Stadium Club is Okay, I Guess

An extremely myopic view of the latest Topps revival.

After reading a lot of rather negative things on the Twitter about this year's Topps Stadium Club release, I was expecting an envelope full of turds and razorblades when I won a couple of Listia auctions featuring these new cards. Instead, I think we're left with a set design that could have easily been 2004 Stadium Club or some other "lost" Stadium Club year.

I'm also basing my opinion on two cards won for peanuts on what's ostensibly a free/barter-style auction website and not something I sunk over $100 of real life money into. Stadium Club at its heart was always sort of a premium set, but not really a high end set exactly. At least, that's my overall impression of it. I quit collecting cards in 1993 and only resurfaced after the brand name had been retired. The zombie version that came out in 2008 wasn't bad looking, but was hilariously flawed as collectors spent either $20 a hobby pack or $2.99 a retail pack for mostly the same cards. (In some cases, $2.99 blasters were found, but this was like due to a Target pricing error and not a complete Topps screwup.)

This version, price points aside, at least looks like a credible sequel to what came before it a decade or two ago. We even get a distinct picture of the player on the back of the card. While I really don't like hobby exclusive sets because hobby stores are generally a painful and out-of-the-way experience around these parts, I don't mind these base cards. They do scan a little bit better than they look to the naked eye, though.