Top 5 Cards from Our Hobby Box of 2024 Topps Chrome!

Rather than do a full box review, I thought it'd be fun to do a little countdown today for a box of 2024 Topps Chrome that I recently ripped as part of a group break over on my Discord.

Each hobby box of 2024 Topps Chrome contains 24 packs with 4 cards per pack.  In addition, each box promises one Chrome autograph.  

With the basics out of the way, let's see how we did with our box beginning with the fifth best card:

#5:  All-Etch #CAE-15:  Corbin Carroll

As I said at the top of the post, this particular box was for a group break and when you buy into a group break for a 2024 product, the Diamondbacks are always a good choice as they are apt to bring you many Corbin Carroll cards.  Personally, I love the retro look of the All-Etch set (we also pulled a Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and Adley Rutschman cards from the same insert set).

#4:  Summertime in the Park #SITP-10.  Mike Trout

I love the look of this insert set, easily my favorite insert set that we pulled in the box.  I think the little hot dog, foam finger, and popcorn in the corner send the design over the top but I also love the team logo flag as well as the background of palm trees and scoreboards.  In a different box, this could easily have been my favorite card of the box!

#3:  Magenta Speckle Refractor #107.  Yandy Diaz #311/350

Topps Chrome probably owes a lot of its popularity to its colored parallels.  Unfortunately, those parallels are incredibly tough pulls overall (as a spoiler, our box only had two colored parallels out of 24 packs)!  That being said, when you do manage to find one they definitely feel and look special.  This particular card is numbered out of 350 and made for a nice pull for the Rays slot.  However, this wasn't the best pull for the Rays from the box!  That honor goes to our next card on the list.

#2:  Gold Wave Refractor #41. Osleivis Basabe #29/50

Numbered out of only 50 copies and seeded 1 in 367 hobby packs, the Gold Wave Refractors are tough pulls indeed!  Kind of amazing that both of our colored parallels belonged to the Rays - certainly made that slot in the group break worthwhile!

#1:  Rookie Autograph Blue Refractor #RA-HK.  Heston Kjerstad #109/150

Our one promised autograph in the box was a doozy - a beautiful Blue Refractor parallel of Heston Kjerstad numbered out of 150.  The Blue Refractor autos are seeded 1:628 hobby packs so this was a rare pull indeed (as evidenced by the fact that copies of this card are selling in excess of $100 on eBay right now)!  

If this were a personal box, that Kjerstad auto alone would pay for the majority of the box.  While we hit the big time, I would imagine that most autographs out of the 2024 Topps Chrome set wouldn't come close to that in value.  Therefore, your mileage will vary with the set...but for a group break it was certainly a fun box to rip!  

I will note, however, that we did not get at least one card from each of the 30 teams which is always a bummer for group break purposes.  I guess that's not totally unexpected for a relatively small card count in the box but it's still something to note for potential buyers out there.  Despite that, I'd still have to label our box a success...certainly a bunch of nice cards came out of the box (enough that coming up with the Top 5 list was actually a challenge)!