Post 2015 NFL Team sets?

jradke4

It appears with the loss of Topps from the football market either people are not requesting NFL team sets or PSA is not going forward with team sets. I was bummed when I heard the news that Topps was stopping producing NFL cards. But even more bummed to see that post 2015 team sets have appeared to have been dropped from either collectors minds or that PSA has stopped team sets.

Is anyone else disappointed in with this?

Since Topps has left the market what line should take their place for post 2015 team sets if PSA would allow them?

epatmythes

My thinking would be the decision should come down to between Donruss and Score. In terms of size, and as a base product, they're the current closest comparisons to what-was-the base Topps set.

Historically speaking, Score makes the most sense, but I really dislike the early release and lack of NFL uniforms and NFL identification on the rookies.

I'd have to, 100%, go with Donruss.

I'm still bummed though about Topps not making football. So much so, that I have stopped collecting football altogether and have begun liquidating the vast majority of my football collection (sans a few of my registry sets).

The only things that will bring me back to football cards is the Packers winning another SuperBowl and me wanting to put together another championship season PSA 10 team set (in whatever brand PSA settles on), or Topps getting a license again.

prgsdw

I tried to request a 1972 Sunoco stamps Dallas Cowboys team set earlier this year and the response from the registry staff may be helpful here:

"In the football team set category, we are currently only loading Bowman, Fleer and Topps team sub sets. We do plan on expanding the listings to include additional manufacturers, but I do not have a specific timeline as to when this will happen and I am unsure if Sunoco will be included once we do expand."

So it is on their radar, but timeline TBD.

jradke4

I would doubt that they would include Sunoco as that wasn't a main stream set. I have just found it odd that nobody has even requested a football team set that is more recent than 2015.

prgsdw

Re: Sunoco I'm not so sure. Compare it to the 1972 Topps set, for example. The Topps set is very popular. However, the In Action series and the very few in action cards outside that series have the team logos air brushed off. That's not attractive at all to me and a big eye sore when I look at the card. Take the 1972 Staubach in action from my personal collection:

It features a great game shot of HOF tackle Rayfield Wright blocking for Staubach. What leaps out at me is the lack of the star on their helmets. Such a shame.

Also look at the set composition. On the Topps side, the Cowboys, fresh off their first Super Bowl win don't have cards for defensive captain Lee Roy Jordan nor are there cards for Chuck Howley, Jethro Pugh, Cornell Green, Larry Cole, Mel Renfro, etc.

Now look at the Sunoco set. It has almost exclusively in action player shots / shots with the player wearing their helmet. No air brushed logos. And the entire starting offense and defense from each team. All of the players listed above as missing in the Topps issue are present in the Sunoco issue. As a Cowboys fan wanting to put together a set to commemorate their first Super Bowl win, I could go with Topps and have 1/2 the starters or Sunoco and have them all. Without airbrushed helmets. In action on many photos. I voted with my pocket book and sold most of my 1972 Topps Cowboys set. Here's some of the great Sunoco stamps from that year from my collection:

jradke4

i wasn't meaning to degrade the Sunoco Stamps at all. its a beautiful set. my point is that its not a very popular set. for example there are only 1000 more stamps graded than the 1972 OPC CFL set. with the way the set registry is getting swamped with set requests and as a result they have stopped adding certain types of sets. i think it will take a long time before they start including the Sunoco Stamp Team Sets. Since 1969 they only added Topps Team sets. they could have gone with 1989 to 1991 Pro-Set team sets as they had more players in most of those team sets than Topps but they didn't. they didn't even use the Topps Total Team sets.

the real point of the post is what is PSA going to do going forward to keep the Football Team set category alive. Which "brand" or product line should be the one they go with. Do any of them even make a comprehensive team set like Topps had done until they lost the license.

to me the bigger question is football card collecting other than maybe a hot rookie, i.e. Elliot, or the hot auto'd cards all that is left of the football card market?

i thought it was a sad day when i heard they lost the license and a sad day when the 2015 final set was released. but was that my last sad day in football collecting? like Eric i have pretty much stopped. other than still collecting old Packers sets and Favre cards...and eventually some raw vintage sets down the road it appears my days of keeping current are over. evidenced by the fact that i dont even know what 'brand' or product line would even be comparable to what Topps was doing.

SDSportsFan

Actually, during the entire decade of the 1970s and until 1982, Topps did not have a licence to produce football cards. Look at any card from that time, and they do not have any team logos. Collectors didn't mind or care.

Nowadays however, collectors do care (and there have been changes to the applicable laws), so Topps can't make the cards.

Steve

epatmythes

@SDSportsFan said:
Actually, during the entire decade of the 1970s and until 1982, Topps did not have a licence to produce football cards. Look at any card from that time, and they do not have any team logos. Collectors didn't mind or care.

Nowadays however, collectors do care (and there have been changes to the applicable laws), so Topps can't make the cards.

Steve

Sometimes you learn things on the forum that you question because it's almost so obvious you should have known. For the life I me, I did not know this... and feel, 100%, I should have. I doubted the validity of this statement enough that my immediate reaction was to look at a Joe Montana RC. I could swear the helmet had a logo on it... sure enough, it does not.

Great post & info... can't believe 30+ of collecting and I didn't seem to know this!

jradke4

@SDSportsFan said:
Actually, during the entire decade of the 1970s and until 1982, Topps did not have a licence to produce football cards. Look at any card from that time, and they do not have any team logos. Collectors didn't mind or care.

Nowadays however, collectors do care (and there have been changes to the applicable laws), so Topps can't make the cards.

Steve

There was one trade off, we got more head shots of players without their helmets on. At least Topps had NLFPA agreements so there were cards. Back then cards were not a big business like today. Still miss the Topps brand in football.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the best current set there is out there that is close to the topps inclusion of the number of players. Not worried about the high end rookie cards for the key card sets but looking at what to get to keep my Packers team set collection running.

SDSportsFan

@epatmythes said:

@SDSportsFan said:
Actually, during the entire decade of the 1970s and until 1982, Topps did not have a licence to produce football cards. Look at any card from that time, and they do not have any team logos. Collectors didn't mind or care.

Nowadays however, collectors do care (and there have been changes to the applicable laws), so Topps can't make the cards.

Steve

Sometimes you learn things on the forum that you question because it's almost so obvious you should have known. For the life I me, I did not know this... and feel, 100%, I should have. I doubted the validity of this statement enough that my immediate reaction was to look at a Joe Montana RC. I could swear the helmet had a logo on it... sure enough, it does not.

Great post & info... can't believe 30+ of collecting and I didn't seem to know this!

Yea, Topps hid the lack of logos fairly well, with, as jradke4 mentions, a lot of helmet-less photos, as well as straight-on action shots, where the sides of helmets aren't as noticeable.

Steve