Back to the Printers

When Topps announced on Monday that they would be releasing limited sets, using the veneer of different 'Printings' to define a cards level of rarity, certain corners of the collecting community were, as always, up in arms!

Outrage set in.

"It'll be a pay/diamonds only set" some cried.

"Does Topps have no original ideas? They're just copying Quidd!" others ranted.

"Overpriced garbage. Topps hates F2P collectors... I quit!", and so on.

I'm often amused by the fact that whenever Topps offers up a new idea for any of their apps, there's always the customary indignation from a tiny minority of collectors who love nothing more than savagely tearing said proposition to pieces. That such an endeavour is somehow doomed to failure. That it will be ... well... basically, shit.

Such is the nature of the internet I guess. Haters gonna hate.

Obviously, those same collectors will be the ones chasing the new cards with an almost fanatical fervor once they're released, before trying to complete their sets with a variety of 'take one leave two' trade offers.

However, that's a rant on my part that I'll shelve for another time.

The first set in this format that the Marvel Collect! app has treated us to is 'Retro X-Men', a set of nine cards limited to a count of 250 and based on images from the animated X-Men show that graced our TV screens back in the 90s. A small logo in the top left denotes which 'Printing' release the card is from, and Topps has promised that each set released in this way will have at least two separate print runs, but no more than four.

Now, while the comparisons with Quidd are obvious I feel that what we're actually seeing here is just a different release model of the 'variant' insert that we already get across the other Topps apps.

For example, in Star Wars you might get a set of 10 cards released over a 10-day period, with each card coming in three different variants. For instance, you might have a Gold variant limited to 100 copies, a Blue variant limited to 500 and a Green variant limited to 1500. All variants of one card would be released at the same time and would be replaced by the next card in the set a day later.

What we have with these limited sets in the Marvel Collect! app is essentially the same thing, except we're getting a staggered, rather than simultaneous, release and each card has its Printing logo in the top corner.

These types of sets should be able to satisfy every type of collector. The more limited card in the run will always more sought after than the card with a higher print run, but those higher printed cards will be more readily available and cheaper than their scarcer equivalent, giving collectors who are on a stricter budget the chance to go for the set too.

I love the Retro X-Men set and managed to pick up four of the 1st Printings, but I'm also aware of my collecting limitations and have decided that this most likely won't be a set that I'll try and put together until the lower Printings become available.

It doesn't concern me that we have a tiered system in place here, however I'm not a fan of the printing logo in the top corner as I feel it spoils the aesthetic value of the card. I do feel however that the use of a tiered 1st, 2nd, 3rd Printing system drives a false economy with regard to the card value, making the 1st Printing always the most desirable card in the set when compared to the 'lesser' Printings from the 2nd onwards.

If Topps had kept these as coloured variants I don't feel that this would have been as pronounced and would have been a bit more palatable for set collectors. My only gripe is that while the set itself is pretty cool, there's a certain 'eliteness' to this release format that doesn't sit as well with me from a collecting point of view.

Still, it's most likely a format that will be here to say and one that we'll no doubt get used to over time.