2018 Topps Tier One Baseball Box Break & Review

Its summertime!!!  Baseball is in full swing.  My Phillies are performing much better than last year, but they’re still sitting in third place in the NL East.  For a brief moment they held the top spot, but then quickly dropped back down.  Between the Phillies, Nationals, and Braves first place is up for grabs.  Who knows?  The Marlins could end up winning the whole thing.

During the summer is when I break the most boxes.  This is when a lot of the good stuff comes out.  Sure, during the winter and spring we have products like Series 1, Gypsy Queen, and even Tribute, but the products that come out in the summer and fall are my favorites.

The first heavy hitter product of the summer to come from Topps is Tier One.  Tier One is not for the casual collector looking to break a box on a whim.  Its a high risk product.  For around $140 inside each box you should find (2) autographs and (1) relic.  No base set here folks.  100% hits.  Mr. Ohtani only has one type of autograph in Tier One.  All redemptions that come from the Break Out portion of the product.  If he had more in here, I have a feeling boxes would be selling for even higher.

Topps did a nice job with some of the upgraded designs compared to last year’s Tier One.  I really like a lot of the ways they incorporated baseball seams into the cards.  The checkerboard pattern on many of the cards grabs my eye too.  One of the best updates is to the Clear One Autographs.  These are printed on clear acetate and numbered to (10) or less.  Last year these autographs were confined to a clear box.  For 2018, Topps designed them to look as if they’re signed onto the side of a clear baseball.  Way better!

Like pretty much every product released today, its a gamble buying a box with the hopes of pulling something big to get your money back.  Too many products are bashed because of this way of thinking.  If you think a product is too expensive to break alone, pickup some singles of your favorite players on the secondary market.  People need to stop crying and spreading negativity just because they spun the wheel and the marker didn’t land on the right number.  There are lots of ways to enjoy this hobby.

Here is what I pulled:

Autos

• Jake Lamb Tier One Talent #’ed/245
• Marwin Gonzalez Prime Performers Redemption

Relic

• Salvador Perez Tier One Relic #’ed/335