Artist Blake Jamieson once again partnered with Topps to put his own unique spin on the legendary 1951 Topps set.
Blake came onto the sports card scene in 2020 as one of the Project 2020 artists and quickly built a strong and loyal following amongst collectors. His engagement with fans and his creative approach to marketing was appreciated by many.
This new collaboration was one of the first products in the 2021 calendar year, and it was a strong offering in my opinion.
The Breakdown
The set would contain 52 cards, and it would contain a mix of current and retired stars. The product would be released over the course of four weeks, with a new group of 13 cards available each week. Like the other on demand sets, once the clock ran out, those cards would no longer be available. Each box contained the full weekly set of 13 cards and retailed for $19.99.
I was fortunate to pull a Wade Boggs parallel.
To provide a chase element, Topps randomly inserted parallel cards with different colored player photos or colored backs as somewhat of a homage to the original red and blue backed set. These parallels ranged in scarcity as follows: Blue Back /51, Green Back /25, Black and White Player Photo with Red Back /10, Wrapper Back /5, and /1 Gold backs. In addition, there was a card of Blake Jamieson himself limited to 100 copies.
Topps indicated that with each shipment, the sealed boxes would be labelled with the respective wave number, however it seems once collectors got their first orders in hand, the labeling was not consistently implemented across the Wave 1 run.
The print runs for the releases were as follows:
The cards are no longer available on Topps.com, but they can be picked up on eBay and Sportlots.
Box Break
Check out my unboxing video!
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Checklist
Week 1
Willie Mays
Duke Snider
Babe Ritj
Cal Ripken Jr.
Javier Baez
Greg Maddux
Albert Pujols
George Brett
Yordan Alvarez
Wade Boggs
Juan Soto
Tom Seaver
Week 2
14. Fernando Tatis Jr.
15. Ken Griffey Jr.
16. Shohei Ohtani
17. Ronald Acuna Jr.
18. Warren Spahn
19. Al Kaline
20. Tony Gwynn
21. Reggie Jackson
22. Clayton Kershaw
23. Kris Bryant
24. Nolan Ryan
25. Pete Alonso
Week 3
27. Derek Jeter
28. Cody Bellinger
29. Frank Thomas
30. Mike Piazza
31. Max Scherzer
32. Johnny Bench
33. Phil Rizzuto
34. Ozzie Smith
35. Jacob deGrom
36. Justin Verlander
37. Christian Yelich
38. Nolan Arenado
39. Ernie Banks
Week 4
40. Mookie Betts
41. Bob Feller
42. Jackie Robinson
43. Aaron Judge
44. Bryce Harper
45. Ichiro
46. Hank Aaron
47. Gerrit Cole
48. Alec Bohm
49. Casey Mize
50. Joey Bart
52. Dylan Carlson