I will be very open and admit that I am not tuned into the culture of the United Kingdom. Most of my knowledge resides from things like Doctor Who, Hayley Atwell, and 007 movies. I just didn't think there was a big demand for Major League Baseball in London.
As you can see above the imagery for the parallels looks very standard to what you may find from a United States release, but with the Union Jack in the corner.
The back designates that it is a UK Edition above the card number. Cards marked with a serial number are identified under the card number.
I am all for getting the game more global and having fans around the world know who Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Fernando Tatis Jr are, but this latest release by Topps has me scratching my head.
Topps UK is an online exclusive release using many of the same images as Topps Flagship Series 1 and 2, but with a small UK Flag in the corner.
For five players the images used on their cards are from the 2019 London Series which saw the Yankees play the Red Sox in London. JD Martinez and Michael Chavis represent the Red Sox lone London Series cards. Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorious, and DJ LeMahieu represent the Yankees for the London Series images.
The set is limited to only 200 cards so it is basically only the best of the best in the league.
It was originally sold on Topps UK site with a strong intention of not being sold to North American buyers.
The set does have some exclusive inserts and of course there are parallels to chase.
First up for the parallels is the most defining image, Big Ben. The Big Ben parallels are limited to 99 copies.
Other parallels involve colors such as blue (/75), purple (/50), gold (/25), red (/5), and platinum (1/1).
Among the inserts are historical figures and iconic British landmarks. These appear 1 in 4 packs and have color parallels to chase like Gold, Red, and Platinum.
There are also 10 players with sticker autographs in the set with a print run of 10 on average per player. Some of the names to chase after are Judge, Bellinger, Acuna, and Trout.
🇬🇧What do you think about Topps UK?🇬🇧
🇬🇧 Would the set have had more appeal on the secondary market if it was truly limited to only those living "across the pond from US"? 🇬🇧
The Miggy Super Collector already has Cabrera's cards. I'm hoping to get the Matt Boyd, of course.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should've had a cricket angle.
Good Job.
Kind of weird. It's fine and I guess MLB is trying to grow the game, which isn't a bad thing. But feels a bit half-assed, at least from the pictures I've seen.
ReplyDeleteSo the language is pretty much the same, which eliminates a selling point of foreign cards. I like the insert idea, but it seems 1 every 4 packs isn't enough.
ReplyDeleteDepending on the historical figures checklist I might have to chase some of them.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking they should have put the Yankees and Red Sox players as a subset...5 cards for the 2 teams that played there is pretty low. And then what happens next year since the London series wasn't played?
ReplyDeletePutting the flag in flagship.
ReplyDeleteI used to not mind these type of sets but once you do Opening Day, you dont need Holiday or UK.
ReplyDeleteThat London series was insane. As Americans we think we know British culture from what we see on TV like you mentioned. I was there once about 13 years ago and was surprised to open the newspaper and relate to almost nothing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first baseball card bloggers I ever traded with lives in England. He was a Red Sox fan and a regular blogger (you long-time bloggers know who I'm talking about). He disappeared about 5 or 6 years ago but there are definitely fans there. Whether they want this dumb thing I don't know. I know they do have access to regular old flagship.
ReplyDeleteIt's very weird. I don't know why UK collectors would want it if not to trade it back to Americans, at least more than any other collectors would. I mean, if I were going to collect English Premiere League Cards, I don't think I'd want them all to have American flags on them.
ReplyDeleteJust like any other Topps product... it depends on a point of view. I'm sure that there are some team/player collectors who want additional things to chase... while others might shrug their shoulders at something produced just for the sake of being produced. I'm sort of on the fence. Like if things were slightly different and they made a set exclusive to Japan, I'd probably be into it.
ReplyDelete