Modern Base Cards The Least Creative/Ugliest Ever?
 

I'm primarily a vintage guy but occasionally rip a few packs to make me feel like a kid again (I'm 32 btw so maybe I still am a kid compared to most people on here lol). I was at Wal-Mart this evening and was in the checkout line with the limited amount of cards they now carry. I couldn't help myself from buying a 2016 Topps Update blaster. I primarily buy the higher end items when I buy anything new (e.g. Tribute, Museum, etc.) but I have bought a few "regular" packs over the past 10 years and I've came to the conclusion that from 2010 on there has been almost zero creativity about changing the design of the cards. As a kid in the 90's I always thought Topps cards were fairly banal compared to Upper Deck but it was always something new. Every year it was a different design. It seems like all they do now is just move logos from one corner to another. I know Topps is probably more focused on their higher end products but it's frustrating the lack of creativity they show on their "flagship" brand. Has anyone else noticed this?

BTW, I pulled a Mike Trout Future 500 Medallion card numbered 31/50. Very pleasantly surprised for a $15 blaster!

I still get the base set each year, and any update, but also have been getting the Heritage sets since 2001. I wonder how the sales of those two products compare these days, and which is the biggest seller.

While my Topps sets are all in binders through 94, and I still put all the Heritages sets in binders, my post 94 base sets are still in boxes, although I do look over the design each year

I wonder if people who started collecting post 80 or post 90 and who are less likely to compare the newer cards to those of the 50s, 60s and 70s would feel that newer card designs are bland, as opposed to how older collectors view them. As someone who started collecting in 1957 I have a preference for the older designs that may be primarily nostalgia driven. But if you had someone who never collected baseball cards and gave them a 1967 and 2017 Topps base card to compare would they think the 2017 card was clearly a superior product.

I stopped buying packs for the most part in the very early 2000s. I will pick up Dodger lots from time to time and any new Garvey cards, but am not building sets or anything like that. I feel that the newer cards tend to appear more similar to me across the years, probably because the design portion is relatively small compared to say a 64 Topps where the team name looks like it takes up 1/4 of the entire card surface!

I saw the 2018 design and I like those better than any I have seen for quite some time.