2007 Topps Heritage

Let me preface this entry by saying that this is the first Topps Heritage set I've tried collecting. I hear so many negative comments about it, but I have a hard time sharing these sentiments. Sure, there are better vintage years Topps could have borrowed from, but I guess as one new to this segment of available product, I'm pretty happy. My last set that I purchased in any kind of volume was 2001 Topps baseball. I found a stack of these in a box that once housed an Erickson cell phone, along with some 2001 Pacific Football cards (featuring Danny Wuerffel in a Packers uniform!)

But I digress. This pack was one of a couple purchased at Target. I always feel kind of weird buying cards there, because the people selling them have absolutely no attachment to them whatsoever. I might as well be placing a no-stick frying pan, a bottle of shampoo, and a 6-pack of tube socks on the conveyor belt for all they care. All's they needs is a smoke when they get their break in thirteen minutes. They probably don't even know it's called a "blaster box."

Retail cost of the pack was $2.99. I am a small handful of short prints away from finishing the set, so some good may come of this. Actually, Target has been quite good to me. All of the game-used cards and the one auto I've pulled this year have come from a Target pack, not the hobby boxes I've bought. Hopes are high.

The wrapper of the pack is smooth, supple.

Let's tear in.

Alright, here's what I got from top to bottom:
Gum (Pretty good tasting as far as gum goes. Truthfully, I have grown to despise gum, and I turn it down roughly 99% of the time when offered it.)
210 - Jim Edmonds
19 - 2006 Giants (Where's Dave Roberts? I scanned this card for a full two minutes and I still can't find him. No hint of a gray beard anywhere.)
237 - James Shields
127 - Gil Meche
374 - Jose Mesa (SP) (He looks like he will most definitely throw the ball at your face. It will hurt.)
415 - Raul Ibanez (Lots of printing mistake circles; not sure if there's a trade name for those or what.)
134 - 2006 Phillies (Likable team. Great on paper. Most obnoxious visiting fans [not counting Cubs "fans"] all season)
36 - Luis Gonzalez


Pack Grade: D+
If I were Charlie Bucket and craved cards more than anything in the world instead of candy, and I bought this pack with the money I found wadded up in a curbside slush ball, I would have given the cards away to a poorer, more desperate kid, one whose dad couldn't even GET a job at the toothpaste factory screwing caps onto tubes of toothpaste. Bland, bland, bland.


Oh, and there was a "Topps of the Class" waste of space card at the bottom, with one of those metallic sensors on it to prevent theft. "Work hard in school, receive cards. It's that simple. " As a teacher in an urban Milwaukee elementary school with an 80% poverty rate, I've never even gotten a sniff of a Topps presence. I have supplied old doubles as rewards in class, which is where this pack will probably go.