Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Topps Rolls Out the Carpet for Museum Collection


This week Topps will launch the latest entry to the Museum Collection line of baseball cards. The 2019 set continues along the path of previous offerings presenting a mid-high end offering composed of multiple packs and big hits. The box contains 20 cards and checks in right around $200. Split between base cards and hits, there’s a gamble that could pay off in a big way here.

Unlike the previous upper tier product, Definitive, Minnesota is well represented in Museum Collection. There’s a handful of chase cards and Twins fans should be able to find excitement in one of the best-looking products each year.

Base Set-

The base checklist runs 100 cards deep, but unfortunately there are zero Minnesota Twins inclusions. With subjects consisting of past and present stars, this would’ve been a great opportunity for a nice image of Joe Mauer, but Topps passed on putting anyone in this checklist.

Relics-

Museum Collection hits are split heavily between swatch relic cards and autographs. Although there isn’t a base inclusion for the Twins, they’re well represented in both categories. Byron Buxton has a quad relic card with multiple parallels, as well as having a jumbo patch offering. Six Twins are found in the Meaningful Material checklist including two different Joe Mauer cards. Each of these offerings have five different parallels with a 1/1 chase card per player. The limited 1/1 Museum Memorabilia checklist also includes the same six Twins (Buxton/Kepler/Sano/Rosario/Berrios/Mauer) providing some very big hits.

Autographs-

Minnesota is a bit light on autographs, but many of these come in the form of sticker signatures. Rod Carew and Torii Hunter are both included in the Archival Autographs checklist with Carew being the sole representative in the Framed Autograph offerings. Both Rosario and Berrios have dual relic autograph cards to be had.

Short of reintroducing Joe Mauer as a signer or expanding to guys like Justin Morneau, many of the same names Minnesota has had sign in products all year, will remain constant.