Swinging into stores recently was the action packed photography known as Stadium Club. A product that most collectors love to put a base set of or at least grab their favorite team base cards of.
I don't think this product ever really disappoints and this years product is packed with even more coolness. Let's check it out shall we?
In every box of 2017 Stadium Club baseball there is 16 Packs Per Box with 8 Cards Per Pack. There will be two on-card autographs per box along with One Insert or Parallel Per Pack and One Chrome Parallel Per Box. Boxes are currently running a bit high at $125.
The base set is 300 cards deep with key rookies of Aaron Judge, Yoan Moncada, Trey Mancini, Andrew Benintendi, Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman, Manuel Margot, Jharel Cotton, Hunter Renfroe, Ryon Healy, Tyler Glasnow, and Yulieski Gurriel. Base cards showcase exciting moments, team celebrations and just the fun of baseball. I think Sooz did a great job selecting images for the product once again.
The design is vaguely familiar to a late 90's or early 2000's Fleer Ultra one. But, to me the design of the names isn't the most important part as long as it doesn't take away from the photography.
Here are a few of my favorite images.
The Oswalt stare down.
Love the sky in this photo.
Yes, I even chose a Red Sox image but evened it out with a Jeter.
Speaking of the Jeter, here is the back of the cards which is nice as well.
This was just a few of the great images shown on these. So I agree with Mike below and Sooz deserves a clap for the images selected.
Here are a couple of rookies. I found it odd that Vogelbach doesn't have a rookie logo but his autographed version does.....logoless parallel?
Just like with most Topps releases, there are some base card image variations. This year there are a ton as opposed to the past few years. This years jumps to 50. I believe the odds are tough on them however at 1:72 packs.
Here is how to tell you have one. Once again it's based on the codes.
Base Card ends in 3023
Variations ends in 3055
On one more note with the base cards, the only negative thing I have to say about them, the backs are really prone for dings and nicks. I would almost say it's under the category condition sensitive. Sadly one of my better cards in the box had an issue with this among some others.
Parallels in Stadium Club are very easy to spot and I like the variety given.
Here are the Gold Foil
GOLD JUDGE!!!! Too bad this was the card with a little bit of dings on the back. I am very hobby OCD so this card bothers me very much.
Black Foil. These fall 1:8 packs.
Black And White Parallel falls 1:48 packs.
And a Rainbow Foil parallel that is numbered to 25. These fall 1:96 packs.
Other parallels are,
- First Day Issue Parallel - Limited to /10
- Gold Rainbow Foil Parallel #'d 1/1
CHROME!!!!!!!! The return of Stadium Club chrome. These things look beautiful! These fall one-per-box. I hope this is a sign to come and maybe this will be a stand alone product later on.
When you have chrome, you have gotta have parallels.
My best hit of the box was one of those. This is a Chrome Gold Minted Parallel that falls one-per-case or 1:256 packs. Beautiful card! I was however a bit disappointed it wasn't numbered.
Other chrome parallels include,
- Chrome Refractor Parallel - 1:4 boxes
- Chrome SuperFractor Parallel #'d 1/1
- Chrome Autograph Parallel
Now onto the inserts that ALL have the following parallels as well,
- Gold Parallel #'d to 50
- Black Parallel #'d to 25
- Orange Parallel #'d to 10
- Gold Rainbow Parallel #'d 1/1
Up first, Beam Team. My favorite designed one of the group.These are one-per-box.
Power Zone. These fall 1:8 packs.
Scoreless Streak. 1:8 packs.
Contact Sheet. 1:8 packs.
Insert I didn't pull was a case hit in 1:256 packs, Instavision. It makes it's return from the 90's and looks amazing. So glad Topps is using case hits for inserts and making those valuable again.
Now onto my autograph pulls.
Nothing overly spectacular here. These both are base cards signed on-card. Surprisingly, both are rookies so there is some upside.
Seth Lugo
Dan Vogelbach
These also have parallels of,
- Gold Foil Parallel #'d to 50
- Black Foil Parallel #'d to 25
- Rainbow Foil Parallel #'d 10 Hobby Only NEW!
- Gold Rainbow Parallel #'d 1/1 Hobby Only
Other hits not found in my box include, Beam Team Autographs, Co-Signers, Lone Star Signatures, Power Zone Autographs and Scoreless Streak Autographs. These have parallels of, Orange Parallel #'d to 5 and Gold Rainbow Parallel #'d 1/1.
OVERALL, The Judge and McGwire saved the box from a poor autograph sighting. However, I honestly was left wanting more. The base cards look good, the parallels add value, the Stadium Club chrome was a nice addition to the product and the overall product had a 90's feel for me with the themes. I think those of you that collected in that era will understand and enjoy.
There is plenty to chase in this product from the base cards to the hits.
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 the MLB Pick Em promotion. Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their
SITE, as well.
