Trader's Retreat - 2 Box Break!
2015 Topps Chrome Football and 2015 Topps Mini Chrome Football
By Jim Van Nest
January 25, 2016
BoxOfficeProphets.com
2015 Topps Chrome Configuration: 24 packs per box, 4 cards per pack – 96 Cards total
Set Breakdown
200 Card Base set (100 Veterans, 100 Rookies)
Parallels: Refractor 1:3 packs, Purple Refractor, Green Refractor, Diamond Refractor (Blue - 1 per pack in Hot Boxes), Blue Wave Refractor (1:box), Pulsar Refractor (1:box), STS Camo Refractor #/499, BCA Pink Refractor #/399, Black Refractor #/299, Sepia Refractor #/99, Gold Refractor #/50, Red Refractor #/25, SuperFractor #1/1, Printing Plates #1/1
60 Card Base Photo Variation set (35 Veterans, 25 Rookies)
Parallels: Superfractor # 1/1
64 Card Rookie Autograph Set (All on-card Autos)
Parallels: Hot Box Refractor (1 per case), Refractor #/d, STS Refractor #/d, BCA Refractor #/d, Gold Sepia Refractor #/100, Blue Refractor #/50, Black Refractor #/25, Pulsar Refractor #/15, Gold Refractor #/10, Red Refractor #/5, SuperFractor #1/1
13 Card Rookie Autograph Photo Variation Set #/75
Parallels: Superfractor # 1/1
30 Card Veteran Autograph Photo Variations Set #/10
Parallels: Superfractor # 1/1
34 Card Rookie Patch Autograph Set
Parallels: Superfractor # 1/1
5 Card Dual Rookie Autograph Set
Parallels: Superfractor # 1/1
3 Card Triple Rookie Autograph Set
Parallels: Superfractor # 1/1
90 Card 60th Anniversary Insert Set
Parallels: Refractor #/d, Pulsar Refractor #/50, SuperFractor #1/1
30 Card 60th Anniversary Autograph Set
Parallels: SuperFractor #1/1
35 Card 1976 Topps Football Insert Set
Parallels: Refractor #/d, Pulsar Refractor #/50, SuperFractor #1/1
29 Card 1976 Topps Football Autograph Set #/25
Parallels: SuperFractor #1/1
35 Card 1989 Topps Super Rookie Set
Parallels: Gold Refractor #/75, Pulsar Refractor #/50, SuperFractor #1/1
29 Card 1989 Topps Super Rookie Autograph Set #/25
Parallels: SuperFractor #1/1
35 Card Super Bowl 50 Die-Cut Set
Parallels: Refractor #/99, Pulsar Refractor #/50, SuperFractor #1/1
35 Card All Time 1000 Yard Club Insert Set
25 Card All Time 1000 Yard Club Autograph Set
15 Card All Time 4000 Yard Club Insert Set
10 Card All Time 4000 Tard Club Autograph Set
Base
Always a fan of Chrome products, 2015's version doesn't disappoint in terms of quality. The chroming technique looks fantastic on this year's card design. The way the veteran base cards' framing is done, the cards almost have a stained glass feel to them that looks really nice. Rookies are a little more plain. In our box, we pulled 48 of the 100 veterans and 24 of the 100 rookies. Overall, we pulled in 36% of the entire base set, with no duplicates.
Refractors
As is usually the case with Chrome, refractors are where it's at in this set. In our box, we pulled examples of six of the 12 different types of refractors that are out there. Most abundant, of course, are the base refractors. We pulled eight in our box, four vets and four rookies. As you can see above, Marcus Mariota is one of the rookie refractors we pulled along with Dominque Brown, Benadrick McKinney and Sean Mannion. For the vets, we pulled LeSean McCoy, Nick Foles, Travis Kelce and Matt Forte.
Next up we raked in two green refractors of Lamar Miller and Nick Foles. I really like the looks of these. The bright emerald green just really sets off the card, I think. Every box will feature a Pulsar Refractor and a Blue Wave refractor. In our box, our Pulsar is of LeSean McCoy and our Blue Wave is Andy Dalton. The Pulsar looks good as the light shimmies off it's surface. The Blue Wave isn't as impressive. It's a nice looking card, but I'd have preferred a nice bright blue that stood out like the green does.
We also pulled two other refractors, both of which are numbered. First up is a Camo bordered Garrett Grayson. This card has a camo-green colored border and is # 207/499. The final refractor and probably the nicest is a Sepia refractor of Jaguars rookie, Michael Bennett. The chrome really sets off the sepia tones of the pic to make for a super good looking card. It's also lower numbered at 96/99 - which also happens to be his jersey number on the card, so there's also that!
Inserts
In 2015 Chrome, there are six different Insert sets. We pulled examples of five of them in our box. First up is the 1989 Super Rookie Insert set. We pulled four different cards in this set: Jay Ajayi, Philip Dorsett, Kevin White and Mike Davis. This set consists of a bunch of 2015 rookies featured on the old school 1989 Super Rookie card deisgn - then they chrome it up. I'm not a big fan of the 1989 design really, so these cards - while nice - leave me a little flat. I would have much rather pulled more cards from one of the other insert sets.
The next insert set is the 60th Anniversary set, which features some of the greatest players on some of the greatest card designs of the last 60 years. We pulled two such cards in Eli Manning and Terry Bradshaw. I really like the look of these old school designs in the chrome format. The Bradshaw with the black border is just a very sharp looking card. The next insert we pulled in is a Dorial Green-Beckham 1976 throwback. The Titans rookie looks sharp in those old school '70s graphics!
Our next insert is the only die-cut offering in this year's set, the Super Bowl 50th anniversary die-cut set. As you can see, we pulled the GOAT in Jerry Rice. The back of the card gives you some of Jerry's accomplishments in the big game that make him worthy of that set. The final insert is one of the All-Time 4,000 Yard Club cards and it features Andrew Luck. There is also a 1,000 Yard Club version of this set for Running Backs and Receivers, but we did not pull any of those. The blue background on this Luck really sets it apart from the rest of the set and makes this one of the Insert sets I'd most like to collect out of this box.
Autograph
As promised, we pulled one Rookie Autograph in our box - and we got lucky. We pulled an on-card auto of the Arizona Cardinals breakout rookie RB David Johnson. As you can see in the scan, we have a nice dark blue auto that spans the width of the card without cutting off. Also, it is on-card so that makes it all the nicer.
Final Thoughts on 2015 Topps Chrome Football
With Panini honing in on the exclusive NFL rights for next year, this is likely to be the last Chrome Football product for a while (let's have a moment of silence). At any rate, I enjoyed my break, but that's in large part to a nice assortment of color as well as a very nice highly sought after rookie auto, that was also on-card. I'm seeing breaks featuring sticker autos - which were usually a no-no for Chrome and I've heard a lot of rumblings about the better rookie autos being super short printed, essentially sticking most people with an unknown rookie auto. If that's the case, I'm sure that's quite the bummer, but we had a pretty nice hit in our box. I love the look of the cards and all of the refractor options available in this set. I think the Variations might be a little over the top - like I don't know that we need so many. Priced around $62.95, I think that's a nice price point for this box. Even if this wasn't the last Chrome product for a while, I'd be suggesting a buy. Since it is, it's definitely a buy! So what are you waiting for?
Also, to see the live break of this Chrome box, click Here!
Ratings
Innovation: 4
Fun: 4
Value: 5
Rebuy: 4
Total– 17/20 - So, I give 2015 Chrome Football a B+ final grade!
NPN Information
NPN 2015 Topps Chrome Football
PO BOX 2098
Duryea, PA 18642
Limit – 1 Request Per Household
Postmarked by: February 24, 2016
Received by: March 2, 2016
For our Canadian collectors, your entry will need to be accompanied by the answer to this skill question: 4 + 2 x 50 – 12 = ?
All righty, now that we've gotten a good look at big brother, let's check out little brother. Topps Mini Chrome is very similar to Chrome, but there are a few differences.
2015 Topps Mini Chrome Configuration: 24 packs per box, 4 cards per pack – 96 Cards total
Set Breakdown
200 Card Base set (100 Veterans, 100 Rookies)
Parallels: Diamond (1 per pack in Hot Boxes), Refractor (1:8 packs), Sepia Refractor (1:12 packs), Pulsar Refractor (1:box), Green Refractor (1:3 boxes), Blue Refractor (1:6 boxes), Purple Refractor (1 per case), STS Refractor #/d, BCA Refractor #/25, Black Refractor #/15, Gold Refractor #/10, Red Refractor #/5, SuperFractor 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1
58 Card Base Photo Variation set (33 Veterans, 25 Rookies)
Parallels: Superfractor # 1/1
44 Card Rookie Autograph Set (All on-card Autos)
Parallels: Refractor #/d, STS Refractor #/d, BCA Refractor #/d, Blue Refractor #/d, Black Refractor #/25, Pulsar Refractor #/15, Gold Refractor #/10, Red Refractor #/5, SuperFractor 1/1
33 Card Base Autograph Photo Variation Set
Parallels: Superfractor # 1/1
60 Card 60th Anniversary Insert Set
Parallels: Refractor #/50, Pulsar Refractor #/25, SuperFractor #1/1
30 Card 60th Anniversary Autograph Set
Parallels: SuperFractor #1/1
35 Card 1976 Topps Football Insert Set
Parallels: Pulsar Refractor #/25, SuperFractor #1/1
23 Card 1976 Topps Football Autograph Set #/25
Parallels: SuperFractor #1/1
35 Card 1989 Topps Football Set
Parallels: Gold Refractor #/50, Pulsar Refractor #/25, SuperFractor #1/1
22 Card 1989 Topps Football Autograph Set #/25
Parallels: SuperFractor #1/1
35 Card Super Bowl 50 Die-Cut Set
Parallels: Refractor #/50, Pulsar Refractor #/25, SuperFractor #1/1
Base
This is an odd review to write, considering I just did the review of Topps Chrome. This set is identical but smaller. The players are the same, the pics the same and the look the same. I'm a fan of mini cards, so I had a blast opening this one. In our box, we pulled 54 of the 100 veterans and 24 of the 100 rookies or 78/200 cards for 39% of the fill base set. One thing I'll mention here, and it's been a complaint with the Chrome products over the last couple years, is that despite getting a rookie card in every pack as well as five various rookie refractors - the biggest name rookies we pulled are pictured above Karlos Williams and Devin Funchess. No Winston, no Mariota, no Gurley. And when we've brought in 30% of the checklist in our box, it sure does seem like we should know some of these guys.
Refractors
The refractors in this set are very similar to the Chrome set, and we actually did quite well on our color in this box. While the player names aren't that exciting, the color is. As you can see, we pulled base refractors of Mark Ingram, Ryan Tannehill and rookie Tony Lippett. Our one per box Pulsar refractor is of Tony Romo and our one per box green refractor is of Packers rookie Ty Montgomery. Each box will have two Sepia refractors, and ours did not disappoint as we pulled Ben Roethlisberger and rookie Benardrick McKinney. Our final two refractors in the box are an STS Camo refractor of Trae Waynes #95/99 and a Black refractor of the LA Rams QB Nick Foles. This card is numbered a mere 1/15. As I sit in my kitchen in St. Louis typing this review, I want to punch someone in the face for giving me a low numbered Rams anything!
Inserts
The inserts in Mini Chrome are virtually the same as Chrome. Missing are the 4,000 yard and 1,000 yard sets, but everything else remains intact. We pulled four 1989 Super Rookie cards: Stefon Diggs, Maxx Williams, Sammie Coates and Devin Funchess. We scored two 60th Anniversary inserts, the legendary Lawrence Taylor and Tony Dorsett. We received 1 1976 rookie insert of the Cardinals break out star, David Johnson. And our final insert is out of the Die-Cut Super Bowl 50th anniversary set and as you can see, we pulled The Bus, Jerome Bettis.
Autograph
The final card in the box is a really, really nice card. It's a Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Refractor auto of - are you frickin' kidding me - the Rams rookie RB Malcolm Brown, #25/50. I really like the pink border on the card and it's very nice to look at. However, it is (again) a guy we've never heard of AND it's a sticker auto to boot. Chrome has built a reputation for always having on-card autos, but it seems that more and more stickers are finding their way into the boxes.
Final Thoughts on 2015 Topps Mini Chrome Football
Priced around $60 - Topps Mini Chrome is a realy fun break. Overall, our break resulted in some low numbered, nice looking cards. We just went bust on the player selection - and that happens sometimes. For the most part, I really like this set (as well as its big brother) but I do have to agree with the masses, the ratio of no name rookies to stud rookies in these boxes is going the wrong way. I realize we probably won't be seeing Chrome anymore after this - at least not in this form - but it is something that Topps should think about. For these mid level one-hit-per-box sets, rewarding collectors with bigger name rookies would help move more boxes. While our selection was not the best - I do appreciate the mini cards and the quality of the set and would rate this a "buy" for most collectors. Just be prepared to look up who a lot of these guys are.
Also, to see the live break of this Mini Chrome box, click Here!
Ratings
Innovation: 3
Fun: 5
Value: 4
Rebuy: 4
Total– 16/20 - So, I give 2015 Mini Chrome Football a B- final grade!
NPN Information
NPN 2015 Topps Chrome Mini Football
PO BOX 2008
Duryea, PA 18642
Limit – 1 Request Per Household
Postmarked by: March 16, 2016
Received by: March 23, 2016
For our Canadian collectors, your entry will need to be accompanied by the answer to this skill question: 23 + 27 x 2 – 31 = ?