Category Archives: Blaster Box

2022 Panini Prizm WWE Blaster Box Break

This is the premier release with Panini taking over the WWE property. The hobby release prices were much higher than similar Topps WWE products from recent months, sometimes even ten times as much. Is the product really worth it? Even this retail product was found at a much higher price than normal retail products.

It will be interesting to see how this product does over the long term. It seems pretty unlikely that collectors are building sets from $1k hobby boxes, but I guess anything is possible. This release features a 200 card base set, along with many parallels and inserts. This blaster box features six packs with four cards per pack, and no guaranteed hits.

This box contained:

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2020 Topps Star Wars The Mandalorian Journey of the Child Retail Box Break

This isn’t really a normal break, and I went back and forth on whether to include it. Rather than individual packs, this box contains one large clear pack. The box advertises 32 card complete set, but that isn’t quite correct, either.

There are no real hits available with this set, but there are numerous parallels possible. I guess that would be closest to a hit, if you were to find a limited version. There’s not much here, but if you’re a fan of “Baby Yoda”, here’s your chance to get a set dedicated to him!

This box contained:

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2019 Topps Chrome Blaster Box Break

This is a very popular release every year, in large part because of the focus on rookie autographs. These are not prospect autos like Bowman, but actually for rookies who have already played in the majors. Unfortunately, because of these hot autographs, it is really starting to draw in the lottery ticket collectors. This in turn, drives up the price with increased demand, which leads to more supply being printed. Is it sustainable at this point? I think that remains to be seen.

Chrome has always carried a premium price compared to many other releases, but the additional pressures make it seem less of a value. If you hit one of the key autographs, it’s worth it, but when you don’t, you’re left with little value compared to the price tag. Is the lottery ticket worth the odds?

We passed on hobby or jumbo boxes for this release, as the prices were through the roof. Retail is more available, but any chance at hits is greatly reduced. This blaster box advertises 7 packs of 4 cards plus one bonus pack with 4 Sepia Refractors.

This box contained:

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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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2017 Topps Fire Blaster Box Break

This is a release I wasn’t very sure about going in. I’m generally not a big fan of the gimmicky releases like this. After opening a box, I still don’t think it’s quite for me, but the online pictures don’t really do the cards justice. They do look a lot better in hand than in any pictures I’ve seen. The parallels leave something to be desired, though, as they don’t seem to match up to their names very well.

The fact that these are Target exclusives also doesn’t really appeal to me, but they seem to be easier to find than many Walmart exclusives are.

The blaster box advertises 46 cards inside (7 packs + 1 Gold Minted pack). There are no guaranteed hits.

This box contained:

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