2020 Topps Series One Review

This is an unpaid shill for 2020 Topps Series one.

Many within the hobby look down on the “shills” who pump up the card companies. I’m okay with being a Topps shill for this blog post. By the way, look at the results from this poll.

Looks like many collectors would shill for a card company. Truth be told, if I don’t like a product I’ll blog about, like my hatred for how Topps brought back Topps Total in 2019.

For some reason, I’ll always shill the first baseball card product of the year - Topps Series one. It’s probably for the simple fact that it’s the first baseball card of the new season, and I’m tired of winter. The release of Topps means baseball is right around the corner. I’ll always give it a beaming review. However, I do have some negative takeaways for the 2020 Topps.

This year is a purging year for my collection. Over the past few years I have acquired and acquired cards to the count of two million trading cards. This has created a space issue within my card room...and large card closet...and even out basement storage area that is supposed to be a baseball card free zone.

With my purging this year comes buying less and less wax. But I can’t completely shut out buying some boxes, and I had to dive into 2020 Topps Series one. I bought one blaster box and one hanger box last weekend.

First, my review of 2020 Topps Series one base cards. I like the design, but I’m also bias because I am excited for a new year of baseball. One negative for this year’s design is the layout of the player name. I do not like the sideways placement.

The Future Stars cards have been something I look forward to every year since seeing the first one as a kid - a 1989 Topps Mike Harkey. The “FUTURE STARS” was bright and prominent at the top of the cards in that Topps set. In 2020...not so much. Too easy to miss.

Manufactured relics? Hate them. But wait...in 2020, Topps has changed it up a bit. It’s a clean look with a small rookie logo in these ultra thick inserts. Two thumbs up on these!

The gold parallels are also easy to miss much like the Future Stars. The first card I pulled in 2020 was the New York Yankees team card. But within the same blaster box I pulled a second one. Oh wait...that’s the gold parallel.

Topps also brought back a Turkey Red as a retail only insert set. It’s nice to see Turkey Red again and these cards look great. But, please do not bring them back year after year.

Now to the good stuff, and by that I mean....Chicago Cubs baseball cards. This year’s questionable inclusion on the Series one team checklist is Danny Hultzen joining Francisco Arcia (2019) and Drew Smyly (2018) as Cubs head scratchers.

Unique images are always to my liking. It seems there are too many standard poses, batting stances, etc. I enjoy a good in-action shot such as David Bote flipping the baseball. Added cool factor for the sunglasses.

Not a batting stance, but a home run stare. Kyle Schwarber admires his hit in this image.

Even though Jose Quintana is pictured in a generic pitching motion, credit goes to the placement of the image of the card. Look where Quintana’s glove is in comparison to the little cutout in the design. Well placed, and a nice flow.

I like how we see a scrunched up Kyle Hendricks and his New Balance cleat gets in the shot.

Another generic batting image here of Robel Garcia, but this picture is placed strategically like Quintana. It’s like a puzzle the way Garcia’s hands fit into the design.

Adbert Alzolay gets a rookie card along with Hultzen and Garcia. Similar shot as Hendricks.

The dreaded horizontal card. I hate horizontal cards, but I guess it does open it up to more images that can be placed on a card.

The Chicago Cubs team card is just awesome. Kris Bryant about to score. Anthony Rizzo excitedly yelling. Javy being Javy. David Bote cheering on and Albert Almora caught in mid-air. Exciting stuff and I hope we get to see a lot of this from the Cubs in 2020.

I pulled one Chicago Cubs insert card. It’s the 1997 Topps design and its a new Ryne Sandberg card.

Overall, 2020 Topps gets two thumbs up from this collector.