The release of 2018 Topps series 1 heralds the first signs of spring and the coming of spring training.  After a long cold off season, it’s the first sign of return of baseball.  I’m not a big fan of the recent designs, and this year doesn’t do much to change that opinion.  Again, the design, with no borders, doesn’t really feel like a flagship Topps set to me, and I can only see a tongue sticking out by the logo now.

It’s not a bad set by any means, it just doesn’t feel right to me.   Perhaps one of the biggest surprises to me, is the lack of buybacks in the product.  They have become a staple over the last few years, and almost seem to stick out in their absence.

Once again, there are a large number of SP and SSPs mixed in.  The odds for a lot of the numbered inserts seems much tougher than normal, pointing to a large increase in production.  That’s been a concern as the hobby begins recovering from Judgemania last year.

You get a pretty standard assortment of parallels for the base set, but the new Independence Day parallels, which add an interesting dimension.  As usual, a jumbo box contains 10 packs of 50 cards each, including 1 Autograph and 2 Relic Cards per box. During the initial release, hobby shops were also including two “silver” packs with each Jumbo box purchase, featuring 1983 Topps Chrome parallels, with the chance at additional autographs.

This box contained:

447 Base (349/350 – 99.7%)
1 Base SP
5 Base Rainbow Foil Parallels
3 Base Gold Parallels
1 Base Negative Parallel
1 Base Independence Day Parallel
10 1983 Topps
1 1983 Topps Blue Parallel
5 MLB Awards (4 different)
5 Superstar Sensations
10 Topps Salute
1 Major League Materials Black Freddie Freeman
1 Spring Training Logo Patch Josh Donaldson
1 1983 Topps Autograph Tyler Wade
8 1983 Topps Chrome (From Silver Packs)