I have a confession to make. I’m easily distracted by shiny objects. So are a lot of other collectors. BE CAREFUL OPENING WHILE OPERATING HEAVY MACHINERY!
I can only speak for myself, but when I finished opening my box one word came to mind… balance. The box I opened contained a very nice balance of hits. It probably is one of the best Topps Chrome Baseball boxes I’ve ever opened.
A hobby box will run you about $110 right now. The base set consists of (204) cards with the following parallels: Base Refractor, Prism, Sepia (Blaster), Pink (Value Pack), Negative, Purple #’ed/299, Blue #’ed/150, Green #’ed/99, Green Wave #’ed/99 (Hobby/Jumbo), Blue Wave #’ed/75 (Hobby/Jumbo), Gold #’ed/50, Gold Wave #’ed/50 (Hobby/Jumbo), Orange #’ed/25 (Hobby), Orange Wave #’ed/25 (Hobby/Jumbo), Red #’ed/5, Red Wave #’ed/5 (Hobby/Jumbo), Superfractor #’ed 1/1, and Printing Plates #’ed 1/1.
SP Photo Variations are quite difficult to pull falling at a rate of 1:247 packs. There are (25) total SP Photo Variations. Pulling the regular version is hard enough, but they do have parallels: Green #’ed/99, Orange #’ed/25, Red #’ed/5, and Superfractor #’ed 1/1.
CMP codes are helpful:
- Base – #369
- SP Photo Variation – #409
Housed inside each hobby box are (2) guaranteed autographs which can come in the form of Rookie Autographs, Dual Rookie Autographs, 1984 Topps Baseball Autographs, 1999 Topps Chrome Baseball Autographs, Freshman Flash Autographs, and Future Stars Autographs.
Relics are case hits. When you think about Topps Chrome Baseball, relics don’t always pop into your head right away. They tend to be much more difficult to pull from this brand. Called Debut Gear, these horizontally-oriented hits came out well and make me wish we saw more chrome-style relics. Not only did I pull a case hit (1:544 packs) I got the Red Refractor version #’ed/5 (1:17,628 packs). Not too shabby for a 24-pack box. Debut Gear Autographs are also available.
Non-autographed inserts include 1984 Topps Baseball, Freshman Flash, Future Stars, and Greatness Returns.
I think you’ll agree that my hits were quite balanced. One of these years I’d like to see some Topps Chrome Baseball National Sports Collectors Convention exclusive cards. Shiny stuff!!!
Checklist
Here is what I pulled:
Autos
- Cedric Mullins Gold Wave Refractor Auto #’ed/50
- Sean Reid-Foley Auto
Relic
- Ivan Rodriguez Debut Gear Patch Red Refractor #’ed/5
SP Photo Variation
- Justus Sheffield Green Refractor #’ed/99
Parallels
- Carlos Santana Purple Refractor #’ed/299
- Touki Toussaint Prism Refractor
- Jose Urena Prism Refractor
- Dakota Hudson Prism Refractor
- Sandy Alcantara Prism Refractor
- Charlie Blackmon Refractor
- Evan Longoria Refractor
- Whit Merrifield Refractor
- Nick Burdi Refractor
- Jesus Aguilar Refractor
- Justus Sheffield Refractor
- Ronald Guzman Refractor
Inserts
- Ty Cobb/Bryce Harper Greatness Returns
- Kyle Wright Freshman Flash
- Cedric Mullins Freshman Flash
- Scott Kingery Future Stars
- Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. Future Stars
- Miles Mikolas Future Stars
- Ichiro 1984 Topps
- Francisco Lindor 1984 Topps
- Joey Votto 1984 Topps
- Yusei Kikuchi 1984 Topps
Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: 2019, baseball, box, break, chrome, hobby, review, topps | 1 Comment »
