Cubs Breakdown - 2011 Topps Heritage

2011 Topps Heritage
The 2011 version of Topps Heritage started appearing this past week. This is one of the more highly anticipated sets of the year, with a huge cult like following. Topps typically throws a variety of little quirks into the Heritage issue and this year continues that trend. For me though, whether I like this set typically depends on how well I like the design that is being used. This year's version of the set is based on the 1962 Topps set, and given that the wood grain borders are one of my favorite design elements of any Topps set ever, I'm a big fan of this year's set. That is a good thing because 1963 Topps features one of my least favorite designs for a Topps set. So I will have to appreciate this set for at least a couple of years!

In addition to a great looking design, this issue also bring a plethora of Cubs cards in the base set to go along with several quality insert offerings. The base set brings us our first Cubs cards for our two biggest offseason acquisitions, Carlos Pena and Matt Garza. The Garza features a classically bad airbrush job on his hat, but this actually kind of adds a little bit of desirability to the card for me. It just kinds of fits in with the throwback theme. We also get the first major league card of Casey Coleman (I know cubsfan731 will be happy), along with cards of under exposed guys like Darwin Barney and Welington Castillo.

As far as parallels go, we have the usual chrome parallels, with a new green version for this year as well as new black bordered paper cards. Topps chose a unique design for the black and green chrome refractors which feature a small amount of the wood grain kind of 'peeking through'. I'm not sure I like this better than just using full wood grain treatment within the colors, but they are not bad and they are different than what we normally see. We also have some 'tint variation' parallels for the cards from #110-196. Green Tints are available in hobby packs, Blue Tints in special Wal-Mart packs, and Red Tints in special Target packs. These are alright as far as quirks go, they are based on the green tint variations from the actual 1962 Topps set.

As for the regular inserts, I like the Baseball Bucks inserts. I like the stamp inserts as well, but the two tone black and blue frames make them hard to look at in my opinion. And then we have the Real One autos of Ernie Banks and Starlin Castro along with various relic and relic auto cards of these two, including a couple of duals with both Banks and Castro featured. The designs are all pretty attractive for these sets with the wood grain prominently featured.

Below is a summary of the Cubs from this issue. Enjoy!

Base Set - only 1 full version of the set
#14 Carlos Pena
#25 Starlin Castro
#47 Kosuke Fukudome
#66 Geovany Soto
#115 Alfonso Soriano
#170 Aramis Ramirez
#191 Ryan Dempster
#224 Casey Coleman
#228 Marlon Byrd
#276 Darwin Barney
#359 Carlos Zambrano
#406 Tyler Colvin
#431 Welington Castillo (SP)
#446 Carlos Marmol (SP)
#485 Matt Garza (SP)
#495 Rookie Parade Andrew Cashner, Jonny Venters, Kenley Jansen, Jenrry Mejia, and John Axford (SP)


Chrome (Partial Parallel Set) - 5 Versions - Regular Chrome #/1962, Refractors #/662, Black Refractors #/62, Green Refractors, and Black Borders (non-chrome)
High numbers were issued in 2011 Topps Chrome. No Green Refractors or Paper Black Borders for high numbers.
#5 Starlin Castro
#44 Casey Coleman
#47 Marlon Byrd
#87 Carlos Zambrano
#137 Carlos Pena
#144 Kosuke Fukudome
#161 Alfonso Soriano


Tint Variations (Partial Parallel Set) - 3 Versions - Green Tint, Blue Tint (Walmart Exclusive), and Red Tint (Target Exclusive)
There are some small variations and other quirks between the base cards and the tint variations.
Cards #110-196 only from the base set have tint variations
#115 Alfonso Soriano
#170 Aramis Ramirez
#191 Ryan Dempster


Real One Autos - 2 Versions - Blue Ink & Red Ink (#/62)
EB Ernie Banks
SC Starlin Castro


Real One Dual Autos
BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro - available via redemption only


Baseball Bucks
#16 Starlin Castro
#17 Aramis Ramirez
#18 Tyler Colvin


Baseball Flashbacks - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Seat Relics - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Dual Seat Relics #/10 - No Cubs Included
Baseball Flashbacks Seat Relic Autos #/25 - No Cubs Included

Baseball Flashbacks Autos #/25
EB Ernie Banks


Clubhouse Collection Relics - No Cubs Included
Clubhouse Collection Dual Relics #/62 - No Cubs Included

Clubhouse Collection Relic Autos #/25
EB Ernie Banks
SC Starlin Castro


Clubhouse Collection Dual Relic Autos #/10
BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro - available via redemption only


Coin Relics
EB Ernie Banks 1962 Quarter


Cut Autos - No Cubs Included
New Age Performers - No Cubs Included
News Flashbacks - No Cubs Included
Then & Now - No Cubs Included

Dual Framed Stamps #/62
I haven't seen a full checklist for these yet, but last year each player appeared on two different pairs.
Marlon Byrd (w/ Chris Young & w/Mat Latos)
Starlin Castro (w/David Wright & w/Francisco Cordero)
Tyler Colvin (w/Jorge Posada & w/Edwin Jackson)
Ryan Dempster (w/Mark Teixeira & w/Chris Young)
Carlos Marmol (w/Chris Coghland & w/Barry Zito)
Aramis Ramirez (w/Brian Wilson & w/Michael Young)
Alfonso Soriano (w/Neftali Feliz & w/Prince Fielder)








Triple Stamp Box Toppers
#6 Alfonso Soriano, Starlin Castro, and Carlos Marmol


50th Anniversary Buybacks - Buybacks of real 1962 Topps cards with a special gold stamp on them
#25 Ernie Banks
#47 Bob Will
#66 Cuno Barragon
#89 Barney Schultz
#119 Danny Murphy
#170 Ron Santo
#191 Jim Brewer
#240 George Altman
#264 Dick Ellsworth
#274 Sammy Taylor
#288 Billy Williams
#309 Moe Morhardt
#359 Bobby Locke
#372 Jack Curtis
#387 Lou Brock
#446 Don Elston
#458 Bob Buhl
#461 Ken Hubbs
#477 Andre Rodgers
#495 Don Cardwell
#546 Moe Thacker
#552 Cubs Team Card
#557 Bob Anderson
#585 Glen Hobbie
#597 Jim McKnight
A few examples below


Stamp Buybacks - Framed 1962 Topps Stamp Buybacks, print runs vary
#102 Chicago Cubs Emblem
#103 George Altman
#104 Ernie Banks
#105 Dick Bertell #/2
#106 Don Cardwell
#107 Dick Ellsworth
#108 Glen Hobbie
#109 Ron Santo
#110 Barney Schultz
#111 Billy Williams