Trader's Retreat - Box Break and Review

2015 Topps Finest Baseball

By Jim Van Nest

July 1, 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 Topps' throwback set - 2015 Topps Archives Baseball!! Every year the Archives set highlights a handful of old school Topps card designs.

Configuration: 2 Mini-Boxes box, 6 Packs Per Mini-Box, 5 cards per pack – 60 Cards total (30 per Mini-Box)

Set Breakdown

  • 100 Card Base set
    • Refractors: Base, Prism, Purple #/250, Blue #/150, Green #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, SuperFractor 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1

  • 11 Card Short Printed Base Set (Cards 101-111)
    • Refractors: Base #/25, Red #/5, Superfractor #1/1

  • 48 Card Finest Autographs Set
    • Refractors: Blue #/150, Green #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, SuperFractor 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1

  • 9 Card Finest Affliations Dual Autographed Set
    • Refractors: Red #/5, Superfractor #1/1

  • 9 Card 1990 Topps All-Star Rookie Autographs Set
    • Parallels: Gold #/50, Black #1/1, Printing Plate #1/1

  • 16 Card Finest Greats Autographed Set
    • Refractors: Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, SuperFractor 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1

  • 20 Card 1995 Finest Insert Set
    • Refractors: Base #/25, Red #/5, Superfractor #1/1

  • 10 Card Finest First Insert Set
    • Refractors: Base #/25, Red #/5, Superfractor #1/1

  • 6 Card Finest Firsts Autographs Set
    • Refractors: Blue #/150, Green #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Red #/5, SuperFractor 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1

  • 50 Card Finest Generations Insert Set
    • Refractors: Base #/25, Red #/5, Superfractor #1/1

  • 18 Card Finest Generations Autographed Set #/25
  • 10 Card Finest Careers Die-Cut Set (Commorative Derek Jeter Set)
    • Refractors: Die-Cut Base #/25, Die-Cut Red #/5, Die-Cut Superfractor #1/1

  • 2 Card Rookie Redemption Set (players to be determined)


The original chromium set is back for its 23rd season and it's better than ever! With two Autographs per box (one per mini-box) and fresh new insert sets, Topps Finest looks poised for 23 more seasons!

Base and Refractors

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Set on geometrical shaped backgrounds, the photos of 2015 Topps Finest really stand out. Each card features an action shot of the player pulled from the field and set on a mosaic-like design background. As you can see, the player really pops off the card. The back of each card features a breakdown of a Finest Moment for each player as well as 2014's and a Career stat line. The base set is a 111 card set, with cards 101-111 being short printed. We only broke a mini-box, and we pulled 20/100 of the base set with no dups. We pulled no short prints in our box.

Finest is the brand that introduced the world to Refractros, so it stands to reason that the Refractors are a huge part of the 2015 offering. In fact, we pulled four different refractors in our box. As you can see, we pulled base refractors of Adrian Gonzalez and Gregory Polanco. The base cards have gotten so nice lately that telling the difference between them and refractors can sometimes be difficult. But if you hold a refractor next to the base, the way the light rainbows on the refractor is impossible to miss. These refractors are unnumbered as is the Prism Refractor of Albert Pujols. It's not as easy to see in the scan, but the Prism's are aptly named as the background shimmers with prisms as you move the card in the light.

Our final Refractor is an Orange Refractor of the Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka. The card's geometric background is shaded in different shades of orange that really set it apart from the base set. As you can see, it's a low numbered refractor, numbering only 17/25. As we've all come to expect from Topps Finest, you can get a full rainbow of your favorite player with Purple, Blue, Green, Gold, Orange, Red and Black Refractors.




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Inserts

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2015 Topps Finest also has its share of inserts. They're not usually why you buy a box of Finest, but they sure are getting nicer and nicer. We pulled examples of two types of inserts in our box. The first is the Finest Generations insert set. We pulled Ken Griffey Jr and Giancarlo Stanton from this set. These metallic looking cards are a nice departure from the base set. With a darker silver tone, the team colors in the background have a nice contrasting look. The back of each card gives you some amazing stats on each player and helps you understand why they helped define a decade of baseball.

The other insert we pulled is one of the Finest Firsts set. We pulled Dalton Pompey of the Toronto Blue Jays. This set is designed to feature players who made their debut in 2014...probably late in the season. The back of the card gives you the player's first (of hopefully many) Finest Moments. The red corners and the blue in the logo really help set this card apart from the base set and the other Insert set. This set will also feature the Topps Rookie Card shield logo.

We also pulled two throwback 1995 Finest inserts. These cards are the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Finest set. As you can see, we pulled Jose Abreu and Chase Utley on this classic design. We didn't pull any, but I'd be remiss of I didn't at least mention the sweet 10 card Derek Jeter Finest Careers die-cut set. The pics and scans of these cards look fantastic. And any Yankee fan will be chomping at the bit to add this insert set to their Jeter collection, I'm sure.

Autographs

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The final card in our mini-box is the guaranteed autograph. It's a bittersweet kinda pull too. First off, it's a Green Refractor Autograph of White Sox phenom, Jose Abreu. WOO HOO!!! But, it's a redemption. Bummer. Overall though, it's a fantastic pull and we couldn't be happier with it. For the most part, the autos you're going to pull are going to be variations of the base card. Either base autos or numbers refractor autos. In our case, we pulled the green that will be numbered to 99. A quick eBay search shows me that the Green autos are really nice looking. With the geometric background, the cards almost look gem-like. Can't wait to get this bad boy redeemed.

Final Thoughts on 2015 Topps Finest Baseball

It should first be pointed out that we opened one mini-box, not a full box of Topps Finest. So, everything that we pulled in our box, double it and that's what you'd be looking at with a full box. Full boxes of 2015 Topps Finest Baseball are selling right around $100 - which essentially puts our mini-box around $50. When broken down like that, you can see why I find the box to be well worth the price tag. While other sets have adopted the chromium technique, Finest is still the original and one of my favorite breaks every year. The autos look great and the inserts are better than expected. And the meat of the product, the Refractors, are better than ever. I highly recommend Topps Finest as a very nice mid-level baseball set for 2015.

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

Ratings

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

Total– 18/20 - I'd rate 2015 Topps Finest an A-!

NPN Information

NPN 2015 Topps Finest BB
PO BOX 2098
Duryea, PA 18642

Limit – 1 Request Per Household

Postmarked by: September 2, 2015
Received by: September 9, 2015

For our Canadian collectors, your entry will need to be accompanied by the answer to this skill question: 17 x 2 + 4 – 11 = ?

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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