MAILDAY!

You'd be pretty excited too, if you bought a lot of 1998-2000 Stadium Club Triumvirate/3X3's for only $22.

Top 10 National Pick-Ups: #10. It's for "Members Only."

#10: 1991 Stadium Club Charter Member kit (w/o membership card).

Paid $10.



Has it really been 20 years since Topps first introduced Stadium Club? Yes, yes it has. Sadly, I am no longer the little bastard who pilfered those $8 Series One packs ($8! For a pack of cards!) into the waistband of my Umbro shorts, then ran out the fire exit into the Cherry Hill Mall parking lot. Nor am I the kid who begged my parents to eat our ceremonial Friday night dinner at McDonald's just so I could get a Series Two pack for $1.99 with the purchase of any size order of Fries.

The Hobby had never seen a card like Stadium Club before, but what few collectors remember is that Topps' Stadium Club was exactly that, a club. If you've ever ripped into any packs of early-to-mid-90s Stadium Club, you probably remember those one-per-pack solicitations to get you to join this club. For a one-time annual fee, Topps would send you a special "Members Only" set.

Yeah, that's right. MEMBERS ONLY. It even said so on the bottom of the cards.

For a brief period in the early-90s, Topps also published a bi-monthly magazine, and they threw in a subscription with your membership. In later years, Stadium Club members also were given the privilege of purchasing special "Members Only" factory sets of that year's Stadium Club set. These factory sets were extremely limited and, as a special bonus, also included most of the inserts. In all my years of collecting, I have yet to see any of these Members Only factory sets. I've seen some singles, but not an in-tact set.

As part of the launch of 1991 Stadium Club Baseball Series One, Topps gave all the initial Stadium Club members a special collector's kit. The kit included an exclusive 50-card "Charter Member" set. About two-thirds of the cards were of baseball players, and the rest of players from the two other sports Topps had licenses to at the time (NFL & NHL). The kit also included the standard membership card, a Stadium Club key chain, and a bronze ingot of Nolan Ryan.



The Ryan ingot looks like one of those cheesy "Gold Cards" you probably saw Don West shilling on Shop at Home back in the day. But this thing is FUCKING HEAVY AS SHIT! You could probably do some damage with this thing if you needed to. And as an piece of advice, I wouldn't recommend carrying this thing through airport security.


Being that my parents (wisely) wouldn't trust me with a checkbook and an ATM card, I wasn't able to join the Stadium Club few the first few years. But I have been able to pick up the various Members Only sets over the years. So when I saw a Charter Member kit for sale for only $10, it was a no-brainer, and #10 on my list of National pick-ups.

But to be honest with you, I got this for one thing and one thing only: The key chain.

KEY CHAIN-JO!!!

#10: It's for "Members Only"
#9: The case of the mysterious rookie reprint
#8: 75 for 25
#7: A point is a point
#6: OH NOEZ!!!!!
#5: What do they know about partying? Or anything else?
#4: Epix Mo-Jo!!!
#3: Satisfyin' the ladies, one printin' plate at a time
#2: The Mother of all junk waxboxes
#1: Ironic ain't just the name of an Alanis Morrisette song

UPDATED!!!! 1st Impressions: Various Topps Late-Season Products

UPDATED!!!!

Updates & Highlights

The sell sheets for TU&H have been posted for a while on this one. There are the usual inserts, and one-per-box autogamers. But the selling point is, of course, the 330-card base set.

A certain player who should have been card #645 in series two, is listed on the checklist as card #UH1. Then again, this is Topps, and given their track record this year I wouldn't put it past Topps to find a way to gimmick this up as well.

Stadium Club Retail

2008 Stadium Club is starting to look a lot like last year's Ultra SE after all, as Topps will release a stripped down version for retail. That the good news. The bad news: I finally figured out what's actually in Stadium Club.

Of the 150 cards in the base set, 50 are gimmicked "rookies" each numbered to only 1499 copies. If that's not bad enough, while each Hobby five-card pack will have a base rookie, retail has a "Retail Exclusive Rookie First Day Issue Parallel Card." So, are we supposed to believe that the base set rookies are Hobby-exclusive and the retail (read: the version for the rest of us) is stuck with a one-per-pack parallel?

That would royally suck.

Topps Heritage High Numbers

UPDATE:

Base Set: 220 cards (numbered 501-720). 45 cards are of rookies, 35 will be short-printed -- no odds stated.

Each pack will have two cards from the Topps Updates & Highlights set -- therefore giving you an excuse NOT to buy TU&H.

Inserts: 15 Rookie Performers, 10 Then & Now, 10 2008 Flashbacks.

Two Chrome/Refractors per waxbox.

One Autogamer per waxbox.

Street Date: Oct. 13

1st Impressions: Stadium Club "SE"

Just when I thought Topps was starting to get its act together, comes this. Topps is bringing back Stadium Club. But instead of the "Stadium Club" we all remember, Topps is giving The Hobby another overpriced gimmick-infused product. (And you thought we were in a recession!)

Each $25 five-card Hobby waxpack will yield an autograph, a gimmicked "rookie," and a serial-numbered parallel.

Let me repeat that: each $25, five-card Hobby waxpack will have an autograph, a gimmicked "rookie," and a parallel. That leaves only two base set cards in each pack. (Good luck actually trying to collect this.)

So like I said, this isn't the real Stadium Club, it's more like last year's Ultra "SE." It's Stadium Club "SE."

To be sure, 2008 Stadium Club will get Joe Collector in a tizzy, and I have a feeling that Joe is who Topps is marketing SC-SE to. (I can only imagine Joe's reaction on the Beckett Boards when the sell sheets are finally posted.) But for the rest of us... Hopefully, Topps will follow UpperFleerDeck's lead and make a stripped-down gimmick-free version of Stadium Club for retail.

Street Date: November 3rd. More details as they develop.

(h/t's Wax Heaven and Fielder's Choice)

BRING BACK THE SC!

One trend in The Hobby that has developed over the past few years has been the "The Whale." Whales are the kind of folks who aren't afraid to plunk down $500-$1000/week on products like UD Black and Topps Sterling, knowing full well that the cards they receive will never, ever, be worth what they paid for.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've never paid more than $10 for a pack of new cards. (I ripped a few packs of '96 Leaf Signature when they came out for the novelty of it. Pulled autographs of Frank Rodriguez and Dean Palmer, and promised I'd never be that foolish again.) Not to sound sanctimonious, but these kinds of products never appealed to me as a collector. I understand that there's a market for sets like this, but they're not for me.

With that said, the country faces economic uncertainty and with such uncertainty, often the first thing to go are luxury goods. Luxury goods, such as $100/pack card sets like UD Black and Topps Sterling.

And therein lies the problem. The Hobby has become too dependent on Whales and it's not good for any business to be dependent on one class of customer.

What The Hobby needs now are more down-market products. Now, by "down-market" I'm not saying more crap like Opening Day. Collector's will still crave quality products. But a quality products that are both affordable AND collectible.

What The Hobby doesn't need now are more gimmicks. We don't need autograph cards of forgotten hair-metal bands. We don't need fake cards of of fake "prospects." We don't need more cards of dead presidents and we don't need presidential candidates airbrushed onto cards of current players.

What The Hobby needs now, more than ever, is Stadium Club. Ryan of Trader Crack's has started a letter writing campaign bring back Stadium Club Baseball and I share many of his sentiments. But I believe it's important to distinguish what Stadium Club set to bring back.

Topps issued a product called "Stadium Club" in basketball this year; however, the product bore little resemblance to the Stadium Club we all knew and loved. It was just another indistinguishable one-hit-per-$15-pack.

What The Hobby needs is the REAL Stadium Club. A product like the 1996-99 era SC. A $3-$5/pack, 300-400 card, single series set with quality photography, a clean design, and NO gimmicks. (i.e. short-printed "rookies," three-per-box game jerseys, et al)

While it may be too late for 2008, I'd love to see The Mighty Stadium Club Baseball make its triumphant return in '09. Would you rather have another year of swill like Moments & Milestones, Co-Signers, or Topps 52; or would you rather have Stadium Club back?

Yeah, I thought so. Get off your ass and write Topps a letter demanding they bring back Stadium Club!