Buzz Break: 2018 Topps Holiday Box baseball cards

 From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The box: 2018 Topps Holiday Box baseball cards
Where to buy: Click here

Packs per box: 10
Cards per pack: 10
Cards in this box: 98
Base set completion: 
92 of 200 (46 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Mike Trout, Carlos Correa, Chris Sale, Mookie Betts, Max Scherzer, Aaron Judge, Manny Machado, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, Nolan Arenado, Joey Votto, Paul Goldschmidt, Jacob deGrom, Buster Posey, Francisco Lindor, Yu Darvish, Javier Baez, Ichiro Suzuki, Bryce Harper

Rookie Cards (16) – Shohei Ohtani, Ozzie Albies, Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar, Christian Villanueva, Scott Kingery, Nick Williams, Mike Soroka, Nick Kingham, J.P. Crawford, Jordan Hicks, Tyler O'Neill, Dominic Smith, Dustin Fowler, Francisco Mejia, Garrett Cooper

Insert cards: 5 (all in gallery below with some base)
Metallic Snowflake (5) – Starling Marte, Yoenis Cespedes, Kyle Schwarber, Robbie Ray, Fernando Romero

Autographs/Memorabilia: 1
Holiday Relic (1) – Jose Altuve

What's Buzz-worthy: These are a safe alternative to Topps Update blasters in that they guarantee you about a 50 percent shot at any particular rookie in the set and they guarantee a hit every time -- with a likely lower print run, too, despite the boxes delivering plenty. This box? Not super-flashy (my parallels were downright bad this time) but it still included a number of names and a quality (yet affordable) guy for the hit. Autos are possible here -- even of some good names -- so they are worth a look while they last. ... As said last time I busted one of these, you still might be seeing these around some card aisles (if not hit the link above). The overall format of this one is in line with past versions -- a 200-card, rookie- and star-packed base set with glittery parallels to mix things up and then a hit. The parallels could end up being a longer-term sleeper here as it will take 40 boxes with perfect collation to build a set -- see the checklist here -- and you can do the math when it comes to finding any particular card. The key rookies here will be the bigs for the parallels while the basic cards should be relatively available as you get almost half of a set in a box. There are some much-rarer gold parallels and the hits also have parallels and autograph versions at long odds. Your easiest autograph is one in 297 packs (30 boxes) so those might make for interesting auctions as there is ink from Adrian Beltre, Anthony Rizzo, Bryce Harper, Jose Altuve, Juan Soto, Kris Bryant, Mike Trout, Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuña Jr., Rhys Hoskins, Shohei Ohtani and Walker Buehler among others. The auto Relic list is also strong with a Santa Claus card worked in alongside the likes of Aaron Judge, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, Trout, Albies, Bryant, Acuña and others.

Product Grade: A
Box Grade: B
Fun Grade: B

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