2005 Topps Retired Signature Edition Baseball : eBay Guides

I consider ourselves fortunate to have broken a pretty darn good box of Topps Retired Signature. Our box contained three Hall of Famers and two players who aren't exactly at the top of collectors' want lists. But we've heard of other boxes where the slugs outnumber the quality signers, so, like I said - we feel fortunate.

Uncirculated autographs of Johnny Bench, Reggie Jackson and Dave Winfield highlight the box. Check out the Jackson card - isn't that the shot used on his '71 Topps card? The good news for collectors: Autographs signed directly on the cards.

Like last year's release, Retired Signature features some vastly underrated base cards including many with previously unseen imagery. The gold parallel Roberto Clemente pulled from a pack features an early ‘60s Clemente warming up along the sidelines with what appears to be historic McKechnie Park in Bradenton, Fla., as a backdrop. That card drips history.

Forgive us if we get overly excited about base-card photos. We're fans, and we're geeks. And not necessarily in that order.

BY THE BOX Packs Per Box: 5 Cards Per Pack: 4 Cards Per Box: 20 Completion of Set: 13 percent (14 of 110) Duplicates: 0 Inserts/Parallels/Subsets: 11 Gold Parallel (5) - Jay Buhner 037/500, Roberto Clemente 069/500, Bob Feller 016/500, Juan Marichal 022/500, Tom Niedenfuer 324/500 (#'d to 500, 1:2); Black Parallel (1) - Harold Baines 14/54 (#'d to 54, 1:9); Uncirculated Chrome Autographs (5) - Johnny Bench (Group A - 1:205), Reggie Jackson (Group B - 1:35), Dave Winfield (Group B - 1:35), J.R. Richard (Group I - 1:4), Atlee Hammaker (Group I - 1:4)