Being that Topps Series 1 is the first Baseball card release of the year, I always purchase a fair number of packs in order to get an idea of who the rookies are as well as what the design will look like for Series 2, Chrome, and Update as well.
Even though there are many sets out there that are better than Series 1, the fact that it's the first release of the year gives me an incentive to buy a couple of blasters or even a standard hobby box.
The same, however, cannot be said for Topps Series 2. No matter the year, it seems that Series 2 is always pale in comparison to the initial Flagship set. Despite Topps' best efforts to boost the jumbo box odds and feature 4 popular rookies in Series 2 compared to virtually none in Series 1, I can never get invested in this set.
It also doesn't help that sets like Panini Prizm and Topps Stadium Club (which releases tomorrow) are out around the same time as Series 2. Pretty soon, Allen & Ginter and Topps Chrome will be added onto this list, and Series 2 will be left to sit around on Target and Walmart shelves all across the country.
Each year, in spite of all of these factors, I usually end up buying a small sampling of Topps Series 2, nothing more than a blaster box, in hopes of pulling something that'll motivate me to like this product a little more. Even though I landed an Ohtani rookie last year, the rest of Series 2 was very average.
Simply put, Topps crams most of the superstar veterans into Series 1, leaving little-known rookies and below-average veterans for their second series. If Topps continues with this method, Series 2 will never be as popular as Series 1.
Today, I went to my local Target and, among other things, picked up 2 fat packs of 2019 Topps Series 2. I felt like this sample size was large enough for me to formulate my own opinion on this year's product, whether it's positive or negative.
Unfortunately, it appears that the 2019 version of this set falls under the same umbrella as the previous releases; underwhelming.
Maybe my rack packs were just unlucky, but I struggled to pull a ton of cards of players that I recognize, and this is coming from someone who actively watches Baseball and hobby box breaks.
Including Mariners pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, there are 5 highly sought after rookie cards (with parallels) in 2019 Topps Series 2; this group includes Kikuchi, Eloy Jimenez, Pete Alonso, Fernando Tatis Jr, and, of course, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Being the most desired rookie of 2019 means that Guerrero Jr is featured in 2019 Topps Series 2 as an SP. However, his card doesn't seem to be too rare as most of the box breaks and recaps that I've seen on YouTube and Twitter have yielded a Vlad rookie card.
If nothing else, the 2 36-card rack packs were reasonable when it came to cards of my 2 favorite MLB teams. However, the limited checklist means that I'm not necessarily pulling the biggest Red Sox and Cubs players out there.
I'm not sure about what it takes for a pitcher to qualify as a rookie, but Bobby Poyner pitched 44 innings last year, so I'm wondering how he's still considered a rookie in 2019.
Steven Wright is returning today from an 80-game PED suspension, and I've practically given up all hope that the 34-year old will contribute anything to the team. He's struggled immensely since an All-Star season 3 years ago, both on and off the field.
On the other hand, Eduardo Nunez is pretty decent overall, and Cole Hamels is a player that I collect. I've also grown more fond of this year's Flagship design as the year has progressed, and I'm ecstatic, truth be told, for Topps Chrome.
Topps produced a lot more Series 1 and 2 in 2019 than they have in year's past, meaning that even if you pay the same amount of money for cards, you'll end up with fewer inserts/parallels and a lot more base cards.
Nevertheless, that didn't stop Topps from including some sort of retail exclusive insert in each of the 2 rack packs that I purchased. These Franchise Feats cards appear to highlight the history of each MLB team along with a picture of the face of their franchise.
While including Roberto Alomar and Rickey Henderson on these cards is somewhat unnecessary, the concept is fairly unique, and I love the logos that Topps selected, especially for the Oakland A's.
Another reason why Topps was able to produce so much Series 1 & 2 this year is the inclusion of these bland 150th-anniversary parallels. The only thing that distinguishes these from a base card is the gold foil logo in the bottom lefthand corner. Other than that minor detail, everything else is the same.
After buying 2 rack packs, this 150th-Anniversary "parallel" was the only parallel card that I pulled; no gold, no rainbow foil, nothing else but this. As much as I enjoy collecting (and feel bad for) Starlin Castro, I wish that Topps would've either left these out entirely or partnered them with some sort of border color.
Like the 150th-anniversary cards, I ended up with 1 of the 1984 Topps design inserts in my 2 rack packs, and I'd say I did pretty well with the player that I pulled. While the first series featured Baseball's rookies and veterans in the base design, Series 2 showcases the superstars of today's game in the '84 Tops All-Star design.
Seeing this card makes me long for the All-Star card designs of the 70s and 80s. Even though Topps features Future Stars on some players sophomore year cards today, I still wish that they'd revert back to stellar All-Star cards like the ones in the 1984 design.
Still, even with the Yelich insert pull and the Kikuchi and Jimenez rookies, I'm not all that impressed with 2019 Topps Series 2. Let me put this into perspective; 2019 Topps is an extremely base card heavy set. I pulled 2 parallels/inserts (Castro and Henderson) of players that I collect.
Besides those 2 cards, I landed just 2 other cards for my PCs; the Cole Hamels card from earlier in the post and the Rickey Henderson card above. I only pulled around 5 non-base cards, meaning that around 67 of the cards from these 2 rack packs were strictly base.
I collect exactly 250 players, so to only land 2 base cards of guys that I collect and 4 total means that this checklist isn't very strong.
Unless anything changes, remind me to skip Topps Series 2 next year. I'll be perfectly happy with Series 1 and Chrome instead.
You collect 250 different players? Now that's a lot of PC's.
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