Hobby Box Break and Review: 2011 Topps Series 2

I know we already broke a case of the stuff and you have seen what is in the Jumbo boxes, but now you can take a look at what you can get inside a hobby box.

Each hobby box contains 36 packs per box, 10 cards per pack and is currently selling for around $50. I think $50 for this product is more than fair with the amount of cards in each box plus the Diamond Code cards and a hit.

Base cards: 280 total, zero doubles. Not bad if you are a set builder, not bad at all.

60th Anniversary cards

I get that there should be one card from each year commemorating 60 years, but seriously I think this would have been better left to just doing highlights from the years that are more scarce than doing it this way. I think I still have the Posey card on my desk somewhere not even put away yet.

1 original back 60th Anniversary card of Roy Halladay

9 Diamond Duos cards
6 Topps Town cards. Seriously, aren't we over these yet? I think this is one of those insert sets that Topps can kill next year. I almost don't even feel like they are inserts, almost like a promo card or checklist type of card that I just want to chuck in the pail. I know that sounds terrible but I just can't be bothered.

Topps 60, 9 cards. These are fun. I like them because they have players from all years on the same design. For me, this works much better than the 60 Years of Topps/Anniversary card set of re-prints. I have enough lame 1980's and 90's cards laying around. I like this set much better for the same purpose.

Before There Was Topps, 2 cards. Lame. Enough said.

4 gold cards
1 black card /60. This was nice to pull from a hobby box, most of the time it seems like you only see these in Jumbo boxes, or maybe that is just me.

Diamond Stars, 6 cards. Probably one of my favorite subsets of Series 2 just because it's something different and the background makes the player images really pop.

Diamond Anniversary Sparkle cards, 1o total. I think these were a fun parallel for this year being the anniversary but I wouldn't want to see them again unless they used this design for Chrome Xfractors.

Diamond Anniversary short print card of Jim Palmer

Kimball Champions mini cards. What else can I say about these cards? I love them, and I love mini cards. I think each year Topps flagship set should include a mini set, but each year make it different. Maybe some Turkey Red mini's next year? =) That would be AWESOME.

Ohhhh!!! Robbie Cano, don't ya know?! A-W-E-S-O-M-E.
Code cards


Report card.....

Design: A

I have to stick with my original opinion from Series 1 on the design aspect of the set. It's not like it changed or anything.

Value: A

The price point of roughly $50 per hobby box is on point for this product. You get a ton of base cards for set building or team collecting plus a great variety of inserts and parallels. You really can't go wrong for $50 give or take a few bucks.

Quality: A

There were no doubles, no damaged cards, and there were a ton of inserts in the box.

Overall: A

This is a great follow up set to Series 1 and includes some of the same sets that were inserts in series 1 and some new additions to the mix as well. I think Topps did a pretty good job with the 60th Anniversary stuff throughout series 1 and 2 this year.

P.S. Stay tuned to see what we are going to do with the cards from this break.