2014 Topps Tier One Baseball Preview and Checklist

One of the biggest criticisms of recent sports card products has been the perceived poor selection of signers. A quick view of any sports card forum, Twitter feed, or Facebook post will undoubtedly reveal a number of collectors less than satisfied with their autograph ‘hit’. 2014 Tier One baseball has attempted to rectify this by guaranteeing one quality ‘Tier One Autograph’ per 12-count hobby case. Tier One is due out this week.

Among the confirmed Tier One signers include old reliable Hall of Fame legends such as Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Hank Aaron. The cards of these three icons – the last of their era – have always sold well on the secondary market. Among the other Tier One signers include popular recent players such as Cal Ripken Jr. and Ken Griffey Jr.. Each autograph will be numbered no higher than 99 and will be on card.

Topps has announced that there will be all new autographed relic subsets in the 2014 edition of Tier One. They are broken down into Autograph Tier One Relics (#’d/99 or less), Dual Autographed Tier One Relics (#’d/10) and Autographed Prodigious Patches (#’d/10).

Jose Abreu, the White Sox rookie slugger, has recently signed his cards for the product.

It will not take long to sort through a box of 2014 Tier One Baseball, as it will only contain one $100+ pack. The pack will contain two autographs including one New Guard autograph, which will feature the on card signature of an ‘up and coming’ player numbered no higher than 399.

Among the more common possibilities for the second autograph including the aforementioned Tier One autograph. Acclaimed autographs, numbered no higher than 299, will feature what Topps describes as a checklist boasting 85 of the most popular players in the game. New Guard, Tier One, and Acclaimed autographs will have Red Ink (#’d to 25), Silver Ink (#’d to 10), and Gold Ink (1/1) parallels.

More limited options for the second autograph include 5 over-sized reprints (#’d to 10) of iconic Topps cards, 15 dual autographs (#’d to 25), 5 triple autographs (#’d to 10) and 25 unique cut signature cards.

The final category for the second autograph is an autographed relic card (#’d to 99), with dual patch (#’d to 25), and triple patch (1/1), and jumbo patch (#’d to 10) parallels. 25 unique autographed bat knobs are another possibility, with dual autograph relic booklets (#’d to 10) rounding out the checklist. the bat knobs will be 1/1 and signed on card.

The third card will be a relic (#’d to 399), with dual swatch (#’d to 99), and triple swatch (#’d to 25) parallels. Legends relics (#’d to 99) will draw from a checklist of 20 players, with dual (#’d to 25) and triple (#’d to 5) swatch parallels. Jumbo relic options include Prodigious patches (#’d to 10) and Bat knobs (1/1). The final relic option will be a unique 1/1 All-Star patch featuring one of fifty participants of the 2013 All-Star Game. Every fourth pack will contain a second relic card.