Rodney's Cardboard: 2024 Finest Autograph Refractor

 (Previously posted on Big Blue Cardboard. All Rodney's Cardboard posts from here on out will be cross-posted)

  

It's Sunday, which means another NEW Rodney's Cardboard!

I haven't done one of these in a few months and it's now football season, so I figured it was time.

Today, we will begin a run of different Topps Finest autograph cards I have in this chase over the next few weeks.

Rodney has 13 different autograph cards in the set and so far, I have roughly half of them.  Today's was one of the easier ones to acquire for the parallel end. The base refractor autographs are not numbered so are probably more plentiful though I still don't see a lot of them hanging around.

Hope everyone has a great start to their teams football season!

Summer Of Wes Card #21

Cardboard Review:2021 Topps Finest Baseball Master Box

Since the 1990's, Topps Finest has been a staple in my collection since the 90's.

Every year I try to pickup some form of it up whether it's through trading, a box break, mini box break, etc. It doesn't quite have the same UNPEEL as the 90's, but I still like it. And speaking of the peeling off, please don't ever unpeel those. Yes the cards look better, but my OCD goes nuts finding them that way. I have never once peeled one off.

Getting back on track, let's see how this years Topps Finest faired for me.

Each Master Box of 2021 Topps Finest comes with 2 Mini Boxes. Each mini box comes with 6 packs per box and 5 chrome cards per pack. Each Master Box comes with 2 autographs with 1 autograph per mini box.

Boxes go for around $270.

BASE

There are 100 cards in the base set with rookie and veteran content. The cards are chromed with a funky futuristic design.

The card backs give career statistics.

There is also an extended base card set with 25 more cards which gives the overall set total of 125 cards to chase. (Ruiz isn't in the extended base set and given just as an example of a rookie)

There are also rookie variations that fall 1:12 packs where the background is different.

PARALLELS

There are plenty of refractors to find this year as they upped from a few to a good handful this year. The offerings are, Refractor, Sky Blue /300, Purple /250, Purple/Aqua Vapor /250, Aqua /199, Aqua Shimmer /175, Blue /150, Green Speckle /125, Green /99, Rose Gold /75, Rose Gold Mini-Diamond /50, Gold /50, Orange /25, Red /5, Purple/Pink Vapor /3, and SuperFractor 1/1.

Refractors fall 1:3 packs.

Green Speckle falls 1:47 packs. This card is beautiful in person!

Purple /250 falls 1:24 packs

Sky Blue falls 1:20 packs

Rose Gold falls 1:78 packs.

INSERTS

Legacies Inserts combine the past and the future of a team. These fall 1:6 packs and have 20 to collect. I gotta have the Kyle Lewis/Ken Griffey Jr.

Masters pays tribute to 1997 subset and falls 1:3 packs. There are 25 cards to collect overall.

Every year Topps celebrates a player and their careers with Finest Careers. This year it's Mike Trout and these fall 1:48 packs. There are 10 of these to collect.

HITS

The autographs are all on-card with 81 cards to land from. There are also parallels to find such as Blue /150, Green /99, Green Wave /99, Gold /50, Orange /25, Orange Wave /25, Red /5, Red Wave /5, and SuperFractor 1/1.

Base

Green Wave /99

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Price Point always plays a role for me as a budget collector. This is a big gamble product with a lot of big hits to chase though.  I suggest picking up singles or joining box breaks if you like what you see from my break as the average collector can't afford a full box.

Overall though, nice design and I always like the throwback inserts.

Thoughts on my break or on Finest in general welcomed below. I will also be doing a solid giveaway on Twitter or on here as well.

NYG PC Spotlight 107:2005 Topps Finest Black Refractor

Eli Manning
Parallel
Card #d 3/99
Card number 3

I should also mention that this card and the rest I will be posting this week and last week are brought to by Wes. Wes, the man who sends the big ole heat mail days!

REVIEW: 2019 Topps Finest UEFA (MASSIVE PULL)

The newest Topps UEFA Champions League product is out and it’s hot, hot, hot folks!

This is the first time that UEFA Champions League has been shown Finest Style (to the tune of Gangnam Style)

Unlike my 2019 Topps MLS break, this break was amazing and I pulled the biggest card I have ever pulled in this break as well.

Let’s check it out shall we?

In every master box of 2019 Topps UEFA Champions League Finest is two mini boxes. Each mini box comes with one autograph and a multitude of refractors. Each Master box is just under $100 per.

The base card set features a previous design which I think looks even better for soccer. There are 100 cards in the base set with an extended base set as well covering names not in the regular base set. There are 10 cards to chase in the extended base set.

With anything Finest or Chromed, it has parallels.

Base refractor that falls 1:3 packs.

Purple Refractor that falls 1:5 packs

Blue Refractor that falls 1:9 packs

Gold Refractor falls 1:25 packs.

Other parallels I didn’t find are, Green /99, Orange /25, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1.

Inserts look great and have the following parallels in Gold /50, Red /5 and Superfractor 1/1.

Standout Strikers has 10 cards and falls 1:6 packs

Finest Cornerstones have 20 cards and fall 1:3 packs. Really like the design and did for baseball as well.

Finest Careers Die Cut of Lionel Messi falls 1:48 packs and has 10 cards in the set.

Now onto the autographs. Just wait for it.

Autographs all have parallels.

First up, Cavani Green autograph. These fall 1:50 packs.

And now sit down….

BOOMSAUCE!!!

Ronaldo! Gold! Autograph! These fall 1:70 packs but dude it’s Ronaldo! So probably much tougher.

Other hits to find are,
· Extended Base Autographs

· Finest Career Autographs Die Cuts

· Finest Cornerstones Autographs

· Standout Strikers Autographs

Overall Thoughts: Ronaldo!

Okay, I have more thoughts than that. I think it’s a good price point for finest and having two autographs with the big names on the checklist. There are plenty of parallels as well to help with the value of a box and unlike the 2019 Topps MLS, this product focuses right on the autographs and there are some huge names to chase as my hit showed.

I say if you like UEFA or any of the players in the base set checklist, go grab yourself a box or even a mini box. I don’t know if any breakers do soccer but that could also be a starting point.

A cheaper way to possibly land a hit in a break like this would be to buy into a box break which I suggest Midwest Box Breaks when you do so. Ask them about busting some soccer like this.

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 giveaway on Twitter I am hosting. Please follow me there to enter @SportCardCollec. Also follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well.