Buzz Break: 2018 Topps Big League baseball cards (blaster)

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The box: 2018 Topps Big League baseball cards (blaster box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com

Packs per box: 6 (five standard, one Blue bonus parallel pack)
Cards per pack: 10 in standard four in bonus
Cards in this box: 54 (plus one more on the box)
Base set completion: 
43 of 400 (11 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Base cards – Ted Williams, Mookie Betts, Corey Seager, John Smoltz, Jose Altuve, Buster Posey, McCovey Cove, Stan Musial Statue, AL Hits Leaders, NL Slugging Percentage Leaders, NL Home Runs Leaders, 2017 AL Batting Average Leaders,

Rookie Cards (4) – Shohei Ohtani, Parker Bridwell, Miguel Andujar, Gleyber Torres

Insert cards: 12 (all inserts and some base in gallery below)
Box card (1) – Shohei Ohtani
Players Weekend variation (1) – Anthony Rizzo
Ministers of Mash (1) – Rhys Hoskins
Yellow parallel (5) – J.D. Martinez, Dallas Keuchel, Daniel Murphy, Mitch Haniger, Jorge Alfaro
Blue parallel (4) – AL Runs Leaders, Scott Kingery, Andrew Triggs, Josh Bell

Autographs/Memorabilia: None

What's Buzz-worthy: This one is a throwback that's all about the base set. It's made up of 400 cards with veterans, rookies and a few subsets -- Stat Kings (leaders), All-time Greats and Ballpark Landmarks. (The Bark at the Park cards didn't make the cut. Woof.) The printing here is gloss-free and foil-free and is quite clean and crisp, giving it a strong simple feel. This one is a big set, meaning you may not have an easy time pulling one particular card, but the blasters carry a $9.99 suggested retail price. One fun thing with this release are box-panel cards -- there are four, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge -- and there are some fun images mixed into the release without being too cheesy. (I'd be fine with more of that, myself, just to mix things up.) There are Players Weekend cards that have a totally different design and are a variation since the card numbers are the same while there are a number of intentional error variations where images are completely different, some images are printed upside down or flipped backwards, while other cards have simple Photoshop manipulations to change small details in images -- you can see a number of them discovered so far in the gallery right here. The error variations are one in 507 packs in these boxes so I wouldn't expect one. Among tougher pulls are Star Caricature Originals (sketches) at one in 33,129 and a Topps Now World Series Set instant win card at one in 10,336. Autographs start at one in 276 for rookies and 374 for veterans and there are some big names possible. For the price, this is a fun rip with potential though it's lean on inserts that aren't parallel cards so it could be a little more exciting. Some oddball inclusions (woof!) would help make this one a fun no-brainer more than it is.

Product Grade: A
Box Grade: A- (two Ohtani cards and other top rookies helped)
Fun Grade: B+

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