Topps in Transition: Why New Products Means Losing Some Old Favorites

[00:00:04] Hello and welcome to Talking Cards with Grand Salami and The Jewce. I'm your host, The Juice. I'm here solo today. Grand Salami will be back with us for our product previews we have for you next week. We're going to do a little Topps Chrome Black football. We're also going to have some Topps Finest Baseball for you. So that should be a good week next week. Lots of new products to dive into. So no real new products this week. But before we get started, I do want to mention our partnership with Carpurchaser. Make sure to follow him on Twitter, X if you aren't already, at Carpurchaser.

[00:00:34] If you aren't following him, what are you waiting for? He has the latest info on product drops as well as new releases. And then if you really want those real time alerts and updates, make sure you follow his discord where you can find the link in the episode notes. So today's episode, we're going to take a look back and these are going to be some of the things that I miss most in sports cards. This started out as what was going to be just a small segment of the top five things that I'm missing, whether it's products or different things that they do or how to get started.

[00:01:04] This is kind of going to be fleshed out into a whole episode because there were so many things. I didn't want to really skip them because it's just been fun looking back. I had some people help me with this list and it was actually a lot of fun making this list. So this is what I'm calling my sports cards and baseball cards in memoriam. All right. So the first thing that I have been missing, and these are in no particular order, by the way, they're in the order of how quickly I thought of them.

[00:01:31] So first thing we talked about this a little bit less episode is Montgomery Club. I was a Montgomery Club member for a few years. If you don't know or you don't remember, Montgomery Club was a paid yearly membership where you got access to special top drops. You got exclusive access a day early or pre-sale early, and you did have to fight over getting those cards.

[00:01:54] It was most known for the Sapphire drops that made it really easy for you to get those and Brooklyn collection. There was also finest flashbacks. That was Montgomery Club drop. It was about 12 releases a year or so. And then you also got, I think I actually have one right here. You also got a complete set of 582 Montgomery Club. And yeah, it was just pretty cool.

[00:02:16] So let's do a giveaway. This works because we're at the beginning of the episode. When this episode is done, you can comment either on the episode itself. You can comment on our Twitter, our Facebook, Instagram, wherever we can see your comment. Give me one of the things that I missed that you miss about sports cards that they had and they no longer are producing or just something about sports cards that you missed that is no longer the case anymore.

[00:02:40] And I will send you this box for free. This is 582 Montgomery established. It says 2018. It's a 2025 complete set still sealed. And yeah, it's definitely a cool set to have. So yeah, if you want to win one of these, just comment and that's it. And I will have a winner picked randomly for you. But that was just one of the perks of Montgomery Club. It just for the big collectors, the people that really want to make sure that they were able to get those products that were hard to get.

[00:03:09] It was awesome. A lot of flippers used it, but me, I'm more of a ripper. I can't help myself. Usually got some really cool stuff out of that. And yeah, just all around. It was just, it was great. I really, I really miss it. Hopefully they bring something back in some capacity like Montgomery Club. Just, it made it so much easier and less stressful to be able to get those big sets of those, those Sapphire products, especially.

[00:03:36] The nice thing about it too, is when you're able to get it for a reason that there was at least one set a year that you didn't really care about. So, you know, usually at that point you can just flip the one and then that would pay for your membership. So that was always nice. The next thing that I really missed is Stadium Club Chrome. And I was talking about it as an insert or it as an auto insert that you can find one out of every like 12 boxes now. No, I miss it when it was its own standalone product, even though it was only one auto per box, at least the last time they had it.

[00:04:06] It was just, it was just such a nice looking set. So clean. Autos were all on card and it was always at a very affordable price, especially to where prices are now. I've talked about it. I feel like once a week, how much I miss Stadium Club Chrome because it really was one of my favorite sets. And not just mine, but it's been, it's been a fan favorite of a lot of people for a long time. I can't imagine them keeping it out of the rotation and it should return in some capacity.

[00:04:33] At least I'm really hoping I'm very optimistic on that. Maybe a little naive, but yeah, for such a fun set, such a good looking set. I can't imagine it being gone for a while. Next up. Now this is not as popular, but this was a personal favorite of mine. Archive Snapshots. So these came in just like this little box and it was just one pack and it wasn't even like a regular pack. It's one of those like cellophane packs.

[00:04:58] I had like eight cards in it and it guaranteed an auto, a parallel, and the autos were hand numbered. This is where I hit my first one-on-one. It was a redemption for Trent Grisham. That was his rookie. And that was, that was a cool card to have. I had that for a while before I sold it to, I believe his name is Grish Collector or something like that on Twitter. He's a huge Trent Grisham collector. So I was able to get to him for, for a decent price. But this was awesome and notable because it was guaranteed an auto per box.

[00:05:26] And the price was just $25 per box. Where can you find a guaranteed auto for $25 a box? Where can you find a guaranteed auto for less than $100 per box now? Outside of like the minor league stuff and things like that. So, and this wasn't that long ago. This was just a few years ago that they had it. But this was the cheapest way to get an auto. And you can get some really nice autos. I also was able to hit a Mike Trout autograph out of this. That was cool.

[00:05:50] I was able to hit, I got a double hit of Cal Raley, Big Dumper, Rookie Auto. So both gold, both hand numbered at a 10. And I actually, before we started this podcast, when I first started doing Bricks with Burt, I actually gifted one to Burt. It was just a $25 card then. Well, maybe not $25. But it was not the hundreds of dollars that it's worth now. So I eventually got it graded, got a PSA 10. So that was cool. But archive snapshots, I miss that.

[00:06:18] It was such a fun, cheap way for collectors to be able to get it. It was an online exclusive. And I was surprised that it was more popular than it was. You might be able to find boxes now for like $50. Beware there are redemptions. So if it's something that you're looking for, the redemptions probably are no longer redeemable. But I'm not sure. All right, next up. I really miss the old Transcendent collection. And, of course, I never personally opened this. I do not have the privilege of opening a $20,000 box of cards.

[00:06:48] Now I believe there are more. They are $25,000. But now they do the thing with the packs, which I don't mind. They, of course, have the guaranteed hit still. But they used to have, they would have 50, I guess they were base cards, but they're still numbered to 50. And then they had 50 autograph cards, all with gold or silver frames. And it might have been less than 50, but it was a huge amount of them. They don't do that anymore. And there's like 12 guaranteed autos now. It's just a list of products.

[00:07:15] Every single case also had the guaranteed invitation. And every single case also had the guaranteed jumbo card, which is no longer guaranteed. They used to only make like 100 or 200 of these boxes. Now it seems like they make a couple thousand or maybe more. I don't remember the exact print run on them. But that used to be so much fun to be able to get into like hit breaks and things for. And just to watch them be opened. They've really watered down that product. And for a 25,000 product, think that they wouldn't do that. But that's what they did. But yeah.

[00:07:45] And all the autos were premium on that. You know, there were really no misses. At least 90% of them were guys that anyone would be excited to have. So it really felt like a 20, 25,000 product. When you watched it get open. All right. Next up, what I miss getting product on Topps.com. And it used to be, it was never exactly easy, especially for releases like Sapphire. You would have a lot more site crashes and things like that.

[00:08:13] Now you don't really see the site crashes, but you just can't check out. You can't get to the page. You're stuck in queue. At least then if you were persistent, you could still somehow get those products in your card and check out. And products. And I'm just on that Sapphire. Like now you see it with every single product. Pretty much that's dropped on Topps.com. They sell it instantly. If you're not there at noon or whenever the release is for you, you're not going to get it. It used to be you had at least a couple hours window to be able to get any sort of product.

[00:08:40] And yeah, I really miss those days of just being able to go to Topps.com. You know, I know it's release day. All right. Let me just check in. I know it's available. Check out. That is no longer the case. And that is something that I don't think we're getting back. I don't know how Topps can fix that. You know, I don't see them going in the direction of fixing it. Of course, they can make more available for the everyman. But for 95% of products, I don't see that happening. I would really like to see them bring back online exclusives.

[00:09:09] That actually didn't have on here, but I should. Online exclusives. I definitely miss those. A few of these products on here are online exclusives, but you don't really see that anymore. It seems like anything that is claimed as an online exclusive still ends up in Breakers' hands day one. So how could it have really been an online exclusive if it was impossible for them to purchase it beforehand, but they still have it day one. All right. So let's move on to the next one. Pack odds on boxes.

[00:09:32] This wouldn't have been so bad to lose it if Topps actually published the odds on time or in advance like they should be doing. But I miss just being able to be like, all right, I got this hit. What are the odds of me hitting a red out of this product or hitting this insert? Is this a case hit? Is this just a random insert? I'm able to just see it either on the box or on the pack for myself instead of having to go to Topps.com and search for it. And then it's not even there because they don't even post Topps. They don't even post product odds on time anymore.

[00:10:03] I don't know why they did away with it. Maybe it impacts people wanting to purchase product, being able to see the actual odds. Maybe they see it more as gambling when they can see it themselves in person like that. I don't know. But it's a shame that they got rid of it. I'm glad that they have odds at all, unlike Panini. But they have to do a better job of it. And I think it's just such a simple fix. Maybe they figured it just takes away from the promo space on a box to be able to sell a box. Who knows? But they even had it on packs. I don't understand why they just had to get rid of it altogether, but they did.

[00:10:33] Next one, I alluded to before. Brooklyn Collection. It started as a Montgomery Club exclusive, and then it wasn't. And now it just isn't at all. It isn't anything. It's no longer here. Brooklyn Collection came in these really nice looking boxes. Usually you have to get like a really premium product to get a nice box like this. But Brooklyn was a really affordable product. Usually guaranteed two autos, a couple parallels. You can also find some casets out of it. And they were a thicker card stock. They were always on-card autos.

[00:11:02] And all the players, pretty much all the players were just bangers. They were just really people that you wanted to collect. You can hit so many nice cards out of Brooklyn Collection. If you can go back and look at some prices on Brooklyn Collection, they still don't go for as much as I think they should on resale. But I don't know why they got rid of this altogether. Brooklyn Collection was such a fun set. Yeah, they were decent looking cards. They weren't my favorite looking cards. But for the price, it was really hard to beat it. Yeah, I don't know why they got rid of it. Some people, they still claim it's their favorite set.

[00:11:32] And yeah, I definitely hear, you know, it's hard to go a month without hearing somebody saying, why are they bringing Brooklyn Collection back? Next up was one of my favorite products. This is Finest Flashbacks. They only did this for a few years. So this is when they would take Topps Finest. And they'll go back 25 or so years, use that product design and a product today. And these had some of my favorite, favorite boxes. I remember the Julio Bobby Witt Rookie Year. That was one of my favorite products of all time.

[00:12:01] It was just, it's still so fun to watch those be open. And you can hit so many nice autos. The autos weren't guaranteed per box, but the cards were just gorgeous. They look fantastic. Super Fractors, the print run wasn't so bad. So the Super Fractors, you can actually find at a decent clip. If you watch enough breaks, you would actually see a few Super Fractors come out. The inserts were nice. Otani Flamethrowers. I remember I got one graded at 10. I know anything Otani goes for crazy amount, but yeah, that went for, I believe it was a,

[00:12:29] no, mine was a nine and I believe it went for a few hundred. It was just such a nice hit overall, especially that was the standout one for me that rookie year. And then the last year they did it, it was kind of lackluster. That's when they moved up from the numbered parallels to more of the common, uncommon and rare. And that one kind of underwhelmed people in general. I don't think it was bad enough to warrant them just scrapping it all together.

[00:12:54] They even had it announced as a product for that year as a Montgomery Club collection pre-order that would have been available. And they just never released it. And I kept looking and saying, okay, it's still listed on here. And they just never did it. And yeah, it's just sad to see that one go because it was just such a cool set. There are a huge group of people that miss that set. The next two kind of go hand in hand. They used to have these Topps Now on Demand sets. The two that I remember most that stood out to me were the Topps 3D and the Topps Mini.

[00:13:22] These never sold for premium, but they were a cool set. They were really cheap. It was like $25 or $50 for a box. The Topps Mini, you know, the cards are different sizes. Either oversized or mini, never sell for a real premium. But in those mini, you can find parallels at a decent rate. You had a really good chance of finding like an out of five or out of 10 or even a one-to-one. And the Topps 3D, they were just, what do you call it? Lenticular? They were the ones that actually pop in 3D.

[00:13:50] Not just the ones that say like 3D on them and it's like a 3D looking image. No, like these are the ones that have like that surface that creates the actual 3D effect. And again, they don't really sell for a crazy amount. I know in Stadium Club, they made them kind of an insert. But yeah, I miss it as a set altogether. You did have short prints in there to help increase value a little bit. You know, it was nothing crazy. We're getting a crazy amount of resale value on it, but it was just a fun rip. And anything that's a fun rip is what I miss.

[00:14:17] Another, all right, so next up on the list, let's get into some Bowman. Bowman Sterling. These came as one box with five mini boxes and each mini box had an auto. So it was five autos. This was a pretty premium Bowman product. Of course, it did not sell like any of the flagship Bowman products with the first Bowman. But with five autos, it was a pretty, it was a cheap way or a cheaper way. Because I believe this was like, ended up being like 500 a box or something towards the end.

[00:14:45] It was a cheaper way of being able to get some autos of your favorite players. And the design wasn't bad either. The singles sold for pretty cheap. So if you want to go back and look, you can find some Bowman Sterling from a couple years ago. Some players that were coming up around that time, maybe you can find their autos for Sterling pretty cheap. If you don't want to pay that first Bowman or flagship Bowman premium on those. But yeah, it was a fun set. They had a lot of cool stylish inserts. They were able to be a little more free than they were with the regular Bowman product. And for Bowman, where you pretty much have those flagship, you have Bowman's best and now that's it.

[00:15:15] There's not a lot of freedom for them to be able to have a lot of fun with just the base cards of things. And Bowman Sterling really allowed them to do that. I did like the style of these cards. The next two kind of go together. This is Topps Fire and Bowman Platinum. And actually, let's throw in Topps Gallery in there as well. These were retail exclusive products. They were kind of, they did have hobby boxes or the equivalent because Topps Fire was just Target, I believe.

[00:15:43] Bowman Platinum might have been just Walmart. And Topps Gallery was definitely just Walmart. But these all had autos, guaranteed autos, which you don't find at Target and Walmart anymore. At least not really for Topps. Topps Fire was a really cool set. They were all sticker autos, but it was $80 a box. Two guaranteed autos. And stylishly, I thought it was too busy. They did have some cool stuff, some cool die cuts for Topps Fire. I did get some cool rookie autos out of this. I remember I hit a Julio J-Rod rookie auto.

[00:16:13] That was fun. So Topps Fire though, yeah, it definitely has a lot of nostalgic love. Bowman Platinum, not really as popular. Yeah, because this was prospects on the retail level. On the retail level, you're not going to get as much prospect love. But you did have, I believe you also had some current MLB guys in that product too. But you had a couple of guaranteed autos. And Topps Gallery, actually that one I don't remember if it was guaranteed autos. But you did have regular boxes and mega boxes. This kind of just felt like museum collection light.

[00:16:43] That's what I always thought of with it. You did have some really cool short prints and inserts. I remember, I think it had like a Starry Night short print, which was literally just the painting. They probably had some other ones, maybe like the screen or something. I'll have to check that out. But those were worth a decent amount. And yeah, you could definitely get some decent players and decent autos out of this. So I really miss those like more premium sets that came out of retail that kind of bridged the gap between retail and just straight up hobby.

[00:17:10] Yeah, it's just, it's a shame that they did away with that. The next thing that I miss, this one I do miss. It's Topps Points. So before they started with the Fanatics Points system, this was recent. This had to be in the last year. It could be longer because time flies. But Topps Points, when you used to buy a product, you would earn points. And the more product you bought, the higher tier you were in all the way to Hall of Fame tier, where I believe you had like a four times multiplier in the points that you earned.

[00:17:36] You can turn these points in to purchase Topps Now products and also Topps On Demand products. So if you wanted to get, if you saved up some points and you want a decent shot at like Parallel and Topps Now, I'm not someone that really likes to pay for Topps Now. That's just not my thing. But with these Topps Points, I would definitely go for some of those cards. My favorite player got called up. A hot prospect got called up. I'll buy a hole for a parallel and see what happens. But the thing that I really use my points for, I remember I saved up a ton. And back when, which product was it?

[00:18:06] It was Topps Black and White. And if you've listened before, you know Topps Black and White is one of my favorite products. This was back when they did the smaller boxes that weren't guaranteed at auto. I believe it was like $50 a box. So I was able to use, the way that Topps Points worked was you can turn it in for a coupon for $10 up to $40 off. So I had to do a bunch of individual orders for $40 off. So I was able to get like 10 of those boxes for like $10 a piece. And that was an awesome rip.

[00:18:31] That was the year that I was able to hit the Yamamoto Auto 101 out of Topps Chrome Black, Black and White. So yeah, that was probably, probably one of the biggest come ups that I could have had. So yeah, Topps Points. Yeah, I know they had the Fnatic's points, but it's just not the same. It's not the same. A product that I was pretty mad on, but a lot of people really like it. I like the idea of it more than the execution was Topps Gypsy Queen.

[00:18:59] This was a product where I believe a hobby box contained two autos. It was more in the line of the cost of like flagship or stadium club. It was kind of in that vein of cost and resell was less than those, but it had some really cool cards in there. They had like the tower card inserts, which was really cool. And the autos, I believe, were all on card. They had some black and white autos. It was a cool set overall. I don't know why they got rid of it. Maybe just to make way for new things.

[00:19:29] But yeah, a lot of people really like collecting that set, especially those different inserts. And it's a shame to see that go. The next one we have. All right, this one I definitely miss. Alan Ginter Chrome release. This was as a standalone release. Now you can find just Chrome randomly inserted into packs. So Alan Ginter used to have boxes of just Chrome. And then you can find those different parallels. And I believe the autos were one per case, at least in the last one. I don't know why they got rid of this. Same thing with stadium club Chrome.

[00:19:58] Maybe they're just focusing their Chrome printers in a different direction. I don't know. But I really think it's fun when you take these flagship paper products and make a Chrome release out of them. I know that the resale wasn't really great on these. Maybe it's because the Alan Ginter market, it's more of an old school market where people are looking for that set and they weren't really looking for the Chrome because maybe that crossover wasn't quite where they want it to be. But there were some gorgeous looking cards. I hit a Pedro Martinez auto, orange auto out of this. That's one of my favorite cards I've ever hit.

[00:20:28] Yeah, just and the autos were all really, really solid in this. I don't know why they got rid of it. But at least they still have Alan Ginter X for now. That kind of gets that itch of that more premium out of Ginter. But yeah, the next one, the next thing they got rid of, it was we always knew they were getting rid of it because it was kind of a thing that they said that they were only going to be doing for a limited time. Topps 2020 followed by Project 70. So this was pretty much they licensed different artists or this is where they had different

[00:20:57] artists mock up cards for them. And then they were on demand cards you could order. There were different print runs for every card. It's kind of like tops now. But these were just single cards and they were encased and they were really cool. Some of them, it was definitely very hit or miss. Some of them weren't great. Some of them were fantastic. Of course, it's up to interpretation. It's so many different artists, so many different styles. But it was so much fun to see all the different things that they could do with them. The one that always stood out to me was Alex Party.

[00:21:26] Very famously, he first came out with that round Acuna card. The one where he pretty much makes like the players into like monsters. There's a cool Mike Trout one as well. There's Brian Hayes, for some reason, sticks out of my mind as one, I believe. Trying to think of who else did. But also, not just for them, but with other guys, they would also do short printed versions of the products where it was either just a different, slightly different design or just some different coloring or something. A lot of people are soured on Topps 2020 because when it first came out, there was a craze for

[00:21:56] it. The resell was insane. And then a lot of people poured money into it and they were not able to get that money back. But I still think it was a cool thing. And I don't know why they don't briefly like it back and really showcase a bunch of different artists. It's something that I would definitely consider because, yeah, you're just buying the singles. It's not too expensive and it's on demand. So, you know, it doesn't have to be something that they're printing a thousand of and hoping that or thousands of I should say and hope that it sells out. Next up, this could be a licensing thing. Why they don't have it anymore. I'm sure somebody has a story, but I don't know it.

[00:22:24] But Topps Chrome Ben Baller. This was a product that I at first did not like. The design just didn't do it for me. It just didn't seem that special. It just it was busy in a way I didn't want it to be. But then the very last year that they did it, I felt like they nailed it. The cards were gorgeous. The die cuts were great. The autos looked fantastic. It was all on cart autos. So this was for those that don't know, Ben Baller had his own set of Topps Chrome and it was pretty much diamond jewelry themed.

[00:22:54] But he was able to design it in such a way where finally when they nailed it, that was, I guess, the last year that they did it. It kind of like blinged out cards and things like that. Die cut diamond cards. And they they really, really looked fantastic. The autos were not one per box. I think he got like a few autos per case. But yeah, the different colored parallels were fantastic. Yeah, I don't know about Ben Baller, the person at all, but those cards out last year were fantastic.

[00:23:22] And I definitely miss them coming out with a new release after they tease us with how awesome those cards could be. Next up, we have Topps UK. So they used to have a UK exclusive Topps flagship product. I believe it was full of Series 1 and Series 2 guys on their checklist, but I'm not 100% sure I'd have to check that. But it did have a special UK logo, I believe, with the UK flag in it. They had different like Big Ben parallels, I think, or maybe like a Big Ben insert, things like that. Just some fun things. And then they did have autos that were sticker autos.

[00:23:51] We no longer see those. Obviously, in the US, you couldn't order it directly. You had to find a way. I believe I was actually able to order some from the UK. I know Topps Japan edition. I was able to order off the Amazon Japan website. For some reason, one year they had them super cheap on there. So I just ordered a bunch of Amazon. But yeah, Topps UK. I don't know what happened to it. Maybe just they realized that it wasn't the market for it. But yeah, that's another thing that we lost over the years. Next thing is not a product.

[00:24:16] I miss it when they did better and bigger allocation to the smaller guys, not just the big breakers. We see so often now these big breakers breaking a ton of product and these smaller guys are lucky to be able to get their hands on a case or a few boxes. And then if you go to your LCS, it's probably even worse. For an LCS to be able to get in with Topps now, if they're not running with Topps, it's next to impossible. Also a breaker. If you're not on Fanatics Live, it is very difficult for them to be able to break into that. That wasn't always the case.

[00:24:46] I'm not saying it was ever easy, but you definitely see the focus moving from these smaller time guys to these really big breakers. I'm not going to name names right now. You all know who we're talking about. And I'm not necessarily even blaming the breakers because, you know, you got to get the opportunities that come to you. But yeah, I just I miss it when, you know, you could see these smaller guys being able to make it into the hobby and be able to go to your LCS even and be able to find a box for a decent price so they don't have to skyrocket because they got nothing.

[00:25:14] This next one, not a lot of people miss. I don't miss it as much as I could. I did have a lot of fun when it came out, but then every time I ripped it, I was always a little underwhelmed. Tops and Bowman First Edition. So for flagship Bowman and flagship tops, they used to come out with First Edition would have a little First Edition stamp in the corner. And this would come out a couple of weeks before the main release. And those cards should have sold for a premium. They never really did, at least at first. And now I don't think they sell for a premium either.

[00:25:43] Yeah, this was a cool concept. I don't know why they got rid of it. I think they could have done a better job of it. It was very limited. It was, they would actually sell it by the pack. I remember one year with, I'm trying to remember who was tops or Bowman. I believe it was Bowman First Edition. They sold, they claimed it was a box of 24 packs. And instead of shipping like a Bowman First Edition box, they sent you 24 loose packs. And everyone was like, what the hell is this? So I remember that about it. But yeah, some of the releases of it were a really nice rip where you would find a decent

[00:26:13] number of parallels. The sky blues were unnumbered, but you'd find like one parallel per pack. I think the year where all the packs came in just in a loose box, the packs were actually kind of ordered where the first half of packs were had no parallels. The next set of packs were all the sky blue. And then the next set of packs where you find your numbered stuff and actually increasing in rarity as you went down pack by pack. Yeah, they were just garbage at getting this stuff out. And also first edition, it should be coming out first.

[00:26:41] It actually kept getting delayed where it was coming out after the actual flagship product. So that was a huge issue for them. I don't know if that's why they ordered it just because they couldn't handle the logistics of it. But that's a big L on Topps' part. I don't know what happened with that. But yeah, it seems like an easy win for them that they could sell really limited like Sapphire. But yeah, I guess that no longer is a focus for them. Next up, we have Big League Baseball. This was just a fun retail product.

[00:27:10] Just had a lot of fun cards, had like mascots and stuff. It's kind of been replaced by Topps Celebration, I guess. So it's kind of still there. But yeah, it just had fun inserts. It was just fun to rip. You weren't getting anything crazy. You weren't going to make a ton of money. You weren't going to do this to flip it. You were just getting Topps Celebration. No, you were just getting Big League Baseball for the fun of the rip. Pretty much no other reason. Kind of in the same vein of Topps Holiday. It's just it just had a lot of fun stuff, especially for kids. It was just a fun thing. And it's gone.

[00:27:39] This next one I definitely miss. This is Topps Gold Label. So this would come with, it was, I'm trying to remember if it was a single pack. I believe it was a single pack. It was one auto guaranteed. It was like, I think it ended at like $150 a box. And the autographed, the gold label was a gold border, the gold frame, which you can find now in like Sterling. So this was like a, not Sterling, Gilded, which you could find in Gilded. So this was like minor, it was like a lesser version of Gilded.

[00:28:09] And this was before Gilded came out. So maybe this was ultimately replaced by Gilded. Make Gilded more of a premium product by being the one with the gold frame that you're looking for. But yeah, gold label was fun. It was hard. It was really hard to get a hit. It was like in the same vein of like Inception and Tiers 1. It was hard to find like a decent guy more so than those. And then they did, I believe they were like tiered base cards too. There's like Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. That made it a little confusing. But the years that they got this right, the cards looked fantastic.

[00:28:39] I remember this one is still my PC. IPC David Wright. In one of my boxes, I hit a blue David Wright auto out of 10. My brother hit a David Wright auto out of 5 that same year. Like I think the same day. So that was awesome for the both of us as big David Wright fans. But yeah, gold label. Yeah, it's just, it was, I'm sure if they were selling it today, it would be at least $200. But yeah, that's definitely one that I miss. Next up, we have Topps Clearly Authentic.

[00:29:06] So this was a, this was one card in case acetate. So like one of those clear cards autographed. Very difficult to get a decent autograph out of this. But it was pretty much the Topps flagship or I don't know if it was based off the Chrome looks. But it was just a, it was just a single card. I think it was like $70 or $80 a box. So it's nothing too crazy compared to prices now. Wasn't my favorite product because you'd have to buy like 10 boxes in order to be able to find something decent. And I wasn't about to drop that.

[00:29:35] This was fun to watch breaks for, but it was tough. So a hit break was the best. I hit a Rila Cunha autograph out of it, which was, which was really nice. But yeah, Clearly Authentic. This was never a fan favorite. I get why they got rid of it because it was just so hard to get a hit. And it was still a cool product though. The resale for it was never great. Those singles, I don't know why they don't sell for as well as they should, as I feel like they should. Grading is very tough on these.

[00:30:03] This is one of those ones where if you did get a decent hit, you want to keep it encased and not try to slab it because it's so hard to get a 10. And it's more money encased than it is as like a nine. So yeah, Clearly Authentic. That's another product that I guess Topps decided that they're better off and we're better off without. Something that I just thought of that's not on this list. Has there been any news of Topps Archives Signature Series? That's the one where it's the single autograph card. It's a buyback.

[00:30:33] A buyback is a card from a past set at Topps got. And they reinsert into a product. But in this case, they encase it and they also have it autographed and they number it. And it's artificially numbered in a way where they can claim any card as like a one-on-one. So you've seen a ton of one-on-ones because it's the only one that they got signed for that year, that product for that player. So that was always interesting. But they used to have Active Player and Retired Series. I feel like it's been a while since we've seen that. I don't know if I'm just misremembering, but I feel like we are overdue for release on that.

[00:31:02] Again, not one of my favorite products, but it was always a cheap rip. Yeah, you can get some cool stuff out of there for sure. The last product that I missed, this was a one-hit wonder, one and done. But this was a favorite for people that year. This was a top product for a lot of people. The only thing that was missing was a decent checklist, which everything was in 2021. So in 2021, Topps came out with this $50 box guaranteed auto Topps All-Star Rookie Cup.

[00:31:30] And it was just, it was a gorgeous looking set. It was a paper product. And I remember that because I hit a foil fracture, not a super fracture. If you don't know this, super fractures are chrome, foil fractures are paper products. So if you ever hit a paper one-on-one with that gold etching, it is not a super fracture. Make sure you have your eBay listings right to get those buyers. But yes, Topps All-Star Rookie Cup. It had like the, of course, their Rookie Cup design. It honored players in that way. You know, those top rookies from the year.

[00:31:59] And it was just so much fun. It was a great product for $50. We don't really see anything like that anymore. If they released this product today, it would easily be a $100 product. I really don't know why it was one and done. It got a lot of great feedback. By the way, the foil fracture I hit, it was an Evan White auto. So yeah, nothing really came of that. Not everything I hit is amazing. Although I'm not going to complain about hitting a one-on-one. But yeah, that was, that was just a fun, fun product. Now they resell online for, I think about a hundred bucks or so box, maybe more.

[00:32:29] Mostly because that checklist from 2021 is, is really nothing that people look back that fondly on. All right. That's pretty much everything. So just remember when you're doing this episode, try to comment on the episode, whether in Apple, Spotify, wherever you're listening. If you're not able to comment there, you know, shout me out on Twitter or something, and I will do a random drawing for someone to win this box of Montgomery club. Um, this is a complete set, no more Montgomery club. So they're not coming out with these anymore. This is 2025.

[00:32:59] And yeah, who knows last time I only got a few people commenting on when we had a contest and no one actually got the right answer this time. I'm not doing an answer. Um, but if you do say anything, you do have a really decent chance at winning. Although we're trying, although our audience is growing, you you're going to have a decent chance. Uh, we still have our niche. So yes, this, this is the juice for the talking cards podcast. We will have Salami back next week for some of our product deep dives. Thank you so much for listening, everyone.

[00:33:29] Have a good day.