While football fans are getting excited about the Super Bowl next week, baseball card collectors can look forward to the the arrival of Topps Series 1, marking the beginning of the baseball card collecting season.
For Mets fans, Topps did a better job this year than in 2013 – almost all of the players appearing in the Series 1 base set as Mets are still on the team. Highlights include “Rookie Cards” of Travis d’Arnaud and Wilmer Flores, even though most collectors probably won’t view as “true” rookie cards.
Zack Wheeler, David Wright, Nolan Ryan and Travis d’Arnaud are among the players who have signed autographs for this set.
Beckett Media has posted the full “final” checklist from Topps, and I’ve listed the New York Mets cards below:
Base Set
33 Matt Harvey
60 Jon Niese
86 Wilmer Flores
113 NL ERA Leaders (Kershaw/Fernandez/Harvey)
155 Daniel Murphy
174 Bobby Parnell
187 Justin Turner
248 Travis d’Arnaud
266 Zack Wheeler
304 Juan Lagares
Silk Cards
SC-19 Zack Wheeler
SC-51 Matt Harvey
Upper Class
UC-5 Matt Harvey
UC-31 David Wright
The Future Is Now
FN-10 Zack Wheeler
FN-11 Zack Wheeler
FN-12 Zack Wheeler
Topps All Rookie Cup Team
RCT-1 Tom Seaver
Before They Were Great
BG-19 Nolan Ryan
BG-27 Tom Seaver
1989 Topps Minis Die Cuts
TM-44 Matt Harvey
50 Years of the Draft
50YD-9 Darryl Strawberry
Power Player Code Cards
PP-83 Wilmer Flores
Trajectory Autographs
TA-DW David Wright
TA-DA Travis d’Arnaud
The Future Is Now Autographs
FNA-ZW1 Zack Wheeler
FNA-ZW2 Zack Wheeler
FNA-ZW3 Zack Wheeler
Before They Were Great Autographs
BGA-NR Nolan Ryan
The Future Is Now Autograph Relics
FNAR-ZW1 Zack Wheeler
FNAR-ZW2 Zack Wheeler
FNAR-ZW3 Zack Wheeler
Strata Signatures Autograph Relics
SSR-DW David Wright
SSR-TD Travis d’Arnaud
Trajectory Relics
TR-ZW Zack Wheeler
Upper Class Relics
UCR-MH Matt Harvey
The Future Is Now Relics
FNR-ZW1 Zack Wheeler
FNR-ZW2 Zack Wheeler
FNR-ZW3 Zack Wheeler
Before They Were Great Relics
BGR-NR Nolan Ryan
BRG-TS Tom Seaver
In The Name Relics
ITN-MH Matt Harvey
Manufactured Relics
Topps All Rookie Cup Team Rookie Cup Relics
TARC-1 Tom Seaver
Topps Rookie Cup All Stars Rookie Cup Relics
RCAS-10 Darryl Strawberry
RCAS-11 Dwight Gooden
Class Rings
CR-15 Nolan Ryan
Retail Manufactured Commemorative Patch Cards
CP-21 Matt Harvey
CP-22 David Wright
Retail Rookie Card Manufactured Patch Image Cards
RCP-18 Matt Harvey
RCP-20 Dwight Gooden
Hobby Store Promotion Spring Fever Autograph Cards
SFA-WF Wilmer Flores
Gary Carter cards (all as a Montreal Expo)
Upper Class UC-44
Upper Class Autographs UCA-GC
Upper Class Autograph Relics UCAR-GC
Topps Rookie Cup All Stars Rookie Cup Relics RCAS-5 (Manufactured Relic)
Right now, my plan is to snag the base team set on eBay and see if I can get a Travis d’Arnaud autograph at a bargain price. This will be the first year since I got back into baseball card collecting in 2001 that I don’t buy any packs, but money is tight enough that I can’t justify spending any on cards that don’t fit in my collection.
Are you excited about the pending arrival of the first baseball cards of 2014? What are your collecting plans this year?
You can follow Paul’s Random Baseball Stuff on Facebook or Google+, see my photos on Flickr and Instagram, and follow @Paul_Hadsall on Twitter, where I talk about about a variety of things in addition to baseball.
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Thanks for sharing this Paul! I had been searching for it earlier this week and couldn’t find it.
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I dunno. I think I’d rather have a Dice-K Mets card in Series 1. Even if he signs with someone else. And Grandy. They could have gotten Grandy in Series 1 (as a Met) if they wanted to. Heck, I think they did a better job of getting the new guys on cards back in the old, old, old days. I don’t think they even try anymore. I think they figure that’ll bring more interest to Series 2. But the joke’s on them. I’ve always bought a couple boxes of the Series 1 flagship. Not this year. I’ll just get the team set off eBay. It’d be exciting to open packs in February to pull a Grandy Met. Justin Turner? Not so much.
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