Thursday, November 17, 2016

2016 Topps Heritage High Number Baseball Cards Box Break and Review


This year’s release of Heritage is based on the cards of 1967 Topps Baseball.  If you collected the base set of this year’s Heritage, more than likely you will want to get in on 2016 Topps Heritage High Number Baseball. This continuation of the first release also works as a stand alone, but seems more in line for return collectors. 

The design was somewhat simple in its mimicry, but is still attractive so these cards look good. The biggest knock would the repetitive nature of the photography, but as an homage set, it works. The Clubhouse Collection relics are a little vanilla but as usual, the on card autos look fantastic.

Here are some of the cards we pulled from our hobby box.
Julio Urias Base, front and back
This late release has the advantage of several team updates.
These purple borders are plentiful and unnumbered.
These variation are more rare at #/567 and #/999 respectively.
On average, there is one of these Action Image variations per hobby box 
Inserts include Rookie Performers, Award Winners...
Now & Then and Combo Cards
This ad panel Box Topper is the most common box topper. Other toppers include 1967 Originals, punchboards, relics and autos.
This was our hit of the box. 


Thanks to Topps for providing this review box.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

2016 Topps Baseball Complete Set Box Recap and Review

Even if you open packs, having a completed base set in a clearly marked box is a great convenience. Since factory sets have been put together I have been collecting these. No inserts but a complete cardboard record of the history of baseball. As with prior years, the 2016 Topps Baseball Complete set will come in a variety of "flavors" with different incentives depending on where you look.

This set includes 5 numbered parallel cards of the base set numbered to 177 each and they can only be found within these containers. With this year's set consisting of 700 cards, simple math tells you there are just shy of 25,000 of these boxes available.  
They appear with a textured silver foiled finish on the front with numbering while the backs are identical in appearance to their base set counterparts.

 There is also a great complete set checklist on the bottom of the box, card 1 to 701. And before you start to question it, the number 7 card has been retired, most likely in honor of their long association with Mickey Mantle.




Review box provided by Topps.



Tuesday, April 5, 2016

2016 Topps Opening Day Box Break Recap and Review

When I was kid I looked forward to my Dad returning from work because most of the time he would bring home a pack of Topps Baseball cards for us to open together. While I thought I was getting some neat cardboard of my favorite players, looking back on it now I realize what I really got was time with my father. It was a bonding experience.

Now I’m a Dad. Cards have changed as much as I have from the time I was a child. Now there are multiple, complex and sometimes expensive releases and it seems as if kids concerns can get lost in the shuffle, especially the younger ones. But 2106 Topps Opening Day Baseball cards offer a great collecting experience for children while taking it easy on a parent’s budget, satisfying both which is not an easy task. 

Friday, February 5, 2016

2015 Topps Strata Baseball Box Break Recap and Review

If you are following us on Twitter you might have caught our live box break of 2015 Topps Strata Baseball. It was quick, only two cards, but it sure did cause plenty of discussion.  And why not, the cards are sharp looking and take great strides towards addressing a concern many experienced collectors have had since the embedded material swatch became common place.

Almost all releases these days come with relic cards. Many collectors felt somewhat uneasy about these cards from a secondary market level and sometimes even straight out of the pack. Thoughts like "where did this jersey come from" and sometimes even "I don't remember that player ever wearing those colors" started to become commonplace. With the release of Strata, those thoughts have been put to rest.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Changing it up in 2016

Every once in a while you have to step back from something to see it more clearly.

That's what I've done here recently to figure out ways to make this blog work not only for myself, but for all you kind people who come here to check things out. No, this is not one of those "excuse" posts or "I can't fit this into my life" posts. I plan on All About Cards to be around for a long time. But social media and the collecting experience has changed a lot in the last year or two. So it's time to change things up a bit.

Instead of using other outlets to push traffic to this blog I'll be taking a more spread approach to covering collecting. I've noticed that using tools like Twitter lead to a more communal feeling, much closer to what collecting used to be about. Live streaming on periscope adds a bit more of an event feel to a box break than any YouTube video.

But each avenue, from this blog, to the YouTube channel, to Twitter serve a purpose.  What I've committed myself and All About Cards to for 2016 is to use each of these avenues more effectively to provide the best experience possible.

So if you haven't followed us on Twitter, now would be a great time to do that. Besides timely informational tweets we will continue to do live quick box breaks. I'd also encourage you to load Periscope onto your mobile device for streaming interactive live box breaks. SPEEDbreaks will still get loaded onto our YouTube channel.

Box Break Recaps and Reviews will be found here but with a change - less formal reviewing, more write up. It will still be picture intensive as I feel that separates us from the rest but it will be a little more informational, less opinionated and a little less rigid in style.

If something strikes me as a fun thing to write about I'll do it, but just trying to fill a Monday or Wednesday because I need something new to post will not be the norm anymore.

The focus of this blog will also lean more towards Baseball cards and autographs. Not dropping the other sports but with the change of exclusive licenses I think some time is needed to see how these cards are handled.  If a football, basketball or hockey release inspire me I'll write about it.

Feel free to leave feedback and continue to email me your questions. Hopefully these changes will make this a more vibrant experience for all.