Last year, I wasnt a big fan of Topps Museum Collection, even though there were parts of the set that I thought were awesome. There were a lot of terrible looking cards that failed to be presented in a way that could have made them great. This year, I feel as though there are parts of the set that are cool, but there are MANY more parts of the set that continue to be a complete design disaster. Topps was obviously more focused on getting bigger patches on the cards, than actually ensuring that the cards look good. Not a winning equation. The one part of the product I loved is gone, much to my dismay.

Here are the best from last year:

2012 Topps Museum Collection Albert Pujols Base Auto

2012 Topps Museum Collection Miguel Cabrera Jumbo Patch Auto

2012 Topps Museum Collection Mike Trout Jumbo Patch Auto

Here are how things look this year:

2013 Topps Museum Collection Babe Ruth Cut Auto 1/1

2013 Topps Museum Collection Yu Darvish Jumbo Patch Auto

2013 Topps Museum Collection Bryce Harper Dual Jersey Auto

2013 Topps Museum Collection Mike Trout Metal Framed Auto /5

To be honest, I had high hopes for 2013, as one of my favorite Joe Mauer cards of all time was a feature product of the 2012 set. Sadly, these jumbo patch autos did not make a return for a second year as mentioned above. Most of the other designs seem to be recycled with minor tweaks that dont seem to do anything for the look of the product. Even the framed autographs that I thought had potential,  did not improve on the poor choice in pens that the players used to sign the cards.

The worst part of this set are the cut autographs and the jumbo patch cards, which have very little focus on providing more than a swatch with a border. I cant tell you how disappointing this is, as there is little to no reason why there is more a focus on the swatch content instead of the way the card looks. The jumbo patch autographs are just as bad, with no ability to fit all the elements on to the poorly chosen vertical orientation. I understand that nice patches can be aesthetically pleasing in their own right, but only when the rest of the card serves as a compliment rather than a detriment.

Dont get me wrong, there are some really good looking cards in this set, just like there were poorly designed cards in 2012. I think the base autographs from this set are actually awesome looking, and some of the book cards are really nice. I wish the overall theme took on some of these design elements instead of falling off the wagon like it did.

I think that the Topps Baseball team and the Topps Football team should conference together in planning out how to adequately design a set that has similar content. For many football sets, the design team has found ways to include incredible patch content while not compromising the design of the cards. I dont think the same consideration is in place for this set.