In 2022, Topps issued a product to Hobby shops with the hope of providing a bit of nostalgia to those who remember the purpose of the product: Vending Boxes.
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| A 2022 Topps Baseball Vending Box. |
Younger collectors may be asking: What are vending boxes? A long time ago, Topps sold 500-card boxes of random, unsearched baseball cards from a specific year for entrepreneurs who service vending machines, or for Hobby shops who just wanted quantities of cards for inventory without having to open packs (and dealing with sticks of gum). The vending boxes were not collated, and it was wholly possible to get multiple copies of a card in one box. And because the gum wasn't included in the boxes, the cards were devoid of the gum-stains that plagued cards that the confection would have touched. Topps' vending boxes have been around since the late 1950's, and were manufactured by the company through 1990 (I have not seen any boxes from 1991 and beyond).
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| A Vending Box from 1987 |
Each 2022 Topps Vnding Box contained 165 cards from the series 2 set plus five insert cards that could only be found within. The set, called Fresh Faces, featured 25 players who qualified for RC logo status, including a number of players who made their MLB debut in 2022. Three years later, many of these players have become established veterans, with multiple All-Stars among the 25-player checklist.
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| 2022 Topps Fresh Faces Julio Rodriguez FF-3 |
Because of the limited availability of this product, not too many collectors may have known the existence of these insert cards. I certainly didn't. I only stumbled upon the product when searching the Bay mindlessly. Someone managed to get all the cards together and put the complete set up for a BIN. I can't remember what the asking price for the cards, but I do remember who bought it.
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| 2022 Topps Fresh Faces Bobby Witt Jr. FF-2 |
Yeah, if it wasn't already obvious...It was ME!!!
Okay, I'll stop talking.
The cards themselves feature a rainbow-foil background with a grayscale media-day image of the player, a colored action shot up front, with the RC Logo fits right in-between the words Fresh and Faces above the nameplate. The reverse has a quick blurb about the player's performance in 2021, whether they be minor league highlights, or how the player performed during a cup-of-coffee in the majors.
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| 2022 Topps Fresh Faces Edward Cabrera FF-15 Reverse |
The checklist:
- FF-1 Wander Franco (Rays)
- FF-2 Bobby Witt Jr (Royals)
- FF-3 Julio Rodriguez (Mariners)
- FF-4 Brandon Marsh (Angels)
- FF-5 Shane Baz (Rays)
- FF-6 Vidal Brujan (Rays)
- FF-7 Jarren Duran (Red Sox)
- FF-8 Oneil Cruz (Pirates)
- FF-9 Reid Detmers (Angels)
- FF-10 Hunter Green (Reds)
- FF-11 MacKenzie Gore (Padres)
- FF-12 Nick Lodolo (Reds)
- FF-13 Spencer Torkelson (Tigers)
- FF-14 CJ Abrams (Padres)
- FF-15 Edward Cabrera (Marlins)
- FF-16 Gavon Sheets (White Sox)
- FF-17 Heliot Ramos (Giants)
- FF-18 Joe Ryan (Twins)
- FF-19 Seth Beer (Diamondbacks)
- FF-20 Josh Lowe (Rays)
- FF-21 Matt Brash (Mariners)
- FF-22 Roansy Contreras (Pirates)
- FF-23 Bryson Stott (Phillies)
- FF-24 Steven Kwan (Guardians)
- FF-25 Jeremy Pena (Astros)
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| 2022 Topps Fresh Faces Steven Kwan FF-24 |
As has been the trend with insert cards in recent years, this set also came in Blue (#'d to 199), Black (#'d to 75), Purple (#'d to 25), Red (#'d to 10), and Gold (1 of 1) parallels.
While sales may not have been enough to warrant Topps (and probably Fanatics) to continue producing vending boxes, its brief run in 2022 gave collectors a chance to chase a set seen in regular packs of Series 2. If you're a player collector or a team collector, these are truly worth pursuing. If you're a set collector who has a lot more patience than certain Hobby bloggers (cough, cough), building this set card-by-card would make for a good challenge.
And that's what makes this set something worth talking about.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
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