Box Review: 2024 Topps Heritage (hobby)

Last week, I ran a group break over on my Discord that included a pair of boxes of 2024 Topps Heritage.  As usual, I like to double-dip when I can to get some blog fodder out of a group break so why not review one of our two boxes today?

Each hobby box of 2024 Topps Heritage contains 24 packs with 9 cards per pack.  Each box also promises either an autograph or a relic, though historically for me that simply means a basic relic when it comes to Heritage!

Box Topper:

Each hobby box of 2024 Topps Heritage comes with a box topper.  For the most part, you can either expect a 1975 Topps stamped buyback card or an oversized box loader in the 1975 Topps design.  Our box happened to have a stamped buyback of Steve Stone of the Cubs.

Base Cards:

The 2024 Heritage set is a colorful set as it is based on the 1975 Topps design.  Expect to see a lot of two-toned cards with bright colors all over the place.  While I'm no expert on the '75 design, color combos, etc., I will say that the Heritage cards seemed to be at least a decent facsimile of their source material.

The short prints

One of the biggest issues that I have with the Heritage brand overall is the sheer number of short prints.  Seeded 1:3 packs, our box did yield the expected eight but that's nothing when you realize that there are 100 short prints (out of the 500 card base set).  Even worse, those short prints make up the vast majority of the first 100 cards (all but card #82 is a short print from cards #1-100) in the set so your set binder will look terrible at the front for a long time until you are able to acquire the many, many short prints.

Inserts:

Each box of Heritage will also yield a fair number of inserts.  We pulled the usual suspects, nothing super rare here but still a number of nice looking cards.  

Not shown:  Willie McCovey Baseball Flashback in the box as well

For my money, the New Age Performers cards look quite good this year.  It's an insert set that has gotten a little long in the tooth so to speak, but I think this year's version looks quite nice.  I also love that Topps kept the colorful vibe going from the base set all the way through the various insert sets.  

Parallels/Variations:

Our box had two main types of parallels/variations.  First, we pulled a pair of white bordered variations:

I appreciate that Topps put "white border" in the card number box on the reverse of the cards.  Sure, the white borders jump out this year given all of the color on all the other cards but it's still a nice thing to have things labeled clearly (some of the other variations are much easier to miss)!  

The other type of parallel we found a LOT of was Purple refractors.  That's right, our hobby box was a hot box!

Hot boxes come with one Purple refractor per pack - certainly a nice little bonus for the group break participants!  It should also be pointed out that we pulled a lot of great players among our Purple refractors!

Finally, the one promised hit of the box was (unsurprisingly) a plain relic:

I seem to pull a lot of Jarren Duran cards (you'll note we had a Purple refractor of him as well).  I like the look of Heritage relics most years and I'd say the 1975 two-color design works well here, especially when you consider the relic bit itself is nothing but plain white.  There's still plenty of eye catching color on the card overall.  I approve even if I was hoping we'd find an autograph instead!

Overall, I give the 2024 Topps Heritage box the following rating:

Set Design:  A

Collation:  A

Opening Thrill:  B

Overall:  A-

We opened up two boxes of 2024 Topps Heritage and I'd definitely put the other box closer to a B for an overall score.  However, this particular box was a hot box so that definitely upped the overall grade a bit.  I enjoyed the box rip and the set design, but I'm still traumatized from collecting old Heritage sets and trying to track down all those short prints.  I don't think I have it in me anymore to do that again...at least not until Topps makes their way to Heritage sets that mimic the sets of my childhood (then again, those designs will probably be so played out by then that I'll be tired of them regardless of how faithful future Heritage sets look)!