Category Archives: Box Break

2020, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps Archives

2020 Topps Archives Hobby Box Break

Leave a comment

We see another regular release during the great trading card boom. Recent releases seem to immediately shoot up in price. People are going to retail outlet and clearing the shelves to resell blaster boxes at three times the normal price online. Will that continue with Archives? That’s not clear, yet, but I suspect not. While Archives may contain some of the new rookies, the hits are primarily focused on retired players from years gone by.

It’s early, but so far, this release doesn’t seem to have the same bump. Is the bubble starting to slow down a bit? Or is this a one-off because it’s not rookie focused? Time will tell. It’s still difficult to find at retail, but that is often the case during the first week or release. Some people claim that no product being available is a great sign for the hobby, but I don’t think so. If you spend a few minutes online, it’s very clear that product is selling out because people are trying to resell it for an inflated price, rather than actually collect the product. That’s anything but good for the hobby. If product is not available, people are going to end up not buying any. After a few releases where someone can’t find any product to buy, why would they want to keep looking?

Continue reading 2020 Topps Archives Hobby Box Break →
2020, Box Break, Hobby Box, Star Wars

2020 Topps Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker Series Two Hobby Box Break

Leave a comment

After about a two month delay due to the world wide pandemic, Topps brings us the second series of The Rise of Skywalker. There is quite the backup of releases right now, and it seems Topps is pushing to clear that backlog quickly. Unfortunately, that has led to some quality issues.

There have been reports of poor collation and missing hits. We didn’t see that here, but it seems to be a common complaint right now. We did see pack sizes vary between 18 cards and 3 in some cases in non-hit packs. Given the quality issues for recent releases like Topps Total, these seem entirely plausible.

This series features a 100 card base set, with a number of parallels, as well as inserts also coming in parallel versions. The box contains 24 packs with 8 cards per pack. A box advertises two hits per box, including one guaranteed autograph.

This box contained:

Continue reading 2020 Topps Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker Series Two Hobby Box Break →
2020, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Pack, Topps Total

2020 Topps Total Wave 3 Pack Break

Leave a comment

Wave 2 of Topps Total was a bit of a mess, so even with a few errors, this one is an improvement. Two players have a number different from the checklist, resulting in two numbers doubling up. The parallels are continuing without the letters used in wave 1.

With a print run of 3702, this wave sees a bit more than the previous wave, but still well below the first wave. This wave includes stars such as Clayton Kershaw and Paul Goldschmidt, while featuring Bo Bichette as top rookie. Again, the release has a base set, with red, black, and gold possible parallels. There are also a limited number of autographs as well as a retired legend as available inserts. Each pack is advertised to have ten cards. Any inserts or parallels are an additional card in the pack.

This pack contained:

Continue reading 2020 Topps Total Wave 3 Pack Break →
1987, Box Break, Topps WWE, Topps WWF, Wax Box, Wrestling

1987 Topps WWF Wax Box Break Throwback

Leave a comment

New releases have started reaching ridiculous levels, so we’re going to look at an old release that has been sitting around for a while. This Topps release covered the World Wrestling Federation, back before it was known as World Wrestling Entertainment. This came out after Wrestlemania 3 from the Silverdome in Pontiac Michigan, featuring the clash between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.

1987 Topps WWF Wax Wrapper

This release comes before the time that hits were the central focus of a product. It is also before inserts really became standard, although it does include a sticker subset. The base set contains 75 cards, showing superstars, highlights, as well as some action captions. There is also an insert subset of 22 different stickers.

There is a danger built in to these older products, and it goes beyond chewing thirty-three year old gum. These packs were wax, and the sealing process often stained the bottom card. The amount of wax varies, and is sometimes not very noticeable, but it’s something to consider. Also, is a problem related to the gum. These packs weren’t really designed to stay sealed for decades. After years sealed in a pack, along with pressure, the gum often ends up almost leaking on to the cards. Every pack had one card severely damaged by the gum. Keep these things in mind if you look at old wax era packs.

This box contained:

Continue reading 1987 Topps WWF Wax Box Break Throwback →
2020, Box Break, Hobby Box, Star Wars

2020 Topps Star Wars Women of Star Wars Hobby Box Break

Leave a comment

The global pandemic has delayed a lot of things, including many trading card releases. For me, this release wasn’t delayed, but the local store was shut down preventing me from picking it up. So this will be a little bit late, but the release looks worth the wait!

This wasn’t a surprising release from Topps, given their success with WWE Women’s Division cards, but it’s something new for Star Wars. I initially wondered how they were going to fill out a set, not realizing the cartoons were included so there was a very wide range of characters available.

The release features a 100 card base set, along with a few insert sets. Each has its own array of parallels. A box contains 7 packs with 8 cards per pack. One autograph is guaranteed per box, with possible sketch cards being an addition to these. It’s a fun release and can provide a lot of hits you don’t often find in other products.

This box contained:

Continue reading 2020 Topps Star Wars Women of Star Wars Hobby Box Break →