2003 Topps 205 Box Break: The Package
November 24th, 2009 by slangon

So like I said, I’m excited about this box break so I’m going to try and drag it out for a bit. I haven’t busted anything yet. I’m going to start out with the packaging.

205_Box

It’s a pretty great box, first off. A retro set based on an old-time tobacco product, so they boxed it up in a cigar box. Nicely done, Topps. That little square on the center bottom says its a Hobby Only release. I guess if they had been selling this through Target or Walmart they would not have been able to get away with this packaging. You know, with the kids and all. I’m not sure when exactly card companies started listing guaranteed hits on their boxes, but this has no mention of that. They only state “Featuring RELIC and AUTOGRAPHED Cards! (Randomly Inserted)”. I wonder what that means. I would assume (and hope) there’s at least something in this box.

205_Box2Inside we have, sitting on top of the packs, a checklist, much like the one that came in the 09 Allen & Ginter Hobby Box, and a one page write up by Ken Oberman, talking about the set.

03205checklist_front
03205checklist_back
03205propaganda

Underneath that, we have the meat of the matter.

205_Box3As you can see, there is two stacks of 10 packs, plus a little box in the middle.

03205pack
It’s interesting that the pack wrapper calls out that this set has “Assorted Designs”. In the propaganda sheet above, Ken Oberman points out that this set has “18 different American League designs and color patterns, 14 different National League designs, and four rookie designs”. I found this pretty awesome gallery of the original T205 set. I had originally thought that there was just the one American Leauge design, one Minor League design, and one National League design. Upon closer inspection, however, I see that there are in fact 4 Minor League designs. There is a lot of variations going on in the American League design, with several clear cut different designs. In the National League, there are variations as well, I’m just not sure I would say that they’re different designs per say. It’ll be interesting to see if I can pick out the 36 different designs in the 2003 set.

Also, like Topps usually does, the odds are printed on the side of the wrapper.

03205odds

By the way, does anyone know what the deal is with the Canadian Skill Test? And why is it that all of Canada is eligible, except if you’re from Quebec? I find that bizarre.

205_Box4
03205toploaderSeems the little black box is basically a box loader and contains 20 mini parallels. I think each pack is supposed to have 1 mini card in it as well, for a total of 40 minis in this box total. That’s pretty cool. You can see the Hobby Only Product logo here a bit better. I guess this box is supposed to look like a pack of cigarettes, going along with the whole tobacco theme.

So far, I think this box is looking good. Stay tuned for the first couple of packs.

6 Responses to “2003 Topps 205 Box Break: The Package”

  1. I can’t wait to see the rest.

  2. This is very cool.

  3. Awesome! I’ve always wanted to bust a box of this stuff, and I can’t wait to see what you pull. The packaging is beautiful, and seems like a precursor to Ginter.

  4. Yeah, it seems like they put some thought into the designs of the packaging, unlike some other things that card companies do.

  5. our lovely government from way back when does not allow gambling or giveaways that may influence us poor misguided citizens. So to get around that, companies award prizes for doing specific tasks. Such as math questions. It makes us smarter than the average bear.
    As for Quebec…. we hate the French.
    That, and more government bullcrap that no one really cares about…

  6. Awesome. I think that will be next contest.

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