2021 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome: BOX REVIEW (Hobby)

Breaker's Club #6 is in full swing as we speak and I've got another one of our boxes from that large group break to show off today:  2021 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome (hobby).

This particular box holds 18 packs with each packing having 4 cards (3 regular sized plus 1 mini card).  Not a whole lot of cards in a box - so is the small amount counteracted by amazing content?  Let's find out!

Base cards:

In total, we pulled 45 of the 300 regular base cards.  It's a bit interesting that the A&G Chrome base set is only 300 cards in size given that the regular A&G set is 350 total cards.  Then again, with only 45 regular base cards per hobby box, good luck completing even the 300 card set...sheesh.  This set is not created with set collectors in mind!

Base card refractors:

Seeded 1:3 packs, we pulled our expected six refractors.  

I don't like when Topps doesn't label the refractors in some way (and as far as I could see, these weren't labeled).  The do have a nice shine to them, but they are still rather easy to overlook if you aren't careful.  This was a very AL East heavy bunch of refractors...five of the six cards belonged to AL East teams (with the Yankees and Orioles each getting two refractors).

Base card parallels:

We pulled three other regular-sized cards in this box - all three being base card colored parallels:

The Blue Willie Mays is #54/150, the Green Brim is 72/99, and the Gold Moncada is 42/50!  As for the odds, Blue parallels are 1:15 packs, Green are 1:23 packs, and Gold are 1:44 packs.  We did not find any Orange (1:88 #/25) or any of the super rare parallels (X-fractor, Red, or Superfractor).

Minis:

Each pack comes with one mini card (most of which are simply mini base cards).  Our box produced a total of 10 regular mini cards.

Mini Rookie Design Variations:

Seeded 1:9 packs, we pulled our expected two Mini Rookie Design Variation cards.  I like the look of these a lot, especially with the chrome treatment!

Mini World's Leaders:

Seeded 1:6 packs, we found our expected three of these.  The chrome effect is nice here too, though I can't imagine too many people are going to build this 25 card set given that you only get three per box (and the price of a box is quite high, or at least it was when I bought this particular box).

Mini World's Largest:

Seeded 1:9 packs, we found our expected two of these.  Here, I don't think the chrome treatment adds much to the card.  In the case of the Mauna Loa card, you can't even tell the card is chrome other than the border while the Uluru Rock card looks actively worse with the chrome treatment as compared to the regular version of this card which was seeded in Allen & Ginter proper.

Mini parallel:

Finally, we end with our big hit of the box.  We didn't find any autographs (seeded 1:346 packs) which was no surprise but we did find this little beauty:

That's a gold mini parallel #2/50 for the Braves.  Gold minis are seeded a whopping 1:144 packs so this was indeed a great pull!

Overall, I give the 2021 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome (hobby) box the following rating:

Set Design:  B-

Collation:  A

Opening Thrill:  C-

Overall:  C

This box of 2021 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome set me back about $120.  For that price, it's awfully hard for me to recommend this particular product.  Sure, the cards look great - but really, the Chrome part is nothing more than a partial parallel of the regular A&G set...and the minis are also all the same as what you could find in non-shiny A&G...so you really are paying top dollar for a little more shine and not much else...  Autographs are nearly impossible pulls and while I did like the colored parallels, they don't save the box for me overall.  Chop $40 or $50 dollars off of the box price tag and I'd be a lot more impressed but as it stands now, I think you can spend your dollars better elsewhere.