It had been almost 10 years since I've opened a box of Topps Laser and this week's break was just as much fun as it was all those years ago. We'll start with series 1. If you aren't familiar with this set, that's OK. Surprisingly it was a one and done set...perhaps it didn't sell well because of the initial high price tag? Perhaps it turned out that it was to expensive to of a product to produce for what it yielded? Each card is features one of four laser cut designs.
The base runner design
The pitcher design
The batter design
The fielder design
It should go without saying that these cards are more condition sensitive than your standard baseball card, especially the pitcher and fielder designs. With each pack only yielding 4 cards and a rather small set of 64 cards per series, duplicates are going to show up. Collation wasn't too bad, but there were a few packs that we opened where two or three of the same players show up in back to back packs. Some of the star players like Griffey however only showed up once.
While the base cards are fun, the inserts are pretty cool. The odds aren't necessarily in your favor with just 24 packs per box. I thought we'd pull a Bright Spots card (1:20), but instead we got a Stadium Stars (1:60 packs). I've not seen one of these in person before and they are beautiful. I guess you could call these a precursor to booklet cards as the card opens up to review a photo of the player. The top right portion of the card didn't want to open easily and I didn't want to damage the card, so I didn't chance it...after all Ben who claimed the Mariners in the break was watching!!
Series 2 I had previously opened and I remember getting some good cards, but this box yielded more surprises than I expected. The same four designs from the previous series are carried over, however the batting design now has a strip of gold etched foil along the right side of the card. This makes for a much better looking card in my opinion and allows the laser cut ball and flames to show better.
With the series 1 box yielding just one insert (1:60 at that!) I wasn't sure what to expect out of the series 2 box, but as it turns out the box was very good to us!
Not only did we pull a Bright Spots insert, but two! Before the live video I had asked a few of the viewers I had in the stream their opinion on which card from several I had that were "One Touch worthy". Well as you can see after this Chipper was pulled it got the One Touch treatment instead! While the other card of Jimmer Haynes may not have the same name recognition as Chipper, I knew the card was going to a great Orioles home.
The fun didn't stop there as we pulled another Stadium Stars insert...and of another Mariners player in Randy Johnson! I was shocked when we pulled the Griffey from series 1 and I didn't not expect to see another. These are beautiful cards in hand, but like the previous the card didn't want to open all the way and I didn't want to chance it either. Hopefully the new owner of these Stadium Stars can carefully open them and share some pictures of the cards in my Facebook group!
Overall I thought this was another fun and successful break. It seemed that activity was down a little from previous breaks, but I'm sure with the 4th of July holiday a lot of people were taking a break. That said, I'm taking a short break myself as there will be no break on Friday, 07/10/20, but I'll return with another Affordable Group break the following Friday night, 07/17/20. I hope to have a sign up post this Sunday (07/12/20) so keep your eyes open for that! Thanks again for everyone's participation and support!
Some pretty cool cards. The Stadium Stars inserts are great looking cards. Fun break.
ReplyDeleteWow! Those Stadium Stars are awesome!
ReplyDeleteThey are very nice. I believe Topps brought back the insert set a few years ago...
DeleteWow. Sweet break. Mariners came up big.
ReplyDelete