set review-1995

1995 Topps is a strange beast (madding over at cards on cards is busting a box right now, its fun to see what he gets). To start, it is the first post strike set, so it looks like many players are in posed positions, you know, like they aren't playing baseball and just pretending to? Not a ton of posed shots, but a good number of them. Secondly I'm guessing this set should have had 792 cards, instead of the 660 it has. Series 1 consists of 396 cards, while series 2 has the remaining 264 cards. Seems like they may have cut production on series 2 for whatever reason, be it a huge hit the whole baseball industry may have taken due to the strike, players not wanting, or able to be photographed for cards. I mean, who knows? If someone does, please let me know, I'm quite intrigued by it. Then the backs of the cards feature "Diamond Vision" sponsored by Mitsubishi. Just weird. Another thing is that some of the cards are dated 1994 in the copyright area, and others are 1995. Just random cards, not series 1 is 1994 and 2 is 1995. Its more like cards 1, 13, 76, 436, etc. I suppose it is fair to assume that Topps was affected by the strike, as was everyone in this industry then. Maybe that is why this set is the way it is. Everyone was just in a real messed up state. Now, onto the cards themselves. The design is totally 90's, from the scribbly picture borders to the weird foil font. Card number 1 is right above, good old Big Hurt Frank Thomas. Overall a middle of the road set designwise, but maybe with a little mystery behind its glossy finish.

set review-1994

The inaugural set review post is going to 1994 Topps, a set that I had to buy twice due to the stickiness of the first. Something about the gloss of these mid-nineties sets makes them stick with age. 1995 stuck too but with no damage to the cards. I remember this set when it came out. It was a real step up from 1993 and an even huger step from 1992. These were almost (but certainly not quite) Upper Deck quality. Good in game photography, glossy cardstock, big picture on the back, some good stuff in 1994. Upper Deck could never be touched in terms of photo quality, and even could be debated to this day...but not next year. Anyway, this is the last of the 792s, as 1995 and on would be smaller. The gave card 1 to then rookie, Mike Piazza, a large honor indeed, seeing as how most of the early 90's sets had Nolan Ryan as card 1 (and rightfully so). In the picture above we see Mr. Canseco has a mighty.......bat. Trevor Wilson was a random pick, but I was forced to show Canseco. The card design itself is pretty good for an earlier 90's set. Huge front photos, the backs aren't hard to read, and have a good color scheme going on. Overall not a bad set, some amusing pictures before the looming strike, and one of the final 792 'big boys'.