2020 Topps Series 1 Baseball Cards

The product is okay at best, hindsight the rookies suck. But the checklist here on cardboardconnection has a bunch of errors, mainly around card numbers and cards not matching.

I like the Turkey Reds, but how many TR is there. I know 100 but how many different sets?

Are we certain all listed players for the 1985 Topps Baseball 35th Anniversary Autographs actually have a Black variation? I find it extremely improbable that there are supposed to be 199 copies of the Don Mattingly Black autograph, yet not a single one has surfaced. From what has been available over the months since release, it appears the majority of the Black autograph cards are the rookies (and a few of the young players). Can this be confirmed? I have the same question regarding the Silver Pack Orange Refractor Autographs. Does Don Mattingly actually have one of these cards?

I greatly appreciate the help, as I would like to know if I am simply chasing ghost cards.

If it is a dying hobby, why are new card shops popping up?

I couldn’t agree more. Just broke 2 boxes and I mayyybbeee covered the shipping and handling with what I pulled. 0 auto’s, trash relics. 7 Topps Now cards. Can that even be right? That just seems ridiculous. Would love to have that money back.

First off, I’m not a huge fan of the design this year. There is something just a little too sharp and mechanical about it. But secondly, I just broke two hobby boxes and pulled zero auto’s and my relic’s were MLM’s of Austin Meadows and Byron Buxton. Then (1) Blue parallel, (1) black parallel and (2) rainbow foil’s. Pretty frustrating. Especially when it seems like every blaster box I grab from Walmart hits an auto. It could just be bad luck, but I’m not impressed with this years offering.

Boring. Too many subsets and limited cards to complete total mater set (unless you are Keith Oberman and have a contract that includes EVERY card issued by TOPPS).

Any word on what Topps is doing about the Home Run Challenge cards/promotion?

I’m a total newbie baseball card collector and from this set I pulled two base Cavan Biggio Future Stars cards (327). However, one of these appears more matte whereas the other is more metallic in printing appearance, i.e. when you wiggle it under light the colours are changing and it is generally shinier). Would that be a Rainbow Foil card? There’s no other discernible difference on the back of the card.
Thanks so much!

For a long time base set, Topps continues again to show why they have remained the leader for the long haul. A beautiful design with a great assortment of inserts. The onlu reason i rate it a 4 is because the could reduce the players in most of the inserts by about half making it easier for us set collectors and i would love to see them reduce the gold set down to 1200 sets

Is there an actual checklist of the green bordered Target blister pack cards, been doing well with them and don’t really know how many I don’t have.

3/4th of the way through putting together the base checklist set.

The photography is great, I don’t mind the nameplate as much as others do.

Lots of great rookies

Not really feeling the Decades best and Rhys Hoskins set though

I’ve got to eat my words this product has grew on me the more I buy the better it is, I don’t like the horizontal name plate or the 85 design. Was the 83 and 84 uv coated????

What is a “manufactured relic”? Did the player on the card have anything to actually do with the relic?

First of all, everyone needs to get over the lack of borders. Topps will NEVER do borders because then all “collectors” will just complain that their cards aren’t centered perfectly and getting BGS 10s.

Secondly, the recent designs are way too digital. Drop all the “edgy” graphics and just make collectible cards.

I was watching case brakes and noticed that the 35th Anniversary cards how the Royals did not have the team logo on them. Nor did they show up on your checklist. Is there a reason for this. One of them is George Brett. I don’t remember the other one. Has anybody else noticed this.?

Have pulled jumbo, hobby and retail. Color variations are RARE, the good rookies are plentiful, however. Not as good as 2019 series 2 or 2019 update for parallels.

Even further update: now that I think about it, I realize the stupidity of my question about the 1of1 card. Of course it’s a 1of1…doh 🤦🏻‍♂️

Update: there were no other hits in the second half of the box. The autograph I got was that of the sketch artist on the deGrom…a little disappointing but better than a relic I suppose.

I recently bought a hobby box at my local card shop and halfway through and I’ve already made double my money. I pulled a deGrom sketch card which isn’t numbered 1of1 but it is hand written by the artist on the back. Is it in fact a 1of1 and is there a checklist out for these? Also pulled a Mallex Smith black 1/69 as well as a Randy Johnson variation and a Gerritt Cole variation. Still can’t wait to see what my hit is! Thanks Topps!

On eBay I saw a base card with a “blank back” — I don’t see that mentioned on this page. Is this a thing?

tiny tins arriving at walmarts. Alot smaller than lets say upper deck hockey series 1

If there would have been a 1/2 star option I would have picked it . Don’t mean to try to out do Hammer – 1’s comment but this flagship looks like it took an I.C.B.M. from directly overhead . Sideways nameplates , inserts up the ying yang , photo variations , rehashing previous years designs . What a load of garbage . I just hope this set isn’t an example of what the entire years cards will look like . Once again , I’m sure the Topps Company will be laughing all the way to the bank . I sure hope that most intelligent collectors already know that all these on card and sticker auto insert cards aren’t going to be worth the price of a single package of ramen noodles in the future . There will be a miniscule amount of exceptions . Great way to start off the year Topps . NOT .

I have gone to a few Targets and they are sold out on the “fat packs” already. I am trying to figure out why and hoping someone on this forum knows why the fat packs are hard to find. I mean they had 2019 Topps Series 1 fat packs still sitting there, but no 2020. There are individual packs and blasters.

So I always look forward to topps series 1. I like the retail exclusives this year. I really like the design. Here is the major problem duplicates , duplicates , duplicates !!! Hanger box’s 15 duplicates in the same box in the exact same order! Blaster box’s duplicates in the same pack in the same order. I wouldn’t mi d if it was all nice rookies but its not. 3 blasters 2 hangers and still havent hit any decent rookie cards. Like co.e on topps i can see having a few same cards in a box…but when its in the same packs and its half the packs worth of cards give me a break. Im gonna break a hobby soon to see how that goes but so far just pathetic. Get it together Topps maybe a better sorting solution i dont know… Anyone else have issues like this?

The cardstock, packaging, and print quality on these are trash. I’ve opened a jumbo hobby, and every type of retail box / pack and the dark corner on the back of every other card or so has whitening or imperfections. Getting a mint card in this set is rare, I have gotten 13 Juan Soto base cards and 2 of them are mint, the rest all have dinged corners to some degree. It’s like no one at Topps actually tested the print quality or considered how cheaper paper and ink with one black corner on these before sending them out, or they don;t give an F. There are good rookies to collect but the distribution and quality again is suspect. The whole set feels like a rip off.

Received my A’s and Tigers team set and have a few observations. While this years sets for the most part have players still with the team, the exceptions for the A’s being Treinen and Phegley, (who ironically never had a regular card issued the last 2 years), you would think that both legends variations, McGwire and Henderson, are still active members of the team as they have been featured the last 3 years. There are many veterans from the glory years of the past including HoFer’s that have never been featured and should be. And as far as variation cards go while they generate money for Topps, I think rather than the same superstars being featured year after year, the variations should be limited to outstanding rookies or players not normally included in the complete sets. like Phegley for instance, or other players who are constantly overlooked year after year.

Getting back into the hobby with my sons. The photos are great and the card quality is very good. The collectible inserts have my sons hooked on the hobby. Excellent product.

The nameplate/border has a lot of nonsense design elements that detract IMO. What redeems these cards are the photo quality and variety of action shots instead of boring poses. I’d like to see more color in the design that denotes the team colors. And yeah, the perpendicular nameplate is annoying.
I still don’t understand why some rookies don’t get their major league stats on the back, just a single summary of minor league stats from the previous year.
2020 Big League set is more in line with my design tastes.

I went to my local Target and bought four jumbo packs, also known as “fat packs.” I liked the design. It may not look that great viewing them on your computer or smartphone, but looking at the cards up close it looks really good. I pulled the Gavin Lux RC and Yordan Alvarez RC, a chrome turkey red card of rookie Kyle Lewis, a Nolan Ryan 1985 Topps 35th anniversary card, and a Major League material relic of Luke Voit. Overall, I liked what I got. I think that 2020 Topps is a great design and look forward to collecting some more. This is some good stuff.

Did I count correctly? 42 subsets? That’s ridiculous. No wonder its a dying hobby.

They are scheduled to ship on March 3rd for orders placed online. No idea if they will be in stores too

For the price I’m not overly impressed. 1985 inserts cheaply made, not too happy with other inserts. Autos ok if you are a auto chaser.

I give it 2 stars.

Excited to see the start of the 2020 year, but really disappointed that the base set has no Kris Bryant – he’s part of the million inserts that they have.

Pretty disappointing that Topps doesn’t make a base card of Kris Bryant????

trey
Wondering if anybody has found them at stores. I went to a half dozen stores in Houston and all they have is blasters and hanger packs

anybody have any info on series 1 tins for walmart only? havent seen any

This product looks a lot better in person, than it does on a TV screen. I bought a jumbo box, and let’s say I more than got my money’s worth. Got every single hot rookie I was after, in a couple of cases, got the base, and multiple parallels for said rookie. The autos and relics were pretty solid too, got a damn good Dodger rookie auto.

That said, the manufactured relics shouldn’t be a thing. Either include a real relic, or throw in an additional auto or something. Manufactured relics have zero value, even if it is a star.

The design is what it is, and judging from the reviews I’ve read, there is a huge generational gap in regards to design preferences. Yes, Topps went with a more modern design. Why? Because the hobby shouldn’t solely appeal to the people old enough to have collected cards 40 years ago. If you go to Card Shows, there are fewer and fewer young people, and that has to change. This design should appeal to those under the age of 35, looks a little more tech driven. This isn’t the best product on the market, but it isn’t as bad as some of the “Where are my 55 Topps?” people would want you to believe.

Don’t like the sideways name plate, too many subsets. Border less is OK. Did get a full set out of a Jumbo box. I build sets so all these extra parallels/inserts I sell to try to get some of my money back.

Pleasantly surprised product was better than expected. Cool inserts borderless takes time to adjust but there is some cool action photos (that makes up for it) I got a lot of great/good base rookies and a baseball stars auto /199 nick solak

Horrible checklist, terrible design, I’m avoiding it.

Unlike most of the reviews listed here, I do like the borderless design. As an avid Topps Baseball collector (I have every set produced since 1955) I would rate this set in the top 10, not because of set design, but because of the excellent inserts. I bought 2 boxes, received a Pete Alonso In the Numbers 1/1, Jordan Yamamoto autograph 17/25, 3 SP cards, 1 SSP card, and in the silver pack, a Mike Trout auto and blue parallel. Not too bad for a $140 investment!

Trey,this shows the real high level Topps has on its Quality Control during production

3 Stars As we look forward to another baseball season any new cards are exciting. That said, it does become a bit depressing to see all the fancy relic cards and autos that most of us will never see.
I have 20+ retail cards with no Topps foil stamp on the face of the cards. Anyone know what’s up with these?

Take a look at the 1,000,000 card break that took place on 2/4/20, the day prior to formal release of this set. Looking at any of the breaks that took place, 99.9% of the parallels and subsets that were being pulled are/were just flat garbage. Yes, this is an entry level, low priced product, but the complete lack of anything somewhat interesting to look forward to in these packs is very disappointing. Cases were being opened where perhaps 5 cards of the case had something interesting or were of any value. On card autos instead of sticker autos being included in the set keeps this from being 1 star.

Rather skimpy on the parallels. For jumbo boxes it’s 1 rainbow foil per pack, 2 gold per box, 2 black per case, 1-2 total of the independence, pink, blue per case. Tons of those garbage advanced stat parallels. Short prints are roughly 5 to a case

I like the look. Something different. BTW to read them turn the card or read vertical. I really have no problem with the name plate.

Are there base rookie cards of Luis Robert and Jo Adell? I’ve looked at the list twice but may have missed it. Thanks!

As a team collector of the A’s an Tigers the ’85 retro set will be easy since no Tigers that played in ’85 are included and only Rickey Henderson for the A’s, and that’s a stretch as he had been foolishly traded by the A’s to the Yankees, but is depicted on an A’s card in 1985. Only the ’85 OPC card acknowledged that he was “now with Yankees”…Maybe Topps should think about doing that with players they continue to picture with last years team that have moved on to a new team. It could be done as Topps printed the OPC cards that way.

I see that there will be Series one collector tins available at Walmart. Will these be exclusive to them or other retailers? Topps won’t answer me.

I just love the variations check list. TBD give me a break. Like TOPPS doesn’t know what they are.
This is the kind of crap that will sink them . Again TOPPS get your head out of the sand.

Agree on the subsets. 90% hold no interest for me. My big problem with the subsets is that there is nothing to tie them to the main set. If they shared part of the design it would make them more identifiable. I can’t tell the dif between a 2010 subset and a 2019 subset. Also there are far too many. I even gave up trying to collect them for my favorite players. Only exception are the retro year design (1985 in this set). Just one guy’s opinion. I’m sure there are others who love the variety.

Oh yeah ;) I must have been looking at the clear base checklist.

Still though, why is Alvarez’s clear base not a RC?

Not the best and not the worst set Topps has put out, but the number of variations. subsets, and certain outlet only cards makes it impossible to build a master set for almost everyone.
When there is too much to collect knowing this is only part of the total 2020 set, several collectors might be turned off.

As usual this years retro set from 1985 contains almost no players that actually played in 1985 and a very few veteran players who didn’t play for the team they are pictured on. This could be such a much better insert if the players, the autographs and the relic cards were actually playing that year instead of kids who weren’t even a glimmer in someones imagination in ’85. And of course the regular set has players that no longer play for the teams they are depicted on either.

Cards and poses are the same year after year. TOPPS needs to get outside help. Have a contest and let customers design a card and there are bound to be some good, different designs that would be submitted.

There is no RC logo next to Yordan Alvarez on the checklist. I’m assuming this is incorrect right?

I like to know when you are finished with the whole topps 2020 baseball checklist.

Despite the mixed opinions of 2019 Topps, I thought it was a really nice design. 2020? Not so much, these cards are hideous and give me a headache to look at!

Normally not a huge Topps series guy. Outside of the rookies, everything else just typically doesn’t do it for me. But I have to admit, I am optimistic about this years product. Not too mention, way to many future rookie stars to pass up getting their flag ship RC for the PC.

looks like all the other years, just putting out a product that has no clear design . Can’t tell if it is 2020 or any of the past 5 year cards

Topps is the best cards

Looks like the FLAGSHIP took a torpedo. I don’t see many likes. Topps should leave the border-less cards where they belong on Stadium Club cards as far as the sub sets go they could cut at least 80% of them. Topps keeps saying sub sets are what people want but never tell us who they are. One more thing buy 5 hobby boxes and if you are very lucky you may get 1 autograph normally just junk you can’t even give away unless it’s a super star. Come on Topps get your head out of the sand.

Appalling design once again, courtesy of techie children who know zero about typography but who love to show off their “skills” with software. As a former 40 year newspaper layout and design editor, I see that these people do not have a clue. These cards are way too busy and force me to crane my neck to read. Dumb. Topps, hire some real designers and go back to basics, the way you did in the ’50s and ’60s. This garbage is way overdone, especially all the pointless, repetitive inserts. Dumb.

I don’t like it as much as the 2019 design, which I felt was a great mix of classic and contemporary, but overall I think the 2020 is solid. The nameplate might be a bit too busy with all the angles and geometric shapes, but I do like how the design puts the photo center stage. Can’t wait to open some packs!

I have collected Topps cards EVERY YEAR since 1964. I always thought that the 1985 Topps set was the ugliest design they every created.
Now, I am wrong. This 2020 design is by far the ugliest, poorly thought design of all 70 years, going back to the 1951 test set. Who on God’s green earth designed these horrible looking cards, and how did the project manager let them go. I am 64 years old and I will NOT be collecting this complete, and total garbage this year. WOW!

I can’t stand the base card design along with some inserts. The player names being sideways is a blip on the radar so to say for this 2020 card design.

Makes it hard to read. I guess Topps thinks our heads are on a swivel. LOL! Otherwise, there’s plenty of inserts & autos to chase after as well as a few rookies.

Topps flagship continues to go down the sewer. Everybody but the the people at Topps seems to know that nobody likes the rotated nameplate, and yet here we have it. Nor do collectors want the flagship design to be borderless. Instead, all the appealing design features only appear in the incestuous Heritage and Archives products, because Topps simply does not know how to produce a flagship set that pleases their own collector base. So here we have yet another flood of completely impersonal action shots, with no attempt to capture the intimacy of the cards that make collecting a thing during the post-war vintage years. Shame on Topps for yet another year.

It’s too modern. It doesn’t have to look digital, just make it artistic and attractive.

I love the 2020 Topps Baseball cards. They are really beautiful baseball cards.

Great looking photos ruined by the name plate. Sometimes the old adage, KISS, is true. I just want a great action shot, a name I can read normally not with a titled head, the name of the team, and position of the player. AND complete stats on the back.

Collectors have their collective voices heard in Topps Choice, which awards the best design of each decade from the 1950s to 2010s by fan vote. These naturally have throwback designs.

I seriously doubt this will be a true fan favorites designs.

I wonder what deserving sets will be left out beasue ‘fans” did not vote them in.

Since it says it goes to the 2010s does that mean it stops at 2010 or 2019?

I agree — too many of the parallel sets. No collector can ever hope to get a complete set. I’d rather have two or three where I can collect them all rather than ten where I only get a card or two.

Bland, I may be in the minority here but how about a border and the paper stock used in Archives? Topps is way too predictable. If Panini could get a license Topps would be in trouble.

The nameplate should be either at the top or bottom of the picture not 90 degrees off. Constantly turning these when checking out the set will be disturbing.

It’s clean, but something’s missing. Very bland. The vertical cards are passable, but I don’t like the horizontal one.

I’d like it much better if the nameplate was horizontal. The design is a reflection of the times as are all years. I do wish they’d stick to a ‘classic’ style for the flagship set, and go nuts with the Bowman and others.

And, yes, too many (sub-standard) sub-sets. I feel bad for the hobby shops that need to buy so much junk.

looks like they took a crappy insert from 2013 and is just bad placement and just give us some all around borders its looks too tech like and need to be more simplified.

Looks good on screen. I was surprised with 2019, looked bad (IMO) on screen, but then loved the cards when I saw them. I can understand those who miss full borders, but do think the design is distinct enough to stand out in my mind as the years go by. It is fun to see the card designs evolving over time. Each time period has its own distinct look (ie 50s, vs 60s, 70s etc)

Ive cut way back on my buying of trading cards, Im sick and tired of the BORING cards being produced now a days – go back to the 50’s and 60’s and steal bits and pieces from them and come up with something interesting.

New Fresh Design, Bringing back some aspects of previous sets

Yes, it looks very 90s and that’s exactly why I love it. Reminds me of my early collecting years.

another lame borderless design, just like the cards of the 90’s throw something on there just to sell it. bring back the borders. those people at topps now don’t know how to do cards.

Great photos ruined by poor placement of the nameplate. Won’t be buying this year just like 2019.

A little too “metallic” like 2017 & 2018 for my taste. Can not wait for the 2020 Heritage, though. Gimme some ‘71 black borders.

Kind of looks like 2003 Flair Greats and 1993 Fleer Ultra had a baby. I guess it’s better than some of the train wrecks we’ve been getting over the last 10 years or so.

Don’t love it, don’t hate it

Good product, but to many subsets!

Eh, not really what i wanted from flagship. Why don’t they just go back to the bordered design?