Topps baseball cards have been a staple of the baseball card industry since the 1950s. In 2015, Topps produced a variety of baseball card products to satisfy collectors both young and old. Their flagship set for the year was the 2015 Topps baseball card base set, which featured cards of major and minor league players from both the American and National Leagues.
The 2015 Topps base set consisted of 324 total cards, including 288 regular player cards, 32 rookie cards and 4 manager/coach cards. Some of the notable rookies featured in the base set included Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor and Noah Syndergaard. Top veteran players like Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Andrew McCutchen and David Ortiz also received prominent cards in the base set checklist.
In addition to the standard base cards, Topps included several insert sets spotlighting different themes and categories. The Topps Traditions insert set paid homage to the design styles of Topps cards throughout the decades dating back to the 1950s. Each card in the 35-card Traditions set replicated the aesthetic of a certain year, such as 1976, 1987 or 1998.
Another popular insert set was Topps High Tek, which featured players on futuristic-styled cards with metallic foil and 3D hologram elements. There were 60 total cards in the High Tek set, with parallels available in traditional blue, gold, and silver foil versions. Rookie phenoms like Kris Bryant received their own special High Tek rookie card parallel in the set.
Veteran superstars also received extra attention in 2015 Topps inserts. The Topps Legendary Lineage set honored baseball legends from the past by pairing vintage photos of Hall of Famers like Ted Williams or Roy Campanella alongside current players directly influenced by their styles of play. There were 50 Legendary Lineage cards in total highlighting different player connections across eras.
Topps also rolled out larger insert sets designed to fit special collector interests. The Topps WWE Crossover set combined baseball with wrestling by inserting current WWE Superstars like John Cena, Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan onto cards utilizing Topps baseball designs. The 80-card set was a big hit among fans of both sports. Another insert followed a similar crossover concept by pairing current MLB players with characters from The Walking Dead television series in the Topps MLB-TWD set.
Topps also provided multiple memorabilia card options for collectors seeking autographs oruniform/game-used pieces of their favorite players. The Topps Triple Threads memorabilia set combined a standard base card swatch with dual autographs for 55 of MLB’s top talents like Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout and Buster Posey. For collectors on a budget, the Topps Museum Collection offered high-quality relic cards utilizing uniform or equipment fragments for over 150 current stars.
For collectors of star Japanese players, Topps imported 100 cards from the Japanese BBM baseball card set translated fully into English. Featuring Japanese baseball legends like Ichiro Suzuki alongside up and coming talents like Shohei Ohtani, the imported BBM set provided a window into the NPB for western collectors. Topps also supplied collectors with autographs and memorabilia cards from the NPB through their Standard and Premier signing series sets acquired from direct signings in Japan.
Perhaps the most sought after Topps baseball product of 2015 though was the limited edition Topps Finest retail set. Featuring slick “chrome” style refractors of the biggest stars on the diamond with sharp vivid colors, each of the 65 Finest cards exuded a luxurious premium feel. Short printed parallels made acquiring a Mike Trout or Clayton Kershaw Finest refractor on the secondary market especially challenging.
Through these varied products and countless others, Topps attempted to provides something for everyone amongst the massive baseball card collecting audience. With over 15,000 total unique cards issued across their 2015 baseball offerings, Topps demonstrated their enduring commitment to capture the iconic players, moments and entertainment of America’s favorite pastime another season on cardboard. Their innovations each year keep the baseball card industry thriving as both a fun hobby and lucrative business well into the future.
