I have often said that it is close to impossible to build a successful high end set in Baseball, if not only because so many baseball collectors dont care about autographs and jersey cards. Of course, there are a lot of hit focused collectors similar to Football and Basketball, but in reality, the split between old style and new brings about a difficult task when building a product.

Topps Tribute was first released in the early part of the 2000s, and then resurrected a few years ago. In my opinion, it has been generally unsuccessful at bringing anything new to the game, especially when you consider some of the PR problems with the Babe Ruth cards from a few years back. This year is completely different, with Topps putting a welcome focus on obtaining hard signed cards for the set. Many players have their first autographed cards in years in this product, and most of those players signed for this set to boot. Its a great thing to see, irregardless of the crazy high price point.

Check out some of these awesome cards:

2011 Tribute Sandy Koufax 1/1 Gold Auto w/ Inscription

2011 Tribute Hank Aaron Rookie Reprint Autograph

2011 Tribute Albert Pujols Red Auto 1/5

2011 Tribute Evan Longoria Red Auto /5

Taking a page out of 2010 and 2011 Five Star, Tribute also has some incredibly cool inscription autos, something that hasnt been done in a licensed set for a VERY long time. Couple that with more signed cards from guys like Koufax, Mays, and Aaron, as well as a slow trickle of the first Yu Darvish signatures, and this product fills the high end void much better than its other competitors.

With Panini making a hard charge towards ending the MLB exclusive, Topps needs to step up their game, even if Panini’s design team has proven they cant compete with an 8th grade level photoshop class. Tribute, though VERY expensive is one of the better high end products I have seen lately, if not only for cards like this Joe Mauer that I had to jump on. Mauer is one of those guys that has not had hard signed autos since at least 2006, which is a lifetime in this sport.

Overall, Topps should be tremendously satisfied with this product, even with the heightened presence of scrub type player autos in a product that costs this much. Without prospects like Harper, Moore and Lawrie to drive things, collectors have been buying this stuff up like mad.