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By: Danny Laurel
After a stellar performance in its first go-round, Topps is bringing back Inception Baseball. The format is basically the same: Each box will have four on-card autographs and one autographed relic. Inception only works because the autos are on-card, the design doesn’t allow for sticker autographs; especially for the price point.
I didn’t buy a box from 2013, but I was able to snag a Carlos Correa autograph and I really do like the cards from the set. Topps was able to fix the isses from the very first football issue which had tons of chipping. Not to say there is a guaranteed fix- Five-Star had a large price point and still had various chipping issues as well.
Autographs:
Prospect autographs, signed on card will have the following parallels:
- Gold- #/99
- Blue-#/75
- Pink-#/50
- Green-#/25
- Red-#/10
- Purple-#/5
- Inception-1/1
- Printing Plates-1/1
There are also Inscription autographs that will have that and the signature. These will be numbered to ten copies. In addition to the prospect autos, rookie autographs will be featured and have the same paralleling as the prospect autos. This helps have a smaller autograph checklist, but stil give some depth the amount of cards that can be included.
Additional autographs include Silver Signings that will feature silver ink signatures numbered to 24, and Mettalic Red Ink (#/5 and looked horrible on Tier One) and Gold Ink (1/1).
“Inceptioned” autographs will be 2014 Bowman baseball cards given the Inception filter with autograph, numbered to 35 and maybe seemed like a good idea, but to me just seems lazy.
Bowman Black is back and will be numbered to 25.
AUTOGRAPHED RELICS:
Autograph Relics and Patches: Prospects and Rookies,
featuring an autographed sticker and a swatch or patch, will
have the following parallels:
- Pink Parallel (relic only): Sequentially numbered to 50
- Green Parallel (relic only): Sequentially numbered to 25
- Orange PATCH Parallel: Sequentially numbered to 15
- Red PATCH Parallel: Sequentially numbered to 10
- Gold Parallel (relic only): Sequentially numbered to 10
- Purple JUMBO PATCH Parallel: Sequentially numbered to 5
- Blue JUMBO Parallel (relic only): Sequentially numbered to 5
- Inception PATCH JUMBO Parallel: Sequentially numbered 1/1
- Silver JUMBO Parallel (relic only): Sequentially numbered 1/1
- Dual Autograph Patch Card: Featuring stickerautographs and patches of two players. #’d to 15
- Triple Autograph Patch Card: Featuring stickerautographs and patches of three players. #’d to 5
Autographed MLB® Silhouetted Batter Logo Patch: Rookies and Prospectsfeaturing an MLB® patch from the collar of a jersey and an autograph sticker. #’d 1/1Autographed Letter Patch: Featuring full-sized letter patches and autographs of rookiesa and prospects. Sequentially numbered to 2.
Inserts:
1989 “Bowman is Back” Silver Diamond Refractor:
This insert is a continuity program in all Bowman products,
celebrating the year that Bowman cards started to be
produced again in 1989.
UA All-America Contest Insert
One collector will win a trip to the Under Armour
All-America event in Chicago.
What I think:
Overall I think Inception is a great product. If Topps isn’t going to bring back Topps Sterling then I can be happy cherry picking my favorite players from here. Inception prices seem to weaken after initial release even with the autos being 0n-card. The previously mentioned Correa card can be fetched much cheaper than his regular Bowman autograph.
I do have an issue with some of the design aspects of 2014 Inception though. Looking at some of the preview images I can’t help but think it looks a lot like Bowman Sterling. It may be just me but let’s have a look,shall we?
So it’s a bit of a stretch, but put on a streaky filter and you basically have the same design. Nevermind the fact that this years’ Sterling looks like the Leaf Rize product. AM I RIGHT!?
Anywho, Inception is fun to look at. Great card stock, good on-card autos. If I was a gambling man I would buy a box, or case, but I’m not, so I’ll wait until release to buy up all of the Appel cards. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comment section below-
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