Collector Type: Set/Rookie/Parallel Fan
I had never opened a Sapphire product until now. In the past I have purchased various Sapphire products to flip.
When the regular 2022 Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition Baseball was released it debuted at $249.99/box. That was a bit too expensive for me considering there aren’t any autographs. So I made the decision to skip it.
After hearing that 2022 Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition Update Series Baseball included on-card autographs everyone expected the price to be very high. Turns out that wasn’t the case. Boxes debuted at $129.99. Topps can be all over the place when it comes to pricing. Sometimes its high. Sometimes its low. Sometimes its right on.
The base set consists of (330) cards. Parallels include Green #’ed/75 (1:9), Gold #’ed/50 (1:13), Orange #’ed/25 (1:26), Purple #’ed/10 (1:64), Red #’ed/5 (1:127), Superfractor #’ed 1/1 (1:1,598), and Padparadscha #’ed 1/1 (1:1,039).
Autographs are #’ed/25 or less. Parallels include Orange #’ed/25 (1:817), Purple #’ed/10 (1:2,043), Red #’ed/5 (1:4,085), Superfractor #’ed 1/1 (1:20,013).
The autographs are difficult to pull. But at least this product has them. And with a small autograph checklist when one is pulled it is usually of a top rookie.
On-card autographs are always better than stickers. Collectors were hoping not too many of them would be packed-out as redemption cards. So far the only redemption autograph looks to be of Jeremy Peña.
Each box should contain at least (2) parallels. I’ve seen some with (1) and others containing (3).
I bought this box because it had a reasonable debut price, and wanted to open a Sapphire product. The chance at pulling an autograph was also a nice bonus.
Seeing that this is the only product where you can find on-card Sapphire autographs of top rookies from 2022, box prices could skyrocket if any of them work out. On the other side those players could flop, and box prices could tank.
No Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt Jr., or Spencer Torkelson rookie cards found in my box.
As I mentioned before, this is the first Sapphire product I’ve opened. This is also the first time I’ve seen Sapphire cards in-hand. I can see why collectors go crazy for them.
2023 members of the Topps 582 Montgomery Club will receive (1) 20-card set, and the factory set this year. It would be really cool if that 20-card set would be printed on Chrome Sapphire card stock. The set should consist of subjects that haven’t had Chrome Sapphire cards made yet. Off the top of my head Mickey Mantle, Phillie Phanatic, and Mike Schmidt would make great additions.
Checklist
Here is what I pulled:
Parallels:
- Adam Frazier Gold Refractor #’ed/50
- Hunter Renfroe Green Refractor #’ed/75
Rookies:
- Jason Krizan RC #US65
- Felix Bautista RC #US225
- Ryan Pepiot #US109
- MacKenzie Gore RC #US81
- Brendan Donovan RC #US150
- Jack Suwinski RC #US236
- Shane Baz RC Rookie Debut #US240
- Nick Allen RC #US117
- Bryan Lavastida RC #US317
Base:
- Nick Castellanos #US266
- Garrett Stubbs #US315
- Michael Lorenzen #US84
- Andrew Stevenson #US173
- Matt Chapman #US235
- Cole Sulser #US103
- Sergio Romo #US322
- Sean Manaea #US48
- Jace Peterson #US12
- Drew Smyly #US138
- Opening Day Bronx Bash #US45
- Boston Flex #US11
- Cole Irvin #US292
- Luis Guillorme #US107
- Robert Suarez/Steven Wilson #US239
- Jurickson Profar #US69
- Archie Bradley #US98
- Andrew Knizner #US329
- Brad Miller #US91
- Kyle Cody #US96
- Adam Engel #US323
Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: 2022, baseball, box, break, chrome, edition, review, sapphire, series, topps, update | Leave a comment »
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