factory ninth (and final)

Ok, this is it. 1996 Topps is the first year I really missed and had NO idea what it looked like. I didn't see much 1995, but I almost had no idea 1996 existed. I did, because Topps is annual, but you get my drift. It also seems that Topps took a better interest in other things that year because this set is small. 440 cards total. Their smallest actually since 1957 (407 cards), as we all know Topps is usually known for their 792s, and 660s. Its not a horrible design, very simple, and almost full bleed but Topps LOVES borders. Its alright though, they are usually known for their white borders. This must have been a real tough time for baseball card collectors and baseball as a whole. Coming off of that strike really hurt seemingly everyone, Topps included. Their sets wouldn't return to a larger, normal size until around 2001. Everything until then was relatively small. Before this set came into my house this afternoon, I owned 1 card from it. That number will probably stay seeing as how the set is complete. This is a final "Factory ###" post due to some of these sets not being a factory set. Some of the sets I'm getting will be hand-collated, so the name isn't fitting anymore. I will still post up something about each set and what I think of them but it will be called something different post-wise. Back to the set itself though, I think this is the year Topps went Mantle crazy. This was the cereal set version and it came with four exclusive Mantle reprints (one of which I got two of...grumble grumble...), namely because it was right after he died. other than that I feel its maybe one of the forgotten years, nothing really stands out. No big rookies, no standout card, its just kinda....there. Thats not bad though, as it does fit right into my set collection quite nicely. I'll leave you with this guy;