2 weird things and one general observation regarding 2024 Topps Heritage
BaltimoreYankee
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I am a casual Topps Heritage collector and a big 1975 Topps fan. I usually just buy a 'base' set. A couple of weird things about this year's base set of 400: Instead of having the cards numbered 1-400, they are numbered 101 to 500 with no card #407 considered in the base set as it was 'short printed' but also including #82.
Also, Topps chose to include 6 managers who were active in 1975. Personally, I'd rather have new cards of, say, Schmidt, Seaver, Brett, Reggie, Ryan and Bench rather than Sparky Anderson, Whitey Herzog, Red Schoendienst, etc.
A final observation is regarding signatures: If you look at signed cards in 2024 Heritage, you cannot read the vast majority of the names. They are more just a bunch of scribbled lines. I took out my 1975 Topps set which also has facsimile sigs to compare and the vast majority of those are completely readable. This change in handwriting skills took place over one to one and a half generations. (OK this was more of an anthropological observation).
None of these are complaints - just sharing what's going on in my old brain 
Comments
When Topps first did Heritage back in 2001 I loved it. Built a set with that 52T design. Even bought a full case in 2006. All despite being generally turned off by the modern (1998 & after) game /shakes fist at cloud/
The problem I have is they now use their old designs for _everything_. Special inserts, soccer cards, refractors, etc all with classic Topps designs. They just overuse the concept to the point it’s not interesting or exciting anymore. As someone who still LOVES 70s baseball, these are the years of Heritage that should excite me most. But instead. . .meh.
I agree. The early Heritage is what brought my interest back to the hobby, but it's just too watered down now. I bought some of the 2023s because 74 was always one of my favorites too. It's just a little too slick and over-designed for my taste now. It's all just color swaps, silly variations, etc... I don't even like how they print the new ones.
(off my soap box)
Honestly, I'd rather have the Archives these days. That makes me sad. If I buy modern it's only those two though, and in VERY small quantities.
Good observations stated.
@BBBrkrr One of the things I liked about the 2001 and 2006 Heritage stuff is that the card stock they used felt very true to the original issue. Certainly not as prone to the print issues as the original, but you'd still find stuff off-center and things like that.
But the 74T set is a perfect(!) example of the problem. With actual 74T, there are TONS of cards that the color was faint and washed out and very blah. But. . .if you were diligent and really looked, you could find cards where the plate struck the sheet just so and as a result the colors really popped - making some of the most beautiful cards ever (IMO). Having to go through all the junk made the perfect cards really special. But every Heritage card I've seen that uses the 74T design, the color is perfect - too perfect. And if every card is perfect, which ones are special?
I made a comment on another post where someone displayed a Bryce Harper card using the 79T design. I said if they really wanted to emulate 79T the card would have been centered 75/25 and tilted. But it's all those imperfect cards that make the flawless cards really special. And I think that's something that modern collectors (and graders, unfortunately) just don't appreciate.
Agreed. Sometimes making things perfect kills all the life and spirit of the thing, and they've done that with the Heritage set.
It's also why I prefer the vintage. If every card is 1000% perfect then what's the point other than just ripping for variants?
You are forgetting the weirdest thing about the 2024 Heritage that should have someone fired and maybe even incarcerated: The MVP cards are not in numerical order by year.
Yes! It is a bizarre sequence of random years.
I have accumulated all the Heritage sets to date from 2001 forward, to go along with my corresponding original Topps sets. My 2024 Heritage base set is 500 cards numbered 1-500 with a normal 82 and 407.
You may own all 500 cards, but for whoever assembled it, cards 101-500 were the easy ones, except 407. Cards 1-100, except 82, were short printed, and much more difficult to acquire.
In years past, 1-400 were the easy acquisitions, with 401-500 being short printed. The change this year is what is confusing, and to my knowledge, unexplained.
I can't remember who mentioned it but now takes two to three times of unopened to complete a set. I didn't event collect Heritage this year because I couldn't complete the 2023 set.
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
2023 was the first set of Heritage I attempted to complete. Definitely more difficult than I imagined. I need 24 low series Short Prints and 4 high series SP's. How close are you to completing? I have a ton of duplicates.
My cards on COMC