Confusion

Originally, I had planned on letting the 2019 Topps Flagship design be a total surprise for me until I opened my first Series 1 packs this upcoming January. I've heard other collectors do the same thing, and it's not like I absolutely have to see the set design anyway. I was fine with waiting.

Then, a simple scroll through Instagram a couple days ago ruined this plan as I came face-to-face with the set design via a post on Topps' Instagram account. I should've known. Damn you, social media.

I decided to give myself a few days before giving my complete opinion on the set. After a few days of thinking about it, I've finally come to the decision of how I feel about the set, and it's not good.

Let me put this into perspective, I've discovered the set design for 2017 and 2018 Topps around this time of year and even though 2017 turned out poorly and 2018 is kind of simple, I liked those designs when I first saw them. So for me not to like a set right off the bat, I know it's only going to get worse.

I will say one thing. I'm so very glad that borders are finally back in Topps Flagship after disastrous 2016 and 2017 sets and an average 2018 set. I also do like the design along the borders which resembles the 1982 set, albeit a bit lazy to repeat such a recognizable part of a set.

Now, onto the cons of 2019 Topps.

Firstly, I see no point whatsoever in having the players' last name above the first. Sure, it doesn't make the name difficult to read, but it's a useless thing to do and the light grey font for the last name was not a good choice. Additionally, what I find to be my biggest issue with the set are the pixels/disco lights/any other name you'd like to call them. 

They make up most of the borders (which come to think of it only take up half the card), but what really irritates me are that they also take up a bit of the photo on the left side of the card. When will Topps learn; do NOT alter the photo or cover-up of the photo on the card. First, it was the hideous smoke in 2016 Topps, then a bit more light color covering up the card in 2017. I was happy that the images in the 2018 set were not altered or covered in any way, but now it feels like we're going backward.

Finally, I really don't think these cards will look all that good in Topps Chrome because of how small the borders are. The last set with borders, 2015, had much larger borders which translated to a better Topps Chrome design for parallels. I really hope I end up being dead wrong about the set, but even though I've only seen 2 cards, I can already sense there will be problems.