Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Product Review: 2013 Topps Tier One Hobby Box

The 2013 Topps Tier One product came out a couple of weeks ago and we tried to fill a 4 box break of it last week. Unfortunately we weren't able to fill the break so we decided to break the 4 boxes and write a review on the product.

So as you might already know, each box this year includes 3 cards, 2 Autographs and 1 Relic. Every 4th box will include an extra Relic in that box to look for. Autographs range from /399 to 1/1. You will receive 1 On The Rise Autograph per box with some of the hottest young up-comers of the game. The 2nd autograph could be the same, Crowd Pleaser or Autograph Relic.You could also pull Autograph booklets and Cut Autographs within the product.

The most common Relics to pull are single swatches numbered /399 or less, but you could also find dual and triple relic swatches as well. Patches are also found and will be either All-Star Patches, Jumbo Prodigious Patches or Autograph Patches. The one relic everyone is hopeful for is the famous Bat Knobs. These are all 1/1 and include a long list of baseball stars of present and past.

The great thing about this product is that almost every Autograph is on-card. the exceptions being the booklets or dual autographs, it's always a great thing to see on-card autographs in a product. The cost of the product might be increased but worth it in the end if your able to pull one of those top star autographs.

Well lets see how our 4 boxes of Tier One did shall we:

Box #1: 
On The Rise Autograph: Felix Doubront /399
Crowd-Pleaser Autograph: Brian McCann /99
Tier One Relic: Frank Thomas /39 *Redemption*
Box #2:
On The Rise Autograph: Scott Diamond /399
Tier One Auto Relic Base: Craig Biggio /99 *Redemption*
Tier One Relic: Justin Upton /399
Tier One Relic: Buster Posey /399
Box #3: 
On The Rise Autograph: Chris Sale /50
Crowd Pleaser Auto Silver Parallel: Nomar Garciaparra /10 *Redemption*
Tier One Relic: Ken Griffey Jr. /399
Box #4:
On The Rise Autograph: Chris Archer /399
Tier One Autographs: Ozzie Smith Rose Ink /25
Tier One Relic: Billy Butler /399

I have to say this was 4 of the best boxes I could have asked for. Box #1 was the least valuable BV wise compared to the other three boxes. Box #2 had 4 cards which was nice to pull from our 4 boxes. Each box had a Super Star player in it which again is great to pull as some I've seen haven't been this lucky. The Base Autograph cards are a nice thick stock with a glossy film, the Autographs we pulled nicely written by the players instead of some of the less attractive autographs circulating recently. The Ozzie Smith Ink is more of a Rose than Red or Gold Ink. Numbered out of /25 and a Hall of Fame player like him is a great pull.
The Relics are pretty basic and not much different than a Topps Series 1 Relic. Might be a good idea to stay away from the relics next year and just make an all autograph set. Unless a patch it's not the ones collectors are after.
With all the Redemption news going around these days it's no surprise that 3 of our 4 boxes had a redemption. Even though they are Redemption's the Biggio and Garciaparra are going to be sweet cards. The Biggio will have either a Bat or Jersey Relic with it and numbered to /99 or less and the Garicaparra will be numbered to only 10 and should be a great looking card with the Silver Ink on the black design. 
The one Redemption I don't get is the Thomas Relic. How is it they didn't have time to put that into the product before the release? I've seen patches or Bat Knobs before but a single base relic? Great player to pull but weird. 

If buying these boxes separately it would be hard to be happy about box #1, but since we broke 4 boxes this was a very good outcome for us. Aside from the redemption's this is a cool product. Love the on-card autographs and the chance to pull big names. The value we pulled from 3 of the 4 boxes was great and the correlation of the cards was well done. It's too bad we couldn't run our box break for these 4 boxes but very happy with what we pulled.

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

Gambler Overall Rating: 4.1 out of 5
Cost: 4/5
Autographs: 5/5
Parallels: 4/5
Relics: 3.5/5
Concept: 4/5
Fun Aspect: 4/5

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