36 packs per box, 10 cards per pack (actually 11 if you count the set/team checklist)
Come back and clean up our mess as you cleaned up that bat, Girardi.
990 cards strong, the set prides itself on including basically everyone to put on a MLB uniform during the year. Of course this means that you’re going to have the opportunity of finding a bunch of people you may not have heard of and/or will have not had virtually any career. How many of the guys above do you recognize? You’re probably batting .500-.600, which may be pretty good. I could have loaded up the scans with more obscure types.
Rule 1: Don't name an insert the same thing as your set
Here’s one of the very similar inserts you can find inserted in packs. I truly don’t understand why they couldn’t have thought of some other name for this. I guess they really didn’t want you to forget what packs you were buying. There are 50 different players in this sucker, so expect to buy a few boxes to come close. In the two boxes I opened, I did get several doubles.
Everything you see is shiny.
Perhaps proof there are too many awards
A third kind of shiny
Lastly, we have the Total Production, which come three per box. I can only assume this is another reason to pump in the stars, which is fine and expected. But with the globe thing in the background, I would expect to see some sort of worldly theme. I dunno. I guess there was just too many cards to produce to take the time to think of decent inserts.
Hits
One of the big appeals of this product is that there are no relics or autos to drive up the price or take away from the set collecting fun. If only more products adapted this format.
Conclusion
I can sort of understand the appeal of this product. It’s cool getting cards of people you’d normally never see on card otherwise, but personally that’s not enough of an incentive to buy something. The bigger draw is a lower price point and something designed for set collectors, rather than hit hunters. I always enjoyed Collector’s Choice and other 99 cent products. Having one with a deeper checklist sounds good in theory, but this deep is counterproductive to me. I don’t want to buy three boxes worth to only have a shot at a complete set.
And if I am going to buy three boxes, I want it to be more visually pleasing. It doesn’t need gold foil or anything in the main set, but it should catch your eye. The inserts also don’t need to be the complete extreme opposite and caked in foil, or so massive.
When push comes to shove, I’ll say I don’t care that much if Topps Total returns, but I don’t have the nostalgic attachment to it. I’d rather see a smaller, budget friendly set void of parallels and autos and relics. But it sounds like that’s just me.
Design – **
Set Collecting – ****
Inserts – **
Hits – N/A
Overall – ** (0ut of 5)
Yeah… I never really understood the appeal of Topps Total. If it was SO popular back way back when, Topps never would’ve discontinued it. It sounds good in theory, but 900 cards?? WTF?
It’d cost a ton to put this set together by hand, and there’s no chance of anything nice along the way. What’s wrong with having ‘just’ Topps flagship? It’s 660 cards, with a heavy dose of role players and situational relievers. That’s enough for me.
To continue…
I get the impression that most bloggers only want what they can’t have. Wasn’t O-Pee-Chee a really big set? That never caught on. If Total were around, it’d be “boring” and nobody would buy it because there’d be no value in each box. But it’s not around, so it’s awesome. If you want $0.99 packs, go buy Opening Day. It’s got numbered parallels and can be put together in three boxes, probably.
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
I completely agree with you here. Although, I would have been all over ’09 O-Pee-Chee if I had started collecting again in time. I still will most likely buy a box or two of that eventually. As much as we bitch about hits and value, it’s what drives our hobby financially these days. I think what collectors are really begging for with the Topps Total rant is for Opening Day to be the same as it is, but with a different design than flagship. Total was quirky and fun as a concept, but cost prohibitive for something that was marketed as a set collector’s set.