I’m still working on the Mets team set from the regular release of this year’s Topps Heritage set, but that’s probably not stopping Topps from giving me a few more cards to chase next month.
For the third consecutive year, Topps will release a limited edition 100-card Heritage High Numbers update set in October. For approximately $100, you get the update series plus a random autograph – last year’s checklist of signers included exciting stars like Yasiel Puig and Jose Fernandez, as well as a bunch of players like Brandon Maurer and Darin Ruf.
I don’t have the cash lying around to play the Topps Heritage lottery, but I imagine you can do pretty well if you’re lucky and can turn the cards around quickly. Team collectors will want the base set singles, and rookie cards of players like Jose Abreu and Masahiro Tanaka should attract a larger pool of buyers. Get a decent autograph in the set(s) you buy, and you’re looking at a nice potential profit.
Topps hasn’t released a checklist for this year’s set yet, but I imagine it will be more interesting to me as a Mets fan than the first two releases were.
I still need to track down last year’s Zack Wheeler card (I think I did get John Buck‘s at some point last winter.) I’m pretty sure I got Jon Niese, Andres Torres, Jordany Valdespin and Kirk Nieuwenhuis from 2012.
With the exception of Wheeler, who already had plenty of rookie cards by the time Topps Heritage High Numbers came out last year, none of the featured Mets players have been all that exciting and some weren’t even Mets by the time collectors had the cards in-hand.
This year might be a different story. Aside from a digitally-manipulated prospect card in this year’s Bowman set, Jacob deGrom has not appeared on a nationally-issued baseball card yet. A rookie autograph redemption in this year’s Topps Finest Set is selling well out of my price range and is limited to 100 copies. (Who knows when the actual cards will be delivered.)
Beckett Media mentions that deGrom is among the tentative signers for this year’s Heritage High Numbers set. That may be a redemption card, too, but it probably means he’s part of the base set as well.
And that would be a card I’d remember adding to my collection.
PaulHadsall.com 