Sport: Baseball
Product: 2015 Topps Stadium Club blaster
Break Date: July 1, 2015
Hit Breakdown: No guaranteed hits
Summary: I think Topps hit a home run with Stadium Club this year, for a variety of reasons.
It's everything that a baseball card product should be, in my opinion. The photography is top-notch: it's got full-bleed images, for one. There are action photos, and there are candid, lifestyle-like shots as well. The Greg Maddux photo (him golfing, see the photos below) reminds me of the classic 1992 Stadium Club Nolan Ryan "pitching in the tuxedo" photo, and the Ken Griffey Jr. image (him with his dad) is straight out of the 90s.
Which brings me to the second reason I love Stadium Club - nostalgia. Topps has done a good job of including retired veterans in the product, along with today's stars. But the retirees aren't limited to guys like Reggie Jackson and Lou Gehrig. There's Chris Sabo, and Rob Dibble - guys that would have been included in the flagship release.
There are rookies too, but they're seemingly pretty tough to come by. Through three blasters, I think I pulled four rookies (and two were the same player, Rusney Castillo). It's almost like Topps is making a deliberate effort to make rookies desirable again, since they seem to be rare. It's just like the 90s, before everyone opened packs just to hit an autograph of Kris Bryant.
Frankly, this set reminds me an awful lot of the original Stadium Club, and maybe that's why I like it - I remember when the original release came out, and everyone kinda balked at the price, because back then, paying more than a buck for a pack of cards seemed like paying an awful lot.
The break itself was quite solid. I hit a nice PC parallel, a black Trevor Rosenthal, in the first blaster. Apparently there are only 201 copies of each, although they're not numbered. There were two golds as well. And, I hit a refractor version of the True Colors insert set - David Ortiz. Overall, a really good start.
The second blaster, though, made the break. The die-cut Triumvirate Jorge Soler was a cool card, and any time you get a Willie Mays you're doing well.
But, who would have thought the card of the break would have been a John Olerud - especially in 2015. There it was, though, a Members Only Olerud. There are only 7 copies of each card, and they're hard enough to pull out of hobby packs, so pulling one in retail has some pretty long odds.
The third blaster had the golfing Greg Maddux gold in it, which is just a cool card - again, very retro.
Overall, I really like Stadium Club for the aforementioned reasons. As a collector who great up in the 80s, it reminds me so much of my childhood. I'll definitely be opening some more of it.
Grade for the product: A
Grade for the break: A-
Blaster 1:
True Colors Refractor: David Ortiz
Black /201: Trevor Rosenthal
Gold: Whitey Ford, Nolan Arenado
Blaster 2:
Members Only /7: John Olerud
Luminous Triumvirate: Jorge Soler
True Colors: Willie Mays
Gold: Jered Weaver
Blaster 3:
Luminous Triumvirate: Starlin Castro
Legends: Ted Williams
True Colors: Luis Gonzalez
Gold: Greg Maddux, Alfredo Simon
It's everything that a baseball card product should be, in my opinion. The photography is top-notch: it's got full-bleed images, for one. There are action photos, and there are candid, lifestyle-like shots as well. The Greg Maddux photo (him golfing, see the photos below) reminds me of the classic 1992 Stadium Club Nolan Ryan "pitching in the tuxedo" photo, and the Ken Griffey Jr. image (him with his dad) is straight out of the 90s.
Which brings me to the second reason I love Stadium Club - nostalgia. Topps has done a good job of including retired veterans in the product, along with today's stars. But the retirees aren't limited to guys like Reggie Jackson and Lou Gehrig. There's Chris Sabo, and Rob Dibble - guys that would have been included in the flagship release.
There are rookies too, but they're seemingly pretty tough to come by. Through three blasters, I think I pulled four rookies (and two were the same player, Rusney Castillo). It's almost like Topps is making a deliberate effort to make rookies desirable again, since they seem to be rare. It's just like the 90s, before everyone opened packs just to hit an autograph of Kris Bryant.
Frankly, this set reminds me an awful lot of the original Stadium Club, and maybe that's why I like it - I remember when the original release came out, and everyone kinda balked at the price, because back then, paying more than a buck for a pack of cards seemed like paying an awful lot.
The break itself was quite solid. I hit a nice PC parallel, a black Trevor Rosenthal, in the first blaster. Apparently there are only 201 copies of each, although they're not numbered. There were two golds as well. And, I hit a refractor version of the True Colors insert set - David Ortiz. Overall, a really good start.
The second blaster, though, made the break. The die-cut Triumvirate Jorge Soler was a cool card, and any time you get a Willie Mays you're doing well.
But, who would have thought the card of the break would have been a John Olerud - especially in 2015. There it was, though, a Members Only Olerud. There are only 7 copies of each card, and they're hard enough to pull out of hobby packs, so pulling one in retail has some pretty long odds.
The third blaster had the golfing Greg Maddux gold in it, which is just a cool card - again, very retro.
Overall, I really like Stadium Club for the aforementioned reasons. As a collector who great up in the 80s, it reminds me so much of my childhood. I'll definitely be opening some more of it.
Grade for the product: A
Grade for the break: A-
Blaster 1:
True Colors Refractor: David Ortiz
Black /201: Trevor Rosenthal
Gold: Whitey Ford, Nolan Arenado
Members Only /7: John Olerud
Luminous Triumvirate: Jorge Soler
True Colors: Willie Mays
Gold: Jered Weaver
Luminous Triumvirate: Starlin Castro
Legends: Ted Williams
True Colors: Luis Gonzalez
Gold: Greg Maddux, Alfredo Simon
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