I finally found some 2015 Topps, but this post isn’t about that… I’ll weigh in on that later.
I’m thumbing through the pack, enjoying the cards as so many others are, and basking in the lack of foil… (For those who haven’t heard otherwise, the only foil on the card is the Topps logo in the upper corners).
But then it occurred to me… How is Opening Day going to be different? Over the past six years, the primary difference between Topps and Opening Day was the foil. I was of the impression that the lack of foil was what made Opening Day “low-end”.
…But these Topps cards have hardly any foil. The differences between the two sets can’t be simply de-foiling the Topps logo and adding an “Opening Day” logo, can it?
So I found the sell sheets online, and looked at the images of Yasiel Puig and Masahiro Tanaka.
Then I went to eBay to find images of the just-released Topps cards for the same players and…. Well, see for yourself:
Admittedly, for the images I found the Topps Puig is a Sparkle, the Tanaka is a Rainbow Foil, but those are parallels, not variations. And, as you can see, the photos are different.
Granted, what’s on the sell sheet does not necessarily match what comes out in March… But to quote Led Zeppelin, it makes me wonder… oooooooh, really makes me wonder.
…And it makes me a little scared. Topps looks like a really nice set. I always like to collect Heritage. Archives will feature two of my favorite designs in 1976 and 1983. Now if Opening Day has different photos… I may end up with some tough choices.
If Opening Day does use different photos, will you collect it? Will you collect it instead of the flagship, or in addition?
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No, I won’t purchase Opening Day. I picked up a hobby box and retail blaster of the new 2015 and am unimpressed. Too many inserts, parallels and the same veteran pictures over again. Super disappointed.
I have to admit, that kind of thing is what’s giving me pause with collecting 2015 Topps. Last year I waited until the summer and bought a factory set, while busting boxes, blasters & packs of Heritage, and it worked out quite nicely for me. For me, parallels are a nuisance and inserts don’t often impress.
I don’t know that I’d necessarily buy more packs if they used different photos, but I’d sure be a lot more excited to pull them from dime boxes throughout the course of 2015! It’d give Opening Day an identity, for once.
It’ll also make repacks more interesting starting in about… Oh… 9-10 months. :-D
I echo Nick’s comments regarding the dime box, and add that I’d be a lot more serious about hunting down all the Mets cards if I knew the photos were different. As it stands, I merely regard them as another pesky base parallel a la pink, camo, black, clear, cream, diet, etc. If I find ’em for cheap, cool, and if not ‘whatever, man.’
And, I, too, did the factory set thing last year while focusing all my available hobby scratch on Heritage and (to a lesser degree) Archives. Not sure I’d want to take away from those collecting streams or not in favor of OD.
First world problems, indeed!
None of the above. If someone sends me 2015 Orioles I’ll collect those but otherwise, no.
Great find and I like this move, if true. My 8-year-old son and I have already decided to collect Opening Day and Archives again this year, and he’s mentioned some nonsense about trying to collect Donruss. (Kids these days!) In any event, we’ll collect the Opening Day set and he’ll most likely end up with a 2015 Topps factory set from Santa.
I can almost see the Donruss… It’s different, and he’s too young to know that the design is a kludgy merging of assorted design elements. :-)
Opening Day has never been a set that I’ve bought. I might grab a pack or two here and there, but I’ll rely mostly on others to help me out with the Jays.
To me, Opening Day is the same as flagship, only different.
It depends – if the “different photos” are like the ones on the Masahiro Tanaka cards you included in your post, no, I’m not going to spend any more effort collecting this year’s Opening Day set than I have in the past (in other words, next to none.)
But if they really feel like different cards, it might be enough to lure me in when combined with the low price point and fun insert sets.
That is a good point… having different photos isn’t a huge plus if they’re bad photos. But I do prefer the Opening Day inserts to the base set inserts, and it’d be nice to buy cheap packs without feeling like I’m buying a lame parallel set. I guess we’ll see how this plays out.
I like Opening Day. For one thing you traditionally get a couple more cards for the same price. I think last year it was 14-12 for two bucks. The loss of foil is actually a plus and I like the inserts. And you get to open twice as many packs for the money. That being said I have a who bunch of unopened packs in my stash so I’m just crazy anyways.
At this point, I can’t say if I would buy Opening Day, but I would like the *option* of buying Opening Day. What I’d really like is the flagship base set and the Opening Day price and inserts, but that’s not happening.
The photos may or may not be different from the flagship set but I have a feeling that the pictures might be used in inserts. That Puig picture seen in the promotional Opening Day card for example is the same one used for Puig’s Archetypes insert set in Series 1.
Ahh, now that sounds like the Topps we all know and love.
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