2007 Topps

Designs for the '07 Topps products are trickling out. Apparently Ryan Howard is the company's spokesman this year.

2007 Topps looks quite interesting. I actually prefer the traditional white borders for Topps' base set, but the black (or is that navy blue?) could be very nice. Topps hasn't done black on a border since 1986, and no full black border since '71, so they are overdue (the past decade of Bowman designs notwithstanding).Of course if it is navy, then we got a '94 Score thing going on, which is a bit more dubious if you ask me. I'm also not too sure about the little colored squares or the foil though, although it probably looks better than that squinty little picture would make it seem. And why no position on the front of the card? It's no fun to sort that box into little fantasy teams when you have to flip the card over to see if Aubrey Huff is deemed a third basemen or outfielder by Topps' crack statistician. All these nitpicks are overshadowed by one single bit of awesomeness: the replica autograph! When's the last time you saw a pre-printed scribble on a Topps card, 1982?

2007 Heritage is just... oh my God. Click on that link. Click on it now. Just look at that. Look at it! Even though the image is squished down to a quarter size that is one gorgeous card. Bright colors, good head shot of a great player, and a design that absolutely nails the 1958 set. The '57 Heritage set, while good, did have problems, and the '49 Bowman set is looking like a bit of a mess, but Topps may have knocked this one out of the park. I can't wait to see the sell sheet on this one and hopefully they don't mess up the short prints or variations. A little hint, you Topps designers, the original set had Yellow and White team name variations. Don't just make the background a little bit pastel looking when compared side by side to a regular card. The original 1958 set took a long time to grow on me (I preferred the 1956 and 1960 sets to be honest) but I'm really looking forward to this one.