All posts by dpatera

2016, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps Heritage

2016 Topps Heritage Hobby Box Break

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The 2016 Topps Heritage release features the 1967 Topps design, with many throwbacks to that era. The set has never really been about hits, though it does advertise one autograph or relic per box. Instead it focuses much more on the base cards, with a few hidden short print variations.

There are no real surprises here, but that might be what makes it popular. The set always delivers on what it is meant to be, and this year is no exception. Once again, a hobby box contains 24 packs of 9 cards. A full base set is 425 plus an additional 75 SPs.

This box contained:

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2016, Baseball, Jumbo Hobby Box, Topps

2016 Topps Series 1 Jumbo Hobby Box Break

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The first baseball release always brings an early taste of spring each year. It seems Topps has started taking some more chances with the base card designs, after many years of primarily a solid white border. Last year, they ventured in to a multi color border, but this year, the border is almost completely gone.

I really liked the design when I initially saw it online. It’s different from the standard releases. Then someone from the comic shop completely changed how I saw them by saying one word. Panini. After he said that, I do see it. It feels a lot like the types of designs Panini would release. Somehow, despite not having a border, the cards have more of a flat feel than usual.

It’s possible it will grow on me, but my initial feel is a bit of a let down. I still like seeing Topps change it up a little bit, even if some years end up missing the mark a little bit.

There is the usual assortment of inserts, including autograph and relic versions. In what seems almost a yearly occurrence now, buyback cards are featured once again. It looks like they go beyond base topps this year, and include other releases and even stars. They’re also starting to include different parallel levels of buybacks, based on the color of the foil stamp up to a 1/1 gold stamp.

This box contained:

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2015, Box Break, Hobby Box, Hockey

2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Hobby Box Break

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This release is pretty much what you’ve come to expect over the recent years. It’s a modern release on old fashioned cardboard stock. The base set is 500 cards, with an additional 100 SP cards featuring marquee rookies and legends.

The box has 32 packs of 8 cards, but no guaranteed hits. There are a few parallels included, but not much in the way of inserts really. This is much more a set builder release than many of the other current options.

This box contained:
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2015, Hobby Box, Non-Sport, Star Wars, Topps

2015 Topps Star Wars The Force Awakens Series 1 Special Edition Hobby Box Break

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This is a bit of a different release from Topps for the opening of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens. They are offering two different configurations for Hobby Boxes this time, which seems to have caused some confusion in the market place. The first is a traditional box containing 24 packs of 8 cards, with a chance at various hits including autographs and relics. The second one (featured here) is the special edition with 24 packs of 6 cards each, with no hits.

It seems a little bit different to not have the chance at autographs, but with the usual long odds of getting any desirable ones, this seems like a decent alternative. It is targeted more to the set collector, while still including inserts as well as parallel cards.

This is the first series of movie cards and seems to cover approximately the first third to first half of the film. Given the recent release, if you are avoiding spoilers, you may not want to look at the cards yet, although I don’t think this first set is very filled with spoilers you would not have gleaned from the trailers before the release.

The set contains 100 cards, along with various subsets featuring Behind the Scenes shots, Movie Scenes, Locations, among other details.

This Box contained:

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2015, Baseball, Basketball, Blaster Box, Box Break, Football

2015 Panini University of Michigan Wolverines Blaster Box Break

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This is a little bit different kind of release.  Panini is releasing these for a number of different schools.  The full 50 card set features recent and historic players from the University of Michigan’s storied history, in baseketball, baseball and football.  There are also the occasional school history cards, but no hockey players are included.  There is also an Honors insert line, featuring award winning players, as well as memorabilia and autograph cards.  The memorabilia and autograph subsets feature a pretty small checklist, but it sounds like some of the more desirable players are in shorter supply.

This box advertises 10 packs, with 8 cards per pack.  There should also be one autograph or memorabilia per blaster box.

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