Welcome to the first post for my newest collecting project: The Forever Topps Binder Project.
The primary goal of this project is for me to collect a single card from every Topps set beginning with the 1951 Topps set and continuing through 2025 (and beyond). The secondary goal of this project is to slowly upgrade each card to one of the Hall of Famers in that particular set, or some other card that I happen to particularly like for some reason. Either way, I'm aiming to do most of my upgrading via trading!
The Forever Topps Binder Project
Page 1 (1951 - 1959):
1951:
Current card in binder: none
Goal card(s): (Red Back) #1 Yogi Berra, #5 Phil Rizzuto, #22 Bob Feller, #30 Warren Spahn, #38 Duke Snider, or (Blue Back) #37 Bobby Doerr
The 1951 Topps cards are spread across two sets: Red Backs and Blue Backs. Unfortunately, I don't own any cards from either set, so my binder is starting out with a blank spot in it. Ultimately, I'd love to acquire Berra, Rizzuto, Feller, Spahn, or Snider from the Red Back set or Bobby Doerr from the Blue Back set. One interesting thing about the 1951 Topps sets is that the Red Back set has the stronger checklist, but the cards have less value overall because the Blue Back set is much rarer.
1952:
Current card in binder: #80 Herman Wehmeier
Goal card(s): #261 Willie Mays, #311 Mickey Mantle, #312 Jackie Robinson, #407 Eddie Matthews
The 1952 Topps set is perhaps the most famous baseball card set ever, certainly, it's the most famous "modern" set (i.e., post-war set). Obviously, the crown jewel of the 1952 set is the Mickey Mantle card, which I'd love to have for my binder! However, I don't realistically expect to ever own the Mantle. On the bright side, I'm happy that my 1952 Topps representative for the binder is a Cincinnati Reds player!
1953:
Current card in binder: #45 Grady Hatton
Goal card(s): #1 Jackie Robinson, #104 Yogi Berra, #244 Willie Mays
The 1953 Topps set is a gorgeous set with illustrations for each player as opposed to photographs. The name plate at the bottom changes colors depending on the player's team (National Leaguers have black boxes while American Leaguers have red boxes). Unfortunately, that same color box is where you can easily see the wear and tear that a card has experienced (my Hatton card was well-loved in a previous lifetime)!
1954:
Current card in binder: #33 Johnny Schmitz
Goal card(s): #1 Ted Williams, #94 Ernie Banks, #128 Hank Aaron, #201 Al Kaline
The 1954 set doesn't seem to get the same amount of love as the two previous years of Topps sets, however, I think it might be my personal favorite of the three sets! I love the two pictures and the team logo with the clean background. Throw in a faux signature and you've got a well-designed piece of baseball history!
1955:
Current card in binder: #148 Hal Brown
Goal card(s): #123 Sandy Koufax, #124 Harmon Killebrew, #164 Roberto Clemente
I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't love the 1955 Topps set, mostly due to its horizontal design. I'm a set collector first and foremost, and I find horizontally oriented baseball card sets to look rather wonky in a typical 9-pocket page. That being said, it's still a solid design since it's basically the 1954 design flipped 90 degrees.
1956:
Current card in binder: #34 Tom Brewer
Goal card(s): #15 Ernie Banks, #31 Hank Aaron, #292 Luis Aparicio
Topps returned to the horizontal design well once again in 1956, though this time the cards had a full background on the card front (as opposed to the single color background of the 1955 set). Personally, I enjoy the backgrounds of the '56 set, though I miss the large team logos from previous Topps sets.
1957:
Current card in binder: #141 Al Aber
Goal card(s): #18 Don Drysdale, #20 Hank Aaron, #35 Frank Robinson, #76 Roberto Clemente
The 1957 set is probably most noteworthy for being the first set with the now-standard card dimensions of 2.5" x 3.5". The set was also the first to feature full career statistics on the card back for each player.
1958:
Current card in binder: #399 Marv Grissom
Goal card(s): #30 Hank Aaron, #52 Roberto Clemente, #285 Frank Robinson
Topps returned to solid color backgrounds for the 1958 set, along with a return of the team logo on the card front. I approve of both of those changes, so much so, in fact, that it was the 2007 Topps Heritage set that was the first Heritage set that I completed (the '07 Heritage set is based on the 1958 Topps set).
1959:
Current card in binder: #433 Billy Harrell
Goal card(s): #10 Mickey Mantle, #202 Roger Maris, #514 Bob Gibson
We close out the first page of my Forever Topps Binder Project with another great design! I love the cut-out circle effect that Topps used for the '59 set (and the continuation of the team logo at the bottom of the card).
And here's page 1 thus far:
In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea for me to squeeze the oversized Topps cards into a regular 9-pocket page. Oh well, what's done is done now!
I really like this project. I was going to try and do a 8/9 pocket page of every year... but it never got off the ground. But one card is realistic. Best of luck! Looking forward to seeing your progress.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be a fun project to follow.
ReplyDeleteA fun project. You're certainly setting some lofty goals for each set. :p I have yet to get a blue-back 1951 (lucky for me all the Giants are red backs).
ReplyDeleteAlso. Agreed with you about 1955. Feels like a bridge between 54 and 56 and is not as nice as either of those nor interesting enough on its own terms.
I was wondering if you were going to go with another page type to accommodate the larger cards. Looking forward to future posts!
ReplyDeleteIf I had another page that would better house the bigger cards, I would do so. I definitely don't recommend squeezing them into a standard 9 pocket page like I did. Luckily, all of my super old cards are well-loved so condition isn't a concern for me!
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