The Beautiful Cards of 2015 Topps Chrome Update

Perusing through the card aisle in Target last night, I found that these "Holiday Mega Boxes" are back for 2015.  Five packs of 2015 Topps Update Series, plus two exclusive bonus packs of 2015 Topps Chrome Update for $14.99.  Obviously I was intrigued enough to pick one up.

We'll get to the Chrome Update cards in a minute, but first a few highlights from the five individual retail packs of Update Series.  At 8 cards a pack, I got 40 in all...

Of course the big name rookies are in the set.  The All-Star subset is less than exciting to me, as is the case every year, but at least on this Joc Pederson we don't have to see an obnoxious horizontally-striped hat.

The Rookie Debut subset, on the other hand, is one I look forward to every year.  I really like the concept of a card dedicated to a player's first MLB game, in fact I wish Topps would produce an entire set like this every year featuring a card for every single player who makes his debut that season. 

Combine my love of this concept with the great photograph, and the fact that Correa is one of my favorite young players, and this proved to be one of my favorite cards in the entire box.

Count me among the many that thought there was a snowball's chance in hell that A-Rod would have another season like the one he just did.  He really seemed to have a great team attitude as well, and said all the right things.  The cynical side of me wants to say it was an act, but if I'm being honest Alex doesn't bother me nearly as much as he did a year or two ago.

I really got lucky with my inserts, which I generally detest.  I'd only picked up one rack pack of Update Series prior to this, and that one yielded two Red Sox inserts (a Whatever Works Napoli and a Rookie Sensations Garciaparra).  This time around I pulled another that I actually want to keep with this David Ortiz.

Todd Frazier hometown All-Star game cameo!

Love Sogard's glasses, reminds me of some of the great specs found on '50s and '60s cards.

I'm keeping all of the base cards since I'm going to try and build the set, as well as any Red Sox inserts.  The other inserts/parallels are trade material as far as I'm concerned, and I did pretty well on that front in this box too.  This Gooden will be in my next PWE for Mark Kaz...

...and I know more than a couple of Cubs fans I could ship this Dan Haren foil parallel off to.

The one Gold parallel I pulled (#'d /2015) was at least a World Series champ.  This one will be headed to the trade box, or maybe to COMC.

The Update Series packs were fun and all, but what I was most interested in were the Chrome Update cards, given that I had no idea these were coming out at all.  They did not disappoint!

Like with standard Topps Chrome packs, you get just four cards, so just eight of these total at two packs per box.  I peeled back the foil on my first pack, flipped the cards over, and was blown away.  Check these out!

I assure you that these look every bit as cool in person as they do in the scans.  If you're a fan of shiny cards you need to find an excuse to hit up Wal-Mart or Target tonight!  These are retail-exclusive, so you won't find them at your local hobby shop.

As a comparison, here's the Joey Gallo from the standard set...

...and here's the Chrome Update version.  These are definitely not your standard Topps Chrome cards!  My one complaint is that only fifty cards were selected to get this Chrome treatment, and they're from all over the checklist.  You can get a list of all fifty as well as other checklist info over at Cardboard Connection.

I fully plan on collecting the entire 50-card set, these will look fantastic in a binder.  There are inserts with this same card stock/refractor pattern as well, and parallels (gold and black, both serial-numbered).

My first pack of four yielded just four standard cards off of the checklist, which is fine by me since I'll be trying to get them all.

I was hoping the second pack would yield something a bit more exciting, like the Carlos Correa or Kris Bryant rookies, or perhaps a Red Sox card.  It did not disappoint.

A pretty solid rookie to lead off the pack...

...but as a Red Sox fan it got much better after that.  Porcello stunk it up this year, but this is a beautiful card regardless.  There are four Red Sox out of the fifty cards in the set, nice to knock one out in the early going.

This last card pretty much made the box for me.  It didn't scan as well, but this Rookie Sensations Ted Williams insert has the same refractor treatment as the other Chrome Update cards, and it looks stunning.  You really couldn't ask for a better box than this as a Red Sox fan.

I have to say that Topps has really stepped up their game this year in my opinion.  I love what they did with the flagship set, Stadium Club was a huge success, and Update Series is more interesting than I remember it being in years.  These Chrome Update cards might be the nicest looking of them all, though.
 
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot to show you the best card from the entire box:

This great shot of Addison Russell signing some pre-game autographs is a short-printed photo variation.  I believe these fall at 1:46 packs, so with just five packs of Update Series in the box this was a pretty nice pull.

For $15, I thoroughly enjoyed opening this box.  I have no buyer's remorse whatsoever, and in fact I plan on picking up at least one or two more of them.  Job well done Topps!

Quick Hobby Shop Haul

I don't have a lot of material pre-scanned for the blog at the moment, but I do have my small haul from a stop at my local hobby shop earlier this summer all ready to go.  Let's begin with the quarter boxes and see what I scrounged up for twenty five cents a piece...

Shiny Flair card, possibly the best pitcher of my generation, the Montreal Expos, and a jheri curl all on one piece of cardboard.  Glorious!

Here's a very odd looking card from 1997 Topps Gallery.  I usually think of the Gallery sets as having more of a painting/canvas feel, so the metallic border looks weird on this one.

While they look absolutely terrible in my scans, these Cyclone Squad inserts are awesome.

I grabbed another trio that I was fairly certain I didn't have.

I definitely need to make an effort to track down the remainder of these...

I picked up this Bowman Platinum rookie of Joey Gallo because he had just made his impressive MLB debut at the time.  He definitely leveled out, but this one will always remind me of those great first couple of weeks he had.

Bradley Jr. X-Fractor for a quarter?  Sign me up!  One of the bright young players that I'm looking forward to watching again in 2016.

Given the monster year that he enjoyed in Toronto in 2015, I felt this Gold parallel of Josh Donaldson was a steal.

It was a good day to be an A's fan on this particular quarter box dig, as this Emerald Derek Norris came from the same box as the Gold Donaldson above.

I had never seen these Panini Cooperstown "Field Generals" inserts before, but they are fantastic.  I grabbed the only two I could scrounge from the boxes, Mickey Cochrane...

...and Roger Bresnahan.  I can't think of many better subjects for an insert set than old-timey catchers.  I'll be searching out the rest of these at some point for sure.

These next few cards were not quarter box finds, but were plucked off the counter and set me back anywhere between fifty cents and a buck each.  I know the Moments & Milestones sets, with their seemingly endless runs of serial-numbered cards, are the height of Topps gimmickry, but I still can't help but feel that I'm getting a good deal when I land a Pedro card "limited" to just 150 copies for so cheap.

Yes, I'm a sucker.  Moving on...

I've stated this numerous times now, but I'll pick up virtually any Museum Collection parallel from the '94 or '95 Pinnacle sets if the price is right.  On this particular day Albert Belle...

...and this Frank Thomas checklist, both from the '95 set, came home in my stack.  These will always be some of the greatest parallels of the '90s in this collector's humble opinion!

I shelled out a buck for this Tim Wakefield Donruss Press Proof parallel.  I don't even like the card all that much, the giant foil block really ruined the design of this set for me, but it was cheap enough and a parallel I hadn't seen all to often.  What can I say, these kind of things happen when you try to be a team collector I guess.

Last, but certainly not least, I was able to land a pretty significant card towards my beat up '59 Topps set.  I've been somewhat neglecting this set in recent months, but this Drysdale was in great shape (and pretty well centered, too) and looks better than many of my other '59s.  If memory serves the owner only wanted $10 or slightly less for this card, which seemed more than reasonable to me.

Not a bad day at the hobby shop for well under $20 total.  Now, if I could only find the time to actually get back there for another round of digging...

Pack Rip - 1996 Fleer Update

Predicting the World Series with Cards turned out to be kind of a dud series here on the blog, so I'm killing it off.  I ran out of time to get a post up before Saturday night's game anyway.  I hope the Mets can turn it around.  For now, here's a pack rip to kill some time.  There were half a dozen or so of these '96 Fleer Update packs at the local hobby shop last time I was there (which was way too long ago now).  I grabbed only one, but after opening it I wish I'd picked up all six to stash on my pack shelf for a rainy day.

A whopping fourteen cards per pack, let's see what's inside...

I've always enjoyed the full-bleed photography and matte finish combination of 1996 Fleer, though I believe this is my first look at the Update set if I'm not mistaken.

This one's sort of random in that Eric Davis is probably most often associated with the Reds, however this card represents his one-year second stint with the team in 1996.  He had not played the previous season at all, having announced his retirement for the first time after the '94 season.

Pretty random to get two cards in a row of guys who sat out the entire 1995 season.  While Eric Davis was a personal choice to "retire", Gooden was suspended the entire season due to testing positive for cocaine use multiple times.

Would you believe this stat line for Lance Johnson in 1996 with the Mets?  .333 batting average, league leading 227 hits, league leading 21 triples, 31 doubles, 9 home runs, 69 RBI, an All-Star appearance and even a couple of NL MVP votes?  Believe it!

Here's my lone insert, a Headliner Manny Ramirez.  Fleer/Fleer Ultra had some killer inserts back in the day, but in my opinion this isn't one of them.  Pretty boring, I would have rather had another base card.

Some pretty good star power in this pack, especially with HOFer Paul Molitor in the mix!

One of my favorite photographs in the pack, thanks to all those Expos jerseys and that great mullet.

Mark Brandenburg actually finished his career with the Red Sox, throwing in 60 games out of the bullpen between '96 and '97.

Here's another guy who played for Boston.  In fact, he was dealt from the Red Sox to the Phillies during the '96 season, so this would have been one of the first cards to depict him with Philadelphia.

The one per pack "Tiffany" parallel (glossy finish and some foil) was another Phillie, outfielder Pete Incaviglia.

A nice checklist card of Barry Bonds, presumably chasing down some 'roids with a refreshing cup of water.

Al Leiter signed as a free agent with the Marlins in the '95 off-season.  He had a great year with Florida in '96; posting a sub-3.00 ERA in 33 starts he was elected to the NL All-Star team and even garnered a couple of NL Cy Young votes.

Last card of the pack is another checklist, this time featuring The Big Hurt.  That was a great pack, some big names especially by 1996 standards.

I got one of these game cards as well, didn't win.  Shocker...