Hopefully there will be an OLDS6. Can people tell me the very best things they liked about each of the past 5 series (not including the base sets)? What could you live without, what inserts did you love, etc. What would make you buy more boxes? Are sketch cards still a motivator? I'd like to gather info to take to Topps.
I think the greatest thing about the Old School series is the quality of the base sets and its fidelity to how things were back in the day. However, a few specific things I like off the top of my head are
*Most of the inserts (tats, giant cards, baseball subset, wrapper stickers, "rough draft" cards with some history written about the product on the back)
*affordable price (at least compared to other wacky items Topps sells)
*lack of gum (I know that contradicts my statement about the fidelity to the originals, but that is one thing I can do without)
*sketch cards (though the thrill isn't what it was and I would prefer to have sketches be of mostly original series characters. Also, the quality has seemed to decrease a bit over the successive series)
About the only thing I don't care for is the multitude of different backs. I'm a completist and would prefer not to have four(!) different groups of incomplete sets. If various backs must be used, make all but one back much rarer than has been done. That way, they'll actually really be worth collecting and trading. As it is now, I just compile a complete set of tans or whites and have three incomplete sets of the other backs.
I truly hope Old School stays alive. And as much as I love the 70's products, would be fine if the next series jumped into the 80's (or at least the one after the next).