Category Archives: Topps

1994, Baseball, Hobby Box, Topps

Throwback 1994 Topps Series 2 Wax Box Break

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There’s a bit of a lull right now for baseball releases, so it’s a good time to step back in time and open an older release. The lucky winner is 1994 Topps Series 2.

This is just as cards were getting a little more modern. Gone were the plain cardboard backs, and in were the glossies finish cards, with full pictures on the back as well. This wasn’t the first year of a glossier finish, but it was still relatively new, and a big step up from the 80s releases. While it was impressive at the time, it causes problems almost 25 years later.


While it is certainly not a unique problem to this release, many of the cards were stuck together inside the packs. There are numerous tutorials online suggesting ways to solve this problem, and we tried a couple of different methods. None of them were 100% effective. That’s something to keep in mind if you’re planning to open these releases. There’s no real high dollar card in this release, but I can’t imagine it would be very fun to pull a great card, only to find it damaged inside a mint pack.

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2018, Baseball, Box Break, Jumbo Hobby Box, Topps

2018 Topps Update Jumbo Hobby Box Break

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This release comes as the post season is coming to a close.  That’s rather fitting because while it is not the last release of the year, it does provide a bit of a wrap up for a lot of collectors.  It features players making their debut during the season, as well as veteran all stars and other traded players.  

It’s a very familiar set.  Boxes contain 10 packs of 50 cards each.  Every box advertises three hits, one of which is an autograph.  We see the continuation of some insert sets, like the 1983 35th anniversary, but also includes some new insert sets such as international affair.   As an added bonus, during the initial hobby shop release, each box also included two bonus packs, containing 4 special 1983 Chrome cards.

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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2018, Box Break, Hobby Box, Star Wars, Topps

2018 Topps Solo A Star Wars Story Hobby Box Break

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A new Star Wars movie means a new Topps release.  This time, it features Han Solo’s origin story.  It’s a fun movie, but it’s a little bit of a departure from the recent releases.  The card set, however, seems to follow a similar pattern.  The base set contains 100 cards, along with many familiar insert sets including Icons, Silhouettes, Stickers, Patch Cards, Sketch Cards, and Autographs.

The base set is a fun design featuring the Millennium Falcon along the edge, and numerous parallels.  I question the black parallel, however.  It looks much more grey than black.  If you have the black and silver together, it is easy to tell which is which, but apart, it may be more difficult.

Maybe it’s just me, but many of the insert designs seem to blend together, as well.  I guess they’re easy if you know what you’re looking for, but they don’t seem quite so obvious at first glance.  The different insert sets are displayed below, so you can judge for yourself.

This box contained:

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2018, Hobby Box, Star Wars, Topps, Uncategorized

2018 Topps Star Wars Black & White Hobby Box

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This release snuck up on me.  I didn’t know it was coming until just before it was being released.  I’m not really tied in to the non-movie related releases, so it’s possible I just didn’t know.  I ventured out largely without really knowing what I was getting in to, but thought it could be a fun release.

It’s a pretty bare bones release, with a 140 card base set, and a few insert sets, as well.  The black and white is an interesting imagery

gimmick.  The parallels end up being a slight tint to the cards.  The box’s size really stood out to me.  It’s a box of only seven packs of cards, containing eight cards each.  That’s going to make it a tough set to make from packs.  Each box contains either one autograph or sketch card, as well.  The cards feature great photography, and the base cards do not really waste any space on design, other than the Star Wars logo.  It makes for a different feeling with the cards, to be sure.

It seems a little pricey for what it is, but we’ll see how it holds up.

This box contained:

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