2008 Topps Series 2 Hobby Box break

So it’s finally done. And I’m convicned that Upper Deck is on to something with it’s 16 pack box. You see, 36 packs from Topps is cool and all, don’t get me wrong, and you do end up 40 more cards from a Topps’ box then you do from and Upper Deck one, even though Upper Deck’s set has more cards. But at the rate of two packs a night, 36 packs takes about three weeks to open, and after you hit the pack with the auto or jersey card, there’s not much to look forward to left. Sure, the cards look nice, and those Trading Card History inserts are fun to come across, too. But after two weeks of two packs a night, you remember that you won’t have a complete set by the end of week three, and all you are doing is delaying the time when you can actually start to trade for them.

So Topps, please – consider those of us who open your product two packs a day when designing and planning for 2009. Thanks.

Now on to the review. The Topps series 2 release is much like the Topps series 1 release, only with more gimmicks, and these have been discussed to no end on the internets already. Sadly, I failed to pull one, even with the collective thoughts of you, my readers, behind me (you did wish me luck, right?). Carryover inserts from series 1 include the usual parallels, Topps All Rookie Team 50th Anniversary cards, Topps Year in Review, and Topps Baseball Card HIstory cards. New inserts include Toppstown codes, silk parallels, and Historical Campaign Match-Ups, which recount past presidential elections and have nothing to do with baseball.

So how did it go? Well, from the base set, I’m left needing 44 cards (45 if you count 661), which means I pulled 86.66666666666 of the set. Why do I need so many? Well, 12 of my base cards had some damage, including bent corners and flaking borders. In addition to those, 4 of the gold foil cards had problems, as did one of my gold parallels. I’m not sure of Topps replacement policy these days, but I’ll be sending them a letter with the cards and cross my fingers in hopes for replacements.

As for the rest of the parallels, 14 gold foil cards were in good shape from the pack, for a total of 18. That’s 1:2, as expected. Gold parallels (numbered to 1999) fell 1:5 packs, a higher insertion rate than series 1’s 1:9 seeding. I hit 7 of these (including the damaged one), including Prince Fielder, Brandon Wood, any Reds fan favorite Matt Belisle, and, best of all, former manager John McLaren. Overall, not a bad haul, and arguably the best of the gold parallels will be seen in the pack of the box listed below. You can scroll down, if you don’t want the suspense.

I also hit a black parallel of Orioles OF Adam Jones (39/57). Adam was supposed to be something special for the Mariners before they traded him to Baltimore in a package for Erik Bedard. So far, Jones is hitting .265 with 4 Hrs and 6 SBs, nothing special in his first full season, but he’s hitting better as of late, so we’ll see how he turns out.

Here’s the rest of the inserts:

• 16 Toppstown cards (1:2), including 2 gold cards
• 6 Topps Stars (Ordonez, Morneau, Beckett, Ortiz, Reyes, and Cabrera)
• 6 Year in Review
• 6 Trading Card History (Holliday, Lowell, F. Rodriguez, Tulowitski, Hunter, and Young)
• 2 Mickey Mantle Story
• 9 All Rookie Team (Ethier, Tulo, Chacin, Burrell, Miles, Berrora, Alou, A. Gonzalez, and J. Guillen)
• 6 Historical Campaigns (1792, 1824, 1828, 1872, 1944, 2000)

The only odds I beat were with the All Rookie Team cards, pulling a whopping 9 while expecting 7. Judging strictly from the names I pulled, I have to wonder if there is some sort of curse associated with being named to Topps All Rookie team, because none of these guys have gone on to greatness since, with the jury still out on Tulo and Either.

Now for the memorabilia portion of the box. It’s not a big hit, by any means, but it’s a nice looking card and it comes listed as part of the pack of the box. Here it is, in all it’s glory:

• 598 Bruce Bochey (starting off huge, I know. How can it get better?)
• 497 Tom Gorzelanny
• 388 Jorge Cantu
• 455 Derek Jeter (who’s that in the background?)
• 480 Matt Cain
• 550 Curt Schilling
• 396 Randy Johnson
• Toppstown code
• HCM1944 – Roosevelt defeats Dewey
• 478 Geovany Soto Gold (999/2008 )
• HA-PH Philip Humber autograph

Like I said, not a big pull. But I wasn’t expecting much, and it looks much nicer than that image would lead you to believe.  And Topps must have known that all but Humber fans would be completely satisfied with this alone, so they added the Soto gold parallel to make the pack even better.

Overall, it was a fun box, even if it did drag near the end. My wantlists should be updated, and, as usual, most inserts are available for trade. Send me an email if interested.