2014 Topps Parallels

It's official, Topps has gone off the deep end with parallels. In 2013, Topps had 10 parallel cards, Black, Camo, Emerald Foil, Gold, Pink, Platinum, Walmart Blue, Target Red, Toys R Us Purple and Silk. This year year they have 14 (or 15 if you count the Power Play cards). In an earlier post I had wished that Topps would come out with a color bordered base card. A commentator pointed out that there are enough color bordered cards to satisfy anyone. I'd wish for a color bordered base set and fewer parallels. And don't forget that we have Topps Opening Day coming, with it's parallels.

I pulled a few of the parallels from what I bought locally and decided to see what I could get on eBay.

Topps Base

Plain old white border.

Topps Black

Topps Black has been around since 2008. This is the first I've seen. This year the cards are numbered to 63. I think they were numbered to 62 last year. I'm too lazy to see if it changes each year. I got this one on eBay. It's hard to tell from the scan, but the borders aren't jet black. There are flecks of gray, or maybe silver, in the black.

Topps Camo

Topps Camo first appeared in 2011. What is the point of this? The cards are numbered to 99. Another eBay find.

Topps Red Foil

New this year, it uses the same technology as the Topps Emerald Foil from last year. Baseball as seen through blood-colored glasses. These are not numbered and I pulled 5 of them.

Topps Gold

The Topps Gold Parallel has been around in one fashion or another since 1992. It's current incarnation goes back to 2001. I think that's the year they started numbering the cards to the year of issue. It's usually not too hard to pull one from a blaster box. I got 3 this year.

Topps Pink

This is the second year for Topps Pink. Do we really need pink-bordered baseball cards? These are numbered to 50. I actually pulled this from one of the packs I bought at Toys R Us.

Topps Platinum

Topps Platinum has been around since 2006. These are 1 of 1 cards which I've never seen. Good luck buying one on eBay. There were priced much more than anyone should ever pay for a baseball card. I noticed on eBay that a few dealers were describing Topps Black as Platinum.

Topps Clear

Another new parallel, these are printed on clear acetate and numbered to 10. Also pretty pricey on eBay I almost got one at a reasonable price but got out bidded at the last minute.

Topps Green

Yet another new parallel and unnumbered. I got this on eBay. That's a sickly shade of green if you ask me.

Topps Yellow

Also new and unnumbered. I pulled four of these. Yellow does not scan well. I had to fool around with this in Photoshop in order to get the border color right. It left Mike looking a bit jaundiced. There have been very few yellow bordered sets since 1991 Fleer and that's just as well.

Topps Blue Walmart

There have been different Target and Walmart parallels since about 2008. The Walmart cards have been this shade of blue since 2012. All you need to do is buy a blaster at Walmart and you get 2 per pack.

Topps Red Target

And Target has been this shade of red since 2012.

Topps Purple Toys R Us

I don't know how long these have been around. I first became aware of them last year. There don't seem to be Toys R Us blasters. These came in Toys R Us blister packs with one pack of cards and 2 purple cards.

Topps Silk

Topps Silk has been around since at least 2008. These are numbered to 50. The silk card is encased in a regular card sized plastic border. These can be pricey on eBay as well but there are a lot of them for sale and I found this at a reasonable price. The 'cards' are blank on the back and don't carry a card number. And there are only 100 of them, instead of the 331 in Topps Series 1.

Topps Power Players

This is a contest card, one of those where you get a code number on the back for a web site. I pulled 3 of these. The card front is the same as the player's regular card with the addition of the Power Players logo.