REVIEW:2021 Topps Fire (NIIIICE PULL)

THIS BOX WAS ON FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRREEE!

Sorry, I think I use that Alicia Keys song every time I open up some Topps Fire. It just simply fits.

In the past I have not had great success with the product, both football (when Topps had the license) and baseball. In 2021, that has changed and it took to the last pack to change it.

Let's check it out:

Each retail exclusive 2021 Topps Fire hobby box comes with 20 packs of 6 cards each. Each box comes with 2 autographs and boxes run around $70-$100. Pretty cheap looking at today's standard.

BASE:

The base set consists of 200 cards that includes veterans, legends and

rookies of the game.

The art designs done in Tyson Beck style. The designs the last few years have felt similar and kind of a drop off from when the product first dropped. That 2014 football design is still the best out there.

PARALLELS:

The following parallels can be found in this years Topps Fire:

Gold Minted, Flame, Orange /299, Green #/199 (1:30), Purple #/99 (1:60), Magenta #/25 (1:236), Onyx SSP (1:241), Inferno 1/1 (1:6,013).

Green falls 1:20

Orange falls 1:20

INSERTS:

For me, Topps Fire is what brings the heat in fire. If only the base can bring the intensity the inserts do.

There are 15 cards to collect in Flame Throwers and they fall 1:13 packs.

Fired Up (my favorite design) falls 1:13 packs and has 15 cards to collect as well.

Smoke and Mirrors has 20 cards and falls 1:8 packs

Rookie Ignition falls 1:8 packs and has 25 cards to collect.

Falling 1:10, the We Have Liftoff set has 20 cards to collect

HITS:

My first hit was my typical find, though not a pitcher, and I was ready for another disappointing break.

Then came the last pack mojo.......

What a beaut!

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Well, the box was heading in the wrong direction until I hit the Vlad. I have seen many big hits from this product already this year but this was my first time ever landing one. I also really dig the design on the card and the fact its an on-card auto.

The design for most of the product, especially the inserts is nice. It's a fun rip if you can find any.

Leave your thoughts below.

Hard Hitters

Every few months I get a hard hitter in my mail box from Sport Card Collector reader Grady M sends me a box of goodies and it's always overwhelming with fun. We have been exchanging for years now after we met on the Sport Card Collectors Facebook page. He is a great caring guy as well who also donates tons of cards and other items to his local children's hospital.

About a couple of weeks ago I received my recent hard hitter full of more hard hitters. The box said Merry Christmas on the inside and I knew it was going to be a good one. I won't be able to show off every card in the box in a post as there were SO many. But, I will touch base in it time to time. For now, there will be three posts highlighting the main cards in the box.

Today we tackle the Yankee finds. I get a lot of my base card and insert Yankee needs from Grady so I don't need anymore from anyone else because of this. So when I trade with others, including you guys reading, all I want for Yankees is hits, numbered, 90's inserts, Derek Jeter, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, and any Yankee rookie cards within the last five years. I don't like having doubles of any cards except rookies. It's so hard to find new homes as I have stacks of base Yankees kicking around from being sent dupes.

Let's kick off this Grady M mailing with a Mickey Mantle base card from Chronicles. I didn't have this one yet. Mantle is another Yankee

Nice Clint Frazier I didn't have. Really like the throwback Coming Attraction,

This Rizzuto's on FIIIIRE!

It took awhile for Stanton to get going in NY, but he got going after awhile. I was starting to think the Yankees made a bad move and now I am pretty happy he is with the team. These are two great looking adds.

Some more shiny Yanks,

Another Mantle I didn't have. Diamond Kings is one of Panini's better baseball products,

DJ! He also leads into the Storybook ending to this post,

Judge! Lots of new great adds here,

Including this amazing Crusade insert. It's the parallel /99 as well. Such a beautiful add. I should update my Judge PC numbers on here sometime.

Well, that does it for Part 1 of this goodies box. More to come before the New Year!

Tradin' With Jake Again

Another trade is in the books for me and @Jake1725. This one was one of our smaller ones, but it still provided some nice boom.

Yankee rookie cards of Bird and Frazer,

Servino rookies, 

My man DJ!

Andjuar who I still need an autograph of.

DiDi rookie. Think I only had one other so glad to add this one.

 

There were some new Aaron Judge cards as well but I guess my blog didn't want to upload the photo so I will just say there are three new ones.

Cool Dr.Strange trio relic for my non sport PC.

And finally a beautiful Rodney Hampton Atomic Refractor from 1996 Bowman's Best. It was the last one I needed for my rainbow and it wasn't an easy one to find. Glad I finally nailed it down.

A big thanks goes out to @Jake1725 for another great trade and I am sure we have many more to go.

Twitter Trading Is The Way To Go!

I know most across the blogosphere aren't really fans of trading on Twitter, but I find it really effective when I do trade. I have pulled off so many great ones with many big cards included in these trades. My secret, use established collectors that have a good background from others you trust. It's that simple.

When I recently was suggested to trade some STL Cardinals with @jnarbles from my buddy @Jake1725, I knew I was going to be in good hands and was I ever.

In exchange, I landed some great Yankee cards. Normally I don't do a lot of Yankees anymore as I prefer to stick with the NY Giants unless they are Judge, Jeter or Gleyber, but I found some other stuff I enjoyed.

Like this Nick Solak parallel. It fits in with the other Solaks I have. I know he is no longer a Yankee from what I hear, but still is a prospect who hits. That's enough for me.

Stanton pink refractor and Bernie Tek gold /50

Two cards I already had but didn't mind another copy of,

More parallels. Three of Frazier who I hope the Yankees keep. Sheffield who they just traded away to the Mariners and an A-Roid.

This was pretty cool. I at the time didn't know it was /10 til I got it in hand.

Judge! All Rise baby! Freshman insert, Topps Chrome rookie refractor (I think I might have but not sure), awesome Out Of this World insert and one of the best Judge rookies in Archives.

Another Judge!

I didn't just get Yankees in this trade, also grabbed an Acuna Heritage Chrome parallel.

Trevor Story autograph. I just wanted one.

Keston Hiura autograph. I like to gamble on prospects.

One autograph I was super happy to add in Lindor.

My first Clint Frazier auto from Clearly Authentic. Glad to have one finally and can take it off from my want list.

And the big card of the trade, my third Gleyber Torres autograph. This one from 2018 Bowman Tek.

Huge thanks to @jnarbles for the trade. Hope, hope we can do this again! Great trader and packed these cards beyond safe! Strongly recommend trading with him.

As I said earlier in this article, Twitter trading has really done well for me in finding the right trusting trading partners. So for those of you who don't want to try or risk it or maybe from this trade you are struck a tad curious now, just give me a comment or message through email or Twitter and I can hook you up with a few names that are very trusted. I am sure you have seen many of them being used multiple times on here.

REVIEW:2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball

For the first time since it's glorious return, I was able to touch and see the brought back from hobby death Topps Gold Label.

I haven't even seen a single base card up close so all of those Griffey Jr base cards from this set the past few years all of you have been holding onto without purpose, I have a purpose for them. I also wouldn't mind some Aaron Judges too.

Let's check out my thoughts on my very first viewing of this once hobby giant.

 In every box of 2018 Topps Gold Label, there are 7 packs per box with 5 cards per pack. You will find one gold framed autographed cards per box and boxes run under $60.

The base card design, well, that takes me back. The layout and foil have the same feel, however, the base card thickness does not. The one thing that made the 90's Gold Label so great was the thickness of the base cards.

There are three classes to collect with each one being their own rarity. In each class there are 100 cards per set. Each player has one card per class with a different image. So each player has three images in the overall 300 card base set.

All of the key rookie are in the set except Juan Soto. He does have a framed autographed in the product however. There are also veterans and legends as well.

There are black parallels to find and I have no idea how to see them so one of these cards above may be a black parallel.

There are also other parallels to find as well including,

CLASS 1 PARALLELS: Blue /150, Red /75, Gold 1/1.

CLASS 2 PARALLELS: Blue /99, Red /50, Gold 1/1.

CLASS 3 PARALLELS: Blue /50, Red /25, Gold 1/1.

Now onto the hits,

I got a bonus one in this Legends relic of Mike Piazza!!!

And my framed autograph was of my stalker, pulled two autographs of his already, Walker Buehler. Why couldn't have Andjuar or Otahni stalked me? I always get disappointed when I find a pitcher as my hit.

Other hits you may find in your box that I didn't in mine include,

• Golden Greats Framed Autographed Relics

OVERALL:I loved the throwback design and feel. The autographed card despite the player I pulled, he's great and everything but a pitcher just brings me no excitement, look awesome. It's exactly the way I would envision this product having autographed cards in. The relic cards are nice as well. But honestly for me it was all about the base cards here. It would make for a fun set chase. I would like to at least track down the rest of the Torres, Adjuar, Frazier, Griffey Jr's and Judges from it.

Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to be able to add cards to a future promo.  Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well.