Category Archives: 2017

2017, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps Allen & GInter

2017 Topps Allen & Ginter Hobby Box Break

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July means release time for Allen & Ginter. It’s always a fun set which, while clearly a baseball set, also offers a little bit of a change of pace with various off beat inclusions. It includes anything from insert sets focusing on Revolutionary Battles or World’s Dude to regular relics and autographs.

The release is bolstered by Aaron Judge, as are most of the 2017 releases. There is also a mix of sports writers and various other stars, such as Floyd Mayweather and William Shatner. Hot boxes make their first appearances in Allen & Ginter with an entire box filled with Foil Base parallels instead of standard base cards.

This box contained:

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2017, Baseball, Hobby Box, Stadium Club

2017 Topps Stadium Club Hobby Box Break

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The year of the Judge continues with the Stadium Club release.  While Aaron Judge has seemingly driven a lot more attention on the hobby, he has already really inflated the release prices for unopened packs.  Will he live up to the hype?  Time will tell.  Will the product live up to the prices?  Well, that will be a taller order, if you don’t hit a Judge.

 

The Stadium Club release seems to have really hit its stride.  We’ve come to expect unique images on nicer card stock, along with on card autographs.  It’s a simple set, but very visually appealing.   There are also a few parallels and inserts, but the main set is really the focus.   A hobby box features 16 packs of 8 cards each, with 2 on-card autographs.

This box contains:

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2017, Baseball, Jumbo Hobby Box, Topps

2017 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Hobby Box Break

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If you liked series one, series two brings you more of the same, in some cases much more. We get a continuation of series one, with numbers 351-700. The usual assortment of parallels are back, but we also get a bit of a throwback for the SP variations. Instead of just image variations, we also see the return of old time player variations.

Many of the insert sets are continued in this series, including 1987 Topps, First Pitch, MLB Network, and Salute. The First Pitch set is at least a reasonable size. I can’t really say the same about the 1987 and Salute sets. They are each 100 cards, after 100 cards from series one, as well. At ten per box, those sets would take almost two cases to pull, which seems a bit extreme to me.

During the initial release, hobby stores also offered two additional 1987 Topps Chrome packs for each sealed box purchase.

This box contained my first 1/1 autograph, which was rather surprising to me. It contained:

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2017, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps Archives

2017 Topps Archives Hobby Box Break

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I have a love/hate relationship with Topps Archives. I like the theory of using throwback designs, but it’s much better executed in Heritage. It can be nice to see the more recent vintage designs, without the almost 50 year lag time, though. That shine can be easily lost a bit when recent designs like 1982 get overused. This year’s set features 1960, 1982, and 1992.

One improvement in this year’s release, is the lack of regular short prints as part of the set. There are alternative image short prints, as well as various parallels. In the past, Archives has offered insert sets like cards from the motion picture Major League. This year, their pop culture references involve autographs of people like “Bald Vinny”, who seems to have limited appeal outside of Yankee stadium, and a baseball collector that most are not able to name. I’m not sure I would exactly call that an improvement.

A box advertises 24 packs of 8 cards, including two autographs per box.

This box contained:

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2017, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps WWE, Wrestling

2017 Topps WWE Hobby Box Break

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The 2017 edition of Topps WWE follows the recent pattern, using the same design as the flagship baseball set. The set is grouped by teams, if you will, as the wrestlers are separated by Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and Legends. These are all available in various parallels, as well as a handful with alternative images.

There are a few inserts sets included, as well. The main inserts sets all seem to share a similar design, which I’m not particularly a fan of. It’s a shame, as the content of those sets is interesting, just not the layout.

Each box contains 24 packs of 7 cards, and advertises two hits. The hits once again include Mat relics, shirt relics, manufactured championship belts, and autographs. `

This box contained:
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