Thursday, October 22, 2026

You ain't gonna believe this.

 Then again....yes you will. We are used to this CRAP by now. I am talking about Topps gimmicks, tricks, and overall BS.

Last month was my birthday and a couple of my siblings gifted me money/gift card. I decided right away I would use those funds to take care of Topps Holiday and Update once they were released.

I pre-ordered three (3) Mega boxes of the Holiday 5 days later when they were available. Sure enough I got my 3 boxes on release day which was yesterday. A very small box containing all 3 was delivered to houses over by UPS, no biggie I still got them. Each box of the MEGA contained 10 packs with 10 cards each plus 1 over size ornament. Each box would also contain either a relic, auto, or a base chrome card. I was really looking forward to the latter. 



Just 2 of the boxes. the boxes had no unused space inside which is nice for a change.




The three OZ d/c ornament cards. There are other standard size ornaments again this year with stockings again,and I think gingerbread (not sure on that one).


Now for box one. I scanned all 100 cards. All 10 packs.


Pack 1:




Yes you see that correctly. Each pack (basically) gives you 3 three base cards, 1 other parallel usually the standard metallic/glitter (whatever they call it), 3 green foil, and 3 red foil cards. In essence, you are building three equally distributed per pack parallel sets. Here I thought 3 boxes would net me close to a full base set.....WRONG. 1/3 AT BEST!


next pack:



The Walker is NOT a base card it is an card back variation. The "difference is mainly around the border of the team logo on the back of the card, so stupid that I won't scan it. The are a total of 3 SP/SSP variations in each box.



pack 3:



pack 4:



pack 5


pack 6


Anthony is one of the regular Holiday Variations. Topps coded these ending in 006 and the back variations are 007. The standard base cards and the red and green parallels end in 977.




pack 7


Ah crap.. There is a Chrome base in this box meaning no relic or auto for me.


pack 8

Mookie is a back variation.




pack 9


box 10



Thanks a lot Topps. Now even 10 MEGA boxes isn't enough to build a complete 200 card base set. I should have stuck to my usual habit of just waiting it out and buying a cheap base set on EBay. (I may still do that just to complete the base set).

For boxes 2 and 3 (separate posts) I did NOT scan every card, just parallels for the most part and variations. Half the scans are gone. So those will be quickies that I'll do tomorrow and again on Tuesday.

I am so disappointed! I don't rip hardly any packs, and I was so looking forward to ripping these packs this year. But right from the first pack and definitively from the 2nd pack the wind was sucked right out of me. This was not good very bad. Now even after all 3 boxes were opened I didn't get any dupes, not a single one. But when you only get 3 cards (including the parallels) dupes would have made this so much worse, but alas no dupes of any kind at all across the board. NONE.

SPOILER ALERT:

1). I didn't get any relics or autos either. All three boxes had Topps Chrome SPs.

2) I have already gone to Ebay, found the cheapest complete set and made an offer and it was accepted. So for less than what I paid for just 2 of those Mega boxes I have the complete "regular" base set coming to me. I should have done that to begin with.

13 comments:

  1. I like the green parallels. I will not be building this. Back variations suck.

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  2. My brother-in-law got a few boxes. He is excited about the parallels and might try to finish the parallel sets, but he got screwed by getting all Chromes as well.

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    Replies
    1. there are 50+ parallel sets. The Green and Red foils are exclusive to the Mega boxes, the blasters and advent boxes have their exclusives too.

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  3. Really nice looking cards. Only 2 Twins in the whole thing? Oh well. Enjoy it all!

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  4. Johnny thanks for the heads up warning & if ya want to unload anything of it lmk I'll try to salvage something when I get a chance to build my set

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  5. Thanks for showing off the results of your box break. I like the red and green parallels, but hate that Topps produced so many of them. It's already frustrating when Topps includes one parallel per pack of ten cards, but to insert 6 or 7 per pack is dumb. I'll probably go the eBay route to get my set. Unless they have the advent calendar with the 2 buyback cards again. I liked those last year.

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    Replies
    1. the Advent boxes have "exclusive" parallels too, so I'm leary they might be loaded with parallels too.

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    2. Pure binder filler for the guys I collect. Mainly hoping to pull another Gwynn buyback.

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  6. Only 3 base cards per pack is brutal. I hope this isn't something Fanatics is planning to do regularly...

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  7. That stinks. And I hate variations on the back.

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    Replies
    1. literally they are stupid. what makes it worse is that there are Sp's and SSP's for some of them.

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  8. Man what a ripoff! I used to like collecting these because the base set is nice and small and there is a slight chance of actually completing the set.

    Not that it matters to Fanatics/Topps but I've stopped buying anything retail. No packs, no hanger boxes, no blasters.

    I was at the card shop two weekends ago with my youngest and we spend about 2 hours looking at monster boxes of 70s and 80s cards. $10 for 350 cards.

    A box of Alan & Ginter for $230, absolutely ridiculous? The modern scene is nothing more than unregulated gambling, which is sad to see. I'll stay the course with filling out Vintage Cubs team sets, Gold Cup rookies and World Series cards and be content in my own world!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. steer clear of the MEGA boxes! Unless you want to build 3 separate sets.

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