Group Break Highlights from 2023 Topps Heritage (Hobby Box #1)

A couple of days ago, I showed off the highlights from the first (of six) 2023 boxes that we opened as part of this week's big group break (see here for the first box of 2023 Topps Series 2).  Today, we turn our attention to the first box of 2023 Topps Heritage!

For me, I admit that I love the concept of Topps Heritage and for a number of years I tried to collect the entire Heritage set.  Unfortunately, Topps has overloaded the Heritage brand with so many short prints that it makes collecting the set way more work than fun and thus I've more or less given up on the line.  Still, it's always fun to open up Heritage boxes...and who knows, I swore I wouldn't collect another Heritage set until I finished all of the sets that I've been working on but now I'm finally nearly done with that goal - only a few more cards from 2009 Heritage that I've yet to track down:

My 2009 Topps Heritage (Low and High Series) Wants:

Base:  698

Rookie Performers:  RP-03

So yeah, I'm probably at the point where if I love a new Heritage set I could see myself giving collecting it a try...so will this year's set convince me to get back on that horse?  Let's find out!

2023 Topps Heritage (box 1):

We'll begin with the box topper - which was more of a "box middler" since the box topper was stuck in the middle of the packs (a poor packing decision as we'll see in greater detail when/if I do a write-up for the second box of 2023 Heritage that we opened).

You can't go wrong with a Hank Aaron box topper (other than the slightly-dinged corner from the way the card was packed, I suppose).  Still, this was a cool photo that I hadn't seen used before - so I like it!  A solid start to the box, for sure.

Heritage is another set where you buy it for the base cards.  Yes, there are a few inserts and hits that are possible to pull (and we'll get to those in a moment) but the majority of the cards in the box belong to the base set.  This year's Heritage set is 500 cards in size with cards #401 - 500 being short prints (seeded 1:3 hobby packs).

Based on the 1974 Topps design, the 2023 Heritage set definitely looks the part (other than a few strange decisions such as on all the Angels cards - no city is listed for reasons?!?).  Personally, as someone born well after 1974, this particular set design doesn't have any emotional attachment to me and thus the best I can say is that the design is "fine."  It's inoffensive, though not at all exciting.  Clean, but not overly interesting.  In a word, it's "fine."  Luckily, there are at least a few interesting base cards from within the set - here are some of the highlights that I picked out to scan:

As mentioned, there are 100 base short prints to track down and with a seeding rate of one short print for every three packs, you'd expect to pull eight such short prints in a hobby box (which is exactly what we did).

It might be worth noting that all of the short prints in our box had slightly darker cardboard backs as compared to the regular base cards.

Heritage is jam packed with a wide variety of other short prints (basically image variations of one type or another).  From what I could see, we found exactly one:  

That's an image variation of none other than Julio Rodriguez.  Definitely a cool looking card - and a great pull for the Mariners team slot in our group break!

Turning our attention to the inserts, we found a total of eight spread out across New Age Performers (4), News Flashbacks (1), Baseball Flashbacks (1), and Then & Now (2).  

Nothing much to say about any of the above sets - they've been mainstays of Topps Heritage for quite some time now.  Personally, I could do without all of them save for the News Flashbacks (that's a cool concept for a set based on a design from a specific year).

We also found a single chrome card - and it's another hit for the Braves slot to go with the Hank Aaron box topper!

The Austin Riley chrome card is numbered 848/999 on the backside of the card.  I do love the chrome look with the Heritage design - now that would be a cool set to build!  The Chrome set isn't a true parallel as it only contains 100 of the 500 cards in the base set.  Of course, with only one per hobby box, good luck actually building the full set!

Finally, our lone hit of the box:

The bright red bit of cloth is much better than the usual white, gray, or black bits.  It's even more interesting to get such a vibrant red color for a Blue Jays relic hit!  Of course, the back of the card says that the "relic contained in this card is not from any specific game, event, or season" so who knows - maybe it is from Guerrero's dish cloth in his home?  No matter, bright bits of cloth will always beat boring white bits so I'll call this one a win (after all, you don't buy Heritage for the hits - or at least, you shouldn't)!

Overall, this was a pretty fun box to rip.  Unfortunately, I'm not really digging the 1974 Topps design any more than I was prior to ripping the box so I think I'll sit out this year's edition of Heritage.  On the bright side, that gives me at least one more year to locate those last two Heritage cards that I need from the 2009 set!