the 2024 olympics are a few months away, so this post is about cards and not medals. i've picked up a few new topps flagship gold parallel cards recently and figured i would run through a full slate of these parallels now that 2024 series 1 is out.
the first gold cards showed up in 1992
maybe one of the first "paraallel parallel" sets.
but with the addition of the "topps gold" logo
my gold rush is on!
1993 saw a similar gold treatment
in 1994
there was full border foil, along with the names, and the cards were serial numbered (not shown) to the year of production.
the 2002 gold cards
aren't as obvious as scans because of the gold border that topps used for the base design. this was the first year that they added the "xx years of collecting", building from the "topps 50" logo on the 2001 cards. i've posted in the past about anniversaries vs. years of collecting so i won't bother to get into it again here.
there was only the name to make gold.
after that, topps took a break from the gold parallels. when they returned in 2001
in 2003
the names and borders were made gold, but topps left the remainder of the design blue.
2004
2005
and 2006
the base design was black. there were no black parallels that year - instead topps used copper for the numbered "years of collecting" parallels
the next several years - 2008
2010
and 2012
had their white borders and names turned gold, but the "years of collecting" text fell off the cards in 2012
and 2014
the gold leaked into the photo as there was no border to color. same in 2017
and 2020
and then back in full force in 2021
but for some reason the gold cards in 2023
didn't get gold all the way around.
each had white border base designs that were changed to gold.
in 2007
2009
2011
in 2013
topps applied the gold to the full design
after 2014, topps got more graphically creative with their flagship design. the golds were a pretty standard conversion in 2015
but in 2016
and in 2018 it was all over the photo
partial gold borders were achieved in 2019
more of the same in 2022
this year, 2024,
we are back to full bordered gold.
for my money the 2001 and 2007 gold parallels are my favorite, although i don't have a lot of them. in fact, i've only completed the 1992 (and the 1992 "winners") dodger gold parallel team sets, although the last 1994 card i need is on its way to me. night owl just recently shared his complete 2008 dodger gold parallel team set, and i think i need to start making more progress in this regard - i mean just look how chunky the gold borders are on the 2007 topps dodger team card
You are much more aggressive about filling in team sets than I ever was, but I think a big factor now is that ever since they serialized them, people feel they are worth much more. It was not uncommon to find early gold cards in dime boxes. Now, maybe if anyone is still doing dime boxes. more likely $1 boxes!
ReplyDeleteI still remember the 94 UD Collectors Choice were the first gold cards I was crazy about, probably because they were 1 per box instead of 1 per pack. The Frank Thomas was a $150 card at one point, I remember that distinctly. Now you can find it for less than $10.
I remember back in 1992 sitting down with a stack of those Topps game cards in my bedroom with the lights off... and a flashlight. You could shine the light behind the card to reveal the match... which resulted in a winning card every time. I'm guessing Topps had to print a lot more of those "winner" parallels than originally anticipated.
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