The top baseball card set of all time is.... 1965 Topps?!

[abothebear]

It is difficult (and perhaps even silly) to compare the appearance of sets beyond beyond printing and photography technology barriers. The 1960 Topps cards are a great set because they stand between the type of thing Topps was doing in their first 10 years and the type of thing they did in years after, with a foot in both and a splash of 1960 pizazz. But comparing sets before to those after isn’t a even comparison (50s cards relied on a lot of artistic doctoring for the most part, and when they didn’t, the photos are dull). This graphic and artistic element puts them in a different category in than the post-1960 effort to simply frame a passable photograph. The next demarcation is less clear to me. I think a good argument can be made for 1974. A good argument could be made for 1983. Then I’d say 1993 was another transition year. I’m curious about how others may think of these things.

1960
1964
1967
1965
1971
1968
1972
1963
1966
1973
1970
1961
1962
1969

1980
1976
1975
1974
1979
1981
1978
1977
1982

1985
1991
1987
1983
1984
1992
1993
1989
1988
1990
1986

Adding other brands into the same list (for postwar) is too weird for me to sort out.