Baseball sets from 2000-2007

Stingray

I have not collected a set in while and was thinking of picking up a set (raw) from either Topps or Upper Deck from the last 5-7 years. What set, looking at base sets no SPX or Heritage type sets, do you like the best as far a design over the last 5-7 years??

Sheamaster

I like the 2002 set. Nice action shots, gold borders plus 2nd year cards of Pujols (my favorite Pujols card) and Ichiro. Here's a few graded stars...

Jdurg

In addition, that set has the Barry Bonds' Race to 70 subset which you technically need to complete to truly "complete" the set. That set is a MASSIVE pain in the ass to finish as nobody really has any of those cards available in bulk so it's damned near impossible to find them. I'm ten cards short of the completed set but can't find any reliable dealer to buy them from. (For some reason, some people still think those cards are worth 20 bucks a piece).

frankhardy

Stick with Topps. I don't think you could go wrong with any Topps set from 2000 to present.

Stingray

I kind of like 2003 with the extra photo on the card.

estang

2006.

They brought back the cartoons on the back! Plus they have league leaders and some cool combo cards of players.

2002 is my 2nd favorite. Lots of good action photos and they have the team logo on the front of the card.

Go with Topps --- seeing the career stats is a big plus, especially when the highlight the league leading efforts.

Stingray

Not sure on the design of this year??

Stingray

2000 has a nice clean design, no??




2004 Topps Opening Day is a nice looking set (be better without the huge Opening Day logo), wish they would have done the regular Topps set with the team name in color instead of silver.

Boopotts

My personal recommendation would be to go back even a little further-- back, for instance, to the 1995 Flair set (one of my personal favorites) or maybe something like '97 Finest. By 2000 the card companies had figured out that if they just included some jersey cards and autos they could make the base cards look crappy and nobody would care. But if you go back a couple years earlier than that you can find some genuinlely gorgeous sets, since the card companies were still under the impression that a very attractive base set (and not a fantastic auto checklist) was the best way to move boxes of product.

There are some other sets, like the Topps Tek or HD sets, which are also IMO real jaw droppers. The execs from Pinnacle admitted in an interview a while ago that they actually LOST money selling some of the late '90's cards, since they cost so much to produce. IMO the Golden Age of base sets (modern, at least) is somewhere around 1994-1999, when there was a ton of competition amongst card companies and the auto/game used craze hadn't yet firmly taken hold.

Stingray

I do like the simplistic look of the Topps 1999 set and the 97 Topps set is one of my favorites, some of the best photograpy for a base set, I was looking to pick up something newer that would a few more current players.

Jdurg

If you're up for a real challenge, you can try and complete the 1999 Topps Set with both the McGwire and Sosa HR Chase subsets in there. I'm trying to get that one done but have only a handful of each so that will be pretty costly.