Category Archives: Hobby Box

2020, Baseball, Hobby Box, Topps Heritage

2020 Topps Heritage High Numbers Hobby Box Break

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This long awaited release makes it out just under the wire to be released in 2020. This follow up to the base Heritage release from early in the year featuring designs from the 1971 Topps design, picks up where the first release left off, with cards numbered 501-725, the last 25 of which are Short Prints. We get the expected insert sets, like Award Winners and Rookie Performers, as well as some new ones like the Let’s Play 2(528) set featuring Ernie Banks.

This release caps a unique year in trading cards, and it’s hard to see things getting back to normal anytime soon. Will more 2020 releases be coming in the new year? These boxes advertise 24 packs of 9 trading cards, with one Real One Autograph or relic card in every box.

This box contained:

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2020, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps WWE NXT, Wrestling

2020 Topps WWE NXT Hobby Box Break

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This is an interesting release, as it was delayed greatly from the original target date over the summer to December 30, just barely making it out during 2020. It took a bumpy route toward the end, too. A few weeks before release, Topps canceled the previous configuration, and opened up a new round of orders, for the final configuration.

When the release was first announced, it was going to be boxes of 24 packs with 7 cards per pack, as it has been in years past. This year, that was changed only a few weeks before release. While hobby boxes remained at the same price point with two autographs per box, they now included only 2 packs with 25 cards per pack. While it is nice not having as many packs to open, it feels like a lot of content is missing with so few cards in a box.

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2020, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps Chrome WWE, Wrestling

2020 Topps Chrome WWE Hobby Box Break

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This release has long been delayed because of the pandemic. It was originally scheduled for July, I think, but many things from that period ended up being moved to later in the year. The end result of this delay is that a few of the people released back in April still find themselves in this release. It’s not that big a deal, but they do stand out a bit because of that.

This marks the return of this release after a five year hiatus. It hits a little bit different this year, as there wasn’t a planned “flagship” wrestling release to begin with. It doesn’t follow the previous format of using the baseball design for the cards this time. The design feels a little bit like Stadium Club to me, without the full bleed images.

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2020, Hobby Box, Non-Sport, Rittenhouse Game of Thrones

2020 Rittenhouse Game of Thrones The Complete Series Hobby Box Break

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This is my first time opening a box from Rittenhouse. I know they do a lot of these type of releases, but I’ve never paid close attention. It seems a little bit different from common releases I’m used to seeing.

This release encompasses the entire Game of Thrones series, including one base card per episode. As such, we see a 73 card base set, with a single gold parallel. There are a few insert sets as well, including a cast set containing 100 cards, along with a parallel release. That seems like a strange set up to have a larger insert set than base card set. It should also be noted, the boxes are individually numbered. This box was numbered 10464 of 11000.

The box advertises twenty-four packs of five cards each. This includes two autographs. The inserts fall at a pretty low rate. Given how rare some of these inserts are, I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to chase a set, but maybe that isn’t the intention anyway. It’s an interesting release, though.

This box contained:

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2020, Baseball, Hobby Box, Topps Allen & GInter

2020 Topps Allen & Ginter Hobby Box Break

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This set faced a big delay due to the pandemic shut downs. Normally, this set would be released in July, but this year it finally hit stores in mid September. The great card rush is still going on, but it remains to be seen how that will affect this release. While this is a heavy hit product, with three per hobby box, there is a mix of baseball players past and present, and many other pop culture subjects. It’s not a set for everyone.

It can have wide spread appeal, because you can find some subjects that would normally not get cardboard treatment. That same feature can turn off baseball purists, though. It doesn’t get the same sort of attention as other releases, despite the large number of hits, because you primarily see a lot of lower end relics. The biggest current rookie prize is Luis Robert, and he has autographs in this product, but it doesn’t seem to be driving the treasure hunters like in other products.

The base set contains 300 cards, with an additional 50 short prints running 301-350. There are a few regular parallels, with most of the parallels in mini card form. We see a few baseball related inserts sets, but then also some random inserts such as “Where Monsters Live” and “Citadels & Strongholds”. Overall, it’s a fun set as a throwback to a late 1800s set.

A box contains 24 packs of 8 cards, and advertises 3 hits per box.

This box contained:

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