2011 Topps Baseball Series 2

leedawg62 · 08-09-2011, 10:22 AM

2011 TOPPS BASEBALL SERIES 2
Hobby Configuration: 36 Packs Per Box, 10 Cards Per Pack

2011 Topps Baseball continues its 60th Diamond Anniversary gala with Series 2 - a dazzling celebration of the Major League Baseball cards that have been collected, flipped and traded for the past 60 years!
Topps inaugurates the next 60 years by showcasing the most exciting players of today and tomorrow on thrilling base, insert, relic, sketch, continuity, autograph and parallel cards!

ALL NEW FOR SERIES 2!
- Diamond Anniversary Base Parallel Variation Cards
- Before There Was Topps
- Diamond Stars
- Hall of Fame Buybacks
- Dual Relic Cards
- Topps Attax Cards

To celebrate the Diamond Anniversary, collectors and fans will have a chance to win rare diamond embedded cards, diamond Topps rings, and much more with Topps Diamond Giveaway.

Here Is What We Pulled From Our Break

BASE CARDS

Topps always does a good job with the photography on their base cards featuring many good shots of the players in action. One great thing about Series 2 is that it features some of the players who were traded or signed with new teams in the offseason in their new uniforms. With the rookie cards, the back will usually have information on their major league debut.

GOLD PARALLELS

The tradition continues with the gold bordered parallel version of the base cards numbered to 2011. We pulled: Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Joe Saunders, and Kenley Jansen.

DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY

These have to be one of my favorite parallel inserts I’ve ever seen. To celebrate their Diamond Anniversary, Topps has created a parallel insert with the Diamond Anniversary logo and a nice diamond sparkle to the cards. We pulled: Justin Smoak, Skip Schumaker, Will Venable, Brad Hawpe, Mark Teahen, Nick Hundley, and Daniel Murphy.

BEFORE THERE WAS TOPPS

A 10 card set featuring some of the vintage cards before Topps existed. We pulled: Bowman and Gum Inc.

DIAMOND DUOS

Continuing from Series 1 are more cards featuring duos of players that are teammates or that compare to each other in one way or another. Be on the lookout for dual relic versions of these cards numbered to 50. We pulled: Carlos Gonzalez/Carl Crawford, Josh Hamilton/Joey Votto, Frank Thomas/Adam Dunn, Josh Johnson/Justin Verlander, Adrian Beltre/Elvis Andrus, Roy Halladay/Felix Hernandez, Andrew McCutchen/Pedro Alvarez, Mark Teixeira/Adrian Gonzalez, and Sandy Koufax/Clayton Kershaw.

DIAMOND STARS

New to Series 2 is the Diamond Stars insert featuring 25 of the game's top players. This is another nice looking insert with the same diamond sparkle as the Anniversary parallel with a portrait shot of the player inside the diamond. We pulled: Albert Pujols, Evan Longoria, Ichiro, Carl Crawford x2, David Wright, and Joe Mauer.

KIMBALL CHAMPIONS

A nice insert with a mini card looking like the old Kimball Champions cards. Series 1 featured current players and Series 2 contains some of the games greatest players. We pulled: Jackie Robinson, Barry Larkin, Yogi Berra, Robin Roberts, Stan Musial, Carlton Fisk, Johnny Bench, and Eddie Mathews.

60TH ANNIVERSARY REPRINTS

Reprint cards that features one card from each year of Topps. Also, be on the lookout for original back SP parallels. The regular ones will have 60 years of Topps on the back and the SPs will look like the regular card. We pulled 2 SPs: Cal Ripken and Ryan Braun. We also pulled the following: Paul Molitor, Harmon Killebrew, Nolan Ryan, Johnny Bench, Curt Schilling, Gary Carter, Mickey Mantle, Ed Mathews, and Jim Palmer.

TOPPS 60

A nice design to this insert which features some of the top players of different statistical categories. Also look for most of the Autographs and Relics to be of this type. We pulled: Rickey Henderson, Don Mattingly, Alfonso Soriano, Jacoby Ellsbury, Felix Hernandez, Eddie Mathews, Mike Stanton, Clayton Kershaw, and Nelson Cruz.

TOPPSTOWN

This is an insert that has been running in Topps for a few years now. The cards of the players have codes on the back allowing you to unlock a virtual collection and play games online. I enjoyed it the first year, but I think this concept is getting old. I do like the blue foil design on the cards this year though. We pulled: Trevor Cahill, Joakim Soria, Juston Upton, Ryan Ludwick, Jose Bautista, and Cliff Lee.

THE HIT

Each box delivers one relic or one autograph. We did pretty good and pulled a Topps 60 Memorabilia card of David Ortiz.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON 2011 TOPPS BASEBALL SERIES 2

This year in celebration of its 60th anniversary, Topps has really produced a quality product that is fun to collect and loaded with tons of great chances to win prizes and pull some sweet memorabilia. This is going to be the case with all of their baseball products this year, but I think they really set the tone with their basic baseball product. I had lots of fun opening this product. With an SRP or around $50 per hobby box you can’t go wrong. If you have a little more money ($100) and can find a Home Team Advantage Shop, I would recommend going with the jumbo version because it delivers more inserts and 3 hits per box instead of 1.

PRODUCT RATING

Value = 4
Innovation = 5
Fun and Experience = 5
Re-buy Value = 4

I would give an A- for this Topps product.

NPN INFORMATION

For a chance to win some of the inserts featured in Topps Series 2 please send a 3x5 card with your name and complete address to:

NPN TOPPS BASEBALL SERIES 2
PO BOX 2008
DURYEA, PA 18642

Must be postmarked by November 16, 2011 and received by November 23, 2011

I would like to thank Topps and Card Collectors World for giving me a chance to review this product.

STAY TUNED FOR CONTESTS WITH YOUR CHANCE TO WIN SOME OF THE CARDS PULLED FROM THIS BOX BREAK!!!!

key2win · 08-09-2011, 10:29 PM

Another nice product from Topps. I really like the Diamond Anniversary Variations. I wish Topps did Basketball as those cards would look great in basketball.