With all this time, resources and personnel on this product, it STILL ends up being a really disappointing affair. The inserts are mailed-in, the base set must have been finalized in mid-July, and after last year's improvement in so many ways, this set feels like another step backward in a long line of them for Topps.
Yet, because of my desire to achieve copious amounts of traded players to fuel my neurosis, I went back today to get two more hanger boxes of the product.
I'm not posting the full results, because...90% of the two boxes were made up cards I had already pulled in last week's break. In the exact same order. Both hanger boxes were almost identical to each other. I must have 4 copies of the Skye Bolt card by now. It was a progressively saddening card-opening experience. This might be the worst-collated set Topps has ever put out, and I'm not gonna find out if this is the only card combination you can pull from Update, because I'm gonna get the rest of my base needs at card shows, or CardBarrel or whatever.
There was, however, one card worthy of showing. And it was a good enough pull to ALMOST make me happy I'd gone with this purchase. Almost.
On paper, this doesn't look like much. If anything, it looks like everything that's wrong with Topps Update from a design standpoint. This insert set is yet another iteration of the Topps Salute mega-set that they've been running through flagship products for the past 3 years. A lot of the times in card show 10 cent bins, I'll see these mixed in as well, because you can't exactly charge more for a card this un-insertlike.
I could get into a whole rant about the de-evolution of the insert card, or the fact that only sets like Stadium Club, or even Big League, make Inserts truly pop these days, but...I'm tired.
The other thing I don't like about modern Topps inserts is the use of color parallels that don't mean anything. Some Topps inserts just have a differently-hued border. Does it mean it falls rarer than other inserts? Not really. Does it mean it's numbered? Nope. Does it mean ANYTHING? No. Not at all.
So seeing this Pettitte card, which is already kinda cool as it commemorates his post-retirement 2-year stint with the Yankees, and noticing its red border, rather than the usual gold with this insert set, I wasn't expecting much.
Which honestly helps with Update. Go in with low-to-no expectations. And then flip it over anyway:
This is probably the lowest-numbered card I've ever pulled out of a pack. I need to check my game-used ones to see if any of them are less than 10, but...I've never pulled a 1/10 before, and the fact that it's...a legendary pitcher...and a legendary member of my team...is even cooler. Like, usually when I pull low-numbered cards, they're all Cardinals. This is a VERY nice change of pace.
Besides that, it was nice to finally get a base card of Hunter Pence as a Ranger, though I would have preferred only pulling one copy of it. But...amongst all the crap that came from this box, at least I got one really cool card from it. Which, I guess, is enough.
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