Trader's Retreat - Box Break and Review

2015 Topps Pro Debut Baseball

By Jim Van Nest

June 17, 2015

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Hello, good people, and welcome back inside the Trader's Retreat. We're back this week with another box break and review - this time it's all Minor Leaguers, all the time - 2015 Topps Pro Debut Baseball!! If you love the purity of the Minor League game or you live in a town that has one of these teams in it, this is the set for you. The Topps Minor League flagship is back and it's really nice. So let's get to the break:

2015 Topps Pro Debut Baseball – Topps is excited to welcome back their true Minor League Set with the new 2015 Pro Debut. Included in every box is two Autographs and two Relics!!

Configuration: 24 packs per box, 8 cards per pack – 192 Cards total

Set Breakdown

  • 200 Card Base set
    • Parallels: Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, Black #1/1, Printing Plate #1/1

  • At Least 10 Base Variations
  • 38 Card Autograph Set
    • Parallels: Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, Black #1/1, Printing Plate #1/1

  • 9 Card Dual Affiliation Autograph set
    • Parallels: Gold #/35, Red #/5, Black #1/1, Printing Plates #1/1

  • 16 Card Fragments of the Farm Relic Set
    • Parallels: Gold #/50, Red #/5, Black #1/1, Printing Plate #1/1

  • 25 Card Mascots Manufactured Patch Set
    • Parallels: Gold #/50, Red #/5, Black #1/1, Printing Plate #1/1

  • 42 Card Pennant Manufactured Patch Set
    • Parallels: Gold #/50, Red #/5, Black #1/1, Printing Plate #1/1

  • 25 Card Distinguished Debuts Set
    • Parallels: Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, Black #1/1, Printing Plate #1/1

  • 20 Card Promo Night Uniforms Set
  • 1 Card Make Your Pro Debut Winner Set – Tyler Badger


For those of you keeping score at home, we recently ran a review of 2015 Bowman Baseball where you can find a ton of top prospects as they would look in their MLB Uniforms. Well, we’re back with how they really look today with 2015 Topps Pro Debut Baseball. This is the top of the line Minor League set. Made to look like the 2015 version of the Topps Major League set, this is THE Minor League set to collect.

Base and Parallels

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The 2015 Pro Debut set is a 200 card set of some of the hottest prospects in the game. The cards are fashioned after the Topps brand and have a great look to them. The photography is quality and the players are given a glossy finish while the background remains flat. The back of each card features some facts about the player as well as full minor league stat lines. In our box we pulled in an impressive 167 of the 200 card base set with no duplicates - that's an 83.5% set completion.

There are some parallels in this set and in our box, we pulled three. Two of those are Tyler Kolek and Mike Papi and both are Gold versions. These gold versions are both numbered to /50. The third parallel is an Orange parallel of Sean Newcomb and is numbered a nice 05/25!! These parallels are exact copies of the base cards but with gold and orange borders respectively. Parallels also come in Red and Black as well as printing plates.




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Inserts

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There are two different Insert sets in 2015 Pro Debut and we pulled examples of each. The more plentiful is the Distinguished Debut set. In our box we pulled four of these inserts. These cards are tinted blue and have a real nice look to them and feature information about each player's debut from the 2014 season. The second set is the Promo Night Uniforms set. We pulled two of these in our box. These horizontal cards feature shots of the players in a special uniform night where the Minor League team plays the game in their Major League affiliate's uniform. In our box we pulled Daniel Carbonell, flashing the Giants jersey and Greg Bird in the uniform of the New York Yankees.

Relics

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There are three different kinds of relic cards in 2015 Pro Debut. The first is a game used relic set called Fragments of the Farm. We did not pull any of these in our box. Instead, we pulled an example of each of the other two manufactured sets. The first is the Pennant Patch Relic card. This seems to have taken the place of the Hat Patch cards of the past. In our box, we pulled a pennant card of Raimel Tapia featuring a full card pennant patch of his Asheville Tourists. The second card is sure to be a favorite of the kids, the Mascot Patch. IN our box we scored a Mascot Patch of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans' mascot, Splash Pelican. As you can see, the card features a flat patch version of a picture taken of Splash Pelican.

Autographs

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As promised, our box of Pro Debut yielded two autographed cards. Both are base autos. As you can see we pulled autos of Harrisburg Senators outfielder Drew Vettleson and Mississippi Braves' outfielder Robby Hefflinger. Both cards feature sticker autographs at the bottom and are well centered and almost legible. These are quality cards and as mentioned, the autographs are sharp.

Final Thoughts on 2015 Topps Pro Debut Baseball

Priced at a reasonable $68/box or so, Pro Debut is a set collectors box. It's also a great box for baseball fans living in Minor League towns. These are sweet cards perfectly made for in-person autographs. And the kids will love the patch cards, especially the Mascot patches. As with a lot of early season baseball sets, if you're all about the hits and the 1/1's...this probably isn't the set for you. But if you want to get the first cards of the future stars of the game, Pro Debut is a great set to collect.

If you'd like to see the live break of the box that accompanies this review, well, just click Right Here!

Ratings

Innovation: 4
Fun: 5
Value: 5
Rebuy: 4

Total– 18/20 - I'd rate 2015 Topps Pro Debut Baseball a B+!

NPN Information

NPN 2015 Topps Pro Debut BB
PO BOX 764
Pittston, PA 18642

Limit – 1 Request Per Household

Postmarked by: August 28, 2015
Received by: September 9, 2015

For our Canadian collectors, your entry will need to be accompanied by the answer to this skill question: 14 x 3 + 11 – 2 = ?

Once again, thanks so much to our sponsors at Topps for giving us the opportunity to review this great new product. For more information on all of their products, you can check them out at www.Topps.com. You can also follow them on Twitter: @toppscards. For all the great new trading card updates coming to BOP, be sure to give me a follow as well: @vannestjc. 'Til next time, take care.


     


 
 

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