Topps Gold became a staple parallel card in 2001, with every card sderial numbered to 2001. Every year since, Gold cards are numbered based on the year. Eventually, Topps introduced other serial-numbered color-bordered parallel cards to their lineup: Topps Black (2003, #'d to 52), Copper (which replaced Black in 2007 because the base set had black borders in the first place, #'d to 56), Platinum (2006, a real one-of-one), and on-and-on. And I'm not even including the different colored foil varieties, or the red backs from 2007...
And it's not just the Topps brand. Topps Chrome brand really went crazy with the colored-chrome parallels.Topps even printed Chrome Refractor parallels. It got to the point that they were even encouraging collectors to "collect the rainbow."
Parallel sets eventually found their way into factory sets. I'm not talking about the five-card exclusives that collectors were finally opening factory sets for to get their hands on these extremely limited cards. I'm talking in 2023 when every few Topps retail factory sets could contain a full set of parallel cards.
Then, in what has become the bane of an insert collector like me, Topps started making colored paralell cards of their already lesser printed insert cards. I can not tell you the number of times that I've mistakenly included a blue parallel card in an insert set only to find out later that it wasn't part of said set and then I'd have to look for the actual card to complete the insert set. (True story, which involved a 2022 Topps Sweet Shades Jose Altuve card. When I realized that I had the blue parallel instead of the regular card in my binder, I went berzerk and bought the first regular card I could find just so I could make the switch).
In 2025, Topps included 78...yes, that's right...78 different sets of parallel cards. A majority of them were either serial numbered or were exclusively found in specific products (like in packs sold at the Fanatics store in NYC). Hobby packs, jumbo packs, retail packs, blaster boxes, holiday products, super boxes, mega boxes, etc, had their own exclusive parallel cards to chase. As a base and basic set collector, I totally skip over these. But how do you player and team collectors keep track of it all?
As more information about 2026 Topps has come about, the list of parallel cards have been posted online. Let's just say that I am so glad that I am a set collector.
 |
| Hobby Exclusive Parallels |
 |
| Retail Exclusive Parallels |
 |
| Wait...there's more... |
I'm not even about to begin to list the parallels that were announced for the insert, autograph, and relic cards.
Why Topps??! Why??!
I have a lot of respect for those who collect specific players or specific teams. Your collections are impressive, and I admire your dedication to a niche of the Hobby that many people outside of it would call obsessive, if not insane.
Do you go after specific parallels? As a team collector, do you try to get at least one sample of everything, regardless of player? Do you try to collect everything to complete a rainbow? What counts to you as a rainbow? I'd love to know.
 |
| 2025 Topps Update Series Clear Michael Lorenzen #US222 |
 |
| 2025 Topps Update True Photo Variation Michael Lorenzen #US222 |
But then again, maybe I should go for the Michael Lorenzen parallel set. I have two of the harder cards to pull and these will be going into the six-inch binder for 2025 Topps (which I will talk about in a few days time...I promise).
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
As I commented in Night Owl's blog:
ReplyDelete"I'm a set collector who likes storing sets in binders by teams but I think each card page look better when all 9 cards are players from the same team. That's where parallels come in handy to fill the team pages with 18/27/36/etc. cards."
This just makes my binder pages more aesthetically pleasing imho.I do try to avoid retail/holiday parallels though.