Cubs Breakdown - 2012 Topps Packaged Team Sets

2012 Topps Packaged Team Sets
For the last several years, Topps has been issuing team sets for each team to be sold at Targets and Walmarts and other retail outlets. These team sets are always interesting in that many of the cards in these sets feature different photos than the base set, while sharing the same design. And in some other cases, these provide a preview of cards we will see in Topps Series 2 later in the year.

This year's packaged team set doesn't feature any different photos for the players who had cards in Series 1 Topps. We will obviously have to wait and see about the cards from Series 2. But I'm guessing at least a couple of these guys will not make it into Series 2. And I have a hard time believing the airbrush jobs on a couple of the cards will be what they use if they do appear in Series 2. I really kind of like the cards with airbrushing here, the jobs are so bad in some cases that they bring back memories of the classic Topps airbrushing from the 1960s and 1970s. I especially like the David DeJesus card which has a small Cubs logo randomly placed on his hip! Anthony Rizzo also has a card with a pretty low budget airbrush job.

A checklist of cards in the set is below along with pictures of each.

#CHC-1 Starlin Castro
#CHC-2 Reed Johnson
#CHC-3 Alfonso Soriano
#CHC-4 Ryan Dempster
#CHC-5 Darwin Barney
#CHC-6 Kerry Wood
#CHC-7 Marlon Byrd
#CHC-8 Matt Garza
#CHC-9 Geovany Soto
#CHC-10 Randy Wells
#CHC-11 Carlos Marmol
#CHC-12 Bryan LaHair
#CHC-13 Anthony Rizzo
#CHC-14 David DeJesus
#CHC-15 Paul Maholm
#CHC-16 Ian Stewart
#CHC-17 Wrigley Field

2010 Upper Deck #109 Ryan Theriot Ultra Rare Variation Surfaces!

2010 Upper Deck #109 Ryan Theriot Ultra Rare Variation Surfaces!
Finally! I've had 2010 Upper Deck Theriot on my daily search list for almost two years now, and one of the Ultra Rare variations finally popped up. As part of its 2010 set, Upper Deck included variations of 25 of the cards in the base set. They did not say specifically what the variation was on each card, instead leaving it up to collectors to find the variations on their own. There are four different levels of rarity for the variation cards - Common, Rare, Super Rare, and Ultra Rare. Theriot is one of the Ultra Rares and I had not seen one until now. Most of the Common, and Rare variations have been identified, but not all of the Super Rare and Ultra Rare have been identified (at least to my knowledge).



The variation is the first card above (on the left) and the base version is second card (on the right). Upper Deck states that there are three differences on the Theriot variation card and I think I see them all (the UD Logo has switched sides, the base has moved closer to the players, and the outfielder in the background is gone). Kosuke Fukudome also has an Ultra Rare variation in the set and I had previously posted a pic of that one back in October 2010 (see here). So now I can put this set to bed from a checklisting standpoint.

Cubs Breakdown - 2012 Topps Heritage

2012 Topps Heritage
Topps Heritage returns this week with this year's theme being the 1963 Topps set. 1963 is not a great design in my opinion, in fact it might be the one I like the least from the entire decade of the 1960s. But despite the handicap of a bad base set design, I feel like Topps really nailed this one!

The first thing that caught my eye as I was reviewing pics of the new cards are that the pictures on the base set cards are really good. They seem to have tried for mostly posed head shots and closeups (to match the actual 1963 set), and I think it really works. Plus, they chose this as their first set of the year to feature players with their new teams. It was too early to get actual photos, so the cards are airbrushed. But again, this fits in well with the 1963 theme and gives us our first Cubs card of Anthony Rizzo.

In addition, we get a few new base set wrinkles, some of which work and some don't. I like the Target Red Border and Walmart Blue Border designs, having a single color all around the outside helps this design a lot in my opinion. Plus I like the image swap relic cards. I actually don't really like the non-relic image swap cards, but I like having some relic cards in the base design and these serve the purpose nicely. And we have the typical short printed variation cards, which feature several Cubs cards this year. These variation type cards really aren't my thing, but I know a lot of people like them.

As for the player selection, I mentioned Anthony Rizzo above, but pretty much everyone who matters from the team right now is featured in the base set as well. So great job there Topps! And one card of particular interest, if it ever surfaces, is the Ken Hubbs cut auto card. That should generate some serious interest in the Cubs collecting world.

Given the nature of this issue of having tons of partial parallel sets, I chose to break these out individually for this breakdown. Without further ado, here it is!

Base Set - Only 1 Version of the full set with several partial parallel sets detailed below
#15 Darwin Barney
#31 Jeff Samardzija
#54 John Gaub w/Addison Reed, Adron Chambers, and Dellin Betances
#58 Marlon Byrd
#81 Geovany Soto
#113 Kerry Wood
#175 Matt Garza
#193 Starlin Castro
#212 Carlos Marmol
#260 Anthony Rizzo
#309 Ryan Dempster
#380 Carlos Pena
#384 Blake DeWitt
#472 Alfonso Soriano
#575 Bryan LaHair


Box Topper Three Card Ad Panels - All cards from the base set appear on three different panels, one on the left side, one in the middle, and one on the right side

Chrome Parallels (100 different) - 4 Versions - Base (#/1963) Refractors (#/563), Black Refractors (#/63), and Paper Stock Black Borders (the rookies cards do not have a black broder per se, but are numbered HPXX on a paper stock card)
#80 Starlin Castro
#95 John Gaub w/Addison Reed, Adron Chambers, and Dellin Betances


Image Swaps (25 different) - 2 Versions - Base Image Swap & Relic (#/63)
#193 Starlin Castro


Color Swaps (25 different)
No Cubs Included

Super Short Print Variations
#15 Darwin Barney (No Position on front of card)
#54 John Gaub (1962 Rookie Stars on front instead of 2011 Rookie Stars)
#113 Kerry Wood (shows Aramis Ramirez in a Brewers jersey on the front)
#380 Carlos Pena (Says Complete Major & Minor League Batting Record on back instead of just Complete Major League Batting Record)


Target Red Bordered Parallels (25 different)
#193 Starlin Castro
#260 Anthony Rizzo


Walmart Blue Bordered Parallels (25 different)
No Cubs Included

Real One Autos - 2 Versions - Blue Ink & Red Ink (#/63 or #/10)
#AGR Alex Grammas
#SC Starlin Castro


Real One Dual Autos (#/25)
#CA Starlin Castro & Luis Aparicio
#BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro (available via redemption only)


Clubhouse Collection Relics
#AR Aramis Ramirez Jersey
#MG Matt Garza Jersey
#SC Starlin Castro Jersey


Clubhouse Collection Dual Relics (#/63)
#BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro Dual Bats


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


Clubhouse Collection Dual Relic Autos (#/10)
#BC Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro


1963 Mint Coin Relics
No Cubs Included

Baseball Flashbacks
#EB Ernie Banks


Baseball Flashbacks Relics & Autos - 3 Versions - Stadium Seat Relics, Autos (#/25), Relic Autos (#/25)
Not all players have all versions
#EB Ernie Banks


JFK Story
No Cubs Included

JFK Story Stamp Relics (#/63)
No Cubs Included

JFK Story Coin Relics (1/1)
No Cubs Included

New Age Performers
No Cubs Included

News Flashbacks
No Cubs Included

Peel Off Stickers
#12 Starlin Castro


Then & Now
No Cubs Included

Cut Autos (All 1/1)
#DL Don Landrum
#KH Ken Hubbs
#LJ Larry Jackson


1963 Buybacks
#3 Ernie Banks (NL HR Leaders w/Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, and Frank Robinson)
#15 Ken Hubbs
#31 Cal Koonce
#54 Nelson Matthews (1962 Rookie Stars w/Harry Fanok, Dave DeBusschere, and Jack Cullen)
#58 Bob Will
#81 Jimmie Schaffer
#95 Larry Jackson
#113 Don Landrum
#175 Bob Buhl
#193 Andre Rodgers
#212 Glen Hobbie
#222 Cubs Team
#242 Ernie Banks (Power Plus w/Hank Aaron)
#252 Ron Santo
#272 Danny Murphy
#287 Dick Bertell
#309 Jim Brewer
#329 Lindy McDaniel
#353 Billy Williams
#380 Ernie Banks
#399 Dick Ellsworth
#416 Alex Grammas
#452 Barney Schultz
#459 Dick Lemay
#464 Ken Aspromonte
#472 Lou Brock
#489 Paul Toth
#515 Don Elston
#532 Steve Boros
#557 Cuno Barragon


1963 Peel Off Buybacks (Varied Numbering)
#5 Ernie Banks
#19 Ken Hubbs (#/2)