2018 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Box Break

The Topps series two release continues on much of the first release of the year.  It features base cards 351-700, along with many new and familiar insert sets.  It comes at a time when the top rookie from the beginning of the season, Shohei Ohtani, is out with a potentially season ending injury.   He’s still heavily featured in this product, and we see his first flagship Topps base rookie card.

As the season has moved on, other top rookies have emerged.   This has led to some rookies that may be able to replace Ohtani for hobby prominence.   To partially solve this, Topps issued SP variants for a couple of the top guys in Acuna and Torres, rather than include them in the base set.   These SPs join alternate photos along with many legends as extensions to the set.  This seems like a reasonable compromise to me, to get these players in, without making them part of the set.

This is the normal jumbo box configuration, consisting of 10 packs of 50 cards each, including three hits. On release day, two additional silver packs were included, containing four 1983 Chrome cards each.

This box contained:

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2001 Topps Heritage Retail Box Break Throwback

We’re reaching back in time a bit today, to take a look at the beginning of Topps Heritage.  It’s turned in to a fan favorite over the years, but in the beginning, was anyone really sure what to expect?   This release used the same design as the 1952 Topps release.

In a way, it was a simpler time, before new releases of the hot rookie selling for $30k.  While hits existed, it was before the time where hits really drove the product.   Many of the now regular inserts were around for this first release, but they were not nearly as plentiful as today.  These packs advertise autographs with odds of 1:142 and even Clubhouse Collection Relics at 1:592 packs.   This is not the box to chase after hits.

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2018 Topps Solo A Star Wars Story Hobby Box Break

A new Star Wars movie means a new Topps release.  This time, it features Han Solo’s origin story.  It’s a fun movie, but it’s a little bit of a departure from the recent releases.  The card set, however, seems to follow a similar pattern.  The base set contains 100 cards, along with many familiar insert sets including Icons, Silhouettes, Stickers, Patch Cards, Sketch Cards, and Autographs.

The base set is a fun design featuring the Millennium Falcon along the edge, and numerous parallels.  I question the black parallel, however.  It looks much more grey than black.  If you have the black and silver together, it is easy to tell which is which, but apart, it may be more difficult.

Maybe it’s just me, but many of the insert designs seem to blend together, as well.  I guess they’re easy if you know what you’re looking for, but they don’t seem quite so obvious at first glance.  The different insert sets are displayed below, so you can judge for yourself.

This box contained:

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