Mint Musings: Looking Back on Topps Triple Threads Baseball – Hitting the market today, is the 10-year anniversary issue of 2015 Topps Triple Threads Baseball.

2015 TTT Kang AutoTopps has seemingly taken several steps to make the release a memorable one. Among the more interesting cards, Topps has created fold-out cards, some of which offer up to 10 pieces of relic material on them and are appropriately called, Deca Threads Relics. An autographed version is also included in the product.

Another interesting note is the selection of Ichiro as the featured player on the product’s packaging for this year. While it’s odd to see him in a Marlins’ uniform, being able to pull hits of him from a high-end product like Triple Threads is sure to add extra appeal to this year’s release. To be honest though, it is a little disappointing to see Ichiro as a redemption. Checking early on eBay, there was a redemption for an Ichiro autograph relic already up for sale.

For the sake of full disclosure, I’ve always been a fan of Triple Threads. I think it’s one of the better releases that Topps puts out every year. That being said, I have been a little disappointed by it in recent years as the company has seemed to take more of a rookie-laden approach to the product. To me, one of the best parts of Triple Threads was its ability to nicely balance out the rookie and veteran content, in terms of autographs and memorabilia cards in each box.

This year’s release seems to get back to achieving that balance a little better. Based on Topps’ own case break to debut the product and some early breaker photos online, there have been a number of great hits to come out of the product so far. In particular, I noticed a photo on Topps’ Twitter feed of a trio of beautiful Braves patch cards, highlighted by a nice Dale Murphy old-school Braves swatch. Early feedback from the online community seems to be favorable as well.

Much like my sentiments earlier this year with Allen & Ginter, I can’t believe this is the 10th anniversary of Triple Threads Baseball.

Topps has made the product for other sports, including football and basketball. However, it always seemed like the best and brightest of Triple Threads came from the baseball line. The autographed relic cards featuring three different subjects always struck me as some of the cooler autographed cards on the market. Even if they were sticker autographs, they were highly coveted by collectors.

It’s not too many products that can offer you autographs of Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr and Mike Trout on the same card, but this year’s product offers exactly that, as that card was included among the promotional images for 2015.

After reviewing last year’s product, I remarked that I thought the brand could use a little bit of a shakeup. As great as Triple Threads had been, it seemed like it was starting to get stale and quite frankly, a bit underwhelming in what it was delivering overall. While it’s not the most expensive baseball product that Topps makes, it can be a hard pill for collectors to shell out over $200 for a box that continually doesn’t yield much against that price point. Any way you hack it, it seemed like the collecting community wanted a bit more out of their Triple Threads boxes.

Thankfully for collectors, it seems as if 2015 Triple Threads may be up to the task. As I mentioned earlier, initial feedback for the hits in the product seems to be pretty good. While there’s obviously going to be clunkers across the product line, my hope is that the quality of hits per box is generally better than the past few years. I’m hoping to get a direct look at this year’s release soon. While I’m more of a singles collectors and don’t get overly excited over many new products, I do have to concede that Triple Threads is one of the few I watch out for every year.

Here’s to hoping it doesn’t disappoint. If you choose to get a box, I sincerely wish you the best of the luck and the hope that you pull something sweet to add to your collection.

Mint Musings: Looking Back on Topps Triple Threads Baseball – Release Day “HITS” Gallery


Kelsey’s ability to bring hobby coverage to the mainstream sports fan as the producer of ESPN’s Mint Condition has been a true asset. GTS is happy to feature his thoughts on the hobby in Mint Musings. The opinions expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of GTS Distribution.
Kelsey Schroyer

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