2011 Topps Chrome Baseball Box Break Recap and Review

 Shiny, shiny, shiny.  Topps comes on strong for lovers of shine with 2011 Topps Chrome Baseball.  You’ll be looking for refractors of different colors and cool Heritage and Vintage versions.

Topps Chrome Baseball falls under our trading card category.  Each box contains 24 - 4 cards per packs with a promise of 2 on-card autographs per box.

Here are some of the cards we pulled from the box.

 Clayton Kershaw base, Front and back

Refracors

 Pablo Sandoval, Josh Beckett and Dan Uggla

 Cliff Lee, Michael Kohn and Matt Young

 Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Mike Nickeas

Heritage

 Hank Conger, Andre Ethier and Jayson Werth

Carlos Beltran and Justin Upton

 Mark Teixeira - The Switch Hitter Connects

Vintage

 Ryan Howard, front and back

 Kevin Youkilis, Roy Halladay and Matt Kemp

Hits

 Ben Revere Blue and Jordan Walden Atomic Refractor

 Kyle Drabek auto and J.P. Arencibia Blue auto

Overall Look

If you like the shiny and are looking for refractors of all kinds, these cards are for you.  The main design is based on the Topps master set for the year that we have already established is great.  

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.

At 200 base cards, you get a good mix of the veterans and rookies including the rookies who got the call up late in the season.  The vintage subset, based on 1996 Topps Chrome, looks great and offers a nice checklist.

Do the hits hold up?

All on-card autos are Rookies and there are the USA College Team Auto Redemptions so there is some great prospecting to be done here.

Will you want to collect them all?

There are several ways to collect here.  Complete base set, rainbow collecting and basic PC, all of which is compelling enough to want them all. This is definitely a multi-box purchase.

Rating

 4 1/2 out of 5

2011 Topps Chrome Baseball will be a great addition for a wide variety of collectors.


Review box provided by Topps

2011 Topps Marquee Baseball Box Break Recap and Review

When Topps first announced they would be releasing a new set of cards called Marquee, it seemed as if they would be the bridge between Triple Threads and Tribute.  From that standpoint, 2011 Topps Marquee Baseball hits the mark.  While there are some outstanding features in Marquee, it is not without its problems, which can make this first release a hit or miss proposition.

Topps Marquee falls under our premium cards category.  Each box contains 4 mini boxes with 5 cards per mini box. Each mini box contains three base cards, a numbered, color parallel and an Autograph or Relic Card.

Here are the cards we pulled in mini box order.

 Derek Jeter base, front and back

 Jim Palmer and Stan Musial base

 Heath Bell Acclaimed Impressions Auto Jersey #/150

Kevin Youkilis Parallel #/299

Box number 2

 Ty Cobb, Tom Seaver and Mickey Mantle base

 Kevin Youkilis Gametime Mementos #/25

Justin Morneau Parallel #/199

Box number 3

 Mike Schmidt, Ryan Howard and Jose Reyes base

 Brett Wallace Auto #/570

David Price parallel #/199

Box number 4

 Cole Hamels, Michael Pineda and Bob Gibson base

 Paul Molitor Titanic Threads #/99

 Mark Teixeira parallel #/99

Overall Look

These are some of the nicest base cards this year.  The photography, layout and design are amazing.  All of the hits are well designed.

Quality and Variety of Players

The checklist in general here is great.  There are a handful of players on the Monumental Markings checklist that you could debate whether they should be considered “Marquee” players.  It is not the amount of these players that is the issue but the ratio of the total number of their autographs compared to the other players.

Do the Hits satisfy?  Are the cards too base heavy?

There are certainly some huge hits to be pulled here, and enough of them to please most people. If you are lucky enough to hit a Museum Collection and one of the amazing Dual Autos, you will be happy as can be. Some collectors may be bothered by an issue that involves the materials used for a small percentage of the relic cards. For instance, Reggie Jackson’s Titanic Threads card has him pictured in his Oakland A’s uniform.  Sometimes the swatches are from his A’s uniform while other swatches are clearly his Yankee pinstripes.  Again, this is not the case with every card and the hits that are consistent with picture and material are really nice.

Will you keep coming back for more?

There has been a recent price drop for Marquee, which brings it more in line with expectations.  Buying Marquee by the case seems to be a better proposition.

Rating

 4 out of 5

2011 Topps Marquee Baseball came with high expectations but fell short of the mark.  We hope to see it come back strong next year with some tweaks.


Review box provided by Topps