2019 Topps Series 1 – It Is What It Is :)

I picked up a hobby box of 2019 Topps Series 1.  I know the cards and hits are not fancy, but I appreciate (and expect) comprehensiveness, traditionality, and tradeability in the flagship releases.  Other than that, my expectations were not particularly high.  I wasn’t disappointed lol.  Since then, I also picked up a blaster, fat pack, and three retail packs, and have about 90% of the 350 card base set plus about 8 million doubles.  Don’t ask me why I bought so many. 🙂

The base design has its strengths and weaknesses.  I like the photos this year.  It seems like there are more action shots than usual.  The curved border design with the “almost full bleed” image is also cool.  However, I think the capitalized last names and the social media handles are corny.

The parallels are nice.  There are the rainbow foils, “150 years of professional baseball“ stamps, and image/player variations that are not numbered.  The foils look particularly good with this design.  I like the #/2019 gold camo pixel thing better than the faint gold wedge effects they’ve used the past couple of years.  There are cards #/150 with the regular front and new age “advanced stats” on the back.  Maybe I’ll use the card I have as an opportunity to learn more about the new acronyms, how the numbers are calculated, and what they actually mean. 🙂

The 35th anniversary retro 1986 subsets (regular and Silver pack chrome) bring back a great design. Hard to complain about this one lol.

In my opinion, most of the inserts are boring.  They cover a wide range of baseball’s history, too wide in my opinion.  I prefer how the Heritage historical inserts focus on a particular year.  There is also an overemphasis on the Yankees in general.  I know the Yanks are the most popular and most successful baseball franchise, but c’mon man, the other teams count too!  I do like the 150 years manufactured relic card more than I thought I would, and the Home Run Challenge cards are fun.  (I actually won a #’d card from one of my players last year!)

This Albert Pujols retro GU bat relic is a pretty cool hit, much better than I expected!  I’ve not had positive experiences trying to get his autograph at the ballpark, so I’m not much of a Pujols fan.  However, I certainly respect his baseball accomplishments and have accumulated some nice cards of his, so I think this one also goes in the keeper bin. 🙂

Overall, I appreciate the comprehensiveness, traditionality, and tradeability of this flagship release.  Although I would prefer more exciting inserts, I like the base, parallels, and 35th anniversary subset designs.  The hit was better than I expected.  It could be better but it could be way worse.  It is what it is.  🙂  I give 2019 Topps Series 1 Baseball 3 out of 5 stars.