Buzz Break: 2020 Topps x Super 70s Sports baseball cards

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The packs: 2020 Topps x Super 70s Sports baseball cards (three)
First Buzz preview & checklist: Click here
Where to buy: Initially only via Topps.com ... BlowoutCards.com when/if available

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery of highlights from this box.

Packs per box: 1
Cards per pack: 20
Cards per lot: 61
Base set completion: 
54 of 90 (60 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Base cards – Ken Griffey Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Robin Yount, Tony Gwynn, Manny Machado, Christian Yelich, Alan Trammell, Al Kaline, Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer, George Foster, Trevor Bauer, Nolan Arenado, Nolan Ryan, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Shohei Ohtani, Jackie Robinson, Anthony Rizzo, Dave Kingman, Ryne Sandberg, Juan Soto, Max Scherzer, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Jim Rice, David Ortiz, Ted Williams, Carlton Fisk, Willie Mays, Matt Olson, Rickey Henderson, Reggie Jackson, J.R. Richard, Justin Verlander, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Pete Alonso, Sandy Koufax, George Brett, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Aaron Judge, Derek Jeter, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Clayton Kershaw, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole, Dale Murphy, Dusty Baker

Rookie Cards – None

Insert cards: 6 (all cards from this box in gallery below)
Happening Hairdos (1) – Ozzie Smith
Magnificent Mustaches (1) – Rollie Fingers
Memorable Managers (2) – Ted Williams, Earl Weaver
Ultimate Uniforms (2) – Dave Winfield, Willie Stargell

Autographs/Memorabilia: 1
Purple Autographs (1) – Al Oliver (/10)

What's Buzz-worthy: I was a bit on the fence when this one was announced as the cool retro realities would likely be met by lesser names on the one-per-three-boxes autograph checklist -- and I was right with who I landed. However, I wasn't expecting an Al Oliver auto to be limited to only 10 copies (as a parallel) ... so that's a nice surprise here in this retro release where everything was selected and approved by Super 70s Sports, a Twitter account with a distinctly retro flair and plenty of commentary. This set is 90 cards and it has stars from all eras as well as memorable players like Al Oliver who seem to better define specific eras. (He played in the 1960s, '70s and '80s but he's a 1970s/early guy to me and was a batting champ in 1983 to prove that.) These are printed on clean retro stock and I had zero issues here save for one card with surface issues (Nolan Ryan) and one insert (Winfield) where the cardboard had been bent long before it was ever printed upon (look for the diagonal line across the top right corner in gallery). Nothing like the quality control from the 1970s/'80s eras, though. I landed most of the names I would have been looking for but only bought enough boxes to statistically land myself an auto. I'd need a few more with perfect collation to pull together a set here and I thought about it (after ripping) as the 1977-meets-1978 mashup had a better feel in person than I had expected. The inserts here add 1975 into the mix for five smaller sets and I landed one from each save for the Spectacular Spectacles set. The insert sets have auto versions (un-numbered, /20 and /40 spotted) and the unannounced auto parallels here look like they include Gold (/5) and Purple (/10) though there could be others. I'd suspect that even most autos are realtively rare given the checklist size and the fact that just 8,921 packs were made for this one so there would be less than 3,000 autos total in the release. All in all, this one has a good retro feel to it but I wish the basic cards had the color like the inserts do and then that the inserts just tried something else visually.  Topps Archives might add some of the stuff tried here into its mix -- mashing up past designs could make it a little more interesting. Some of these base cards are just screaming for on-card autos so if you do shows or through-the-mail signing these might be strong singles to use. Just a throwback thought there.

Product Grade: B+
Lot Grade: A-
Fun Grade: B+

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