Monday, January 15, 2018

Set Highlight: 1992 Topps 1991 Major League Debut


One of my goals for 2018 has been to finish off more sets on my backlog.  This set was not specifically targeted in my initial resolutions goal but I saw a complete set at a good price. 

If I were to rank my favorite Topps sets since the mid-80s (when I was born), the 1992 design is my favorite right behind 2008.  The design is clean and crisp that pops off the card.  The color matching looks sharp, too.

I'm working on collecting the sets for all four major sports plus any applicable gold and micro parallels.  So far I only have Topps Traded and now 91 Major League Debut.

Ricky Bones, what a name!

Set on the 1992 design, this set features 192 player who made their debut in 1991.  This is the third and final series of major league debut sets. 

Mullet!

In place of the team name is the date of the player's debut.  It's a design element that works well.  The photos are mostly from what I'm assuming are the Spring Training photo shoots.  I like it because these photos feel more personal than a standard batting or fielding shot. 


Two Hall of Famers made their debut in 1991.  Funny enough, Bagwell and Rodriguez made their debuts in the same year and were elected into the Hall of Fame in the same year.


The card backs show a lot of effort on Topps' part, something we don't see to much of these days.  The write-up details their transaction to the majors, the result of their debut, and some minor league information.  It even includes who scouted the player, which I've never seen.  Very informative.


Topps gets creative with the checklist for this set listing the players in chronological order.  Excellent choice by Topps.

If this set did not feature the 1992 Topps design, I likely would not have bothered with it.  That said, this is not just a throwaway set.  For any 1992 Topps collectors this set is a must have.  I still have a lot of 92 sets left to go but it's nice to get this likely lesser known set out of the way.

6 comments:

  1. That is a pretty cool set. Never knew it existed! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. I never knew it existed either until I was poking around checklists on the Trading Card Database. Glad I could give it a little more exposure!

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  2. Sharp looking set and checklist. A set like this today might make the update set bearable.

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    1. Agreed - this concept should make a return!

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    2. Even if Topps did a scaled back checklist it would be a fun alternative to Update. Heck, Topps could make it a great insert set.

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  3. I really like the way they did the checklist. That's thinking outside of the box.

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