Collectors seem to like acetate cards and autographed cards, so Topps recently came out with a product that is made up entirely of autographed acetate cards, 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic. There is one encased autograph in each box, and there are twenty boxes in a case. Most cases hold 18 cards from the regular checklist and 2 cards from the Rookie Reprint checklist. The regular checklist is made up of 82 cards of current players on this year's Topps flagship design. The Rookie Reprint checklist contains a mix of retired and current players, but reprints their rookie cards on acetate. I believe all of the Rookie Reprints and their parallels are numbered, while only parallels from the base checklist are numbered. Some of the base cards have photo variations, but I don't know if they are seeded any differently.
I'm a sucker for a card gimmick, so I went out and found the best mix of group break slots I could, trying to get the largest number of possible cards for the least amount of money. I wound up with the Phillies and Reds in one break, and the Phillies and Mets in another break. I got shut out on the Reds in the first break, but I got 4 different Phillies in the case. The only one I didn't get was Maikel Franco. First up is this Jorge Alfaro card. You can see from the scan of the back how transparent the cards are. It's a pretty cool effect, and I think they look better in person because running them through my scanner makes them blurry. It has a hard time knowing what to focus on with encased cards.
The next card I got was this Roman Quinn horizontal shot. My only real complaint about this set is that some of the autographs are faint or streaky. I think Quinn's autograph is the worst of the bunch I picked up in that regard.
Next up out of the case was Jake Thompson. He's been bounced back and forth between the MLB and AAA levels all season, and he's had some struggles. As far as I can tell, though, he's still pretty young and has time to figure things out.
The last card for me out of that case was Aaron Nola, a pretty good pitcher for the rebuilding team. I think he has a cool signature, even if I can't see his name in it. It kind of looks to me like his signature says 'tawns.' It was pretty nice to get four cards out of a 20-card case. It would have been nice to pull a parallel or a Reds card, but I can't complain too much after getting 20% of the cards in the case from one of the cheapest slots in the break.
In the other case, I had the Phillies and the Mets. I didn't pull any Phillies, and I didn't get any Mets until the very last card in the break. I got this redemption card for a Red parallel of Steven Matz. Matz has had a rough year, starting the season on the DL, having a rough run of games, and then going back on the DL with a season-ending elbow injury. I think that if I were a pitcher, I'd be running far away from the Mets. The Red parallels are numbered # / 50. I'll revisit this one when/if Topps successfully acquires the signed card.
For some reason I also bid on and won this Kenta Maeda Red parallel on eBay. I don't collect the Dodgers and I don't have a Maeda collection, but I went out and got this card. I must have been caught up in trying to gather some cards from the set, and threw out some bids on a bunch of auctions that were closing. This one is numbered # 43 / 50. The signature is a little faint on this one, but it's a pretty cool card.
And that's my foray into 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic. I don't anticipate chasing down much more of this product, but you never know what will happen.
I really like this concept. I'm sort of almost glad they don't have the NBA license because this set would cost me a lot of money if they did.
ReplyDeleteThe cards are pretty cool-looking. The per-box price is pretty tough to swallow, though, as most of the checklist is made up of guys whose cards aren't worth that much.
DeleteAn NBA version would be pretty cool, especially with a lot of good action shots of things like blocks and dunks. Or they could do those photos from behind-the-backboard, and make it look like the acetate was the backboard.
I noticed the streaky autographs on some of the cards as well. I've picked up all the Vogelbach parallels, which were fun to chase. Most of my autos are a little streaky though, because the better autos went for a little more money during the bidding process.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you've gotta get that BGS 10 rating on the autograph or it kills the value of the card!
DeleteAcetate and on-card autographs are definitely targeted at collectors like myself. Had this product been released at the start of summer instead of at the end... I probably would have grabbed the Altuve, Maddux, Henderson, (Steve) Carlton, Thomas, and possibly the Kershaw. I've seen singles of all of these guys (except Maddux) sell for reasonable prices... but now that I'm on a tight budget those days are gone. I still might grab Altuve and Carlton since both of those guys have sold for under $30.
ReplyDeleteThese are cool cards, no doubt. Good luck on getting a few of your favorites for your collection!
DeleteAs a guy who owns a few clear acetate autographs of Luis Torrens, these clear autographs can be really nice. My only complaint is that they are very thick and hard to store. You're stuck with toploaders or sacrificing one of the bigger pocket pages for a binder (which only works if you use a 3x3 binder). Personally I wouldn't mind if these were a wee bit thinner. Maybe around the thickness of your average jersey relic.
ReplyDeleteThey are really nice. The encased cards are pretty hard to store. I am still developing an organizational system for my collection, and I know that oversized stuff (graded cards, encased cards, 5 x 7 cards, magazines) is going to be disproportionately more difficult to store than all of my regular-sized cards.
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