Review: 2008 Topps Heritage High Number Baseball

It was not uncommon for baseball card sets from decades ago to have a second series of cards that was released later in the season. It's in that spirit that Topps introduces Topps Heritage High Number Baseball, completing the Heritage base set with 220 new cards.

Hobby boxes of 2008 Topps Heritage High Number Baseball hold 24 packs, with eight cards (six Heritage and two Topps Updates & Highlights) plus an individually wrapped stick of gum in each pack. Autographs and relic (memorabilia) cards combine to fall one per box on average.

Anyone who enjoyed the 1959 Topps Baseball design shouldn't mind another 220 cards that pay tribute to that set. The new dose of base cards consists of players who didn't make the checklist of Topps Heritage, players who changed teams during the season and 45 rookies who made their MLB debuts in 2008.

The set numbering begins where Heritage left off (at card # 501), making this a true second series. And just like the first series, there are 35 cards that are short prints, identifiable by black boxes for the card numbers on their backs.

Chrome parallels numbered to 1959 use Topps' familiar technology. Also available are Refractors numbered to 559 and Black-Bordered Refractors numbered to just 59.

Topps also chose to combine the Heritage High Number cards with Topps Updates & Highlights cards, with two coming in each pack. This seems to be an unusual decision since that product has already been released on its own, and with a 330-card set this isn't a very efficient way to collect them.

I cracked open a random box of Heritage High Number Baseball and found myself around halfway to completing the series with 109 regular cards (plus seven duplicates) and eight short prints. I also pulled 10 Chrome cards, two Refractors and 48 Updates & Highlights cards.

Heritage High Number carries over the autograph and game-used programs from the first series. On the relic (Topps' name for memorabilia cards) side, that means Clubhouse Collection cards that contain pieces of game-used bat or jersey from current players and retired stars from 1959. Flashback Stadium Relics showcase pieces of material from stadiums in use in 1959 along with a famous event from that year.

Real One Autographs also mix past and present players on the 1959 card design, with signatures inked right on the cards. Low-numbered red ink and dual versions add to the chase.

Rarest of all are 1959 Cut Signatures and 1959 Cut Signature Relics, all of which are unique one-of-one cards. As expected given Topps' relationship with his estate, Mickey Mantle is one of the players featured.

The About.com sample box produced a single relic card: an Alex Gordon Clubhouse Collection jersey card.

Several insert sets add a little something extra to roughly every fourth pack, though some of them are hard to pick out at first because they look just like the base cards. Rookie Performers and 2008 Flashbacks are fairly self-explanatory, focusing on top newcomers and season highlights respectively.

Then & Now pairs up current stars with players active in 1959 who won the same awards. My review box yielded six inserts in all.

Two box topper packs finish off the box opening experience. The larger of the two contains an Advertising Panel, which recreates the triple-width card displays used to promote baseball cards 50 years ago. The other pack contains an original 1959 Topps Baseball card, usually somewhat the worse for wear (mine was off-center and beat up on all four corners) but still a cool piece of hobby history nonetheless.

Heritage High Number offers more of the same as Topps Heritage in every aspect. That's not necessarily a bad thing since it's the point of a product like this, but other Topps update series sometimes contain a few wrinkles of their own, and that's not really the case here.

If you were a big fan of the first series, you'll probably want to put this one together too, especially with the additional rookies. Otherwise you can safely afford to wait for the 2009 Topps Heritage set, which will pay homage to a whole new year from Topps' past.