Collector's Crack: 2013 Topps Series 1 Baseball Break and Review

Well I couldn't wait and I ended up going home from work early on Tuesday, because I wasn't feeling good so I stopped by the local Wally World and picked up a blaster and a rack pack to help me heal. I also ended up staying home from work yesterday feeling like ass, but made it down to my LCS, to pick up my Jumbo box.

So without further ado lets dive in shall we?

First here's the box label I made up for those of you who like to store your sets in boxes.

Here is this years base design. I think most of you have already seen this, Topps did release it a while ago. I like it. Not as much as the last couple years, but it's not bad. It does seem to have an unneeded amount of wasted space on the bottom, especially with the team logo goes. I was a little worried Topps was going to over foil the cards as the swoops and diamond around the base of the photo would have been easy targets, but Topps held back and only the player name and Topps logo have foil.

Here's a look at the back. I don't know why I have such a fascination with the backs of cardboard, but I do. Fairly basic design, but I like that they have a fairly large number in one of the upper corners. Each back features a little Chase blurb, as that's Topps theme this year. And as always full stats, and some nice filler.

Like Topps did with last years football. There will be an in-store giveaway at the start of Spring Training. You have from February 20th to the 27th to pick up packs. If I remember right both my LCS had a ton of these so I'm not too worried. I ended up pulling only one of these pack redemption cards. Last years football they were falling about 3 per jumbo box. So maybe there willl be better odds of getting something.

There's also another contest.

The idea for this one is to beat the all time hitting streak by unlocking players with codes, picking which player will get a hit that day and building a streak. Like the last couple years Topps has voided me out of there contests so all my codes will probably be going up on ebay.

There's also a Chase to the Pennant contest card. But these code cards are have some crazy insertion rate of something like 1:2000 so if you get one good job!

This year there's lots of parallels to chase. We all like colored parallels right? This year we have a few new colors to chase our favorite players in. The sparkly unnumbered emerald parallels are the most common this year, unless you are buying retail from Wal-mart or Target and then you get Blue and Red parallels respectively in abundance.

I haven't bought any retail from Target (yet) but here's what a blue Wal-mart parallel looks like. Yes I know Harper again.

Here's a close up of a sparkly emerald. The backs are the same for all the unnumbered parallels, gold have black numbering and Black parallels have silver, I'm not sure what the other flavors have.

Here are all the Emeralds I pulled. You get one per Jumbo pack

I also pulled 3 out of my retail. I got two Brewers Gonzalez and Ishiikawa (not pictured) they're already in my Brewers binder.

Sorry I didn't scan all the Blue parallels I got. I'll have a trade post up later this week probably tomorrow with all the inserts and extras I have available.

Camo makes the jump from football to baseball this year. I didn't get a camo my Jumbo but I did manage to pull one from my retail. I can't remember if it was in the blaster or rack pack, but it's a good one.

I did end up getting one black from my Jumbo box.

I do like that Topps has started doing the foil numbering on the lower numbered parallels.

And lets not forget the golds. Topps isn't going to hold them back for Update series this year.

I ended up with 6. I pulled 4 from my Jumbo and 2 from the retail. That Detroit Team card is going in the Fielder collection. All the rest are up for grabs right now.

On to the inserts.
This year Topps is doing the Chase theme. And true to the formula, Topps usually does one big regular size insert set. This year that set is Chasing History.

These cards have a very 5 Star look to them. You get one per Jumbo pack and close to one per retail pack as well.

Here are the ones I've got.

All except that Thomas card are up for trade.

There are parallels of these cards at are one Foil board. I'm not sure if the foil or gold parallels are retail only but I didn't pull any from hobby and the two I got from retail were in the same rack pack.

And supposedly there are also gold parallels where the banner is gold instead of silver. These are unnumbered.

The next big inserts set is the Chasing the Dream set.

I think these cards would look great chromed out. And if Topps carries this insert to Chrome well see if I'm right. This insert reminds me of Topps Finest of years past, but I'm not a big fan.

You also get one of these per Jumbo pack and I picked up a few more from retail.

Next up we have Calling Card.

I wasn't too sure about these when I saw them in the sell sheet, but in person they have grown on me. I'm debating whether or not to complete the set. The back is a matte cardboard and I think it would have been nice if the front was more like that too. As it is the front is glossy.

I did pull an extra RA Dickey if your interested for now I think I'm going to hold on to these.

Next up are the Greats. These cards are thick and have that Topps Tier One look. They also remind me of that 2005 UD Pastime Pennants and I think there was a Fleer set that was similar too.

Either way I only pulled two and both from my Jumbos. I think the set is 25 deep so this one is probably going to be a little harder to put together, but a really nice looking set.

Next we have the die-cut Cut to the Chase inserts. You all know I'm an oddball lover and these cards look great all chromed out. I however am not going to be putting the set together so these three are up for grabs. I think the Cruz might already be spoken for, Brian?
I ended up pulling 4 from Jumbo and 1 from retail so these aren't too hard of a pull. My other was Ted Williams. Both Williams and Ruth are up on ebay right now though.

And of course we finally get to this years mini offering. Topps 1972 mini's. I'm not sure why they opted for 72 over say a year that had a mini like 75, but the cards look cool and being a mini and oddball collector I'll have to try and put this set together of course.

Sadly I did get 3 extras out of my hobby and retail so I have an extra Adam Jones, Carlos Gonzalez and Matt Kemp up for trade as well.

Now onto the hits. The retail blaster promises a commemorative patch card and there are two different kinds this year. The one I really like was the rookie patch cards that feature a patch with the players Topps rookie card on it. I'm hoping Robin Yount gets one of these in Series 2 or Update. I ended up pulling a Player Patch Card and I think I did all right.

Chipper!! It won't be the last time we see Chipper either. It seemed everything I opened favored the Rangers or the Braves.

I'll say this right now I actually like the way these relic cards look. And while Topps tends to design the inserts to be relic and auto cards making the base inserts look kind of lacking these are alright and I look forward to adding a few Brewers one's to my collection.

Topps also has numerous manufactured "relics" this year. All pretty much centered around baseballs big awards. Cy Young, MVP, and Silver Slugger awards, as well as, Proven Mettle cards.

I ended up with an MVP card.

Chippa again!! Nice to get another well known and loved Brave.

This card is really heavy. The award in the card is made of metal. I think these and most of the manu-relics would be easy pickings for pack searchers, but these are hobby only cards.

But I've saved the best for last and it kinda floored me to pull it.

Bam!!! Wow, holy crap. Sadly there was some edge damage. The bottom left hand corner had a small crease or line though the top layer and there are some chipping and edge lifting issues. When Topps released actual photos of some of these the one thing I and a lot of people noticed was the chipping on the edge. It is most likely a defect from the cutting process, but you kinda figure with 62 years of experience making baseball cards Topps would realize black card fronts on white card stock don't mix. Ahem 1971 and 2008 are really good examples.

I had thought about sending this in to Topps, but what are the odds I get a card in better shape? Anyways all my hits are up on ebay right now. Got to try and fund this crazy hobby. All the inserts are up for trade and I should have a trade post up with scans and numbers available. The Ranger and Giants cards have been claimed though.

Over all not bad. Again pretty par for the course. I am probably a little skewed having gotten a case hit in my Jumbo box. There are of course a few stand out inserts and a few inserts that well just seem to be filler. I'm glad Topps got away from those awful duo cards they put in the sets for years.

Per Josh's request if your interest in anything I've got here up on ebay here is the link to my auctions.