Definitely the highest of the high-end products I have ever opened, Topps Tribute was a new surprise to me as I didn't know what to expect. I kinda like that thought.
Did this high-end product surprise me or did it leave me disappointed, well, read on!
In every box of 2016 Topps Tribute Baseball you get 6 packs per box with 7 cards per pack. You will find 3 autographs and 3 relics per box that are all numbered. Boxes, like I said this is a very high end product, will run you $250 roughly.
Some quick positives before I move on with the review, the card technology is new. It's called Chromax and is stunning for sure. One of the biggest positives for collectors may be the fact that all autographs are ON CARD!!!
The base cards are very breath taking if you like things shiny like me. The design is simple, yet elegant. The base cards are also very sturdy and would be hard to damage/bend. Scratches may occur however. The technology reminds me of the late 90's Topps Gold Label.
The base card checklist is built of 90 cards of legends of today and of the past.
As with the base cards, the parallels look great as well. These two are both green parallels numbered to 99. You should find one parallel per box. I got lucky I guess.
Here are the other base card offerings including those elusive Supers!
- Purple Parallel - sequentially numbered.
- Red Parallel - sequentially numbered to 5.
- Black Parallel - numbered 1/1.
- Tribute SuperFractor Parallel - numbered 1/1
- Printing Plates - numbered 1/1
The technology for Tribute stays true throughout the product. Beautiful looking cards with added memorabilia or autograph.
Tribute Relics are single relics of retired stars, MLB veterans and exciting newcomers and are sequentially numbered. I pulled Cabrera.
The next relic set I think is one cool set. They are called Stamp of Approval. They feature a bigger-sized relic piece in a die-cut. Each relic piece is MLB Authenticated with a sticker and sequentially numbered as you will see here:
With the Stamp Of Approvals there are also parallels like the Salvy I pulled above.
They include:
- Purple Parallel - sequentially numbered.
- Orange Parallel - sequentially numbered to 25.
- Red Parallel - sequentially numbered to 5.
- Black Parallel - numbered 1/1.
- Tribute SuperFractor Parallel - numbered 1/1. NEW!
Other relic cards not pulled in this break include:
Prime Patches that features patch relic cards of superstar veterans and HOF greats with each being numbered and having parallels as well like....
- Red Parallel - sequentially numbered to 5
- Black Parallel - numbered 1/1
- Tribute SuperFractor Parallel - numbered 1/1
Milestone Relics that feature relic swatches of game-used baseballs from milestone MLB games. Each of these relic pieces will be MLB Authenticated and numbered to 10. This as well has a parallel that's a Black Jumbo Autographed Parallel that is numbered 1/1.
Now onto those on-card autographs.
The first two autographs, the probably most common to pull are Tribute Autographs.Veterans, icons and rookie are showcased in this 72 card autographed set. Each are numbered.
- Blue – /150
- Green – /99
- Purple – /50
- Orange – /25
- Red – /5
- Black – 1/1
- Printing Plates Black – 1/1
- Black Parallel - numbered 1/1
- Tribute SuperFractor Parallel - numbered 1/1
- Printing Plates - numbered 1/1
The two I pulled are the basic blue version. One of Garrett Richards, the other of Phillies rookie Aaron Nola.
My last autograph is a Rightful Recognition Autograph of Rafael Palmeiro. This card is numbered to 99.
This autograph set also ties in with Foundations of Greatness which covers the younger version of these players for a Then and Now type of collecting.
As with some of this product, this one as well comes with parallels to chase.
- Purple Parallel - sequentially numbered.
- Orange Parallel - sequentially numbered to 25.
- Red Parallel - sequentially numbered to 5.
- Black Parallel - numbered 1/1.
- Tribute SuperFractor Parallel - numbered 1/1. NEW!
- Printing Plates - numbered 1/1.
Other autographs not pulled in this box but are in the product are....
Ageless Accolades
A tribute to the game's MVPs from seasons past on acetate.
- Red Parallel - sequentially numbered to 5.
- Black Parallel - numbered 1/1.
Tribute Tandems Book Cards
A two panel book card pairing veterans with baseball icons who share something in common and are numbered to 25. Parallels include Red numbered to 5 and Black numbered 1/1.
Triple Crown Memories
Triple Crown Memories celebrating the 50th anniversary of 1966 when both Frank Robinson and Sandy Koufax won the Triple Crown award by leading baseball in their statistical categories. Parallels include Red numbered to 5 and Parallel numbered 1/1.
Overall Thoughts: It's definitely a beautiful product from top to bottom and has a solid checklist of players and items to pull. However, this box I felt was a dud. Looking at my value vs what you would pay it's probably not that close as I did spend thorough time looking up the values of each of my pulls on eBay.
I am not telling you however not to buy this product. When you do hit, boy, you will hit I can see that much from preview images and other breaks online. But, with any product no matter the cost it's a risk especially on the high end stuff. If you collect high end and like the gamble, I would definitely tell you to buy it. If you don't like forking out this much cash, it's probably safer to buy packs or singles.
NOW TIME FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!! It's as easy as can be to enter to win one of the cards above. Depending on what card I giveaway will depend on the amount of entries this contest gets. Everyone likes a surprise. Obviously, the more entries....
- Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to host this/these nice giveaways with. Follow them on all social media sites and visit their site, HERE, as well.
- ***VERY IMPORTANT***MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT to enter or have a shipping address in the U.S. Shipping costs have gone haywire and I can't afford to ship everywhere.This is always hard to do as I appreciate all readers but I hope you all understand non-U.S. readers.
- Random winner will be chosen after 7 randoms
- Card may be shipped PWE. I like to forewarn on this.
- LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW telling me ONE PRO AND ONE CON OF THE PRODUCT.
- EARN AN EXTRA ENTRY FOR SHARING THIS CONTEST ON YOUR BLOG AND/OR ON TWITTER. Make sure to leave your link in comments too so I can count it. If not, I won't be able to give you the credit. Commenting with it is very important or you WILL LOSE OUT an extra entry!
- Sport Card Collectors or it's owner (person who runs the blog), WILL NOT be held responsible for lost, stolen or damaged mail. Sorry had to add this in since someone tried to scam me once about this.
- Contest starts today, ends on August 4th 2016. Winner will be announced in a separate post on August 5th 2016
- Don't forget to thank the above sponsor of this contest and I won't mind a thank you as well :)
Good luck to all that enter and thanks for reading!
