2013 Topps Baseball Update Series Trading Cards Box Break Recap And Review

Full of late trades, mid-season rookies and All-Star selections, 2013 Topps Baseball Update Series is the final act of this year’s flagship product.  This set includes a wide variety of inserts, continuing this year’s theme of “the Chase” along with continuations from sets from Series 1 and 2 and all new inserts, plus short print photo variations and cards dedicated to “Boston Strong.”

For the purposes of review, we classify Update Series as trading cards.  You can find Update Series in a wide variety of configurations in both retail and hobby.  We opened a hobby box that 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

Yasiel Puig, front and back

Miguel Tejada, Ian Kennedy, Michael Pineda

Francisco Liriano, Randy Choate, Kevin Youkilis

Mark Reynolds, Aaron Harang, Jeff Francoeur

Shin-Soo Choo, Roy Oswalt, Mike Olt

Wil Myers. Trevor Bauer, Matt Garza

Alfonso Soriano, Dan Haren

Carlos Martinez, Jonathan Villar

Gerrit Cole, Kevin Gausman

Base Set - All-Star Game 

Jason Kipnis, David Wright, Yu Darvish

Andrew McCutchen, Miguel Cabrera, Matt Harvey

Paul Goldschmidt, David Ortiz, Chris Davis

Adam Wainwright, Prince Fielder, Robinson Cano

Felix Hernandez. Hisashi Iwakuma, Carlos Gonzalez

Madison Bumgarner, Adam Jones, Jose Bautista

Joey Votto, Carlos Beltran, Joe Mauer

Ben Zobrist, Mariano Rivera, Mike Trout

Brandon Phillips, Yadier Molina

Jean Segura, Jose Fernandez

Manny Machado, Matt Moore

Dustin Pedroia, Clayton Kershaw

Base Set - Home Run Derby

Robinson Cano, Prince Fielder

Yoenis Cespedes, Bryce Harper

Base Set - Rookie Debut

Jose Fernandez, Yasiel Puig, Zack Wheeler

Hyun-Jin Ryu, Jurickson Profar, Shelby Miller

Anthony Rendon, Wil Meyers

Gerrit Cole

Base Set - Record Chase

Tim Lincecum, David Ortiz

Yoenis Cespedes, Yasiel Puig

Base Set Parallels

Green

Wil Meyers, Anthony Swarzak, Kyle Gibson

Joel Peralta, Mariano Rivera, Jose Fernandez

Gold #/2013

Yasiel Puig, Vance Worley, Willie Bloomquist

Bryan Petrsen, Jim Henderson, Eric Hinske

Inserts

Making Their Mark

Yasiel Puig, Matt Harvey, Starling Marte

Jose Fernandez, Aaron Hicks, Tony Cingrani

Chasing History

Ozzie Smith, Jurickson Profar

Joey Votto, Reggie Jackson

Manny Machado, Bo Jackson

Dustin Pedroia, Roberto Clemente

Troy Tulowitzki

Franchise Forerunners

Mets - Harvey & Wright, Pirates - Cole & McCutchen

Dodgers - Puig & Kemp, A's - Cespedes & Henderson

Postseason Heroes

Sandy Koufax, Jim Palmer, Greg Maddox

Buster Posey, Roy Halladay

1970 Topps Baseball Minis

David Ortiz, Robinson Cano, Ian Kinsler

Justin Verlander, Nomar Garciaparra, Wil Meyers 

Stephen Strasburg, Mariano Rivera, Yasiel Puig

Photo Variation SP

Yoenis Cespedes

Boston Strong SP #/50

Daniel Bard

The Hit

Ben Zobrist All-Star Stitches Relic

Overall Look

I like this year's base card design, even more than the insert design. While I'm digging on these 1970 minis it is unclear to me why Topps didn’t stick with 1972 Baseball design to match what was done in Series 1 & 2. Hit cards are rather standard design, what we've come to expect from Topps flagship.

Quality and Variety of Players

Topps has gone a long way this year to secure some of the best legends of the game.  This was a particularly strong mid-season group of rookies.

Do the hits hold up?

Some of the non- hit SPs will be enough for collectors but there is the usual offering of basic flagship hits to be had here.

Will you want to collect them all?

You will definitely want a complete base set to wrap up your year.

Rating

 4 1/2 out of 5

2013 Topps Baseball Update Series comes really close to upstaging the releases that came before it based on the high demand rookies.  For those that normally just stick to collecting Series 1 and 2, Update is a set that should not be ignored this year.


Review box provided by Topps