SCF Official Review: 2009 Topps Series 2 Baseball

**Enigma** · 05-28-2009, 04:20 AM

First and foremost, we would like to thank our sponsor, Topps, for providing us with the following hobby box.

36 packs per box
10 cards per pack
*Packs with a relic card only contain 8 cards

MSRP- $54.99-$64.99

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS:
- 1 AUTOGRAPH OR RELIC PER HOBBY BOX!
- HOBBY EXCLUSIVE! RED HOT ROOKIES - ONE PER HOBBY BOX!
- NEW! WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC AUTOGRAPHS & RELICS! ONLY IN TOPPS!
- LEGENDS OF THE GAME CONTINUES (1:6 HOBBY PACKS)!
- TURKEY RED CONTINUITY INSERTS (1:4 HOBBY PACKS)!
- LOOK FOR ORIGINAL 1 OF 1 ARTIST SKETCH CARDS!

PRODUCT BREAKDOWN:

BASE CARDS (330 CARDS)
- 270 Veterans, plus 17 Legends of the Game variations, 40 Rookies, 15 Managers, & 5 Classic Combos cards

PARALLEL CARDS (2410 TOTAL CARDS)
- Topps Silk Collection (100) - Hobby Only! #'d to 50!
- Platinum (330) - 1 of 1!
- Black: Hobby Only! (330) #'d to 58!
- Gold (330) - #'d to 2009! 1:6 Packs!
- Printing Plates (330 subj, 1320 plates) - Hobby Only! 1 of 1!

CUT SIGNATURE CARDS (10)
- American Legends Cut Signature Cards (10) 1 of 1!

CAREER BEST (168)
- Autographs (33)
- Autograph Relics (10) - Hobby Only! #'d to 50!
- NEW! Quad Relics (25) - #'d to 20!
- NEW! Dual Relics (30 subj/60 cards) Hobby Only! #'d to 99!
- Relics (25)
* Platinum Parallel (25) - #'d to 99!
- Jumbo Patches (20) Hobby Only! #'d to 10

NEW! WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC STARS
- Inserts (25) - 3 per Hobby Box
- Autographs (10) Hobby Only! #'d to 100
- Relics (10) Hobby Only!
- Autographed Relics (10) Hobby Only! #'d to 100
- Stamps (4)

LEGENDS OF THE GAME (192) 1:6 Packs!
- Insert Cards (25)
* Platinum Parallel (25) - #'d to 25
* Gold Parallel (25) - #'d to 99
- Relic Cards (25) - #'d to 20
- Stamp Collection (12) - #'d to 90
- Cut Signatures & Autographs (25) - 1 of 1!
- Career Best Relics (10) - #'d to 20
- Career Best Cut Signatures (10) - 1 of 1!
- Career Best Inserts (15) - 1:6 packs
- Commemorative Patches (7 subj/67 cards) #'d to 50 - Hobby Only!
- Legendary Letter Patches (22 subj/134 cards) #'d to 50 - Hobby Only!

RING OF HONOR (41)1:6 Packs!
- Autographs (16)
- In-Pack Inserts (25) - Hobby Only!

TICKET TO TOPPSTOWN.COM CARDS (50) 1 per Pack!
- Ticket to Toppstown.com (25)
* First Class Ticket Parallel (25)

SKETCH CARDS (TBD)
- Sketch Cards - Hobby Only! 1 of 1!

NEW! TURKEY RED (50)1:4 Packs!
- Turkey Red (50)

RED HOT ROOKIES (10)
- Redemption Cards (10) - Hobby Only!

MICKEY MANTLE REPRINT (1)
- 1959 Topps Mickey Mantle Reprint (1) - #'d to 58!

COMBINED INSERTION RATE FOR AUTOGRAPHED/RELIC- CARDS
- Inserted 1 Per Hobby Box!

WHAT WE PULLED

Base - 300/330 (90.9%)
Dupes - 13
Topps Rookie Redemption - 1

Topps Gold #/2009 (8) - Mike Fontenot, Kevin Frandsen, Gavin Floyd, Adam Jones, Bruce Bochy, Russell Martin, Billy Butler, Bengie Molina
Topps Black #/58 (1) - Clint Hurdle

Career Best Legends (6) - Babe Ruth, George Sisler, Jimmie Foxx, Jackie Robinson, Rogers Hornsby, Tris Speaker

Legends Of The Game (6) - Mike Schmidt, Paul Molitor, Randy Johnson, Ryne Sandberg, Steve Carlton, Trevor Hoffman

Ring Of Honor (6) - Jayson Werth, Dontrelle Willis, Luis Aparicio, Mark Buehrle, Brad Penny, Daisuke Matsuzaka

Topps Town Blue (32) - Joe Mauer, David Ortiz, x2, Jimmy Rollins, Derek Jeter, Ryan Bruan, Vladimir Guerrero, David Wright, Carlos Lee, Dustin Pedroia, Prince Fielder, Ian Kinsler, Justin Upton, Kosuke Fukudome, Carlos Zambrano, Nate McLouth, Manny Ramirez x2, Kevin Youkilis, Curtis Granderson x2, Todd Helton x2, Alex Rios, Roy Oswalt, Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, Daisuke Matsuzaka x2, Chase Utley x2

Topps Town Gold (4) - Joe Mauer, Vladimir Guerrero, Ian Kinsler, Kevin Youkilis

Turkey Red (9) - Josh Hamilton, Carlos Zambrano, Lou Gehrig, Prince Fielder, Dan Uggla, Jon Lester, Ryan Braun, Johnny Mize, Honus Wagner

World Baseball Classic (3) - Greg Halman, Frederich Cepeda, Fu-Te Ni

Career Best Relics (1) - Eric Chavez Bat

Final Ratings (Out of 5):
Base set: 3/5
Fun: 3/5
Overall design: 3/5
Value: 5/5
Re-buy: 5/5

Overall: 19/25 (76%)

Topps Series 2 is a continuation of Series 1 that was released earlier this year. The cards continue in sequential numbering from 331 to 660. The design stays the same as Series 1 and this is always a great set for set collectors.

In this box, we did get almost the entire set complete for Series 2. Getting 90% completion on a box with this many cards is great. Also, there was an insert of some type in every box.

The ToppsTown cards are collectible and that's nice to see as they serve a dual purpose. Also, there are two versions for each player (blue and gold) with the player in different poses.

Fans of the Turkey Red series have a reason to pick up these boxes. There are 50 more cards to collect and they looks great as a continuation of the Turkey Red sets that came out a couple of years ago.

All in all, this release, much like its predecessor is mainly for set collectors as well as low-end enthusiasts. This is a wonderful set to get kids invloved in trading between the low price point, easy to put together set and the ToppsTown cards.

One detractor I see is that some of the base cards have a printer issue. On the bottom of the cards where you find the player's name and team, it seems some of the cards we pulled did not get the silver stamping treatment. The entire area is void of any silver stamping, which means it's either an uncorrected error or there are issues with the printing process. If it was a printing error and some cards do indeed have the silver stamping, it becomes an irritation for collectors to have to track down those cards even though they already have them.

Once again, I'd like to thank Topps for providing us with this opportunity to open this box and review it. Be sure to check them out at topps.com for more information on this set and other releases.