Do you remember a little over a month ago when I first reported that Topps would be releasing the 2023 version of their NPB set in mid-May? I was guardedly optimistic about the set because it looked like Topps had actually made an effort to make their packaging attractive. I guess I was hoping that that effort would carry over to the cards themselves.
Nope.
I had been getting some hints from what I saw up for auction on Yahoo! Japan Auctions the last week or so but it wasn't until just now when Jambalaya put the entire set online that my fears about the set were confirmed - it's really bad. How bad is it? Let me count the ways:
1. One of the causes of my misplaced optimism was that the set was coming out earlier in the year than the previous two incarnations (November of 2021 and September of 2022). What hadn't occurred to me is that by pushing their publication date up until May it would make it next to impossible for Topps to use any photographs that were actually taken in 2023. I mean, obviously I'm being unreasonable in expecting Topps to have gotten photographs from this year since the players have only been in uniform for...checks notes...four and a half months now. The fact that BBM is using photos from this year in a set that came out last month is apparently miraculous.
2. The only photos that aren't from last season are for the 2022 draft picks - all of those cards are posed shots either from the team's introductory press conference or some sort of photo day where the players had their photo taken in front of a blank screen (some of which had a background superimposed on the screen) - and the four "new" managers. Akinobu Okada, Kazuo Matsui and Takahiro Arai all have posed shots in front of screens while I think the photo on Masato Yoshii's card was taken at the Marines Fan Fest last November (and I actually like that photo).
3. One of the results of there being no photos taken this year is that there are no cards of any players who changed teams over the winter. So no Kosuke Kondoh, no Tomoya Mori, no Yota Kyoda, no Nobuhiro Matsuda and no Hideaki Wakui. Also obviously no new foreign players so no Lewis Brinson, David MacKinnon, Sheldon Neuse or Maikel Franco.
4. Bizarrely Topps DID include a card for Yariel Rodriguez who defected from Cuba in late March. Maybe this set went to press earlier than you'd think with a May release.
5. The front design resembles the 2023 Topps MLB set but lacks the head shot in the lower left of the card. Probably a good thing as the rookie cards would have most likely had the same photo used again for the head shot. I think the cards would have been a bit more attractive using the same design as the MLB cards though.
6. The backs once again are terrible. Here's the back of Roki Sasaki's card. It's got his height, weight, bats right, throws right, year drafted, uniform number, last year's stats and his career stats and that's it. Well, all that, a team logo and a lot of empty space.
7. The "Heritage" or "Retro" insert cards using the 2001 Topps design have white borders instead of green ones. I have no idea why. Maybe it's some tribute to Gandalf or Starbuck.
I bought my copy of this set yesterday and I'm kind of wishing I hadn't now. I really don't understand what Topps is thinking with this crap. BBM, Epoch and even Calbee do so much of a better job with their baseball cards. These are just lousy. And I'm sure we're going to be subjected again to an overpriced ugly Chrome version of these lousy cards in a few months followed by a Bowman set featuring a bunch of guys on development contracts that we'll never hear from again.
I feel like Topps is trying to be Epoch but doing a half assed job of it. I'd really rather see Topps embrace their Topps-ness for NPB. Decide on an All Star Rookie team - it'd have been cool to have had a little trophy on Taisei's card. Do hero numbers - card #100 in this set should have been Munetaka Murakami, not Tatsunori Hara. And for the love of God, do a "Heritage" or "Archives" style set! The best thing Topps has going for it and the one thing that no other company in Japan can bring to the table is 70 plus years of card designs. I can't imagine that a half active player, half OB player set using old designs wouldn't end up doing better than this nonsense.
8 comments:
Sigh, I just hate this Topps NPB stuff so much.
Please don't buy it, it just encourages them.
I'm seriously concerned about the prospect of Topps/Fanatics trying to re-create the monopoly they have in the US here in Japan and foisting this garbage onto us by scooping an exclusive license or something. I hope Calbee, BBM and Epoch are able to fend something like that off, because Topps is by far the worst maker of NPB cards out there and if they do take the market over I'll just stop collecting new cards completely.
Oof. Interesting that those Topps cards manage to delete the most interesting thing of the MLB design but also deleted 75% of the things (specifically the norelco lift and cut slashies) that drive me nuts about the design. But in general this feels like the bare minimum of effort went into these and an entirely unserious approach to a set.
@Sean - yeah, I need to control my knee-jerk urge to buy complete sets. Problem is that the Topps complete sets seem to only be available for a little bit so if I don't grab one when I get a chance, I won't get one at all. Which might not be a bad thing of course.
I'm not too concerned about Topps/Fanatics getting a monopoly on cards in Japan. I guess if they wanted to throw a ton of money at NPB to get exclusive rights they could but I'd be surprised if the market was lucrative enough to make it worth their while.
@Nick - That's Topps NPB in a nutshell - bare minimum of effort and entirely unserious approach
I bought a couple packs at the giants game the other day in hopes of a Roki sasaki card and luckily I got one! Will likely stick to calbee from now as it’s the only sasaki I haven’t found yet.
As much as I have been a Topps supporter since I started collecting back in the early 80's... the last thing I want to hear is that they come into another country and push out their competitors (especially when they're producing a subpar product). Glad you don't think it'll ever happen, because a hobby without Calbee and BBM cards would be a little depressing.
@Anonymous - Nice pull! And now you don't need to buy any more packs of Topps! And just so you know, Sasaki's not in this year's Calbee Series One set.
@Fuji - Like Sean, I'd probably stop collecting NPB cards if they pushed BBM and Calbee out
Sasaki is in it but his card is a “star card” which I pulled about an hour ago! So lucky!!
Ahh, of course, I forgot about the inserts. Can you tell I mostly think about base sets? Nice pull!
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