Box Review: 2023 Topps Finest (Perhaps the best box of cards I've ever opened?!)

Today, I have a box of 2023 Topps Finest to review.  I recently opened this box up as part of a larger group break that I hosted over on my Discord channel.  Right off the top, I'm going to state that this might have been the single best box of cards that I've ever ripped.  With that said, you might want to experience the entire thing "in real time" as I did ripping the box (and follow along with the comments from those that attended the live break).  If so, I highly encourage you to check out the video before scrolling down for the full box breakdown.

Alright, now let's jump into the box itself.  Each box of 2023 Topps Finest comes with two mini boxes inside.  Each mini box promises one autograph - so basically a full "master box" should yield two autographs.  There are your usual parallels and assorted inserts to chase (more on those in a moment).  Finally, given the relatively high price point of the box you don't actually get all that many cards - 60 cards total (30 cards per mini box, 6 packs of 5 cards each).

Note:  I didn't keep the contents of the two mini boxes separated as I did the break so I'm going to combine everything in terms of the single master box.  

Base cards:

The base card design is fairly standard for Finest - nice and shiny with some weird geometry bits floating around.  Personally, I like this year's base design quite a bit especially since the background circles seems to have different colors based on the team for each card.  Little color specific touches like that definitely elevate the overall look of the product.  Obviously, I can't afford this set to collect but if I could, I think it'd look sweet in binder pages!

Our box produced a total of 44 base cards with no duplicates between the two mini boxes.  The base checklist contains only 100 cards in a mix of current players and a large crop of rookie cards.  There are no retired players in the base set.  That being said, if you want the full base set you also need to track down an additional 25 short printed base cards (cards #101 - 125).  The short prints are seeded 1:44 packs but unfortunately our box did not produce one of them. 

Parallels:

The most common parallel are the refractors - we pulled a total of four:

To be honest, I didn't catch a single one of these during the live video break.  Congrats to the Astros, Phillies, Orioles, and Diamondback slots for each landing a refractor base card.  The base refractors are seeded 1:3 packs so we were right on the money here.

We also pulled three colored parallels.  In order of most common to least common, our first was this Blue Refractor numbered 029/150 of Oscar Colas of the White Sox.

Blue Refractors are seeded 1:44 packs.  Certainly not a bad pull but we are only getting started with this box!

Next, we found a Green Refractor of Cal Mitchell numbered 98/99 for the Pirates.

Green Refractors are seeded 1:66 packs.

Our final colored base parallel was this Rose Gold Refractor of Matthew Liberatore card for the Cardinals slot numbered 39/75.

The Rose Gold Refractors are seeded 1:87 packs.  

That does it for the base set (and corresponding parallels) but there's still so much more to show off from our box!

Inserts:

I don't know that people buy Finest for the inserts but you can definitely get some cool ones if you get a little lucky (as you'll see in a moment).  First though, the most common insert we found were three Headliners.

The Headliners are seeded 1:4 packs so we were right on the money here as well.  You'll notice that the Headliners checklist includes both current players and retired greats.

We also found one Headliners parallel.  

I'm not 100% certain, but I think this is a Kintsukuroi Black Gold Refractor as it is not serially numbered but it does have the black border.  The Kintsukuroi Black Gold Refractors are seeded 1:313 packs making this a tough pull!  

Our other "common" insert was this die-cut Rivalries card of Chipper Jones.  

The Rivalries cards are actually relatively rare in that the are seeded 1:48 packs - and I have to say, they are awesome looking.  My best guess is that little cut-out will pair with the Mike Piazza Mets Rivalries card from the same set.  A big congrats to the Braves' team slot for knocking it out of the proverbial park with many of those inserts!

We found one other insert, but I'll hold off on that for moment because it's time to look at our autographs!

Autographs:

As mentioned at the top of the post, each master box of 2023 Finest promises two autographs.  Our first autograph was this rookie auto of Joey Meneses for the Nationals.

Not a bad looking autograph though it isn't serially numbered.  However, that Meneses autograph was basically a "bonus" autograph because we pulled two more from our box - and both were amazing!

First, how about a Finest Autograph Orange Wave Refractor of Adley Rutschman of the Orioles.

Sure, it kind of sucks that it's a redemption but still, an Adley auto that should be numbered out of 25!!  These appear to be seeded 1:287 packs so that's an amazing pull for the Orioles slot.  

Now, one could be forgiven for thinking that had to be the best pull of the box but I'd argue we might still have two more cards which top it!

For some, the pull of this box is actually our second orange autograph of the box - a World's Finest Auto Orange Refractor. 

The Manny Machado auto is numbered 19/25 and while it is a sticker auto, the card design looks great!  This one will go in the Padres team slot since Machado plays for San Diego - definitely worth the entry fee for the group break for the Padres (amazingly, the Padres were unclaimed in our break so San Diego was actually a randomly assigned second team for someone).  Even more amazingly, the odds of pulling a World's Finest Auto Orange Refractor are a staggering 1:2,286 packs!!!

Phew!  Put all of those cards together and you've got an amazing box...but we aren't quite done yet.  Nope, there's one more goodie to show off!

Superfractor:

Yeah, the section header give this one away so let's all gawk together:

That's a World's Finest Superfractor and it's a true 1/1!  I've never pulled a Superfractor before so this was a super exciting pull for me as the group break host...and probably 100x more exciting for the owner of the Dodgers' team slot (which just so happened to be another randomly assigned team in this particular group break)!!  Any guesses on the odds of this pull?  Try 1 in 24,689 packs!!  My luck in pulling Dodger cards is unparalleled, that's all I can say.

So my blog post title wasn't an exaggeration!

This box blew me away in all of the best ways possible.  A bonus autograph would have been good enough but we got that on top of a pair of Orange autos #/25 and a Superfractor.  I don't know if I'll ever open a box that tops this one...and if I hadn't opened it live on video I don't think anyone would ever believe all of this came from the same box.   For those that like numbers, here are the stated odds for the "good stuff" we pulled out of this one hobby box:

• 1:44
• 1:48
• 1:66
• 1:87
• 1:287
• 1:313
• 1:2,286
• 1:24,689

That's simply an insane box.  It's even more insane when you consider that a hobby box only contains a total of 60 cards!!

Overall, I give the 2023 Topps Finest (hobby) box the following grades:

Set Design:  A+

Collation:  A+

Opening Thrill:  A+

Overall:  A+

Despite the high price tag for a box of 2023 Finest, this box was worth every penny!  By my count, this is only my second ever "A+" grade for a box review (the other being this amazing box of 2021 Topps Archives that I once opened).  That said, the 2023 Topps Finest box is the first box that I've ever reviewed that earned an "A+" grade for each of the three categories as well as the overall grade.  

And there you have it, the grades don't lie.  This was unequivocally the single best box of baseball cards that I've ever ripped.  Congrats goes out to all of those who hit it big (and small) in the group break.  For everyone else, if you want to have the chance to get in on my group breaks - join my Discord here...who knows, maybe I'll top this particular box in the future (and if I ever do that, trust me, you don't want to miss out)!