|
Trader's Retreat - 2 Box Break and Review!2015 Topps Series 2 Baseball and 2015 Topps Stadium Club Baseball!by Jim Van NestJuly 8, 2015
     One of my all-time favorite sets is back and better than ever! 2015 Topps Stadium Club is here and it's fantastic! This set is known for its photography and 2015 upholds that tradition. A prime example is the Lou Gehrig card scanned above as well as the George Brett Gold. You just don't see these kinds of shots in other sets. This is a 300 card base set, and in our box we pulled 110 of those cards with no duplicates (37% of the base set). As you can see, this year's set is a nice mix of rookies, veterans and legends. There isn't much for parallels in this set, but there are a few, starting with the Gold Parallels that are inserted 1:2 packs. In our box, we pulled eight, just as you would expect. Along with the four pictured above, we pulled Lorenzo Cain, Alex Gordon, Roger Clemens and Rookie Guilder Rodriguez. The only difference in the parallels is the color of the foil decorations. The base cards are lined with silver foil. The Golds are, obviously, lined in gold. The Black, inserted two per box, are lined with black foil. As you can see, we pulled Black versions of Joey Votto and Tyson Ross. Our final parallel is called a "Black and White" parallel. These hard to find cards are black and white versions of the base card and they're lined with Orange foil. These parallels are listed with odds of 1:46 packs, so we did real good with this version of the Angel Pagan card.   There are five different insert sets in 2015 Stadium Club. One of those sets is called Crystal Ball and they are a case hit and #'d to only 70. We did not get lucky enough to pull a Black and White parallel and a Crystal Ball. We did, however, pull versions of all of the other four sets. The first, which is promised at two per box, is the Contact Sheet insert. As you can see, we pulled Evan Longoria and Jason Heyward versions of these cards. The back of these cards gives you some impressive stats about the player on the front of the card. This is the only set that is not chromed or metallic in appearance. The next three sets are all quite nice and all promised at one per box. Let's start with the Legends Die-Cut insert set. As you can see, we pulled a Randy Johnson version of this card. This card is not exactly chromed, it's more metallic or reflector looking. The die-cutting is really nice on this set and the back of the card just gives some info as to why The Big Unit is a Legend. The next set is also a die-cut set and it's a mainstay in the Stadium Club set - it's the Triumvirate set. For anyone that doesn't know, these cards come in three-card sets that are all die-cut to fit together like a puzzle. These cards are also Tiered. We pulled a Luminous (the most common Tier - promised 1 per box) of the Kansas City Royals Salvador Perez. The chrome and the die-cut on these cards are not done justice in my scans. This is a beautiful card. The final insert set in 2015 Stadium Club looks like a card straight out of Finest. This is the True Colors set. The background of the card is rainbowed and the chroming on this is amazing. The back of this card gives a little blurb about the player on the front, Mike Trout, as well as listing a 2014 Statistical Breakdown. There may not be many inserts in this box, but you definitely get bang for your buck as these cards are REALLY nice looking.
 The final two cards in our break are the promised On-Card Autographed cards. What's that, you say? Yes! On-Card autos are being featured in 2015 Stadium Club! We pulled two base autos in our box. As you can see, they are of Alex Cobb and Rookie Rymer Liriano. I love how they've handled these cards this year. There's no box and they don't even fade the card out. The players just signed toward the bottom of the card. It's almost as if you met the player and he just signed your card for you. Very cool. Word of advice, I skimmed right past one of the autos in my actual break - so be on the lookout, the signatures can blend right into the card sometimes. Final Thoughts on 2015 Topps Stadium Club Baseball At a mere $73/box, Topps Stadium Club is one of the bargains of the new baseball season. The inserts are absolutely gorgeous and the autographs are very nice. Plenty of rebuy value as it'll take at least three boxes to complete the base set. And of course, with two more boxes comes two more Triumvirates. So you'll need to complete those puzzles as well, so you may as well just get a case. :) Anyway, this is a fantastic-looking set and well worth the price of admission and I would suggest jumping on it. 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: 5 Value: 5 Rebuy: 5 Total– 20/20 - I'd rate 2015 Topps Stadium Club an A+ - my favorite product of the season so far! NPN Information NPN 2015 Topps Stadium Club BB PO BOX 785 Pittston, PA 18640 Limit – 1 Request Per Household Postmarked by: September 23, 2015 Received by: September 30, 2015 For our Canadian collectors, your entry will need to be accompanied by the answer to this skill question: 3 x 5 + 12 – 22 = ? Once again, thanks so much to our sponsors at Topps for giving us the opportunity to review these great new products. 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.
[ View other columns by Jim Van Nest ]
[ View other Trader's Retreat columns ]
[ Email this column ]
|
Print this column
|
|
|
Thursday, April 25, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.