Now that much of the Million Card Giveaway madness has subsided, I thought I would share the breakdown of cards that I’ve gotten from different forms of 2010 Topps Baseball. I’ve busted a blaster, which I’ve already posted here, but in the mean time I’ve also ripped a couple of rack packs and a handful of retail packs. A while back dayf had posted a breakdown of a cereal box and some rack packs that he had busted open. I don’t tend to buy a lot of hobby store products so the majority of the modern stuff I get usually comes from Target or the like, so I found his information pretty helpful when it came time to get me some 2010 Topps. In light of that, I figured I’d expand a bit on it in the hopes that it’ll help someone else decide how they’re going to hand their hard earned money over to Topps.

Just for additional data (and since I haven’t gotten a cereal box), here’s what dayf got for his money:

Topps Cereal Box ($9.99)
46 base cards
1 Yo Mamma card
1 History of the Game
1 Turkey Red
1 Lineage
1 Peak Performance
1 Tales of the Game
1 When They Were Young
1 Million Card Giveaway code
1 ToppsTown code
1 Shiny crome refractor bonus
TOTAL: 56 cards

Two Topps Rack Packs ($9.98)
59 base cards
2 Yo Mamma cards
2 Turkey Reds
2 Lineage
2 Peak Performance
1 When They Were Young
2 Million Card Giveaway codes
2 ToppsTown codes
TOTAL: 72 cards

Building on that, here’s my breakdown of a blaster, 2 rack packs and 8 retail packs:

Topps Blaster ($19.99)
51 base cards
10 ToppsTown Codes
1 When They Were Young
2 Peak Performance
3 Legendary Lineage
3 Turkey Red
2 Tales of the Game
2 History of the Game
5 Cards Your Mom Threw Out (Including 1 original back)
1 Million Card Giveaway
1 Stupid Topps Attax Code Card
1 Commemorative Patch
TOTAL: 82 cards

2 Rack Packs ($4.99 x 2 = $9.98)
57 Base Cards
1 Gold Border Parallel
2 Ticket to ToppsTown
1 When They Were Young
1 History of the Game
1 Tales of the Game
2 Legendary Lineage
2 Peak Performance
2 Turkey Red
2 Cards Your Mom Threw Out
1 Million Card Giveaway
TOTAL: 72 cards

8 Retail Packs ($1.99 x 8 =$15.92)
70 Base Cards
1 Gold Border Parallel
8 Ticket to ToppsTown
1 When They Were Young
1 History of the Game
2 Legendary Lineage
2 Peak Performance
3 Turkey Red
2 Cards Your Mom Threw Out
2 Million Card Giveaway
1 Stupid Topps Attax Code Card
3 Red Back Exclusives
TOTAL: 96 cards

After looking at the numbers, I’ve come to the conclusion that unless you really, really like those commemorative patch cards, the blaster is not the best way to go, for the money. Personally, I don’t love them, I don’t hate them. I’ve gotten some cool ones, but I’m not going to go out of my way to get them. Considering for the same money as a blaster I could get almost twice as many of the base cards and inserts by buying 4 rack packs, I think I would go for the rack packs.

I also was really interested in getting some of the Red Back inserts, which only seem to come in the retail packs. Now, if you bought $20 worth of retail packs, as opposed to spending $20 on a blaster, you also get many more base and insert cards, since the retail packs are 12 cards to a pack as opposed to 8 cards per pack in the blaster. On top of that, you get a shot at the Red Backs (or Blue Backs if you prefer Walmart). Really the only thing you’re missing out on is the patch card. Also, I got 2 Million Card Giveaway codes in my retail packs as opposed to 1 in both the blaster and the 2 rack packs. That could just be luck on my part, but I’m just saying.

Of course, as I’ve said before, I could also just take that $20 and go get me some vintage cards. It may not be as suspenseful as the Million Card Giveaway, but at least I’m not getting stuck with any 1987 Kevin Bass cards.

So anyway, I hope that rambling breakdown of various retail versions of 2010 Topps helps. I think personally, I will be avoiding blasters in the future. If I can, I’d like to stick with retail packs, but the last few times I’ve stepped foot in the card aisle, the same sad empty box has been staring back at me. Rack packs are probably a good alternative, though.

And just so I haven’t made you read this whole thing without looking at any pretty pictures, here’s the 3 Red Backs that I yanked out of them there packs.

As you can see, the Pujols and Young both have those gnarly dings on the corner, so it looks like someone has to write a letter to a certain card company demanding replacements. I know I always make claims at not being a condition snob, but pulling cards that look like that out of a fresh pack is just inexcusable. Also, factor in that I was kind of specifically buying the packs to get those Red Back inserts, and that they’re of 2 really awesome players, and the whole thing becomes really irritating.

Here’s a look at the back.

All in all, they’re really cool little inserts. And when I say little, I mean little. They measure about 2″x2.5″, whereas a regular card is 2.5″x3.5″. They’re not as nice quality-wise as the ones Topps put out a few years ago as part of the Bowman Heritage set, but they’re really cool nonetheless.

Tags: 2010 Topps, Albert Pujols, Cy Young, Jackie Robinson, Target Red Back Exclusives
Filed Under: Pack Break by slangon
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