Topps Living Set

[MtnAg08]

Have we ever had the same two teams featured in back-to-back weeks before? Might be a Topps Living Set first.

[Fsegaud]

Originally Posted by MtnAg08

Have we ever had the same two teams featured in back-to-back weeks before? Might be a Topps Living Set first.

<EDIT> Wow, that is wild!

[eldavojohn]

Well all I can say is I hope they never do Tom Kelly, that would put me in a tough spot.

[astroshane]

Earl Weaver is great and the artwork is fantastic. However..... let's not lose sight of the many hall of famers, fan favorites, and the ESPN top 100. I really don't want to see collectors miss out on the many great PLAYERS who remain.

It would be a royal disappointment if Topps were to ever pull the plug on this set before long time collectors get a chance to round out there player collection.

[astrotrevor]

Team distribution has been horrible the past few months. I look forward to seeing new colors / uniforms each week. It's great to have Weaver, but do we really need his card now as it is 3rd Oriole in the past 10 cards (or the 5th in the last 40 cards?). Or 3 Cubs in the past 6 or 7. Put some in some effort Topps

[Joliet Jake]

Topps MLB® Living Set® Card #741 - Earl Weaver
Earl Weaver is the Baltimore Orioles 23rd franchise and team member, and 90th Hall of Fame member featured.


Topps MLB® Living Set® Card #742 - Cody Bellinger
Cody Bellinger is the Chicago Cubs 28th franchise and team member, and 42nd duplicate and 47th repeat player featured.

[Natsfan32]

We need a Koufax before he leaves Topps again

[kidfan9]

Originally Posted by Natsfan32

We need a Koufax before he leaves Topps again

SECOND!!

[MtnAg08]

Originally Posted by astrotrevor

Team distribution has been horrible the past few months. I look forward to seeing new colors / uniforms each week. It's great to have Weaver, but do we really need his card now as it is 3rd Oriole in the past 10 cards (or the 5th in the last 40 cards?). Or 3 Cubs in the past 6 or 7. Put some in some effort Topps

I agree. It feels like for most of the year there's been about 4 or 5 teams that are getting repeated very frequently. Hopefully they get back to spreading it around. It would be fun to see all 30 teams getting a represented player at least every 6 months.

[jaredkelley]

Hey guys - Many of you know (and haven't been shy to tell me) that I've neglected my artist-signed cards for the last few years. I put a lot of work into signing and packaging those signed cards. It's been difficult to dedicate the time needed to them with my Topps schedule and family life.

I initially thought I'd always offer 100 artist-signed cards for each player portrait I did for the Living Set. That was a bit too ambitious I'm afraid. I've changed things up recently. Now, instead of 100 signed cards, I'll be doing only 25 artist-signed cards of each of my Living Set cards.

The 25 cards will consist of 20 Black Ink signatures and 5 Silver Foil signatures. There is also a Gold Foil 1/1 signature that gets randomly inserted into one of the 25 packs.

I've also dropped the price point from $40 per card to $25 (plus tax). Free shipping still included!

These changes will allow me to FINALLY get current on my artist-signed card backlog. I'll be adding several more cards every couple of weeks. I really appreciate the interest in these and for each of you who regularly inquire about them!

>>>> To celebrate the 4th of July, every artist-signed card is 20% off now until July 8th. <<<<

[jaredkelley]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

I loved painting this Bellinger portrait. I added one of the most innocuous Easter Eggs on his bat in my original artwork. Sad to see that it didn't make the cut for some reason.

[astrotrevor]

Great job on this one Jared. One of my favourites. Great reference photo as well.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by jaredkelley

Hey guys - Many of you know (and haven't been shy to tell me) that I've neglected my artist-signed cards for the last few years. I put a lot of work into signing and packaging those signed cards. It's been difficult to dedicate the time needed to them with my Topps schedule and family life.

I initially thought I'd always offer 100 artist-signed cards for each player portrait I did for the Living Set. That was a bit too ambitious I'm afraid. I've changed things up recently. Now, instead of 100 signed cards, I'll be doing only 25 artist-signed cards of each of my Living Set cards.

The 25 cards will consist of 20 Black Ink signatures and 5 Silver Foil signatures. There is also a Gold Foil 1/1 signature that gets randomly inserted into one of the 25 packs.

I've also dropped the price point from $40 per card to $25 (plus tax). Free shipping still included!

These changes will allow me to FINALLY get current on my artist-signed card backlog. I'll be adding several more cards every couple of weeks. I really appreciate the interest in these and for each of you who regularly inquire about them!

>>>> To celebrate the 4th of July, every artist-signed card is 20% off now until July 8th. <<<<

Can we expect an email and/or forum post each time new artist signed cards are made available? Do you plan to release them on Wednesdays to coincide with the new releases each week?

I'm a little bummed there won't be the chase color, but I can appreciate the amount of work required to sign and package even 26 cards per release. I'd rather have all black signed cards than no signed cards.

Regarding the Bellinger piece, I'm glad to see Topps used a reference photo from last season. The Nike jersey changes are an abomination. Also, does Topps give you a reason when they remove an Easter egg?

[astroshane]

I forgot to add that old school Orioles hat is a beauty. When you add in the flowing grey hair the artwork on this card really is exceptional.

[jaredkelley]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

Can we expect an email and/or forum post each time new artist signed cards are made available? Do you plan to release them on Wednesdays to coincide with the new releases each week?

I like the suggestion of Wednesday drops. I'll plan on that moving forward. It might not be weekly, but I'll try not to let it go beyond a bi-weekly span. And I will be sure to announce the drops on my socials and e-newsletters.

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

I'm a little bummed there won't be the chase color, but I can appreciate the amount of work required to sign and package even 26 cards per release. I'd rather have all black signed cards than no signed cards.

I am bummed too that I can't juggle the color chases for each year. The foil signing is tedious.

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

Regarding the Bellinger piece, I'm glad to see Topps used a reference photo from last season. The Nike jersey changes are an abomination. Also, does Topps give you a reason when they remove an Easter egg?

Topps doesn't give me reasons. But then again, I don't ask. My goal is to make an interesting portrait of the player that I believe collectors will like. I have always told Topps they're free to photoshop out anything that makes them uncomfortable. It's their product after all.

[eldavojohn]

Originally Posted by jaredkelley

Topps doesn't give me reasons. But then again, I don't ask. My goal is to make an interesting portrait of the player that I believe collectors will like. I have always told Topps they're free to photoshop out anything that makes them uncomfortable. It's their product after all.

I used to make powerpoint slides for my boss and he always felt like he needed to change one thing. So I would always put in really stupid slide that could obviously just be dropped. He got to feel like he participated and the stuff I cared about remained untouched. Maybe if you put in like a cartoonish animal floating in the sky, they'll focus on removing that instead of BELLI from the bat?

[jaredkelley]

Originally Posted by eldavojohn

I used to make powerpoint slides for my boss and he always felt like he needed to change one thing. So I would always put in really stupid slide that could obviously just be dropped. He got to feel like he participated and the stuff I cared about remained untouched. Maybe if you put in like a cartoonish animal floating in the sky, they'll focus on removing that instead of BELLI from the bat?

This is genius-level thinking. I love it.

[Joliet Jake]

Topps MLB® Living Set® Card #743 - Ranger Suárez - PR: 1,589
Ranger Suárez is the Philadelphia Phillies 25th franchise and team member featured.


Topps MLB® Living Set® Card #744 - Wyatt Langford - PR: 4,731
Wyatt Langford is the Texas Rangers 22nd franchise and 21st team member, and 237th rookie featured.

[eldavojohn]

Good lord that Wyatt Langford dugout quiz seems impossible: Who's the only player from an Ivy League School to be drafted in the first round by the Rangers?

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by eldavojohn

Good lord that Wyatt Langford dugout quiz seems impossible: Who's the only player from an Ivy League School to be drafted in the first round by the Rangers?

From what I can find on Baseball Reference, there have been 30 MLB players from Yale, though more have been drafted. Ron Darling is the only player from Yale drafted in the first round. Making the question so specific definitely adds a layer of complexity.

[astrotrevor]

We’ve already had multiple Pirate rookies this year but we absolutely need a Paul Skenes RC in this set.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by astrotrevor

We’ve already had multiple Pirate rookies this year but we absolutely need a Paul Skenes RC in this set.

I second this.

He's already passed the rookie thresholds for innings pitched and total days on an active MLB roster.

[MtnAg08]

Originally Posted by astrotrevor

We’ve already had multiple Pirate rookies this year but we absolutely need a Paul Skenes RC in this set.

I'm sure both he and Jared Jones will make it in before the calendar turns to 2025.

[jaredkelley]

Hey guys - I just wanted to give you advance notice, I'll be dropping a new batch of artist-signed cards tomorrow on my site at 6pm central time. This round of cards will include Lou Gehrig, Tom Glavine, Zach Neto, Josh Jung, and Corbin Carroll.

All sets consist of 25 artist-signed cards (20 black autos, 5 silver foil autos), plus a bonus 1/1 gold foil auto randomly inserted into one pack.

Lou Gehrig will be the exception: He will have 40 cards for purchase (30 black autos, 10 silver foils) plus the bonus 1/1 gold foil card.

There will be some legendary players, like Gehrig, who will have more artist-signed cards than normal. But I have attempted to maintain the same 1:3 hit ratio as the standard sets for other players.

Lastly, tentatively scheduled to drop next Wednesday (July 24) are Christy Mathewson, Jimmy Rollins, Albert Pujols (card no.586), Jordan Walker, and Adley Rutschman

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by jaredkelley

Hey guys - I just wanted to give you advance notice, I'll be dropping a new batch of artist-signed cards tomorrow on my site at 6pm central time. This round of cards will include Lou Gehrig, Tom Glavine, Zach Neto, Josh Jung, and Corbin Carroll.

All sets consist of 25 artist-signed cards (20 black autos, 5 silver foil autos), plus a bonus 1/1 gold foil auto randomly inserted into one pack.

Lou Gehrig will be the exception: He will have 40 cards for purchase (30 black autos, 10 silver foils) plus the bonus 1/1 gold foil card.

There will be some legendary players, like Gehrig, who will have more artist-signed cards than normal. But I have attempted to maintain the same 1:3 hit ratio as the standard sets for other players.

Lastly, tentatively scheduled to drop next Wednesday (July 24) are Christy Mathewson, Jimmy Rollins, Albert Pujols (card no.586), Jordan Walker, and Adley Rutschman

Thank you for the heads up on the release dates and players. I’m looking forward to adding more of these to my overall collection.