Description

2001 Topps Heritage is a 407-card set released right before spring training in February 2001. It is considered one of the landmark products of the 2000s for its model configuration, "throwback" design, and legendary autograph lineup. In 2009, 2001 Topps Heritage was awarded "Product of the Decade" by Beckett Baseball.

Produced to celebrate Topps' 50th anniversary in the baseball card business, the base set had the same look and feel as the legendary 1952 Topps set. (Topps opted make all cards in the modern 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" format, and not in the 2 5/8" X 3 3/4" dimensions of the real '52 Topps.) Most of the photographs on the cards were purposefully blurred to give them an early-50s look.

Just like '52 Topps, the 80 lower numbered cards and the 97 higher numbered cards, were short-printed -- but unlike '52 Topps, '01 Topps Heritage was released in a single series. In a nod to history, then Yankee prospect David Parrish's card all but mirrored the picture used on Mickey Mantle's '52 Topps card.

Topps went beyond the call of duty on this set by inserting redemption cards for every original 1952 Topps card including the famed Mickey Mantle. There were also redemptions featuring replica hats. To top things off, 25 original Willie Mays '52 Topps cards were bought, autographed by Willie and randomly inserted as box toppers. A 110-card, serial-numbered, Chrome partial-parallel set was inserted at the rate of one per box and is very popular among Master set builders today, as are the autographs.

Legacy of 2001 Topps Heritage

The lasting legacy of 2001 Topps Heritage cannot be stressed enough. At the turn of the century, set collecting, for decades the traditional way cards were collected, was on the decline. Much of the products produced in the years preceding featured scores of intentionally short-printed base cards that were either too hard to pull out of packs or produced in such low quantities that even attempting to build a complete set was an exercise in futility. With Heritage, Topps found the right combination in making a product that, while challenging to collect, was still realistic for the average collector to put a full set together.

It should also be noted that Topps Heritage did not feature a rookie card of either Ichiro Suzuki or Albert Pujols. The only notable rookie cards in the set are of Kyle Lohse and Juan Uribe.

Distribution

24 packs per box, eight cards plus one stick of gum per pack (MSRP: $2.99).

Reviews

Insertion Ratios

Cards	Total Cards	Numbered To	Hobby Odds	Retail Odds
Base	407	-	?	?
short-set	310	-	?	?
High-Numbers	97	-	1:2	1:2
Chrome	110	552	1:25	1:25
Classic Renditions	10	-	1:5	1:9
New Age Performers	15	-	1:8	1:15
Then and Now	10	-	1:8	1:15
Blue Ink Autographs	52	200	1:142	1:142
Red Ink Autographs	52	52	1:545	1:546
Autographed Classic Renditions	3	25	1:19,710	?
Clubhouse Collection Bats	20	-	1:590	1:590
Clubhouse Collection Jerseys	2	-	1:798	1:799
Clubhouse Collection Dual Bats	5	52	1:5701	1:5772
Clubhouse Collection Dual Jerseys	1	52	1:28,744	1:29,820
Autographed Clubhouse Collection Bats	3	25	1:19710	1:20,928
Autographed Clubhouse Collection Jerseys	1	25	1:62,714	1:83,712
Grandstand Glory	7	-	1:211	1:211
Time Capsule	4	-	1:369	1:369
Time Capsule Dual	1	52	1:28,744	1:29,820
Willie Mays 1952 Topps Autoproof	1	25	1:5749 boxes	N/A

Checklist

Promos

This three-card set was released prior to the release of 2001 Topps Heritage to dealers and members of the hobby media. The three cards packed out with the media release in a three-card cello pack.

PP1 Kevin Brown
PP2 Andres Galarraga
PP3 Roger Clemens

Base Set

Low Numbers

NOTE: The first 80 cards were slightly short-printed, with half the production run in black-backs and the other half in red-backs. The first 80-card series of 1952 Topps, also had about half the cards in black and half in red. Although some collectors have built "Master Sets" with both variations, a full set is considered complete, regardless of back color.

1 Kris Benson
2 Brian Jordan
3 Fernando Vina
4 Mike Sweeney
5 Rafael Palmeiro
6 Paul O'Neill
7 Todd Helton
8 Ramiro Mendoza
9 Kevin Millwood
10 Chuck Knoblauch
11 Derek Jeter
13 Geoff Jenkins
14 David Justice
15 David Cone
16 Andres Galarraga
17 Garret Anderson
18 Roger Cedeno
19 Randy Velarde
20 Carlos Delgado
21 Quilvio Veras
22 Jose Vidro
23 Corey Patterson
24 Jorge Posada
25 Eddie Perez
26 Jack Cust
27 Sean Burroughs
28 Randy Wolf
29 Mike Lamb
30 Rafael Furcal
31 Barry Bonds
32 Tim Hudson
33 Tom Glavine
34 Javy Lopez
35 Aubrey Huff
36 Wally Joyner
37 Magglio Ordonez
38 Matt Lawton
39 Mariano Rivera
40 Andy Ashby
41 Mark Buehrle
42 Esteban Loaiza
43 Mark Redman
44 Mark Quinn
45 Tino Martinez
46 Joe Mays
47 Walt Weiss
48 Roger Clemens
49 Greg Maddux
50 Richard Hidalgo
51 Orlando Hernandez
52 Chipper Jones
53 Ben Grieve
54 Jimmy Haynes
55 Ken Caminiti
56 Tim Salmon
57 Andy Pettitte
58 Darin Erstad
59 Marquis Grissom
60 Raul Mondesi
61 Bengie Molina
62 Miguel Tejada
63 Jose Cruz, Jr.
63 Jose Cruz, Jr.
64 Billy Koch
65 Troy Glaus
66 Cliff Floyd
67 Tony Batista
68 Jeff Bagwell
69 Billy Wagner
70 Eric Chavez
71 Troy Percival
72 Andruw Jones
73 Shane Reynolds
74 Barry Zito
75 Roy Halladay
76 David Wells
77 Jason Giambi
78 Scott Elarton
79 Moises Alou
80 Adam Piatt

Commons

The following mid-series cards were erroneously printed exclusively in the Black-Back format: 103, 159, 171, 176, 179, 188, 201, 212, 224 and 241.

81 Wilton Veras
82 Darryl Kile
83 Johnny Damon
84 Tony Armas
85 Ellis Burks
86 Jamey Wright
87 Jose Vizcaino
88 Bartolo Colon
89 Carmen Cali RC
90 Kevin Brown
91 Josh Hamilton
92 Jay Buhner
93 Scott Pratt RC*
94 Alex Cora
95 Luis Montanez RC
96 Dmitri Young
97 J.T. Snow
98 Damion Easley
99 Greg Norton
100 Matt Wheatland
101 Chin-Feng Chen
102 Tony Womack
103 Adam Kennedy (Black back)
104 J.D. Drew
105 Carlos Febles
106 Jim Thome
107 Danny Graves
108 Dave Mlicki
109 Ron Coomer
110 James Baldwin
111 Shaun Boyd RC*
112 Brian Bohanon
113 Jacque Jones
114 Alfonso Soriano
115 Tony Clark
116 Terrence Long
117 Todd Hundley
118 Kazuhiro Sasaki
119 Brian Sellier RC*
120 John Olerud
121 Javier Vazquez
122 Sean Burnett
123 Matt LeCroy
124 Erubiel Durazo
125 Juan Encarnacion
126 Pablo Ozuna
127 Russ Ortiz
128 David Segui
129 Mark McGwire
130 Mark Grace
131 Fred McGriff
132 Carl Pavano
133 Derek Thompson
134 Shawn Green
135 B.J. Surhoff
136 Michael Tucker
137 Jason Isringhausen
138 Eric Milton
139 Mike Stodolka
140 Milton Bradley
141 Curt Schilling
142 Sandy Alomar
143 Brent Mayne
144 Todd Jones
145 Charles Johnson
146 Dean Palmer
147 Masato Yoshii
148 Edgar Renteria
149 Joe Randa
150 Adam Johnson
151 Greg Vaughn
152 Adrian Beltre
153 Glenallen Hill
154 David Parrish RC*
155 Neifi Perez
156 Pete Harnisch
157 Paul Konerko
158 Dennys Reyes
159 Jose Lima (Black back)
160 Eddie Taubensee
161 Miguel Cairo
162 Jeff Kent
163 Dustin Hermanson
164 Alex Gonzalez
165 Hideo Nomo
166 Sammy Sosa
167 C.J. Nitkowski
168 Cal Eldred
169 Jeff Abbott
170 Jim Edmonds
171 Mark Mulder (Black back)
172 Dominic Rich RC*
173 Ray Lankford
174 Danny Borrell RC*
175 Rick Aguilera
176 Shannon Stewart (Black back)
177 Steve Finley
178 Jim Parque
179 Kevin Appier (Black back)
180 Adrian Gonzalez
181 Tom Goodwin
182 Kevin Tapani
183 Fernando Tatis
184 Mark Grudzielanek
185 Ryan Anderson
186 Jeffrey Hammonds
187 Corey Koskie
188 Brad Fullmer (Black back)
189 Rey Sanchez
190 Michael Barrett
191 Rickey Henderson
192 Jermaine Dye
193 Scott Brosius
194 Matt Anderson
195 Brian Buchanan
196 Derrek Lee
197 Larry Walker
198 Dan Moylan RC*
199 Vinny Castilla
200 Ken Griffey, Jr.
201 Matt Stairs (Black back)
202 Ty Howington
203 Andy Benes
204 Luis Gonzalez
205 Brian Moehler
206 Harold Baines
207 Pedro Astacio
208 Cristian Guzman
209 Kip Wells
210 Frank Thomas
211 Jose Rosado
212 Vernon Wells (Black back)
213 Bob Higginson
214 Juan Gonzalez
215 Omar Vizquel
216 Bernie Williams
217 Aaron Sele
218 Shawn Estes
219 Roberto Alomar
220 Rick Ankiel
221 Josh Kalinowski
222 David Bell
223 Keith Foulke
224 Craig Biggio (Black back)
225 Josh Axelson RC*
226 Scott Williamson
227 Ron Belliard
228 Chris Singleton
229 Alex Serrano RC
230 Deivi Cruz
231 Eric Munson
232 Luis Castillo
233 Edgar Martinez
234 Jeff Shaw
235 Jeromy Burnitz
236 Richie Sexson
237 Will Clark
238 Ron Villone
239 Kerry Wood
240 Rich Aurilia
241 Mo Vaughn (Black back)
242 Travis Fryman
243 Manny Ramirez
244 Chris Stynes
245 Ray Durham
246 Juan Uribe RC
247 Juan Guzman
248 Lee Stevens
249 Devon White
250 Kyle Lohse RC
251 Bryan Wolff
252 Matt Galante RC*
253 Eric Young
254 Freddy Garcia
255 Jay Bell
256 Steve Cox
257 Torii Hunter
258 Jose Canseco
259 Brad Ausmus
260 Jeff Cirillo
261 Brad Penny
262 Antonio Alfonseca
263 Russell Branyan
264 Chris Morris RC*
265 John Lackey
266 Justin Wayne RC
267 Brad Radke
268 Todd Stottlemyre
269 Mark Loretta
270 Matt Williams
271 Kenny Lofton
272 Jeff D'Amico
273 Jamie Moyer
274 Darren Dreifort
275 Denny Neagle
276 Orlando Cabrera
277 Chuck Finley
278 Miguel Batista
279 Carlos Beltran
280 Eric Karros
281 Mark Kotsay
282 Ryan Dempster
283 Barry Larkin
284 Jeff Suppan
285 Gary Sheffield
286 Jose Valentin
287 Robb Nen
288 Chan Ho Park
289 John Halama
290 Steve Smyth RC
291 Gerald Williams
292 Preston Wilson
293 Victor Hall RC*
294 Ben Sheets
295 Eric Davis
296 Kirk Rueter
297 Chad Petty RC*
298 Kevin Millar
299 Marvin Benard
300 Vladimir Guerrero
301 Livan Hernandez
302 Travis Baptist RC
303 Bill Mueller
304 Mike Cameron
305 Randy Johnson
306 Alan Mahaffey RC*
307 Timo Perez
308 Pokey Reese
309 Ryan Rupe
310 Carlos Lee

Short-Prints

Intended to mimic the '52 Topps set's "high-number" series, the last 97 cards are all short-printed and seeded at the rate of 1:2/packs.

311 Doug Glanville
312 Jay Payton
313 Troy O'Leary
314 Francisco Cordero
315 Rusty Greer
316 Cal Ripken, Jr.
317 Ricky Ledee
318 Brian Daubach
319 Robin Ventura
320 Todd Zeile
321 Francisco Cordova
322 Henry Rodriguez
323 Pat Meares
324 Glendon Rusch
325 Keith Osik
326 Robert Keppel RC
327 Bobby Jones
328 Alex Ramirez
329 Robert Person
330 Ruben Mateo
331 Rob Bell
332 Carl Everett
333 Jason Schmidt
334 Scott Rolen
335 Jimmy Anderson
336 Bret Boone
337 Delino DeShields
338 Trevor Hoffman
339 Bob Abreu
340 Mike Williams
341 Mike Hampton
342 John Wetteland
343 Scott Erickson
344 Enrique Wilson
345 Tim Wakefield
346 Mike Lowell
347 Todd Pratt
348 Brook Fordyce
349 Benny Agbayani
350 Gabe Kapler
351 Sean Casey
352 Darren Oliver
353 Todd Ritchie
354 Kenny Rogers
355 Jason Kendall
356 John Vander Wal
357 Ramon Martinez
358 Edgardo Alfonzo
359 Phil Nevin
360 Albert Belle
361 Ruben Rivera
362 Pedro Martinez
363 Derek Lowe
364 Pat Burrell
365 Mike Mussina
366 Brady Anderson
367 Darren Lewis
368 Sidney Ponson
369 Adam Eaton
370 Eric Owens
371 Aaron Boone
372 Matt Clement
373 Derek Bell
374 Trot Nixon
375 Travis Lee
376 Mike Benjamin
377 Jeff Zimmerman
378 Mike Lieberthal
379 Rick Reed
380 Nomar Garciaparra
381 Omar Daal
382 Ryan Klesko
383 Rey Ordonez
384 Kevin Young
385 Rick Helling
386 Brian Giles
387 Tony Gwynn
388 Ed Sprague
389 J.R. House
390 Scott Hatteberg
391 John Valentin
392 Melvin Mora
393 Royce Clayton
394 Jeff Fassero
395 Manny Alexander
396 John Franco
397 Luis Alicea
398 Ivan Rodriguez
399 Kevin Jordan
400 Jose Offerman
401 Jeff Conine
402 Seth Etherton
403 Mike Bordick
404 Al Leiter
405 Mike Piazza
406 Armando Benitez
407 Warren Morris

Parallels

Chrome

Each Chrome card is serial-numbered to 552 copies.

CP1 Cal Ripken, Jr.
CP2 Jim Thome
CP3 Derek Jeter
CP4 Andres Galarraga
CP5 Carlos Delgado
CP6 Roberto Alomar
CP7 Tom Glavine
CP8 Gary Sheffield
CP9 Mo Vaughn
CP10 Preston Wilson
CP11 Mike Mussina
CP12 Greg Maddux
CP13 Ivan Rodriguez
CP14 Al Leiter
CP15 Seth Etherton
CP16 Edgardo Alfonzo
CP17 Richie Sexson
CP18 Andruw Jones
CP19 Bartolo Colon
CP20 Darin Erstad
CP21 Kevin Brown
CP22 Mike Sweeney
CP23 Mike Piazza
CP24 Rafael Palmeiro
CP25 Terrence Long
CP26 Kazuhiro Sasaki
CP27 John Olerud
CP28 Mark McGwire
CP29 Fred McGriff
CP30 Todd Helton
CP31 Curt Schilling
CP32 Alex Rodriguez
CP33 Jeff Kent
CP34 Pat Burrell
CP35 Jim Edmonds
CP36 Mark Mulder
CP37 Troy Glaus
CP38 Jay Payton
CP39 Jermaine Dye
CP40 Larry Walker
CP41 Ken Griffey, Jr.
CP42 Jeff Bagwell
CP43 Rick Ankiel
CP44 Mark Redman
CP45 Edgar Martinez
CP46 Mike Hampton
CP47 Manny Ramirez
CP48 Ray Durham
CP49 Rafael Furcal
CP50 Sean Casey
CP51 Jose Canseco
CP52 Barry Bonds
CP53 Tim Hudson
CP54 Barry Zito
CP55 Chuck Finley
CP56 Magglio Ordonez
CP57 David Wells
CP58 Jason Giambi
CP59 Tony Gwynn
CP60 Vladimir Guerrero
CP61 Randy Johnson
CP62 Bernie Williams
CP63 Craig Biggio
CP64 Jason Kendall
CP65 Pedro Martinez
CP66 Mark Quinn
CP67 Frank Thomas
CP68 Nomar Garciaparra
CP69 Brian Giles
CP70 Shawn Green
CP71 Roger Clemens
CP72 Sammy Sosa
CP73 Juan Gonzalez
CP74 Orlando Hernandez
CP75 Chipper Jones
CP76 Josh Hamilton
CP77 Adam Johnson
CP78 Shaun Boyd
CP79 Alfonso Soriano
CP80 Derek Thompson
CP81 Adrian Gonzalez
CP82 Ryan Anderson
CP83 Corey Patterson
CP84 J.R. House
CP85 Sean Burroughs
CP86 Bryan Wolff
CP87 John Lackey
CP88 Ben Sheets
CP89 Timo Perez
CP90 Robert Keppel
CP91 Luis Montanez
CP92 Sean Burnett
CP93 Justin Wayne
CP94 Eric Munson
CP95 Steve Smyth
CP96 Matt Galante
CP97 Carmen Cali
CP98 Brian Sellier
CP99 David Parrish
CP100 Danny Borrell
CP101 Chad Petty
CP102 Dominic Rich
CP103 Josh Axelson
CP104 Alex Serrano
CP105 Juan Uribe
CP106 Travis Baptist
CP107 Alan Mahaffey
CP108 Kyle Lohse
CP109 Victor Hall
CP110 Scott Pratt

Inserts

Classic Renditions

CR1 Mark McGwire
CR2 Nomar Garciaparra
CR3 Barry Bonds
CR4 Sammy Sosa
CR5 Chipper Jones
CR6 Pat Burrell
CR7 Frank Thomas
CR8 Manny Ramirez
CR9 Derek Jeter
CR10 Ken Griffey, Jr.

New Age Performers

NAP1 Mike Piazza
NAP2 Sammy Sosa
NAP3 Alex Rodriguez
NAP4 Barry Bonds
NAP5 Ken Griffey, Jr.
NAP6 Chipper Jones
NAP7 Randy Johnson
NAP8 Derek Jeter
NAP9 Nomar Garciaparra
NAP10 Mark McGwire
NAP11 Jeff Bagwell
NAP12 Pedro Martinez
NAP13 Todd Helton
NAP14 Vladimir Guerrero
NAP15 Greg Maddux

Then and Now

TH1 Yogi Berra / Mike Piazza
TH2 Duke Snider / Sammy Sosa
TH3 Willie Mays / Ken Griffey
TH4 Phil Rizzuto / Derek Jeter
TH5 Pee Wee Reese / Nomar Garciaparra
TH6 Jackie Robinson / Alex Rodriguez
TH7 Johnny Mize / Mark McGwire
TH8 Bob Feller / Pedro Martinez
TH9 Robin Roberts / Greg Maddux
TH10 Warren Spahn / Randy Johnson

Autographs & Game-Used

Clubhouse Collection Relics

Dual

Each Clubhouse Collection Dual Relic is serial-numbered to 52 copies.

Autographs

Each Clubhouse Collection Autograph contains a piece of "Game Used" equipment and is also autographed. Each card is hand numbered to 25.

Grandstand Glory Seat Relics

Time Capsule

This unique set features swatches of fabric taken from actual Korean War-era combat uniforms. It's important to note that, although these players actually served in the Korean War, and these cards do indeed feature patches of vintage Korean War uniforms, they were NOT worn by the athlete featured on the card. Unlike the other cards in this set, the lone dual-player Willie Mays-Ted Williams card is hand-numbered to 52 copies.

DN Don Newcombe
TW Ted Williams
WF Whitey Ford
WM Willie Mays
WMTW Willie Mays / Ted Williams

Topps Heritage Autographs

Topps issued 50 autographed cards which included 24 players from 1952 and 26 current baseball players. This set would be known in later Heritage issues as Real One Autographs.

Topps included redemption cards for Eddie Mathews autographs, but unfortunately Mathews passed away right after Heritage was released without signing his any of his cards. Collectors who pulled an Eddie Mathews exchange card instead received an un-numbered red ink Willie Mays autograph instead. The Mathews exchange card expired January 31, 2002.

Larry Doby was listed on the provisional checklist provided by Topps, and exchange cards good for a Doby autograph were inserted into packs. Doby would have been the 52nd player in the set, but could not come to an agreement with Topps and refused to sign.

These cards can be found autographed in either Blue or Red ink. Each player signed a total of 200 cards in blue ink and only 52 hand-numbered cards in red ink. The only exception is Willie Mays who signed 52 hand-numbered cards and an unknown quantity of additional unnumbered red ink cards that were issued as replacements for the Eddie Mathews exchange card.

THA-ML Matt Lawton
THA-AH Aubrey Huff
THA-AP Andy Pafko
THA-AR Alex Rodriguez
THA-BB Barry Bonds
THA-BS Bobby Shantz
THA-BT Bobby Thomson
THA-CD Carlos Delgado
THA-CF Cliff Floyd
THA-CJ Chipper Jones
THA-CP Corey Patterson
THA-CS Curt Simmons
THA-DD Dom DiMaggio
THA-DG Dick Groat
THA-DS Duke Snider
THA-EM Eddie Mathews EXCH (fulfilled with a Willie Mays Red Ink)
THA-ES Enos Slaughter
THA-FV Fernando Vina
THA-GJ Geoff Jenkins
THA-GM Gil McDougald
THA-HB Hank Bauer
THA-HS Hank Sauer
THA-HW Hoyt Wilhelm
THA-JG Joe Garagiola
THA-JM Joe Mays
THA-JS Johnny Sain
THA-JV Jose Vidro
THA-KB Kris Benson
THA-LD Larry Doby EXCH (never honored)
THA-MB Mark Buehrle
THA-MI Monte Irvin
THA-MM Minnie Minoso
THA-MO Magglio Ordonez
THA-MQ Mark Quinn
THA-MR Mark Redman
THA-MS Mike Sweeney
THA-MV Mickey Vernon
THA-NG Nomar Garciaparra
THA-PR Preacher Roe
THA-PFR Phil Rizzuto
THA-RH Richard Hidalgo
THA-RR Robin Roberts
THA-RS Red Schoendienst
THA-RW Randy Wolf
THA-SPB Sean Burroughs
THA-TG Tom Glavine
THA-TH Todd Helton
THA-TL Terrence Long
THA-VL Vernon Law
THA-WM Willie Mays
THA-WS Warren Spahn
THA-ML Mike Lamb

Willie Mays 1952 AutoProof

Topps bought back 25 original 1952 Topps Willie Mays cards and had Mays autograph them. These cards were randomly inserted as box toppers in 2001 Topps Heritage Hobby boxes. Each card is hand-numbered on the front.

261 Willie Mays AU /25

Classic Renditions Autographs

Each card is serial-numbered to 25 copies.