2010 Topps Series 2 Baseball
Hobby Box Price: $65Jumbo Box Price: $120
Good: Great kids product, You Sketch It Cards, Red Hot Rookie Redemptions, Million Card Giveaways, 3-D Inserts, Non-Yankee Pie In the Face Short Prints, Low Box/ Pack Price, Jason Heyward and Austin Jackson Rookie Cards aplenty.
Bad: Turkey Red inserts are getting really old, Peak Performance Auto's are cheesy, Thin card stock, Gold Cards are ugly, "Cards Your Mother Threw Away" and "Topps Legends Vintage Collection" look too similar.
The Bottom Line: 2010 Topps Series 2 is the perfect product for kids, set builders, and collectors who look at cards as a hobby instead of an investment opportunity. In baseball cards, there is the Bowman crowd and then there's the base Topps crowd.
If you enjoyed 2010 Topps Series 1, then you will enjoy Series 2, you might even enjoy it more. Between the Million Card Giveaway Code Cards, Red Hot Rookie Redemptions, plentiful amount of Jason Heyward Rookie Cards, and the "You Sketch It" cards, there is more than enough in Series 2 to justify paying $60-$70 for a 36-pack box or the occasional $2 pack.
Design: 3/5
I've never been a big fan of the base Topps look, I always envision the chrome version that will inevitably be coming down the road, but as far as base Topps goes, 2010 is one of the better looking years in recent memory.
The inserts are exactly what you would expect for a cheap pack price product, cheesy. I did however like the look of the "Legendary Lineage" inserts, I just wish they would have done a few dual relics like they are going to do in the upcoming 2010 Topps Football. The other insert that caught my eye were the 3-D inserts. You can never go wrong when you bring 3-D to cards!
Value: 4.5/5 With how hot baseball cards are right now, I don't think there's a product that doesn't have great value in it. When opening a box of this, it's a very relaxing experience due. It's nice to get a junk "Peak Performance" auto or relic and not even care due to the value outside of the hits in this years Topps Baseball. The real value of the product lies in the following five areas:
- Million Card Giveaway Code Cards
- SP/Variations
- Pie In the Face Short Prints
- Jason Heyward Rookie Cards
- "You Sketch It" Cards
Checklist: 4/5
The base card checklist isn't too exciting outside of Jason Heyward. The insert checklist is extremely mysterious and intriguing. The "History of the World Series" insert was an awesome idea, there had better be a Jack Morris 1991 Game 7 World Series card included, the Twins tend to get forgotten in such insert sets!
Easily, the best part about the Series 2 checklist is how open-ended it is, between the Million Card Giveaway code cards, the Red Hot Rookie Redemptions, and the "You Sketch It" cards, there are a million possibilities for what can pulled out of a single pack or box!
Enjoyability: 4.5/5
The most enjoyable part about this product is how creative and open ended it is. My favorite addition to Series 2 is hands down the "You Sketch It" cards, which are blank cards that you draw, sketch, or paint a picture of a card from 2010 Topps or 2010 Bowman, then send it in with the possibility of your creation appearing in a future product! The other thing I thoroughly enjoy every year are the "Red Hot Rookie" Redemptions, which will be especially exciting considering the 2010 Rookie Class might be the best class in baseball history.
- Who Will Enjoy It: Kids, Set Builders, Vintage Collectors, Enjoyment Collectors
- Who Won't Enjoy It: Hit Men, Autograph Collectors, Investment Collectors, Flippers
Box Break:
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Jacob Wagner | Jul 14, 2010 | Reply
I would give this set a 5/5. I love the card design and the inserts are cool. All of the hat relics are a nice addition. The Heyward RC is always good.
Ben Barron | Jul 14, 2010 | Reply
As for a review on this product there isn’t really that much to say that hasn’t already been stated above. I agree with basically the entire review that is posted. It is a great set for “set collectors” and even though I feel like there is a little room for improvement in the card design area overall this is a solid low end product. Plus every now and then you get a cool insert. I give it a 3.5 out of 5.
Jayman | Dec 5, 2010 | Reply
The only thing missing in this review is the sponsorship by Topps for this review.
Although the graphics and card design are nice as well as some of the inserts. The pictures are HORRIBLE as they have been for the last several years! Unless you prefer unrecognizable, distant backsides for player pictures for which the set consist largely of this type of garbage. These type of pictures are simply a cost cutting measure, since using quality posed pictures over the “pictures from the bleachers” Topps uses, takes more time to produce. Kids or collectors will NOT enjoy these cards as they can not relate to familiarization of who is pictured on the cards in most cases. Also the T3 reprints are an absolute waste of card stock. Since Topps has re-established monopolization of the baseball card market.. I expected a return to quality… A real grade for this set (Series I, II & update) is a generous 2.0 out of a 5.