2012 Topps Baseball Series 2 Box Break Recap And Review

2012 Topps Baseball Series 2 picks up where Series 1 left off.  Photo selection seems to have improved and the addition of A Cut Above diecut cards make Series 2 a nice set of cards to collect.  If you collected Series 1, picking up this new release is a must.

For the purposes of review, we classify Series 2 as trading cards.  You can find Series 2 in a wide variety of configurations in both retail and hobby.  We opened a box hobby box which contained 36 – 10 card packs with a promise of 1 autograph or 1 relic card per box.

Here are some of the cards we pulled.

Base Set

 Cliff Lee, front and back

 Carl Crawford, Mike Trout

 Clayton Kershaw, CC Sabathia, Albert Pujols

 Joe Mauer, Alex Rodriguez, Evan Longoria

 Brett Lawrie, Ichiro, David Ortiz

 Yu Darvish, Robinson Cano, Andrew McCutchen

 Joey Votto, Felix Hernandez, Johan Santana

Base Accomplishments/Checklists

 Derek Jeter, Dan Uggla

Gold Parallels

 Ervin Santana, Alex Gordon, Martin Prado

 Juan Rivera, Jimmy Rollins,Bryan Petersen

 Chris Narveson, Clint Barmes, Clayton Richard

Career Day Inserts

 Willie Mays

 Ken Griffey Jr., Roberto Clemente

 Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt

'87 Minis

 Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Joe DiMaggio

 Stan Musial, Mark Teixeira, Prince Fielder

 Alex Gordon, Brian Wilson, Nelson Cruz

Mound Dominance Inserts

 Warren Spahn, Bob Gibson

 Dennis Eckersley, John Smoltz

A Cut Above Diecut Inserts

 Miguel Cabrera, Johnny Bench

 Roy Halladay, Justin Verlander

 Tim Lincecum, Prince Fielder, Hanley Ramirez

Golden Moments Inserts

 Gary Carter

 Ryne Sandberg, Rickey Henderson

 Eric Hosmer, Dave Winfield

 Ian Kinsler, Adrian Gonzalez

 Ryan Zimmerman, Giancarlo Stanton

Gold Futures Inserts

 Carlos Santana, Desmond Jennings, Domonic Brown

 Drew Pomeranz, Brad Peacock, Jacob Turner

Gold Standard Inserts

 Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio

 Hank Aaron, Alex Rodriguez

 Stan Musial, Chipper Jones

Topps Golden Giveaway Code Cards

 Johnny Bench, Derek Jeter

 Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum

 Carlos Gonzalez, Felix Hernandez

The Hit

Jordan Zimmerman Game Used Memorabilia Golden Moments

Overall Look

This year is a mixed bag for me.  Some cards I like, some I don't.  Base design is decent. Photo selection Series 2 is much better than it was for Series 1.  Standout inserts for me are the Golden Futures and Career Day.  I’m on the fence about the Mound Dominance inserts but I do like the idea behind them. The gold parallels still look muddy to me, as do the Golden Silks.  A Cut Above diecuts are really nice.

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.

Topps has gone a long way this year to secure some of the best legends of the game with the inclusion of Roberto Clemente, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays added to the line up established last year of Sandy Koufax and Hank Aaron.  The legends included in the inserts are fantastic.  The base set is as complete as you could expect.

Do the hits hold up?

There are some super autographs to be pulled. The World Series Pins and Team Rings cards are impressive, even more so than the Golden Moments relics and that seems to be the general consensus. Add to that the bonus incentives of the Wrapper Redemption Program and 14K Gold Cards, Series 2 is packed with hits, but you'll have to buy hobby boxes to get the best of them.

Will you want to collect them all?

Not sure about a master set this year, but a complete base set is a must.

Rating

4 out of 5

2011 Topps Baseball Series 2 continues to work well for both beginning and seasoned collectors.  Your Baseball collection is incomplete without them.


Review box provided by Topps