Sometimes simplifying things can lead to perfection. This is
the case with 2012 Topps Baseball Mini Cards.
Based on 2012 Topps Baseball Series 1 and Series 2 cards, this
set consists of 661 base cards, border parallels in Gold #/61 and Black #/5,
Printing Plates, 50 Golden Moments inserts, 50 different relic cards, 31 different autograph cards and nothing else. It will be
refreshing for set builders to collect a series of cards this
focused.
These cards are not like most of the parallel minis you
have been collecting as inserts found in other releases. Often times the minis do not retain the same aspect ratio,
reducing the width, which causes the image to be altered. At about 90% of the size of a regular
base card, these are true mini versions of the base cards they parallel.
For the purposes of review, we classify Topps Baseball Minis
as trading cards. These are hobby
exclusive cards only available online at ShopTopps.com at the fixed price of
$50 a box, shipping is free. Each box contains 24 – 10 card packs with a
promise of 1 autograph or 1 relic mini card per box.
Here is a size comparison using Evan Longoria from Series 2
on the left and his mini on the right.
Here are some of the other cards we pulled.
Base Set
Mike Trout, front and back
Bryce Harper, Yu Darvish, Ichiro
Miguel Cabrera, Joe Mauer, Mariano Rivera
Justin Verlander, David Freese
Gold Border Parallels #/61
Chase Utley, Nolan Reimold
Adam Wainwright, Brayan Pena, Alex White
Printing Plate 1/1
Rafael Furcal, Cyan Plate, front and back
The Hit
Carl Yastrzemski Game-Used Memorabilia Mini, front and back
Overall Look
These are true mini versions of the base cards they
parallel so you should already be familiar with the design. In its smaller format, the look of these minis are even
better than their full sized counterparts. The border cards work really well. The relic and autograph
cards look great too.
Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.
Just about every modern day, active player you would want
to see on a card is here. Retired stars
are reserved for the Golden Moment inserts.
Do the hits hold up?
They sure do thanks to the limited list of available
hits. There is a high likelihood
of hitting something really nice. While the card is a mini, the swatch is regular sized.
Will you want to collect them all?
Because of the limited amount of total cards, a master set
is definitely something to consider.
Short of that, a complete base set is a must.
Rating
5 out of 5
2012 Topps Baseball Mini cards offer a fantastic set to
collect at an extremely reasonable price point. I wouldn’t wait too long to pick up some boxes of this
limited release.
Review box provided by Topps
Review box provided by Topps