by Rich Klein
2010 Topps Chrome Baseball and Football have arrived—the former just in time for the World Series. Both were, frankly, real fun to open and, interestingly enough, Topps changed the mix of the type of “hits” in each box.
I have, for the record, opened a great deal of both Topps series 1 and Topps series 2 base product in order to be active in the Topps Million Card contest. Thus, I have seen many of the cards in the regular set on numerous occasions but was very happy to see that in its Chrome Baseball issue, Topps had put a great deal of effort into updating the cards in the set as well as the Rookie Cards. The only card that threw me off was seeing Rich Harden still pictured with the Cubs since he’d been traded in mid-season. The Rookie Card poses were mostly new and really cool to see.
Almost no product in the “pre-sale” market drew as much interest as Topps Chrome Baseball. That was, until pitching wunderkind Stephen Strasburg had season-ending surgery on his throwing arm. That changed a much-anticipated product into one that was trading on-line for significantly under cost.
As of this writing, the Topps Chrome product is selling online for between $35-50 per box and yet my local card store (Triple Cards in Plano, TX) has sold half of his ordered supply at $74.25 per box. I suspect the price will eventually settle somewhere in the middle. Hobby boxes include 24 with 4 cards per pack. Each box promises two rookie autographs in every box.
To Topps credit, they understand that many collectors feel “buried” in this product due to the pre-sell fervor and have issued various “bounties” each week for cards pulled from these boxes as well as creating a special redemption set, issued three cards at a time in exchange for 24 wrappers.
This box proved that there is definitely “bang for the buck” in 2010 Topps Chrome. We nailed one of the better hits in the product, assuming that rookie pitcher we spoke of can bounce back!
Here’s what we pulled:
Base Cards: We received 85 of 220 cards in the set with only one duplicate. That duplicate was card #1 Prince Fielder and is one of my favorite cards, showing the big Brewer setting off a choreographed walk-off homer celebration with his teammates. The photo is outstanding. Of course baseball purists hated that, but I thought that whole set-up was very innovative.
Refractors: Lance Berkman. Andre Ethier, Magglio Ordonez, Scott Sizemore
206 Chrome (#d to 999) : Howie Kendrick
206 Chrome Gold (#d to 50) Roy Halladay
Heritage Chrome (#d to 1961): Carlos Quentin, Roy Oswalt
Rookie Autograph: Luke Hughes (Redemption)
Rookie Blue Refractor Autograph (#d to 199) — STEPHEN STRASBURG (#169/199) (This card has been bringing $150-200. Click here to see others that have been pulled.
With two autographs in the box, refractors, updated photos and that high end Chrome feel to it, we certainly got our money’s worth here…even if the big pull had been a less sought after player. The recently announced wrapper redemption set is just an added bonus.
Rich Klein can be reached at Sabrgeek@aol.com
