Well it’s been three months since I first wrote about the Topps 582 Montgomery Club! In that time the lack of communication from Topps has continued, but the other day a package from Topps arrived unannounced, and the shipping label indicated it was from “The Club”. Set Two had arrived at last!
The Details
The second set in The Club is the 20 card sticker set which was announced in the original membership materials. I really, really, like it, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and take a couple steps back.
First of all, improvements were made to the packaging the set arrived in. The first set arrived in a hard plastic case inside a bubble wrap envelope, but check out the packaging of this one! The Living Set sized box design looks like wood, and if we know anything, it’s that I’m a sucker for Topps products which have a wood centric design.
The back of the card indicates the designs came from a small run test product they produced in 1967 for the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates. I like how they included this, as I think it adds to the overall narrative of the product. Topps really has an opportunity to make this “Club” special, but for that to happen they need to weave a story into it. Tell us a story over the course of a year. Connect us to the company’s history and give us the sense that we’re peeking behind the curtain to participate in the design and production decisions. Topps are you listening?
Now on to the stickers themselves.
The first three stickers were Trout, Bryant, and Judge.
The set contains four different designs. The first three can be seen in the picture above. The first has the player overtop either a circle or rectangle in the background, and their name is in a “Cartoon-like” font. The second reminds me of a kids Valentines card and says “So and So” Is My Hero. The third design shows our favorite players overtop of a three color shield. The Aaron Judge and Frank Thomas come straight out of campaign season and I could easily see them on a vintage campaign button. The final design features a full body shot and the player’s name in a small star in the bottom right corner.
The Checklist
I think Topps did a great job with this checklist. It provides a nice mix of rookies, current superstars, and HOF veterans.
1. Mike Trout
2. Kris Bryant
3. Aaron Judge
4. Shohei Ohtani
5. Miguel Andujar
6. Christian Yelich
7. Jacob Degrom
8 Ronald Acuna Jr.
9. Juan Soto
10. Clayton Kershaw
11. Mariano Rivera
12. Ken Griffey Jr.
13. Frank Thomas
14. Johnny Bench
15. Tom Seaver
16. Yusei Kikuchi
17. Jeff McNeil
18. Ryan O’Hearn
19. Luis Urias
20. Kyle Tucker
Wrapping it Up
I think Topps really came through with this one. The four different sticker designs provide some nice variety, and they took a step forward by using the back of the card to tell the story of the origin of the designs. I’m looking forward to what the next set brings!
I’m keeping all these sets for my PC, but I wanted to take a second to discuss resale value since many collector’s have wondered if they’d get their money’s worth out of the Club. Here in the first month, singles of the sticker set are selling for $3-$5 and complete sets for $30-$40. The initial set which released in late December 2018 is still selling well, in fact recent sales show complete sets selling for $60-$70. That’s somewhere around $100 in value after two sets and we still have four products to go!
Watch me open the package from Topps and take a second to subscribe to the WaxPackHero YouTube channel while you’re at it!