Topps 2015 Series 2 Baseball Preview, Checklist

Blessed with another highly publicized young player who reached the major leagues as the season got underway, 2015 Topps Series 2 Baseball arrives in shops Wednesday.  Expect a few blaster boxes in your local big box stores before then.

There will be one autograph or relic per hobby box with one auto and two relics per jumbo box.

Series 2 includes cards of the newest rookies and prospects as well as players who changed teams prior to the 2015 season and cards capturing highlights from the 2014 season.

Giants catcher Buster Posey appears on the packaging, will do promotional appearances for Topps, and assist in various social media outreach programs.

A full 2015 Topps Series 2 checklist is linked below.

Kris Bryant’s first official Topps flagship rookie card arrives in Series 2 and it’s been getting a lot of attention in mainstream media.  He also has one autographed card on one of the subset checklists in the product.

Like 2015 Topps Series One, the base set features 350 different cards highlighting veterans, rookies, future stars, 2013 award winners and top moments from years past.  Each base card has a number of parallel versions (Gold /2014, Green Camo /99, Black /63 Hobby and Jumbo only, Pink /50, Platinum 1/1, Red Hot Foil 1:6 packs, Clear /10 Hobby only, Printing Plates and Silk /50).  Only 100 subjects of the 330 base cards will be featured in the Silk Collection, which adds to the rarity of the parallel.

Series 2 also includes more First Pitch cards featuring celebrities who tossed out ceremonial first pitches–some better than others–prior to games in 2014. New subjects include Lars Ulrich of Metallica, actor Jon Hamm, comic and pop culture icon Stan Lee, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead, and actor Chris Pratt.

One insert focuses in on the product’s tag line, The Future is Now, which focuses in on 30 of the top young major leaguers and some of their top plays in their early careers.  Another insert, Saber Stars, takes aim at Sabermetrics, and can be found in one in every eight packs.

The insert set Future Stars That Never Were relives some of the players who were typically thought of as the future All Stars or Hall of Famers and it didn’t turn out that way.  You can only find this set and the gold parallel, numbered to 99, in Hobby and Jumbo. Topps also included a remake of the 1989 Topps Minis in a die cut form and you can’t forget to look for the included Buyback Redemptions of the 50 most popular cards in the history of Topps.  Each of these inserts has an autograph and relic card variation in the product as well.

– Trajectory Autographs Gold /10, Relics /99

– The Future Is Now Autographs /25, Relics /99

– Saber Stars Autographs /50, Relics /99

– Future Stars That Never Were Autographs /10, Relics /25 Hobby, Jumbo only

– 1989 Topps Minis Autographs (on-card) /10, Relics /25

Other Inserts include:

• Stepping Up: Featuring 20 players and a time they came up big in the clutch. Inserted 1:6.
• Highlight of the Year.  This one continues from Series 1 with 30 more highlights. Inserted 1:4.
• Eclipsing History: 15 dual-subject cards featuring a current record-holder and the Legend of the past he eclipsed to claim that record. Inserted 1:10.
• Baseball Royalty:  25 of the greatest of all time. 2 per box
• Heart of the Order: Featuring 20 of the greatest sluggers of all time, discussing how their lineups were built around them. Inserted 1:6.
• …’Til It’s Over Featuring 15 of the greatest comebacks of all time. Inserted 1:8.
• Stamped Buybacks: Vintage Topps cards stamped with a buyback logo.
• Commemorative Patch Pins: Featuring metalized recreations of some of iconic MLB sleeve patches.  Sequentially numbered to 199.
• Commemorative Bat Knobs: Recreations of the bat knobs of 25 stars.

While Topps Series II features a number of different autographs and relic sets, the ones that drop the jaws of many collectors are the Strata cards.  Originally introduced in the football form, the set made its way into last year’s product and were well received.  This season’s checklist features a number of retired and current stars such as Craig Biggio, Ivan Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera and Pedro Martinez just to name a few.  You can also find 1/1 Strata Cut Signatures of some of the games all time greats.

Case breakers should watch for framed cards that fall one per hobby or jumbo case.  They can fall in two variations, one of which being Jackie Robinson Reprints that are featured in black frames, silver # to 99 and gold /25.    The other Framed design is a throwback to 2000 Topps Gold Label, which features todays and yesterday’s greats that are limited to just 25.

You can see hobby and jumbo boxes of 2015 Topps Series 2 for sale here.

2015 Topps Series 2 Baseball Checklist

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About Adam Cilley

Born and raised in Connecticut, Adam Cilley has been collecting for over 15 years. He has experienced it all when it comes to card collecting, whether it is opening packs, buying singles, visiting his LCS or joining group breaks. His collection spans over the four major sports, but he mostly focuses on collecting upcoming stars for the Boston Red Sox. You can reach him at [email protected].