Set Type: Primary
Card dimensions: 2½” x 3½”
Parallel: Gold
Inserts: None
Additional Information/14,000 Phillies Commentary: The penultimate Victory issue, which in retrospect was really a continuation of the Collector’s Choice brand under a new name — I never did understand why Upper Deck engaged in this particular rebranding. It’s a nice, solid, unique low-end set (as opposed to the Topps Opening Day sets, which Topps puts almost no effort into really differentiating from the flagship brand), and it’s a shame we really don’t see sets like this anymore. The last 110 cards in the set (cards 551-660) were distributed in Upper Deck’s multi-brand 2002 Rookie Debut packs, which also included updates to Honor Roll and Ovation, as well as new inserts. However, there was no actual 2002 Rookie Debut set, so those inserts are associated with a set that doesn’t actually exist. Furthermore, the updates included updated cards for veterans/non-rookies, thus making the “Rookie Debut” name quite the head-scratcher.
| 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 509 515 589 590 591 641 642 643 |
Scott Rolen Marlon Anderson Bobby Abreu Jimmy Rollins Doug Glanville Travis Lee Brandon Duckworth Pat Burrell Kevin Jordan Robert Person Johnny Estrada Randy Wolf Jose Mesa Mike Lieberthal Bobby Abreu & Robert Person (Phillies team checklist) Doug Nickle (Rookie 2002 subset) Marlon Byrd (Rookie 2002 subset) Jeremy Giambi Vicente Padilla Brett Myers Jorge Padilla (Rookie 2002 subset) Anderson Machado (Rookie 2002 subset) Eric Junge (Rookie 2002 subset) |
Even Topps Total blew away any of the Opening Day issues.
I like this set. It has the same kind of bump protruding into the photo as 2008 Topps did, but at least they put the team logo in it instead of the company logo.
Yes, the bump from the border at least makes sense on this set. The bump on Topps’s 2008 set was just screaming “our brand name is more important than the card design,” just like when they previously put “2002 Topps” on the front — as you already noted on your blog earlier this week.