Card Selection
WHY TOPPS®
The short answer - because they're the best. Topps® invented the modern baseball card in 1950 and is the only brand with a continuous manufacturing run since that time. Topps® baseball cards are pieces of Americana enjoyed by generations of baseball fans and are both a sentimental favorite and intrinsically valuable.
CARDS INCLUDED
Other team sets contain one or perhaps two years worth of cards and will include only those cards that are issued in the full year Topps® set. Occasionally you will find a team set that also includes those player cards from the Topps® Traded set issued at the end of the baseball season.
Not only does the Ultimate Team Set include all those players wearing your team's uniform from the full year sets and traded sets, but it also includes any player who appears on a card with others from different teams (multiple player cards) including the League Leaders, World Series, Future Stars, etc. And THAT you will be hard-pressed to find anywhere else.
That's every player who was pictured in your team's uniform on every Topps® regular issue, traded issue, all the multiple player cards, and (there's more) the three years from the Topps® Debut sets issued in '90, '91, and '92 -- all rookies.
Select your team from the team list to see a complete list of cards in your team set including card series, card number and card description (player).
CARD QUALITY
All cards contained in all Ultimate Team Sets are not only worthy of a collector's or fan's pride, but the quality of the sets makes them excellent long-term investments. Every cards is hand-graded for at least Near-Mint/Mint, Mint or Gem Mint quality using our strict grading standards.
CHALLENGING SERIES
The toughest cards to find in Near-Mint/Mint, Mint or Gem Mint condition are those from 1980 because of wear and condition and those from 1981 because of poor quality control in original factory printing and cutting. In those cases where factory problems occurred, many multiple sets are obtained and the Near Mint/Mint, Mint, and Gem Mint cards are culled out for the completion of the Ultimate Team Set. 1986 is also a difficult year to obtain high quality cards because the black ink bleeds to the edge - any mishandling at all results in white bleed-through. Again, each card in the 1986 sets are hand-checked for Near Mint/Mint, Mint, and Gem Mint condition. And those cards from the 1970s that we have added present a special problem. The older the card, generally the worse condition it is in. We have to collect huge numbers of those years to pull a complete set of pretty cards.
SEALED FACTORY CARDS
For the years that Topps® made factory sets, all cards are obtained from unopened sets or sets whose original owners only open them to carefully verify the contents. Any extremely minor problems involving any of these cards results from original factory issues and not wear. All cards from unopened sets are handled only once to place them in individual sleeves. All cards from opened factory sets are, to the best of our knowledge, only handled directly twice -- once by the original owner and once to place them in sleeves.
INDIVIDUAL CARDS
In those rare cases where a suitable card could not be found in multiple full-year sets, a replacement that met our quality criteria was individually purchased from our card sources.
It takes over 35,000 cards spanning 41 years to compile one full set of every team from that 41 year span. With multiple sets involved to obtain the highest quality cards for inclusion, approximately 150,000 total cards are needed to complete each of the 30 Ultimate Team Sets.
FOR THE ULTIMATE FAN
These sets are specifically designed for die-hard baseball fans, casual card collectors, and investors - anyone who wants to own a piece of the game they love, but who do not want to put in the hundreds of hours it would take to assemble even one of these sets.
We have developed production systems, methods of obtaining cards, and computerized inventory control systems that allow us to plow through the "grunt" work relatively quickly and efficiently. It is because of those developed systems that we can offer you this opportunity to own 41 years of your favorite team's history at a reasonable cost.
