All posts by dpatera

2018, Baseball, Hobby Box, Topps Allen & GInter

2018 Topps Allen & Ginter Hobby Box Break

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The 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter release follows the same pattern that we’ve come to expect.  It features old time players, current players, and an assortment of pop culture figures, things, and places.  I’ve heard some rumbling about how some of the relics available in the release are not actually real (like one from the Kraken!), but they seem popular none the less.

The set is the same format once again, containing 300 Base cards and an additional 50 SPs (301-350).  Unlike a lot of other releases, while these SPs are shorter, they’re still attainable falling one in every two packs.  You’ll also find a random assortment of insert sets featuring the likes of the World’s Hottest Peppers, the World’s Greatest Beaches, and Baseball Equipment of the Ages.

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2018, Baseball, Hobby Box, Topps Big League

2018 Topps Big League Hobby Box Break

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We’re looking at a new release from Topps in Big League.  It comes in at a lower price point than most releases and focuses on the base set.  In one of the larger single series base set, Topps Big League arrives at 400 cards.  There are only a limited number of insert sets, and a small amount of parallels.

It seems to be a pretty basic, but fun set.  It’s primarily current players, but has a few legends mixed in, as well as an interesting subset featuring Ballpark Landmarks.  The Ballpark Landmarks are part of the base set, but there is an additional subset showing players in their Player’s Weekend jerseys, with their nicknames.  That seems to be more of a VAR SP for the base set, but the odds state you should get many of these per box.

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2018, Basketball, Hobby Box, Stadium Club, Uncategorized

2018 Topps Stadium Club Hobby Box Break

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I really like the Stadium Club releases.  It focuses on pictures from the game, without having to rely on gimmicks to sell the cards.  It has its share of inserts and parallels, but the picture quality is still king.

The set can be a little daunting to put together from packs, however.  A hobby box contains 16 packs with 8 cards in each pack, with the base set consisting of 300 cards.  It features mostly current players, with some legends in the mix as well.  Each box advertises 2 on-card autographs, as well.   The autograph checklist is fairly big, but there are still some big names like hot rookies Gleyber Torres and Ronald Acuna, as well as many other stars of the game.

This box contained:

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2018, Box Break, Jumbo Hobby Box, Topps

2018 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Box Break

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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, Baseball, Retail Box, Topps Heritage

2001 Topps Heritage Retail Box Break Throwback

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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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