The 2011 Topps Lineage set is probably worthy of all the praise it seems to be getting across the blogs. There are on card autographs (many of retired players) in every box. There are extremely nice relics (including a lot of retired players). There are some nice rare hits (jumbo patches). The box toppers are different enough to be interesting. And, finally, all of the insert sets have their own unique kind of charm - all except one that is.
The Topps Venezuelan inserts have got to be one of the dumbest insert sets that Topps has ever tried to reproduce in the history of baseball cards. The front of these bad boys looks exactly like the front of the regular base card (so no way to tell looking at the front what you are holding), and without actually reading the text on the back, the backs look the same as well. Of course, if you do read the text and you see "Cortocampo" instead of short stop, you know that you've got a Venezuelan card.
What's worse, the cards were seeded 2 per box (and the set contains 25 cards). So, either you had to buy a TON of product just to land the set OR you had to hope some other sucker opened up a lot of the product and decided that he or she didn't want the cards. Luckily for you, I'm that sucker.
The following Topps Venezuelan cards are for trade:
TV1. Derek Jeter
TV2. Buster Posey
TV3. Felix Hernandez
TV4. Ryan Zimmerman
TV5. Chris Carpenter
TV6. Josh Johnson
TV7. Andrew McCutchen
TV8. Carlos Santana
TV9. David Wright
TV10. Troy Tulowitzki
TV16. Jason Heyward
TV17. Joe Mauer
TV18. Starlin Castro
TV19. Adrian Gonzalez
TV24. Albert Pujols
TV25. Ian Kinsler
A quick look at the above names on the checklist and you can see another problem with the set. The featured players aren't even all of Spanish heritage, let alone from Venezuela.
Stupid cards. Do you want them?
The Topps Venezuelan inserts have got to be one of the dumbest insert sets that Topps has ever tried to reproduce in the history of baseball cards. The front of these bad boys looks exactly like the front of the regular base card (so no way to tell looking at the front what you are holding), and without actually reading the text on the back, the backs look the same as well. Of course, if you do read the text and you see "Cortocampo" instead of short stop, you know that you've got a Venezuelan card.
What's worse, the cards were seeded 2 per box (and the set contains 25 cards). So, either you had to buy a TON of product just to land the set OR you had to hope some other sucker opened up a lot of the product and decided that he or she didn't want the cards. Luckily for you, I'm that sucker.
The following Topps Venezuelan cards are for trade:
TV1. Derek Jeter
TV2. Buster Posey
TV3. Felix Hernandez
TV4. Ryan Zimmerman
TV5. Chris Carpenter
TV6. Josh Johnson
TV7. Andrew McCutchen
TV8. Carlos Santana
TV9. David Wright
TV10. Troy Tulowitzki
TV16. Jason Heyward
TV17. Joe Mauer
TV18. Starlin Castro
TV19. Adrian Gonzalez
TV24. Albert Pujols
TV25. Ian Kinsler
A quick look at the above names on the checklist and you can see another problem with the set. The featured players aren't even all of Spanish heritage, let alone from Venezuela.
Stupid cards. Do you want them?
I agree. I had a few and didn't even know until I turned them over. Bizarre set.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like these, but I understand why they're exactly the same as the regular Lineage cards except for the Spanish language. The other Venezuelan cards essentially looked the same as regular Topps cards from that year except for the language. It would have been appropriate to include Venezuelan players, but Topps wants to put out as many cards of players like Jeter, Heyward, Posey, and Pujols as possible to make the set more popular.
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