Product Review: 2013 Topps Pro Debut Hobby Box

This past week Topps released their 2013 Topps Pro Debut Minor League product. As it was last year, the set design and flavor is comparable to the 2013 Topps Series 1 MLB product. The difference between the two are the relic designs and different manufactured patches to chase down. The product also has four cut signatures to collect from the movie Bull Durham. The other hot item to chase is Yasiel Puig, as this is his first card with Topps.

This is a very interesting product to pick up, it has all the top minor league prospects wrapped into one product. You'll find players already called up to the majors along with those that are going to be late summer call-ups.
The basics of the 2013 release is 24 packs with 8 cards per pack, you will receive 2 Autographs per box including 1 Relic and 1 Manufactured Patch. Base cards have Gold Parallels along with 15 Photo variations to hunt. These 15 are the top players within the 2013 product.
The new bonus this year is the guaranteed Manufactured Patch, these can be either a Mascot patch or a Hat Logo Patch. Both are numbered inserts and depending on who you pull could add some secondary market value from your box.

So lets see how we did in our break:

Base Cards: 183 (0 doubles)
Base Card Gold Parallel: 1 - Rock Shoulders /50
Relic: 1 - Chih Fang Pan
Autograph: 2 - Luis Merejo, Mike Piazza
Manufactured Patch: 1 - Buster Bison Mascot /120

One of the reasons we like this product is all the different minor league teams associated within it. It's pretty cool to see the different team logo's and uniforms. The Gold Parallels are numbered /50 and are lower than the MLB Gold Parallels which are /2013. These run well in the secondary market, and can be a great hit if you pull one of the top players.

The Relic we pulled of Chih Fang Pan is nothing too exciting as it's a single swatch but the design is not too bad. Like how Topps matched the color of the uniform to the card. Our Manufactured Patch was Buster T. Bison the mascot for the Buffalo Bison's. It's an interesting insert and numbered to /120 which adds value but would have liked a Hat Logo Patch instead personally. It's really not a patch per say but more of a felt type of material around the picture of the mascot. Mascots do have a following in the market but not a PC keeper for us. 

We pulled two pitchers for our autographs. Both are sticker autographs and not numbered. The same design is used as the base cards from Series 1. The Mike Piazza is not the former Mets catcher but the recent pitching prospect. On these autographs either you will pull a top player or one of these not called up players which you will have to sit and wait on. They also have parallels for the autographs which no matter whom you would pull will have an added value immediately.

So we pulled an average type of box. With 220 cards in the base set we were short by almost 40 cards. If your a set builder your not looking too bad at finishing the set. The 4 hits per box is worth the cost of the box under $100 even if one of the hits is a manufactured patch. A hit is a hit and more value for the customer in a product is never a bad thing. If your a Bowman collector this is the set for you, if you can't wait for players to develop then pass by this one. Would love to run a box break on one of these boxes but with the amount of the teams involved it would be impossible to run, but would have been a fun one.

Most cards/hits pulled in our breaks end up on our site storefront www.packgambler.com, our COMC account ThePackGambler, or our eBay account thepackgambler. If you are interested in any of the cards we have mentioned please send us an e-mail at packgambler@gmail.com

Gambler Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5
Cost: 5/5
Autographs: 4/5
Relics: 3.5/5
Parallels: 4/5
Concept: 4/5
Fun Aspect: 5/5