Collect call: 2009 Topps Mayo football

Posted Nov 14, 2009 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Nov 14, 2009 at 08:27 PM

In a Brandon antique store I visit regularly, there is a black rectangular Mayo’s Cut Plug tin for sale, and I’ve always wanted to put my 2008 Topps Mayo football set into that tin. The price was out of my range, however, but I am hoping for the day when I can afford it. It’s a pretty cool artifact.

Speaking of cool, the 2008 Topps Mayo set was just that, with its stark, black backgrounds on the card fronts and the white print on black on the backs, which were true to the original design of the 1894 set.

But while 2008’s effort was cool, the 2009 version is simply elegant — and much more attractive.

This year’s set has a white card front, with an intricate gold design around the player’s photo. The players’ name and team, and the distinctive Mayo logo, also are in gold.

The card backs have white printing against a gold background; the thicker parallels look the same, but are stamped in silver and have silver backs.

There are 24 packs to a hobby box, with six base cards, a parallel card and a mini card in each pack. The box I sampled had 144 of the 330-card set (the same number I pulled from last year’s set). There are also 30 mini exclusives, including a card of Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.

There is an oversized cabinet box-topper card in each hobby box, and this one had a card of the Rams’ Steven Jackson.

The depiction of the players on the card fronts is excellent. They look like small oil paintings, that’s how detailed they are.

The way Topps numbered the cards for this set is interesting. Card No. 1 is President Benjamin Harrison, who was in the White House when the original Mayo set was issued. But other than politicians, inventors and other non-sport cards, the checklist follows an alphabetical pattern — by the player’s first name. Aaron Curry (card No. 2) is followed by Aaron Kampman, Aaron Maybin and Aaron Rodgers, followed by Adrian Peterson, and so forth.

There were 22 silver parallel cards in the hobby box I saw.

The inserts in this set follow a pattern that history lovers will enjoy. There is a 50-card set of all of the United States’ governors. The box I sampled yielded two of them: Linda Lingle of Hawaii and Bill Ritter of Colorado.

There is a 15-card Celebrated Citizens subset, and the hobby box I saw delivered Andrew Halladie, who invented the San Francisco cable car system.

There are 14 World’s Fair attraction cards, which commemorate the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World’s Fair). I found two — the Viking and the White City rides.]

In addition to the 16 parallel mini cards, the box I sampled had one variation with a Mayo’s Cut Plug back (Peyton Manning) and gold parallel of the Bucs’ Antonio Bryant. Another mini numbered to 25 featured Anquan Boldin with a red back and the letter H.

The big hits in this set seem to follow an Allen & Ginter style of “framed” cards. In the hobby box I saw, both cards were New York Giants: a jersey relic card of running back Andre Brown, and an autograph card of wide receiver Hakeem Nicks.

The autograph was on a sticker, but the card had enough lamination on it to seal it from human hands.

Even though Topps deviated from the original Mayo design, this is a vast improvement from the 2008 set — and I thought the ’08 offering was a good one. This year’s set is a step up.