When I was in high school, I remember going with my friend Gary Liebowitz tracking down the baseball cards at Woolworths and seeing if we can sit what cards were available by slowly going through the Topps rak paks.
In 1989, Upper Deck came out with a super premium baseball card set that pretty much ruined the business when other manufacturers needed their own high end products creating a baseball card bubble that burst after the 1994 baseball strike. Even with Topps now being the only official manufacturer of cards of Major League Baseball, they still put out so many sets that the average collector cant keep up with. It’s also part of the reason why you don’t see so many kids collecting baseball cards.
Topps has been in the business of producing baseball cards for 65 years. So to celebrate, they unleashed a baseball card set that will set any collector back a couple of shekels.
Topps is selling a box their 2016 Transcedent series to celebrate their 65 years producing baseball cards for about $22,000.
Actually, it’s not a box for $22,0000, it’s an actual polished aluminum briefcase. There are only 65 cases being sold, which explains why the high price tag. Each of the 65 cases will contain 50 gold-framed autographed cards from a checklist of 39 subjects. Every case will have at least one autograph of each subject.
Other goodies in the case:
• 50 framed autographs from 39 signers including big names like Barry Bonds, Bryce Harper and Nolan Ryan.
• At least one autograph from each of the 39 signers .
• The possibility of a low-numbered paralleled version of the signers, including at least one guaranteed 1-of-1
• 1 Kris Bryant 1-of-1 autograph featuring one of the historic Topps designs
• 1 cut signature oversized box topper of a baseball, historical or pop culture icon. Autographs that could be had in one of these briefcases: autographs of 16 presidents including George Washington and FDR; Robin Williams, Bette Davis, Christopher Reeve, Jerry Garcia, Tupac Shakur, Johnny Cash, Ingrid Bergman, Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn, Gordie Howe, Red Auerbach, Pete Maravich, Jesse Owens, Joe Frazier, Rocky Marciano, and John Unitas and Vince Lombardi.
• 1 hand-drawn sketch – a 1-of-1
• 1 complete set of the sketch reproduction (numbered to 65)
• 1 complete set of the MLB Icons (50 cards, numbered to 65)
• 1 invitation to Topps 65th Anniversary party in Las Vegas with Kris Bryant.
These briefcases wont be available at Woolworth’s.
