2001 Topps Gold Label

Been a little while since I jumped into Random to help me clear out my scan folder. Every time I think about it, I see a pack has been posted that day, and I hate to add a 2nd pack on a single day. It's just me. But since we are clear today, let's have at it.

My LCS had a bunch of these blasters they scored at a cheap price. Not realizing what a sheer gem of a set they were, I kept avoiding them until there was just a single blaster left. Only three cards in a pack, being a high end release. This is also back in the day when each blaster had a hit, and not that manufactured crap they pass off nowadays. I'm going to post one pack, but I scanned a few extra cards as Gold Label has a tiered gimmick.

Foil man at the bottom, and that just scans like hell, but the cards themselves are beautiful. Full-ish bleed and all are refractor-y. I think of Topps HD when I see these, in regard to the quality of the images.

White Sox addition to my Sox box - heck yeah! You see the bottom badge will change color to match the team.

Finally, how about Alou in a bad time for Astros uniforms?

Here is the back. If you look lower left, you see Class 1 - here is the tier system of Gold Label. Three classes, with Class 3 being the rarest. Only get stats for the previous year and a short paragraph of biological and career information.

I happened to pull two Sosa cards from the box, which allows us to see the difference between Class 1 on the left and Class 2 on the right. You get a completely new image. In fact, this is a gold Class 2 card. You will see what that matters when you turn it over.

Turning them over, you cannot miss that the Gold Class 2 is serialed to 699. Otherwise, the backs are identical - exact same data. There are regular Class 2 cards with the different front image, but not numbered. The background does not have a gold tint.

My box had two Class 3 cards, one base and one gold, so here they are side by side. Class 3 adds another new image, this on a composite of two pictures of the player. You can see the gold tint on the Walker card to the left.

Gold Class 3 cards are serialed to 299. I am going to say the backs otherwise match the base Class 1 cards. I'm too lazy to verify this at COMC.

Remember that every blaster has a hit, so I may as well scan that as well.

Nomo! No brainer to send this to Night Owl. Hit wise, this is actually the better relic to pull from the '01 Gold Label blasters, as the jersey relics are seeded 1:143. Bat relics fall 1:54.

Fun box. I hope my LCS can score some more as I would build this set in a heart beat.