Tribute needed a big year this year, and I was very interested to see how the 2016 edition turned out. Looking back to last year’s fiasco with the signature quality on the cards, a lot of people who are huge Tribute fans really had issue continuing to collect the set. After seeing this year, I think they are in for a nice treat.

Check out these cards:

2016 Topps Tribute Hank Aaron / Mike Trout Dual Auto Booklet

2016 Topps Tribute Ichiro Suzuki Red Refractor Auto /5

2016 Topps Tribute Kris Bryant Acetate Relic Auto /5

2016 Topps Tribute Cal Ripken Jr Die Cut Auto

2016 Topps Tribute Corey Seager Auto Green RC

My favorite part about Tribute has always been the on card autographs on the Chrome stock. The thing about this type of set is that it not only looks good, but also can carry some of the value that collectors have associated with Chrome into the product. Being that Tribute has always been a super premium setup, bringing in the superfractors and chrome parallel structure is a plus for sure.

As for the card design, things are as good as they have been in previous years, with the legend based sets looking more attractive than ever. As we have seen with previous tribute sets, the designs always have a really nice use of the technology, even going as far as encasing each major hit.

The thing is, with Topps finally figuring out how to make the super premium brands in baseball work well, Im curious how well collectors will continue to see a novel approach in something like Tribute. Chrome is really the selling point, but with so many nice sets that Topps now does, plus stuff like the Mint coming out, what does that mean for something like Tribute, which doesnt have the same level of content?

Dont get me wrong, I love what this set is about, and the cards do look tremendous. Hopefully Topps can continually find ways to keep it fresh, and not let it get stale like we have seen with sets like Bowman Sterling and other box per pack setups.