2012 Topps Baseball Series 1 Review

I finally received a couple hobby boxes of 2012 Topps Series 1 yesterday, so I was pretty excited to start ripping and see what I found.  Don't know why but it seems like it's been tough to get my hands on these, at least around where I live. The local card store (if you call 25 miles away local) wasn't planning on having these boxes until Feb. 15th, so I decided to take another route - hello eBay. Anyway, I plan to post some more details on my rip in a couple days, but for now I at least wanted to publish my thoughts on the set.

Gotta be honest, I'm really not that thrilled with this set.  Overall I like the design, but I get the feeling that Topps went a little on the cheaper side with this set. There are plenty of inserts, but for the most part they just seem cheap and boring to me. I've been getting more and more tired of the inserts that Topps is offering, and I think this year they have taken me over the edge. The Golden Moments and Golden Greats inserts are probably the least desirable that I have ever seen.  They just feel like "filler" to me. The same goes for the Classic Walkoffs.  I hold the Gold Standard cards in a little higher regard.  They are simple, but for some reason the player pictures they used were somewhat appealing to me.  Same goes with the Timeless Talents.  Not a bad looking card, but I'm not gonna push my way in line to get first dibs at the card show.  The Golden Futures card have some decent eye appeal; the dominant black color is something that I like. 

 The only insert that I really dig so far is the 87 Topps Minis.  Probably one of my favorite sets from when I was a kid.  Another topic for another time though.  The minis hold pretty true to the original 87 release, with the best part being the back of cards.  They give you that old school look and feel that really was there in '87, much like Topps Heritage cards try to emulate.  I give Topps an "A" on this insert.

I'll say it now, and probably say it again, but I HATE game-used material cards.  When I publish my break, I'll throw a scan of one of my pulls, and you will probably understand where I'm coming from.  The game-used card I pulled was absolutely HORRIBLE.  Stay tuned......

So to close out, how do I rate this release?  I would give it a "B-".  I had much more fun opening 2010 and 2011 Topps.  I was hoping to be impressed, but I was far from it.