a particular challenge in collecting and, more particularly, preserving and protecting the cards in your possession for a long period of time. Its like the US Open in that it challenges every aspect of your collecting abilities, and any weakness will be exposed. I like that challenge, its caused me to think of things like maybe putting the cards in the page pockets upside down to protect the black edges/corners more.

I can see the greatness of 1983, the circle with the headshot is cool. But I would like you to give me a little reasoning as to what makes those sets the best in your eyes. I have to say I run into the problem of price with 1983 because of the three big rookies in it make it just difficult to collect and appreciate across the entire set. But is it the photos, the number of players, the colors -- I like to think there are some objective critieria as to what makes a card a good card even though subjective criteria will always probably play larger role.

And the introduction of the mini-van was around this time, right?

Those station wagons... was it ultimately made illegal to have children sit in the way back of the station wagon in those seats that faced back to the cars behind? I presume that was very dangerous, but the kids who sat there in the carpool were never the driver's kids.

I concur

What do you like about the 1990 set? how do you feel about the Juan Gonzalez rookie card? 

I'm not even halfway down the list of what makes '86 Topps great, all of its joys and wonders. I can totally see why later generations can't see anything in it -- its like trying to get a 10 year old to appreciate Scotch. It probably does take a little too much effort and imagination to enjoy; yes, its hard to like, but something being hard, standing alone, isn’t a reason to not do something or that it isn’t worth it.

And lets not forget about the back of the card and the fun facts -- they can be pretty hilarious how for some players they couldn’t apparently come up with anything interesting or unique, "[Player X"] attended a school when he was younger." I think sometimes they include random things about completely unrelated players, which I am not the biggest fan of; its way more interesting to say something uninteresting about someone in my book. But regardless,  it checks off something important for me in any card – on the back there has to be something written about the player in at least one complete sentence.

A non-silly awesome thing this card does is it tells you how many game-winning RBI’s a player had in the most recent season plus his career. I don’t know if Topps had this stat in other sets, but this is a very important piece of information to know about a player and we should be thankful they did the work to find and give it to us.

I think this set is full of hidden treasures I have yet to even discover. For example, as tcdb points out, 47% of the players have mustaches in their pictures. Yes! I would like to say I would have eventually figured this out, but honestly I’m not sure. But it makes me believe that there are even more things to find if you take the time to look carefully and the set will continue to amaze for years and years to come; its like the Da Vinci code or something.

One thing I am interested in is the font at the top with the team names. The card from afar looks really serious, tough but when you look closely at that font, it’s a cartoonish, circus-like font. Does anyone know if Topps created this font, or if they ever create their own fonts for cards? Where did they get it? Despite its cartoonish, childish quality, its still kind of scary – it makes me think of the scene in Pee-Wee’s big adventure when he has the nightmare that his bike is being destroyed in a circus with the scary circus music. Absolutely bone-chilling stuff.  

Ok, there is more, but I will stop and take a break for now. One reason I created this thread was because I was hoping others could chime in on some of the great aspects and I wouldn’t have to write it all myself.

I will end with this link to the PSA pricing on their web page. Here: https://www.psacard.com/priceguide/baseball-card-values/1986-topps/1296

Just look at the depth of that roster, and the prices too. Wow. Just wow.  

'87 is cool because, like you, that was what I got into at first and I just got to know them so well. Those cards were just always around as I grew up through high school. Each player seemed to actually have a personality based on their picture. Joaquin Andujar is one that stands out and I just remember he looked like he was a friendly and fun guy -- he was warming up playing catch and looked like he was telling a funny story or joke. I later learned that he might have been someone who may have liked to have a little too much fun (along with Keith Hernandez who had the most interesting career anyone could ever have).

Recently I looked over the team cards with the managers talking to pitchers on the mound, and you can really see how each manager handled such a situation. Yogi Berra was laughing probably easing the tension with a joke, others were a lot more serious and somber. I thought that was really interesting.

By the way, is there a standard color of the wood that the cards should look like? I can't tell if the lighter ones I have are supposed to look like that, whether the color just faded over time, or were actually originally that color and there were just different shades throughout the set.