Buzz Break: 2021 Topps Series 1 baseball cards (blaster box)

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: 2021 Topps Series 1 baseball cards (standard blaster)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
First Buzz preview with checklist/SPs/more: Click here

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery of what was in this one.

Packs per box: 8 (seven standard, one 70th anniversary patch-card pack)
Cards per pack: 14
Cards in this box: 99
Base set completion: 
86 of 350 (25 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (with hand sanitizer), Mike Trout, Yu Darvish, Clayton Kershaw, Aristides Aquino, Nick Senzel, Rafael Devers, Freddie Freeman, Pete Alonso, Cavan Biggio, Aaron Judge, Jesus Luzardo

Rookie Cards (16) – Nick Neidert, Humberto Mejia, Dane Dunning, Mitch White, Codi Heuer, Dalton Varsho, Daniel Johnson, Isaac Paredes, Santiago Espinal, Cristian Javier, Spencer Howard, Albert Abreu, Tarik Skubal, Kodi Whitley, Jesus Sanchez, Cristian Pache

Insert/short-print cards: 13 (all in gallery below with some base)
70 Years of Topps (1) – Brooks Robinson
1986 Topps (1) – Xander Bogaerts
Home Run Challenge (1) – Yordan Alvarez
Platinum Players (1) – Justin Verlander
1952 Topps Redux (7) – Alec Bohm, Dylan Carlson, Casey Mize, Joey Votto, Freddie Freeman, Gleyber Torres, Stephen Strasburg
1952 Topps Redux Chrome (1) – Shohei Ohtani
Topps Commemorative 70th Anniversary patch cards (1) – Ichiro Suzuki

Autographs/Memorabilia: None

What's Buzz-worthy: A slow Monday afternoon today so I dipped into my stash of boxes in waiting to drop one of these ... nothing super-flashy in this one but a decent mix and further reinforcement in my mind that the retail-only 1952 cards are a true highlight -- and that these boxes all need some more variety added to them. (This is a standard blaster so there are no Blue parallels as noted in the main photo -- that's a Walmart box and those couple of colorful cards make a difference for sure ... but there even needs to be more beyond those.) With more inserts, these boxes would be a lot more fun and a good value when you land somebody of note among those cards. As they are now, blasters seem like they can be very hit and miss ... the rock of consistency being those 1952s. As I noted in my previous breaks, this one is going to be a beast in Chrome with Refractor stock, etching and colorful parallels. ... The Rookie Card presence here is beefy -- 50 RCs -- but I think I'll wait and see how they shake out on the field to assess more.  There are a number of nods to the mask-wearing MLB world of last year with cardboard cutouts in the stands ... and you'll even see a card showing what I believe to be hand-sanitizer for the first time in baseball card history. That, to me, right now feels like one of the more iconic and simple base cards of the year so far.

Product Grade: A
Box Grade: B+
Fun Grade: B (need more parallel volume or one more insert here in this format for my taste)

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