the great topps chrome experiment

Topps Chrome. We all know what its all about. Refractors, tons of parallels, autographs, etc. etc. Having bought Topps Chrome from earlier years, I knew collecting 2010 would be a hard, wallet draining task. Four cards in a pack and one maybe two is an insert/parallel? Nuts to that. Packs are not the way to go for Chrome. Well, I wanted a set, and decided to try something different that I normally do. I was going to buy a box for the trade fodder, and then I would buy the set and the couple of cards I wanted and see if I could spend less on the set than the box. How'd I do? Lets take a look.

The box I purchased cost $75. Ended up with a refractor auto and a redemption auto. One Blue Jay card. ONE! Out of a full box. This certainly would not do.

Here is the list of what I wanted out of this set and what I paid on eBay (with shipping, because I did pay for shipping so I count it as cost for card):

220 card set - $37.49
Jays team set (5 cards) - 4.00
Mike McCoy auto (non-refractor) - 6.48
Vernon Wells Parallels:
Refractor - 3.98
X-Fractor - 2.99
Orange - 1.99
Purple (599) - 4.24
Blue (199) - 10.00
Gold (50) - 13.51
Red (25) - 14.61
Printer plate (black) - 25.52

Total - $99.29 without plate, $124.81 with the plate.

I would consider the plate an option due to it not really being part of the rainbow but I knew once it popped up, I wanted it. So I didn't spend less on the cards I wanted, but I would have spent a fortune to get all that in packs So I would say it worked out in my favor (kinda). This method may be what I may do in the future to save myself some headache and more importantly, cash. I would totally miss the fun of ripping packs and putting a set together myself, which is why I bought the box. Plus you never know if that box had the Strasburg superfractor auto.......right. Well, it was a hobby box, so it is a possibility. Speaking of hobby boxes, Topps is super conservative on the parallels this year. I seemingly got almost none. Not true of course, but it was very little.

That being said I have many Chromes for grabs if someone is trying to finish a set. BA Benny has laid claim to some Yankees, but other than that they are for trade. If you have a want list, let me know.

quickie post

I wasn't in the state today, and I didn't have much of anything to post. The Topps Chrome experiment is over, and I'm just waiting on two cards to get here to have everything (the 220 card set, a Jays team set, Mike McCoy auto, and the Vernon Wells rainbow; regular, refractor, x-fractor, orange, purple, blue, gold, red, and plate). Money-wise it worked out pretty good in comparison to how much I spent on the box. I'll break it down probably tomorrow, if I've the time. If not then, then Tuesday.

topps chrome

So Topps Chrome has hit store shelves. Initially I was kind of put off on buying any, due to the very small 4 card packs at 3 bucks per pack. Almost impossible to collect a set that way. Well, unless your wallet is fat, and mine ain't. So I decided to conduct an experiment. I did buy a box and two blasters. I didn't want to but I couldn't help myself. I didn't get anything spectacular. More base cards than I imagined though. I bought a bunch of 2008 Chrome for real cheap at a local store, they were on clearance. Each pack had at least one parallel, and sometimes an insert on top of that, leaving only two base cards. Needless to say I don't have a 2008 set. The hobby box I got had few parallels and even fewer inserts. The retail blasters had some better luck, with usually 6 parallels out of the 7 packs. Some of you have mentioned that was the case as well. So the experiment I am attempting is to see if I can get a full set, a Jays team set, the Mike McCoy auto, and the Vernon Wells rainbow (regular, refractor, xfractor, orange, purple, blue, gold, red, superfractor and print plate). The box cost me $75. I want to see if I can get all that for less than or equal to the box. With the exception of the superfractor, that'll be some money. I have already started it, and is well underway. When its completed I'll post up the results. Until then, if there is anyone going for a set, I have a bunch of duplicates due to the box and set coming.