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Group Break in Review: Box #1 Highlights (Silver Frame, Camo SP, Kershaw Relic, and More)!

As promised during the video, I plan to show off some of the highlights of each of the six jumbo boxes from the group break here on the blog.  I must say, as a whole I thought we did quite well with our case - and it all started with box #1 which yielded a case hit!  We'll get to that in a moment, but first let's take a gander at some of the other inserts.

Box #1 Highlights:

As usual, Topps has loaded the flagship with plenty of inserts - and this year I think there is most definitely something for everyone.  Starting with the more common inserts, we find another year of First Pitch cards.  Box #1 yielded 5 of these.

I will be adding the First Pitch cards to your group break stacks based on the ballpark in which the pitch occurred.  So, for example, Bree Morse (Miss California) threw out a first pitch in Anaheim so her cards will go in the Angels' stack.

Another insert that we ended up with five of was the Wrigley Field Celebrates 100 Years.

While the Cubs definitely make out well with this insert set, it should be noted that there are a number of non-Cubs cards in the set.  The first box gave us a Phillie (Hamels) and a Yankee (Ruth) to go along with three Cubs cards.  To determine what team gets the card, I'm using the team logo on the backside of the card (in case you were wondering).

Basically, you can expect either a First Pitch or a Wrigley Field insert in every pack (on average).  Other inserts are actually more common however!  Our first box gave us 7 Back to Back inserts...

...but as you can see, collation wasn't good here.  We ended up with a pair of Fielder/Braun cards.  Personally, I'm not terribly excited by the Back to Back cards anyhow...but getting duplicates in the same box?  That really sucks.

Another set with collation issues was the Pressed Into Service insert set.

Once again, we found 7 in our box but again we ended up with a duplicate (Michael Cuddyer).  I actually like this set quite a bit...and if I had any plans to complete any of the insert sets from 2016, I think this would be my second choice.

That probably begs the question, what would my first choice of an insert set to complete be?  That's easy - like most other people (based on what I've read), I love the Perspectives set.  We ended up with 10 in the box (one per pack) but two of the ten were duplicates (Tulowitzki and Longoria).

Finally, in terms of basic insert cards we end with the seemingly mandatory Topps tribute to their own past set...this time called Berger's Best.

This insert set is also one per pack (so we got ten) but it's much larger in size which helps to reduce the chances of getting duplicates within a single box (at least in theory).  We ended up with ten unique cards so I have no complaints.  To be honest, this set is well done from what I can see - there is actual information on the back of the card unlike some previous similar insert sets.

Those are what I call the "basic" inserts of this year's flagship effort.  I won't be scanning all of the basic inserts for any of the other boxes since there are already duplicates but don't worry, you'll get all your dupes in the mail soon!

Now we move into the more interesting portion of the box - the rarer inserts, parallels, and of course, the hits!

First, every box holds a single Wacky Packs sticker preview "card" for the upcoming set.  For box #1, the Mets are the lucky recipient of the sticker card.

We also get two buyback cards in every box.  According to what I found online, this year's buyback cards are inserted at different levels of rarity.  The Black stamps indicate commons, while the Red (limited), Blue (rare), Silver (scarce), and Gold (1/1) are the other tiers.

As you can see, we pulled one black stamp (common) and one red stamp (limited).  The Schofield card will be randomized between the Pirates and Angels at the end of the break.

If parallels are more your style, then Topps has you covered as well.  The most common parallels are the rainbow foil parallels (seeded 1:2 packs).  Thus you should expect to receive five such parallels per box which is exactly what we got.

I think it would be pretty cool to put together an entire rainbow foil parallel set - though I know I certainly don't have the budget for such nonsense!  Of the five, I think the Sano is favorite - mostly because of the rookie cup!  The Rockies fared well here though (40% of the rainbow foils).

The next most common parallel is the gold parallels (seeded 1:3 packs).

We ended up with three golds (Yankees, White Sox, and Cubs).  Each is numbered out of 2016 on the backside (the rainbow foil parallels are not serially numbered in case you were wondering).  I think it is safe to say our player names are much better with the gold parallels as compared to the rainbow foils (which is ideal actually)!

We also pulled a black parallel (seeded 1:17 packs) which is nice.

The black parallels are about three-per-jumbo-case so the Gyorko is a pretty nice pull for the Padres.  Even better, the black parallels are numbered out of 65 on the back (in foil rather than the black print).

If that wasn't enough, we did pull one other parallel which was actually a case hit!

That's a silver framed parallel seeded 1:59 jumbo packs (or just over 1 per case)!  As you can see, the silver framed cards are numbered out of a scarce 16 - and we happened to pull a nice 1/16 for the Yankees!!

Before we get to the three promised hits in the box, we did pull one other special card - a short print of Alex Gordon of the Royals.

This is one of the camo jersey short print cards - though on the Royals' jersey you can hardly tell there is any camo (hint: look in the team letters).  From what I have read, the camo short print cards are seeded 1:25 jumbo packs which makes them quite rare!

With all of that out of the way, let's take a look at our three promised hits.  Each jumbo box guarantees a pair of relics and an autograph.  Our first relic:

That's Miguel Cabrera for the Tigers - and it's a fairly nice relic design (even if the cloth bit itself is plain white).

Our autograph goes to the Twins...

That's Kurt Suzuki with a sticker autograph (I think almost all the autos are sticker autos in the this set).  I like the design well enough - and it obviously goes well with the relic design which is nice for collectors.

Finally, our manurelic is a Commemorative Team Logo Pin of Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.

I have an amazing knack for pulling Kershaw cards so I wasn't surprised to see a Kershaw relic fall out of the pack.  The Team Logo pin cards are seeded 1:19 jumbo packs so we should expect to see a couple more before the case is complete (stay tuned)!

That does it for box #1.  I'd say we started out the case with a high note!  The silver framed parallel is really nice, as is the short print pull.  I was happy enough with the three promised hits - we certainly could have done a lot worse than a Kershaw and a Cabrera!

What do you think of this year's set?  I still have another five boxes' worth of cards to sort through but I'm interested to hear your thoughts.  I'll certainly have more thoughts as I continue sorting through the cards but for now leave your comments below!

Comments

  1. Well, Rainbow Foils are nice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those are some pretty decent hits! Nice first box.

    ReplyDelete

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