Category Archives: Baseball

2018 Topps Allen & Ginter Hobby Box Break

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 Topps Big League Hobby Box Break

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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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 Bowman Blaster Box Break

While 2017 was the year of Judge, it didn’t start quite as early as it has this year.  2018 has seen Ohtani being even more sought after.  We saw it a bit with Heritage, but now with the Bowman release, Ohtani-mania is in full effect.  Normally, we’d have a hobby box to break, but we’re seeing prices double and nearly triple the normal price around release time.  That’s way too out of hand, for what is essentially hoping for the lottery ticket of an Ohtani autograph.   That one card is the only way to really have a chance at getting value out of a box.

 

Retail is still the regular price, if you can find it.  As a result of Hobby being so expensive, even retail is getting scooped up and often resold at a higher price.  You have a lot tougher odds on inserts and parallels, but for many, retail is going to be the only option to open Bowman packs this year.

There are other rookies available as usual in Bowman, but they all seem overshadowed this year.  This release is pretty standard fare for Bowman at this point.   You have a 100 card base set, featuring some veterans and some rookies, along side the prospects paper and chrome insert sets, which is the meat of the release.  These feature 150 prospects.   Some are well known, and some really aren’t.   I guess that’s part of the beauty of Bowman.  You won’t really know how good a release it was for a few years.  Which future stars may be hiding in this release?

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