2014 Topps Update - The Inserts

As usual, there are a lot of insert cards and parallels. Which is why you can't buy a blaster box and expect to get anything close to the 330 cards you need to complete the set.  Between the blaster and the rack box I bought, I pulled 107 base cards. Less than 1/3 of the set. I'm sure that I could use something from my college statistics class to figure out how many blasters I'd have to buy to have a good chance at getting the set but my common sense says, many, many boxes.

Anyway, this is supposed to be about the inserts.

Topps Update Fond Farewells Roy Halladay

Experienced collectors can take one look at this card and figure that there are autographed and relic versions of this set. You'd be right. You might think that this 15-card set is taking advantage of the season-long farewell to Derek Jeter. I image that's so. He's the only player from 2014 featured but the rest of the players in the set had long careers, mostly in one place. The other card I pulled is Al Kaline.

Topps Update World Series Heroes Roberto Clemente

 This is a 50-card set with a self-evident theme. I image you could feature Clemente in any themed set you could think of that highlighted some baseball superlative. Except maybe something involving pitching.

Chris Sabo was such an exciting player when he came up but didn't really have a great career. This is the first post-career Sabo card I have.

Among other things, something that Topps has been doing that I don't like, is extending insert sets from Series 1, through Series 2 and into the Update Series.

Topps Power Players Miguel Cabrera

This is one of those inserts that I actually didn't get in Series 1 or 2. This is now a 110-card insert.

Topps The Future is Now Oscar Taveras

This is another set which is now stretched to a 90-card set. I only mention this particular card because of the tragic death of Traveras in a car crash last Sunday. If you were watching Game 5 of the World Series you heard about his death. I was working on scanning my Topps Update cards while I was watching the game. The very next card I picked up after hearing about his passing, was this card. It made me real sad. He was only 22-years-old.