Wednesday, June 22, 2011

2011 Topps Pro Debut Baseball. An All About Cards Review


Designing a Minor League Baseball card set is not an easy task.  So many leagues, so many teams, so many players, so much movement.  2011 Topps Pro Debut does a good job of condensing it all down to an attractive set.  They even provide a fold out checklist with short player bios so you can learn as you collect.  It is also where you will find Bryce Harper on his first minor league card, in his Hagerstown Suns uniform.

This set falls under our classification of trading cards.  Hobby Boxes contain 24 – 8 card packs and feature two autograph cards and two relic cards.

Here is a look at some of the cards we pulled from our hobby box.

From the base set
Regular Base
 Mike Trout base card, front and back
From his checklist bio - "Oft-cited as top prospect this side of Bryce Harper"

Pro Debut Base
 Debut base card of Byron Aird, front and back
notice the foil logo on the top right indicating his MiLB debut card
From his checklist bio - "Hard-working Australian find who's new to catching"

Blue parallels of the base cards #/309

Gold parallel of the base cards #/50

From the Inserts

Single A All Stars

Double A All Stars

Triple A All Stars

The hits of the box

 Brandon Belt and Dee Gordon Relic Cards

 Solo Signings Autograph Cards of Jesse Biddle in Red #/199 and David Bromberg 

Aaron Hicks Debut Cuts Auto #/95

Overall Look
Same design as 2011 Topps Baseball which works well.  MiLB photography is on par with MLB photography, which is nice to see.   Inserts work nicely and hits are attractively laid out.

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.
By condensing Pro Debut down to one release this year, going from over 400 base cards down to 330, this set is a tight mix of quality players and new talent.

Do the hits hold up?
Another tight list of Autographs and Relic cards that will satisfy those who are up on the future stars of “The Show.”

Will you want to collect them all? 
This is very collectable for set builders.   Color parallels are a good chase for players you anticipate with make it to the “Bigs.”   If you have a minor league in your back yard, these cards are great for autograph hunters.

Rating
 4 out of 5

2011 Topps Pro Debut is a great set to collect and hold.


Review box provided by Topps

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