2024 Topps Chrome Update Mega box break

This was gifted from sister back in December and basically ends up being a glorified lottery ticket to pull a Rookie Debut Patch Autograph Card - I don't think it's worth what my brother in law paid at the card shop, but I was grateful to be able to bust this and see what I got.

Trying to read up on this particular box configuration online, was there not even a chance to pull a Rookie Debut Patch Autograph Card [?] - I think the fine print somewhere was that the chances for pulling such a card came at 1:336,040 mega packs.

To get the my curiosity out of the way, I ripped through these and didn't find anything at first, but when I formally list out the contents later on - the Wyatt Langford rookie I pulled was an variation, so while that didn't save the box or anything, it ends up a notable pull.

Pack one
#USC193 Junior Caminero - Rookie Debut
#ASGC-20 Emmanuel Clase - 2024 MLB All-Star Game insert
#USC81 Jeimer Candelario - X-Fractor
#USC170 Seth Lugo - RayWave Refractors

Pack two
#USC50 Robert Gasser RC
#USC35 Wyatt Langford rookie - Refractor; Image Variation 1:187 mega packs
#USC104 Landen Roup rookie - X-Fractor
#USC162 Dylan Lee - X-Fractor

Pack three
#FSU-17 Paul Skenes - Future Stars insert
#ASGC-31 Logan Webb - 2024 MLB All-Star Game insert
#USC97 Graham Pauley rookie - X-Fractor
#USC73 Victor Caratini - X-Fractor

Pack four
#USC125 Ronel Blanco RC
#SSC-15 Evan Carter - Stratospheric Stars insert
#USC96 Cam Eden rookie - X-Fractor
#USC63 Elvis Peguero - Refractor

Pack five
#USC2 Jorge Soler
#USC157 Kyle Harrison - Rookie Debut; Prism Refractors
#USC49 Nelson Velázquez - X-Fractor
#USC168 Manuel Margot - Refractor

Pack six
#USC68 Nolan Schanuel - Rookie Debut
#USC54 Ramon Urías - Green RayWave Refractors - Serial #’d 59/99
#USC137 Hunter Stratton - X-Fractor
#USC189 Eddie Rosario - RayWave Refractors

Pack seven
#USC110 Christian Scott - Rookie Debut
#89CU-17 Corbin Carroll - 1989 Topps Baseball
#USC98 Michael Kopech - X-Fractor
#USC12 Jonathan Cannon rookie - X-Fractor

2004 Upper Deck SP Prospects box recap #2

#NH-CR Cesar Ramos - National Honors USA jersey

#DT Derek Tharpe - autograph serial #'d 067/400

#318 Jay Rainville - autograph serial #'d 087/485

#362 Grant Hansen - autograph serial #'d 420/600

#DD-LA Raymond Liotta / Brandon Allen - dual autograph serial #'d 160/175

#KK Koley Kolberg - autograph serial #'d 211/400

#NH-BH Brett Hayes - National Honors USA jersey

2004 Upper Deck SP Prospects box recap #1

#MR Mark Roberts - autograph serial #'d 06/10

I picked up a couple of boxes for $29.95 each, hoping to pull a hidden gem [like a Dustin Pedroia autograph rookie or maybe a dual / triple autograph featuring a draft pick and an established MLB player and/or Hall of Famer] - however, I get what I pay for and these breaks turned out be dead junk wax breaks from the oughts.

#328 Brian Bixler - autograph serial #'d 463/600

#359 Garrett Mock - autograph serial #'d 452/600

#GB Gary Bakker - autograph serial #'d 078/400

Dud autographs - I was hoping to get someone relatively decent but the deep autograph checklist obviously made it so the fillers are the most common pulls.

#DD-EM Eric Hurley / Michael Nickeas - dual autograph serial #'d 022/175

#NH-JL Jed Lowrie - National Honors USA jersey

#NH-DB Daniel Bard - National Honors USA jersey

Each box contained two Team USA jersey cards, both featuring one-time Boston Red Sox players - Lowrie has been a decent MLB player when healthy and Bard was great out of the Red Sox bullpen until the Steve Blass disease derailed his promising career.

For what it's worth, when it came to busting the 11-year old packs, there were condition issues with the rainbow foil board cards - the glossy cards were stuck to each other at times and when separated, bits of pieces of one card end up on the other.

It's almost a good thing, it was mostly base cards of guys who didn't have much or any MLB impact - if I'd pulled better cards and they ended up messed up, then I'd be really kicking myself for wanting to bust these boxes.

2014 Topps Stadium Club mini box recap #3

I paid about $80 for this box of cards and I'm still trying to make sense of my lackluster pulls - it looks like prices have dropped bit by bit and even as I felt like this break could have been much better, I'm wondering if it is worth trying another full box at $55-$60 [if prices fall that far].

Pack one
#17 Michael Cuddyer
#22 Matt Adams

#BT-6 Troy Tulowitzki - Beam Team insert
#107 Zack Greinke
#176 Jeff Samardzija

Pack two
#105 Troy Tulowitzki
#95 Mark McGwire
#LDC-2 Greg Maddux - Legends insert
#153 Bryce Harper
#158 Hyun-Jin Ryu

Pack three
#161 Tony Gwynn
#194 Tom Seaver
#30 Andrew McCutchen
#77 Al Kaline - Rainbow parallel
#166 Mat Latos

Pack four
#11 Max Scherzer
#SCA-JSA Jarrod Saltalamacchia - auto
#91 Miguel Cabrera
#13 Stan Musial
#89 Yordano Ventura

Pack five
#130 Starlin Castro
#129 Hanley Ramirez
#59 Jonathan Schoop
#FA-5 Willie Mays - Field Access insert
#192 Brett Lawrie

Pack six
#85 Kolten Wong

#41 Shin-Soo Choo - Gold parallel
#24 Anthony Rizzo
#57 Jayson Werth
#2 Matt Holliday

2014 Topps Stadium Club mini box recap #2

Pack one
#28 Giancarlo Stanton
#155 Michael Wacha
T10C George Springer - Luminous insert
#69 Freddie Freeman
#160 Joe Mauer

Pack two
#87 Joey Votto
#26 Taijuan Walker
#52 Manny Machado
#16 Nolan Arenado
#148 Salvador Perez

Pack three
#25 Juan Encarnacion
#147 Bo Jackson

#50 Mike Trout - Rainbow parallel
#31 Todd Helton
#131 Dustin Pedroia

Pack four
#23 John Smoltz
#179 Felix Hernandez
#SCA-TC Tony Cingrani - auto
#122 Craig Kimbrel
#103 Adam Eaton

Pack five
#150 Clayton Kershaw
#163 Masahiro Tanaka
#FA-23 Jose Fernandez - Field Access insert
#44 Hank Aaron
#120 Jose Bautista

Pack six
#78 Josh Hamilton

#166 Mat Latos - Foil Board parallel serial #'d 1 of 25
#66 Matt Cain
#38 Robinson Cano
#64 Tim Lincecum

2014 Topps Stadium Club mini box recap #1

Pack one
#164 Ryan Braun
#136 Jason Kipnis
#177 Eddie Murray
#84 Aroldis Chapman
#184 Cliff Lee

Pack two 
#152 Nelson Cruz
#43 Pedro Martinez

#FA-7 David Wright - Field Access insert serial #'d 91/99
#188 George Brett
#27 Lou Gehrig

Pack three
#80 Roger Clemens
#81 Anibal Sanchez
#14 Travis d'Arnaud
#110 Xander Bogaerts - Rainbow parallel
#56 Nick Castellanos

Pack four
#45 Gregory Polanco
#SCA-LH Livan Hernandez - auto
#170 Ryan Howard
#126 Torii Hunter
#167 Domonic Brown

Pack five
#108 Pedro Alvarez
#117 Don Mattingly
#77 Al Kaline
#FA-14 Miguel Cabrera - Field Access insert
#182 David Ortiz

Pack six
#110 Xander Bogaerts
#55 Andrew Heaney
#FS-8 Jose Abreu - Future Stars insert
#68 Adrian Beltre
#121 Carlos Gonzalez

2013 Topps Heritage Minors box break recap

I made a card shop trip to bust either several packs or splurge for a box - while it might not be a MLB product, I try to hold out for something like the minor league version of Topps Heritage because I feel like there is a chance to get cards of new players, even if they are still plying their trade in the minors.

This product is not without its share of flaws such as Topps using the same images from other products i.e. Jimmy Nelson and his 2013 Topps Pro Debut - it's kind of sneaky how Topps uses the same image, but just slaps on a new template to get a new card.

For the cards that have duplicate images, it would have nice to see an original image used - even if it costs a little more to buy the rights to use more than one image.

Also, more than a handful of players also have had Topps Heritage Minors cards in previous years - I assume there is a checklist planned out way in advance and as redundant as it seems, Topps just wants to have a list they don't have to worry about updating too much.

Too bad any cards of 2013 draft picks are being saved for Bowman Draft and other products - I would have like to see guys like Mark Appel [No.1], Kris Bryant [No. 2], Jonathan Gray [No.3], Clint Frazier [No.5] and Colin Moran [No.6] make their cardboard pro debuts in minor league Heritage.

Back to the actual recap, I got 187/200 of the base 1-200 set along with four dupes - the collation was pretty good and I'm not worried about the following cards I didn't pull since I have a hand collated set coming in.

3 David Dahl
4 JR Murphy
18 Rafael Montero
24 Mike Freeman
43 Tyler Naquin
65 Jake Thompson
78 Bruce Maxwell
98 Roberto Osuna
115 Edward Salcedo
145 Patrick Kivlehan
166 Cesar Hernandez
192 Taylor Jungmann
200 Oscar Taveras

I pulled 19 assorted inserts / parallels

Two Real One autographs; 1:14
#ROA-MA Matt Andriese - the autographs I pulled look fine in-hand, though from the images I posted, it looks like the autograph has bled or smeared on the sticker.
#ROA-BM Brandon Meredith - on card autographs would really be great for this product, though that maybe a pipe dream.

One Commemorative Logo Patch
#MP-JG Joey Gallo - maybe I'd rather pull a manufactured card like this than some random single-swatch game used card of some unknown minor leaguer; at least it looks like there was some effort in putting together cards like these.

Two black bordered parallels; 1:11
#107 Andrew Susac - serial #'d 07/96
#141 Ross Stripling - serial #'d 03/96

One base Venezuelan parallel; 1:24
#108 Enny Romero 

Four SP's; 1:6
#208 Chris Stratton
#212 Chase - That Golden Thunder Bat Dog
#214 Christian Bethancourt
#217 A.J. Jimenez

Six The Road To The Show inserts; 1:4
#RTTS-AM Raul Mondesi
#RTTS-CCR C.J. Cron   
#RTTS-GS Gary Sanchez 
#RTTS-BS Bubba Starling 
#RTTS-TG Taylor Guerrieri 
#RTTS-TA Tyler Austin 

Four 1964 Bazooka inserts; 1:6
#64B-BB Byron Buxton
#64B-GP Greogry Polanco
#64B-KC Kyle Crick
#64B-MD Matt Davidson  

One Be a Pro Player For a Day Contest Card

Four dupes
#46 Corey Oswalt
#130 James Paxton
#133 Trevor May
#190 Brett Bochy

2013 Topps Pro Debut retail box

I read about a cheaper, 'retail' version of 2013 Topps Pro Debut and bought this on a whim [online through my phone] on the way home from a field trip three or four weeks ago - I don't think boxes are actually meant to be sold through big box stores but Topps made a cheaper option, presumably to cater for those who want the base cards for themselves.

I didn't do a pack-per-pack recap but on my sixth pack, I pulled a Yasiel Puig - so that probably paid for most of the box at this current time.

Out of the box break I got 192 out of 220 cards with no dupes - these are the 28 cards I didn't end up pulling

5 C.J. Cron
30 Anthony Alford
36 Adalberto Mondesi
37 Courtney Hawkins
55 Matt Magill
56 Bralin Jackson
66 Miguel Sano
73 Christian Bethancourt
81 Justin Nicolino
83 Shawon Dunston Jr.
104 George Springer
121 Kyle Lotzkar
124 Mark Montgomery
125 Javier Baez
129 Dorssys Paulino
151 Chih Fang Pan
153 Kyle Crick
158 Matthew Skole
166 Jorge Bonifacio
168 Chris Stratton
174 Jake Marisnick
179 Mark Bordonaro
183 Julio Rodriguez
186 Bryce Brentz
190 Trevor May
215 Hunter Morris
216 Keury de la Cruz
219 Joe Panik

Cards I actually pulled from some loose [hobby] pack breaks

36 Adalberto Mondesi
37 Courtney Hawkins
81 Justin Nicolino
83 Shawon Dunston Jr.
153 Kyle Crick
158 Matthew Skole
174 Jake Marisnick
179 Mark Bordonaro
190 Trevor May

The 19 cards I'm need to complete the set

5 C.J. Cron
30 Anthony Alford
55 Matt Magill
56 Bralin Jackson
66 Miguel Sano
73 Christian Bethancourt
104 George Springer
121 Kyle Lotzkar
124 Mark Montgomery
125 Javier Baez
129 Dorssys Paulino
151 Chih Fang Pan
166 Jorge Bonifacio
168 Chris Stratton
183 Julio Rodriguez
186 Bryce Brentz
215 Hunter Morris
216 Keury de la Cruz
219 Joe Panik

Besides Puig, I also pulled cards of guys like Byron Buxton, Anthony Rendon, Maikel Franco and others - 2013 Pro Debut retail is a fun, low end break if hunting for cards picturing top prospects, rank-and-file minor leaguers and the top prospects who've graduated to the Major Leagues in 2013.

2011 Donruss Elite Extra Edition recap #4 - the finale

Pack 17
#61 Nick Fleece
#184 Albert Cartwright
#152 Shawon Dunston Jr.

#8 Danny Hultzen / Jed Bradley / Tyler Anderson - Building Blocks insert
#4 Albert Pujols

Pack 18
#57 Hudson Boyd
#167 Charlie Leesman
#179 Mike Walker

#10 Cristhian Adames - certified autograph serial #'d 093/594
#14 Justin Verlander

Pack 19
#19 Erik Johnson
#68 Dean Green
#187 Jake Dunning

#16 Williams Jerez - Yearbook insert
#16 Andrew McCutchen

Pack 20
#44 Neftali Rosario
#25 Angelo Songco
#82 Corey Williams
#88 Jake Floethe - certified autograph serial #'d 20/25
#1 Josh Hamilton

2011 Donruss Elite Extra Edition recap #3

Pack 13
#86 Brandon Parent
#9 Jeff Ames
#162 Joe O'Gara

#8 Zach Cone - Yearbook insert
#3 Clayton Kershaw

Pack 14
#67 Cavan Cohoes
#174 Red Patterson
#158 Tyler Cloyd

#159 Pierre LaPage - die-cut Aspirations parallel serial #'d 006/200
#15 Danny Espinosa

Pack 15
#42 Johnny Eierman
#99 Greg Bird
#182 Ryan Tatusko
#50 Taylor Guerrieri - die-cut Aspirations parallel serial #'d 036/200
#2 Adrian Gonzalez

Pack 16
#45 Kevin Comer
#3 James Harris
#156 Adam Jorgenson

#12 Tyler Collins - Elite Series certified autograph parallel serial #'d 47/99
#18 Adam Jones

2011 Donruss Elite Extra Edition recap #2

Pack seven
#16 Blake Snell
#73 Adam Conley
#164 Dan Osterbrock
#19 Abel Baker - Elite Series insert
#10 Brian McCann

Pack eight
#97 Bobby Crocker
#55 Mitch Walding
#155 Chris Heston

#95 James Baldwin - certified autograph serial #'d 445/575

#9 Jordan Walden

Pack nine
#30 B.A. Vollmuth
#93 Chris Wallace
#176 Pedro Villareal
#160 Brett Jacobson
#21 Michael Pineda

Pack 10
#29 Jake Sisco
#13 Kyle McMillen
#183 Dan Meadows
#6 Blake Swihart / Andrew Susac - Building Blocks insert
#20 David Freese

Pack 11
#27 Josh Osich
#51 Dillon Maples
#178 Chris Hanna
#3 Dan Vogelbach / Dillon Maples / Matt Szczur - Building Blocks insert
#17 Dustin Pedroia

Pack 12
#87 Roman Quinn
#10 Cristhian Adames
#172 Jeremy Cruz
#3 James McCann / Jason King / Brian Flynn / Jason Krizan - Building Blocks quad insert

#7 Curtis Granderson