Story of a Card: 2023 Topps Big League Roll Call Wildstyle
It's not a high-end release, but Big League delivered some incredible card designs including the stunning Roll Call Wildstyle Edition inserts.
When Topps released the 2023 edition of Big League Baseball, the goal was to create a set that kids and adults both would love. Heavily inspired by cards from the 1990’s, the set and inserts were meant to have plenty of color and, as Topps Brand Manager Aaron Abrams called it, “weirdness”.
The result was a very affordable release (you can get hobby boxes now in the $30-$35 range). And while there isn’t as much upside if you’re buying for the purpose of investing, there are some absolutely incredible inserts.
One of my personal favorites is are the Roll Call Wildstyle Edition cards.
The set was designed in collaboration with Robert Provenzano (professionally known as CES). CES is an artist based in New York, who is considered a pioneer the “wildstyle” writing style. Wildstyle is a form of writing style used in Graffiti where big, bold colors are used with letters that are distorted to the point of being difficult for many (particularly those not familiar with the style) to read.
This actually wasn’t the first time Topps has worked with CES. He also contributed to Topps Project70 in 2021, and his distinctive style shows up in a bunch of cards in the series.
I mean—how cool is that Jeter! I love the contrast of the bold colors with the thick black border. And there’s so much iconic New York imagery in the card that it’s hard not to love.
CES collected cards as a kid, and I think it’s the combination of his experience with the hobby combined with his incredible style of art that makes all these cards so effective.
The Roll Call Wildstyle Edition set isn’t expensive—you can get raw versions of most of the cards in the set for $5 or less, and even graded most won’t cost you more than $50-$60 at the time I’m writing this.
The cards do not grade easily—the full bleed color fronts result in a lot of white corners and edges—but they do look great in a slab. I sent out a few Ohtani’s, which all gemmed, but my attempt to get a Bo Jackson (the wildstyle “Bo” is darn near iconic in my opinion) and Babe Ruth to hasn’t worked out as well.
I’m hopeful we see more of this kind of thing—cards designed through collaboration with talented artists who love the hobby, and kept at a price point that the majority of folks will find much easier to be able to justify purchasing and collecting.