Sign of the Times

If I'm not mistaken, the 2010's have already become the decade with the most cards produced with 2018 sets and all cards from 2019 yet to be released, a testament to what could be described as a neo-overproduction era of baseball cards.

Contrary to the late 80's and 90's, the 2010's have seen 1 brand dominate the industry while still producing products of value. However, the sheer number of sets produced by Topps each year including 2017, in particular, leads me to one simple question; why.

Here's a quick screenshot from COMC's inventory showing the number of cards listed from each year of the 2010's thus far. Obviously, the total number of cards produced is far greater, but COMC still serves its purpose of demonstrating the increase in totals. Although 2018 is not over and the total is sure to rise, it's beginning to look more and more like 2013 or 2016 rather than years like 2014 and 2015 where we see well over 60,000 cards listed.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the nearly 80,000 cards from 2017. What a mediocre year for cards.

The card at the top of this post is from the 2010 Topps Cards Your Mom Threw Out insert set, a reproduction of Al Kaline's classic rookie card from 1954 Topps. The very reprints of this card help to prove the very point I just made about overproduction. It's happening right before our eyes, and it isn't necessarily a good thing.

Furthermore, I don't believe it's impossible to prevent the overflow of new cards. If we ended these ridiculous 100-card insert sets, we'd be right back to where we were 2 years ago. Hey, remember 2016 where we had normal insert sets that were 25 cards. Me neither.

By the way, that's not the same card, or at least, not the same reprint of the card. That's from a different set, 6 years after Cards Your Mom Threw Out.

The 2nd reprint of Kaline's 1954 Topps card is from the 2016 Berger's Best set from Series 2 of Topps. To be fair, both the Series 1 and Series 2 sets of Berger's Best commemorated 1 card from each year of Topps up until that year, meaning those insert sets would be rather large. However, they're nowhere close to 100 cards and actually serve a purpose. 

I, for one, am okay with having a card from each year of Topps in an insert set. It's kind of cool. However, I'm not someone who needs to see the same players, current and retired, represented in Topps Salute year in and year out.

At least this card, the 3rd reprint of Al Kaline's rookie card in my collection, makes it painfully obvious that it's a reprint and a different type of reprint by slapping a highly unnecessary "Topps Rookie History" stamp right below the Tigers logo. Still, point proven. Topps needs to chill with excessive insert sets and reusing cards they've done before.

Seriously, I have 3 different reprints of Al Kaline's 1954 Topps rookie card dating back to 2010. The saddest part? I can't say for certain there aren't any more out there.

I suddenly feel the need to appreciate the 1960's even more.