Topps Chrome Baseball returns for 2023, with an expected release date the week of July 26. The release date coincides with the National Sports Collectors Convention.
Collectors who go all in can once again choose from hobby boxes or jumbos. A hobby box of ’23 Topps Chrome will feature 24 packs, with four cards per pack. Jumbos will have 12 packs and 13 cards per pack; one of those cards will be a base parallel refractor.
Retail blaster boxes, meanwhile, will have eight packs, with four cards in a pack.
Topps is promising one autograph per hobby box and three in the jumbo configuration.
As usual, the design will mirror Topps’ flagship set, except with a chromium finish.
Base set/Parallels
Topps will feature a 220-card base set for its 2023 Chrome product, with rookies and veteran stars selected from the Series 1 and 2 flagship product. There also will be plenty of refractor parallels.
Making their debuts this year are Purple Sonar Refractors, numbered to 275. Also appearing for the first time are Blue Sonar Refractors (125) and Green Sonar Refractors (99).
Refractors will fall once every three packs. Prism Refractors will drop once in every six packs, while Negative Refractors will appear once in every 96 packs.
As for numbered refractors, the Chrome set will have Magenta (numbered to 399), Magenta Speckle (350), Purple Speckle (299), Purple (250), Aqua (199), Aqua Lava (199), Blue (150), Green (99), Gold (50), Red (5), SuperFractor (1/1) and Printing Plates (1/1).
Orange Refractors, numbered to 25, are exclusive to hobby boxes.
Refractors exclusive to hobby and jumbo boxes include Green Wave (numbered to 99), Blue Wave (75), Gold Wave (50), Orange Wave (25) and Red Wave (5).
Blaster boxes will average two Sepia Refractors and two Pink Refractors. Monster boxes will contain 10 X-Fractors.
To make collecting a master set even tougher, Topps is throwing in image variations, which can be found in every 497th pack. There will also be parallels in Green Speckle (numbered to 99), Gold Speckle (50), Orange Speckle (25), Red Speckle (5) and Superfractor (1/1).
Topps will also have scarcer Super Short Print variations. How scarce? One in every 16,938 packs.
Inserts
A new insert will be a tough one to find. Radiating Rookies, exclusive to hobby and jumbo boxes, will fall once in every 686 packs.
As in the flagship set, 2023 Topps Chrome will mark the 35th anniversary of the 1988 Topps set, falling once in every six packs.
Parallel refractors will be available in Green (numbered to 99), Gold (50), Orange (25), Red (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).
Returning this year is the Future Stars insert, which will fall once in every 16 packs. Parallel refractors will be found in Green (numbered to 99), Gold (50), Red (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).
An insert making its debut this year is the Ultraviolet All-Stars, which will feature the work of Mitch O’Connell, a “world-acclaimed artist of all things fast, hot and sexy.” Or, as his Facebook fan page notes, “the artist who makes trashy into classy.”
Parallel refractors will be found in Green (99), Gold (50), Orange (25), Red (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).
Titans is an insert that will be found once in every 12 packs. The insert will feature players who, as Topps notes, “rise high above their stadium as a protector to be feared by any visiting opponent.”
These larger-than-life heroes will have refractor parallels in Green (99), Gold (50), Orange (25), Red (5) and a SuperFractor version (1/1).
Topps in Technicolor (1 in every 24 packs), colorizes cards just like old-time movies got the colorization treatment. These cards have refractor parallels in Gold (50), Orange (25), Red (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).
Harder-to-find inserts are Topps Chrome Exposé, numbered to 10; and Let’s Go, numbered to 5. Each have Red Refractor parallels (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).
TacoFractors (yes, TacoFractors) are new and are numbered to 5. Topps hasn’t provided a sample image of the TacoFractor. Will there be hard shell and soft shell versions? Stay tuned.
Autographs/Relics
As always, Topps Chrome will offer plenty of autograph possibilities.
Chrome autographs will have a Refractor parallel numbered to 499, along with refractor parallels such as Purple Speckle (299), Purple (250), Aqua Wave (199), Blue (150), Blue Ray Wave (150), Gold (50), Red (5) and Printing Plates (1/1).
Refractor parallels exclusive to hobby boxes are Orange, numbered to 25. Hobby and jumbo boxes will have Gold Wave (numbered to 50), Orange Wave (25), Red Wave (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).
Green refractors, numbered to 99, will be available in retail packs.
Radiating Rookies Autographs will be numbered to 23 and limited to hobby boxes. There also will be a 1/1 SuperFractor parallel.
Autographs on the 1988 Topps baseball and Future Stars Designs will have a varied serial number for the base card. Refractor parallels can be found in Orange (25), Red 5) SuperFractor (1/1) and Printing Plates (1/1).
The same holds true for the base and refractor parallels for Topps in Technicolor and Ultraviolet All-Stars insert autographs.
Dual Rookie Autographs will be numbered to 25, with a Red Refractor parallel (5) and a SuperFractor (1/1).
The lone memorabilia offering in the 2023 Chrome set is Authentics, which will fall once in every 575 packs. It’s a case hit and exclusive in hobby and jumbo boxes. The cards contain MLB-authenticated relics. There will be parallel refractors in Green (99), Gold (50), Orange (25), Red (5) and SuperFractor (1/1). There will also be an autographed version, with a varied serial number.
Buybacks
Topps’ MVP Buyback promotion returns, with store credit offered in exchange for the base cards of this year’s American League and National League MVPs, which will be announced in November after the season ends.
You can check box prices for the various configurations on eBay here.
2023 Topps Chrome Baseball Checklist
2023 Topps Chrome Baseball Odds
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