Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Heritage High Numbers Returns!

Image: Topps.com

Life is good!

I'm about to embark on a five-day holiday from work thanks to the bloated and overreaching New Jersey Education Association and their annual teachers conference in Atlantic City.  I'm not a teacher and I'm not union, so instead of attending workshops I get to sit on my butt and eat leftover Halloween and watch Monk reruns on Thursday and Friday from the comfort of my cozy abode.

And if that's not good enough, I just stumbled upon a morsel of news earlier today that sent my inner collector swooning: Topps is once again creating a High Numbers set for Heritage!

Check it out:  http://www.topps.com/2013-topps-heritage-high-number-baseball.html

I know a lot of folks were unhappy with the price tag on this set, which is once again as it was last year ($99.99). I don't necessarily disagree with the complaints, because that's a lot of dough for just 100 cards plus a special on-card autograph.  But, for Heritage nuts like myself, what else can you do?  Not having it would be a major downer, as my 2013 Heritage set would be forever incomplete.  And, since I'm a nerd, that kinda stuff matters to me.

Besides, I'll just slap it on my Christmas list and cross off a bunch of DVD boxed sets that I'll never get around to watching in a timely manner.  Problem solved!

As far as the checklist, it's pretty loaded.  Yasiel Puig, Jose Fernandez, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Wil Myers, Michael Wacha, and Gerrit Cole are among the big-name rookies found in this little box.  And in terms of veterans who were left out of the regular Heritage edition, Koji Uehara, Jose Iglasias, Jason Giambi, Travis Hafner, Bartolo Colon, and Miguel Tejada highlight the list of familiar names.

My lowly Mets have just two cards in the set: Zack Wheeler and...John Buck?!?  What the heck, Buck didn't even finish the season with the Mets!  Oh well, it'll be great to get a Wheeler card out of the deal, I suppose.

And speaking of Wheeler, he is one of the subjects featured on a "Real One" autograph card, one of which will be randomly placed in each box.  In fact, every one of the auto cards are rookies.  The aforementioned Puig, Fernandez, and Myers are there, along with the likes of Jurickson Profar, Shelby Miller, and Manny Machado--each of whom were in the regular set, but featured on a split-player "Rookie Stars" card.

Sounds like a pretty amazing set with the prospect of landing a high-end autograph.  Color me excited!

The only mystery left around this product is the release date.  I haven't been able to peg that down after a check of a few usually-reliable sites.  So I guess I'll just my eyes open over the next few weeks.

Anyone else going to take the plunge and pick up one of these bad boys?

MK

5 comments:

  1. Here is the difference between your team and mine. You are disappointed to only have 2 cards, but I am excited that we do have 2 cards + an auto. Last year's set only included Jamie Moyer for the Rox and he was released in May.

    To answer your question no I am not buying one, but I do hope to snare the Rockies from some place.

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  2. I only noticed one Brewer in the set and I'm sure I'll be able to pick it up pretty cheap from someone only buying the set for the Puig.

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  3. Two Padres as well, rookie stud Jedd Gyorko and oft-injured outfielder Kyle Blanks. Won't be picking this one up, but hopefully get these two from another source. Two Padre autos as well, in Gyorko and didn't-play-a-single-game-this-year-because-of-Tommy-John-surgery pitcher Casey Kelly. Both have autographs in basically every single Topps release this year, so not getting those won't be a HUGE deal, but I DO prefer the design of Heritage to stuff like Chrome and Bowman, so I'll keep a lookout.

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  4. Like last year, I hope some sucker ... er, kind soul, buys the set and then sells/trades off the cards to other collectors. I don't like having to go through this every year, and I'd gladly not have the high numbers set so I wouldn't. It'd save some money during a time of the year when spending on myself is not recommended. (Can't put it on christmas list either without hearing burst of laughter)

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  5. I was going to write exactly what Night Owl wrote, basically. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a set buster.

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