First Look: 2012 Topps Museum Collection
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
Topps unveiled a new baseball card line for 2012 on Friday — but if you’ve seen it before you’re not crazy.
It’s 2012 Topps Museum Collection — a high-end line with four packs per box and one Relic or autographed Relic in every pack. Where’s the crazy part come in? Earlier this year — actually less than a month ago — the company teased 2012 Topps Marquee.
It appears this offering has since been re-named since then as it aims to feature “the most-striking cards of 2011 … now the centerpiece of their own product.”
Each pack also will have three base cards and one blue parallel in every pack, while each box is guaranteed to include one on-card autograph, one autographed Relic, one jumbo Relic and one quad Relic. Meanwhile, every case will include an autographed jumbo Relic and one framed Museum Collection on-card auto as well when it arrives on April 6.
The Museum Collection framed autos will now come in three colors — Gold, Silver and Black. Golds will be limited to 15, while Silvers will be limited to 10 and Blacks will be limited to just five copies.
Meanwhile, the dual on-card autograph checklist will include 25 cards and pair big names — each limited to just 15 — while there will be 15 cut cards that showcase legendary ink from the past. Each of those will be 1/1s.
Insert cards in the set will include Canvas Collection Originals — players on original paintings with each card limited to 10 copies — while those paintings also will be seen on one-per-box reproductions as well. Some of the players in that one? Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Nolan Ryan, Ichiro Suzuki, Joe Mauer, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Reggie Jackson to name a few.
Among the autographed Relic offerings are eight different sets. Signature Swatches will have dual Relics, dual patches and red parallels; meanwhile Signature Swatches single-player triple Relics will have standard, red and patch versions. Rounding out the lineup are Momentous Materials jumbo Relic autos and Primary Pieces quad Relic autos, which will be booklet cards limited to just 10 copies apiece.
The one-per-box jumbo Relics will come from one of 12 sets in the product — none more plentiful than 50 copies apiece. The Momentous Materials jumbo checklist will include more than 100 players with each of them paralleled as Blue (/35), Red (/10) and Gold 1/1s. Jumbo Lumber Relics will be limited to 30 or less with 75 players also found on Blue (/20), Red (/5) and Gold 1/1s. The Dual Momentous Material jumbos will be booklets with just 30 of those each limited to just five copies. Rounding out the jumbos are Jumbo Lumber Relic booklets, Jumbo Patch Relics (each limited to five apiece) and Museum Memorabilia — all 1/1s.
Ten different sets will make up the quad Relic offerings — all numbered to 99 or less.
The base set will consist of just 100 cards — a mix of Hall of Famers, retired and current stars — all of which will be paralleled four times with Red 1/1s being the rarest.
Some of the signers tentatively lined up for this one? Koufax, Mays, Aaron, Ryan Braun, Albert Pujols. Nolan Ryan, Matt Kemp, Reggie Jackson, Prince Fielder, Stan Musial, Josh Hamilton, Cal Ripken Jr. Eric Hosmer, Jesus Montero, Mike Trout and Tony Gwynn just to name a few.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
(Click on the images for an unobstructed view.)
dear topps
the solution to making products better is not adding new parallels or variations
So is this instead of Marquee, or in adition to Marquee?
Wow, This product actually caught my eye for a change! As long as box prices stay reasonable that is!!!! These cards to me look very sharp….. Its nice not to see the same ole same ole….. Lets just see how much it is when its here!
Poo! Bring back Topps Sterling!
Poo! Bring back Topps Total!
And later this year they will tease 2012 Topps Marquee Museum Collection, Platinum Threads Edition.
Let me guess… another FAIL Topps baseball product with crappy bat and single color jersey relics, one star card in a million and a whole bunch of low-numbered garbage players… just like every other past attempt… bring on Panini baseball!
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More high-end junk. Yay.
This product looks great. I just hope they don’t include players like lower tiers players like they tend to do. Who wants to spend around $100+ to get crappy players worth $10.
Did Topps actually say they were changing the product name or did they just forget what happened a month ago??? Here would be a better idea for Topps…take the autos and mix them into other product lines…put no guarantee on them and do what Donruss did with their biography series in 2005 (shocking that year keeps coming up) by interspersing them into various 2012 releases…this way one doesnt spend $160 for a box of Drew Storen and Nelson Cruz and Marlon Bryd game used autos hoping to get on decent hit
yes another new product dedicated to jose tabata, andrew cashner and marlon byrd auto/relic cards
Roughly $50 a pack based on cost to dealers… Should be in place of Marquee as it is same design as 2012 tease — just renamed. Also same format.
No, serious Topps, bring back Topps Total!
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Junk. Pure junk. How ugly everything Topps has become. Why don’t they listen? Is it that there are so many morons in the world?
MAY be an improvement over Marquee, but I’ll wait to see final checklist. So many of us are saying the same things…isn’t Topps listening? Enough w/ these high-end products stuffed w/ crappy auto’s. Seriously, in Tier 1 how the heck did they get away w/ auto’s #’d higher than base cards??? WTF. I’m so sick of Topps claiming to have the definitive auto checklist, only to keep finding the same crap.
Is it possible to have a product with about a 50-100 card auto checklist that has all decent players? Im not saying I need to pull a Pujols or Koufax everytime. But I would love to see a product where the WORST auto is someone like Clayton Kershaw or Dustin Pedroia.
Is this feasible/marketable???
PS: If Topps won’t listen, I hope Panini does. Topps is losing our trust in their new product lines. Getting to point where we won’t care that the players aren’t in uniform. I really hope Panini seizes this opportunity and exploits Topps’s weaknesses. They should makes full use of their MLBPA license…
@ 50.00 a pack where is the beef?
For every $300 Pujols autographs Topps pays for — which is a negative on that pack — there has to be a card that costs a lot less to be signed … it all has to even out.
Nice looking product, but what they conveniently forget to mention is that for every Willie Mays or Cal Ripken Jr. autograph there are 5,000 Ivan Nova’s and 10,000 Angel Pagans
Stop putting the 1 million prospect cards #999 in your vets products
Tribute
marquee
tier one
museum collection
should just be vets and hofers
It doesnt cost 300 bucks to verify that the relics they place on the cards actual Player worn, game used items. A Pujols jersey card can actually be a Brad Penny jersey with Pujols pictured…What a shame.
I agree with scott87…..how do we know which uniform ends up on which card(s). And why does it cost SO MUCH more for brands like Exquisite & the Cup & Dominion & many other higher end brands-when their same auto’s in lower end brands look the same as the higher end brands ???????????????????????
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Just saw the base card for Evan Longoria…its the same photo from Marquee. That is ridiculous to me….I can accept that from Cobb cards, Wagner, etc., players from 100 years ago…but current players?
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This is another waste of money. I think Topps is trying really hard to annoy the crap out of everybody who have money to buy their “high-end products”. This product is a shame and I think I am stopping spending my money on this garbage being produce by Topps. I am sending a letter to MLB properties to do something about it.