2019 Topps Chrome Baseball Cards

The key rookie’s excelled and brought excitement to the set. You just need to look at the price of the prices just to open this stuff.

Anybody know the production number on the negative refractors?

They were in the mega boxes from Wal-Mart. Two five card packs per box.

Opened 1 Jumbo box 5 autos. Pulled a Trout base #200 Gold Refractor/50 and an Alonso & Tatis base RC. Also a Michael Kopech Auto. Without the Trout card the box would have been a semi-bust.

The worst part is that Topps and Walmart refuse to admit this is now rampant in card collecting.

I received this box to find out the box had been previously opened by someone whom must have then returned it to the store. The cards inside were not even in wrappers! Needless to say no hits. Out of the 100 boxes I have bought from Walmart this year 25 of them had been tampered with! Not a great track record! There is no reason for Walmart to accept returns on these items. Topps will replace any damaged cards you may get. The safest thing to do would to be to buy from Topps direct but they are in the US and don’t always sell all their products online. They make special sets you can only buy instore. I guess I am done with the hobby for a while until better security measures are put in place. Some of these cards go for hundreds of thousands of dollars, what an incentive for crooks!

I opened a case of blasters and was very disappointed.
3 numbered cards (Ichiro gold 84 insert /50)
1 auto (Reid-Foley base)
A got a handful of Alonso’s including prism and refractor, 1 Vlad, 1 Eloy, 1 Tatis

Overall, the value is not there at all in retail and from reading other people’s experiences, hobby/jumbo is a crapshoot.

Yes, fraud on eBay is alive and well. My brother (against my strong advice) bought 20 Bowman and Topps blasters from one seller and two hobby “factory sealed” Chrome boxes. Every pack was not only obviously searched and resealed (no Bart, no Franco, no Guerrero of any kind and no autographs) but also repackaged so that each pack had identical cards and collation, down to the inserts and card position in the packs. I told him to send them back and claim item not as described. There is no way those packs were factory originals. Ebay had no interest in getting my brother his money back. Do not buy loose packs or allegedly sealed boxes on eBay!

Aside from all the other fraud mentioned in many postings above, please note too that many ebay sellers are mislabeling WAVE parallels as regular non wave versions, and bidders fail to recognize the difference even when it is obvious from the photos.

card quality is high for the price. The inserts are nice, but I think it should have one insert set that has high odds. Like 1:36 packs.

I ripped both a hobby and a jumbo on release day and my overall impression of the product is average at best in terms of the autos you get. My best pull was a base Vladdy Jr. auto and that was just from a hobby box. Other than that the autos were below average.

So I Bought 5 retail blaster boxes at target and didn’t get anything too crazy, but I noticed my vlad, tatis jr, and alonso base RC cards are different card stock(brighter & slightly thicker) and about 1 cm shorter than the rest of cards. Are these SP or something? Thankyou

Decent cards for the money. Perfect for autograph collectors. I like finding the colored parallels, and those seem more scarce in boxes than other years. The design is a lacks imagination having borrowed everything from their base/flagship set. Overall as lower to mid priced baseball cards go it’s a good product.

Disappointing! Bought a Jumbo Hobby Box today for the 5 Autographs. Everyone one of the Auto’s have a $5 value. Topps really did a very bad job of putting the box together. How hard would it be to put more value into each of your boxes so that your customers can feel they made a good investment? Disappointing!!!

I like the Chrome set and didn’t have a great box opening but I don’t think they’re rigged. I also think the box break phenomenon will slow eventually. I used to do breaks along with buying boxes but the cards from the breaks graded terribly. Nothing above a 9 and some even as low as 7.5 from BGS. You can’t guarantee the cards are being handled correctly during a break and they end up losing a lot of value. Cards that I open myself consistently grade higher as they’re being handled properly from the beginning.

I initially bought 1 jumbo and 2 hobby boxes and got one solid hit in each box: Alonso auto, Riley refractor auto and Paddack orange auto /25. Feeling good about those, I went in for another hobby box and opened the worst Topps box of my life. Two common autos (neither a refractor), ZERO color! Nothing! Not a single serial numbered card in the box. No photo variations. Nada. Had I not personally selected and pulled the box from a sealed case, I would’ve suspected tampering.

Topps chrome is always my favorite set, and the checklist seems loaded this year. Only gets 4 stars because it doesn’t look as good in Chrome as I hoped it would

I like this set overall but I am not crazy about the fact that it has only two borders to judge centering. Many of the insert cards are colorful and look nice but when you think about it they are just that, insert cards. I was wondering if you have any information Trey, about the Eloy Jimenez base refractor card being a SP. I see several of them on eBay being listed as SP cards that is the number 202 refractor card of Eloy Jimenez but I don’t see any information on your site that says that is true. Do you have any information about the base refractor card being short printed? Would appreciate an answer when you have spare time. Thanks very much, Jim

I just opened my first blaster box and pulled a Vlad Refractor Auto. I have 8 more to go. I think I might just return them to the store. Its NOT going to get any better than this. I finally have pulled a card in retail.

Chrome is one of my favs. Got 2 boxes no great auto names but OK. Pulled 2 Tatis base ,a refractor and one base each of Alonso, Guerrero and 2 Jimenez so they are not SP’s. Cards 201-204 are same size as the rest so I don’t know what everyone is talking about. I have been buying from a local brick & mortar store for about 20+ years and never had a problem of repackaged boxes. Yes, group breaks are ruining the hobby.

Check the good players to get (non auto). Heard thru grapevine that a couple players were “cut short”…literally. Someone tried to grade and it got rejected saying manipulated. Checked my Tatis Jr Refractor and was fine, but checked a normal Tatis Jr and there you go…. the card is cut short. Soo frustrated. Heard it was cards 201 thru 204. No idea on how true on others, but I have a Tatis Jr that is not the same size as other 2019 Chromes so must be or something going on.

To address those complaining that certain Rookies are not in the release, because Topps is licensed they have to wait until a player reaches certain eligibility requirements to put a RC card in an MLB product. Bowman has to designate minor leaguers as Prospects and Panini, technically, does not make MLB cards.

This isn’t a rating so much as it is an observation. I’m glad there are collectors in our hobby that realize group breaks are one of the things killing this hobby. The shop I go to is struggling and part of the reason is that at least three regulars who bought $1000 worth of product once or twice a month have disappeared, all going to the group break scene. It’s so disheartening.

Bought a Jumbo Hobby Box from my local shop. What a mistake. 5 trash autographs and a rodriguez debut gear.

The shop posted on facebook a few short hours after I bought my box that another customer bought a jumbo box (presumably from the same case) that had a Josh James Gold Auto, Alonso Auto /250 and a base Alonso auto. All in the same box…

Then today they posted a customer bought a hobby box that had a Guererro Auto /150 and a Pete Alonso base. Glad to see that Topps is doing their due diligence to space the autos out so that some boxes are consolidated to great hits and the rest are complete garbage.

Responding to BradG – It does happen – I bought 24 blaster boxes from Lexington Online Auctions – When I received them I opened the first box to see all the packs had already been open. Long story short – Someone had purchased the cards from WMart opened them, put the cards they didn’t want back in, re-cellophane’d them cheaply and then returned them to WMart. Seemed like a lot of work to do for a $20-$30 a box but it happened!

I don’t think the game is rigged – I honestly believe the cards go out as advertised. I am in a very small town in Canada and have gotten numerous cards out of /50 /99 etc. What are the chances? I mean if only 50 of those exact cards were made, how did I get one? What bothers me is seeing cards on Ebay that are sold as 1/1 when no such card ever existed! Guess it is really easy to stamp gold leaf on cards at home! The card companies need to start treating this as currency as it has become and provide better security measures. First one to do that get’s ALL my business!

I actually like these cards more than the Bowman’s. However as a reseller, Bowmans get top dollar. I do however collect the rookies from this set. The only problem with this set is that you get exactly what it says on the box. If it says 2 auto’s and 1 #’d that is what you get – No surprises! If you find an auto in a Blaster box, buy a lotto ticket that week because the lottery is much easier to win!

Wow, how does Harper not have a base card? Ironic that he has a “Greatness Returns” insert comparing him to Ty Cobb… And no Realmuto either despite making the All Star Team. Might have to stick to Allen & Ginter this year out of principle.

This is just a disaster of a product. Senzel, Rodgers, Huira, Riley, Paddock all missing base cards or even basic inserts is a disgrace. But thanks for the filler chafe of Fransisco Arcia again. Roughly 10-20 guys no one wanted cards of make the checklist. Shameful topps, simple simply shameful.

so refractor and color autos are
499 – 250 – 150 – 150 – 99 – 50 – 50 – 25 – 25 – 5 – 5 – 1
thats 1300 autos per 76 signers just for the base rookie autos before you get to all other inserts auto thats like 99000 autos
I was at a game recently – and player X was signing and he has an auto in this – we talked about how many and how long it took him to sign all the autos .. he said this (Chrome) was the biggest batch by far so far

the regular batch was double the size of the batch with all the numbered versions..
so I am guessing another 2500 non ref auto

what it makes me say is that autos and mem cards used to justify box prices going into the triple digits and more.. but if they are making this insane amount of product..
then this is way WAY overpriced
a 2 auto box should be $40 a box and a five auto box should only be like $90..
any more and its WAY TOO MUCH based on this crazy production ..
wont be buying this anymore..

Maybe your getting boxes that have already been gone through and resealed. You gotta know where its coming from. You cant just order the cheapest hobby box on ebay. With everybody having a vaccume sealer in thier house, Its too easy to reseal packs now days. Then, even when you get it from a trusted sorce, you gotta go over it and make sure its sealed. If it looks tampered with, or if its not sealed in plastic that says “topps” all over it, in blue, then send it back. Then, check the packs, each one of them should be uniform and look like they were sealed by a machine. Cause they were. No tears around the seams, all seams. No dimples in the middle of the packs, they shouldn’t look like they have been handled. Also look for uniformity amongst the packs. Nothing different should be noticeable about the packs, unless of coarse the odd one is a hit of some kind. You got to watch these crooks, and there are a lot of them in this hobby, and most of them use ebay for a tool. Of coarse your going to pay a little more, but thats how it goes, criminals want and usually need to offload quickly. So they are going to under bid, and why not? Thier product is a scam anyway. Ever since I started being vigilant about this, ive started getting awsome hits, and all the time. I just got a smoltz auto book in a A&G hobby box the other day. Those are going for $300 on ebay right now. Also found a stained glass mini, and a framed mini auto, along with a bunch of #’ed cards and short prints and parallels, all in the same box. So I now they’re out there. You just gotta be 100% that your box hasn’t been messed with between the factory and you. When I get my box’s, im just looking for ay reason at all just to send it back, all I need is one reason. Hell, if im just getting a bad vibe from a box, ill send it back.

The hobby is definitely rigged. I believe I’ll be walking away soon. These guys know exactly where the best hits are in the cases. It’s not a coincidence that the dealers and breakers get the best hits. I’ve always like these chrome cards, but the hobby as a whole is terribly unbalanced.

How is Bryce Harper not worthy of a base card in this set over players like Alex Avila, Joey Rickard, Colin Morin, and Jose Urena?

Two reasons why breakers get the majority of the best stuff. First, they make backdoor agreements with the manufactures. Second manufactures want to weed out wholesale distributors/card shops and sale directly to breakers at the prices that the wholesalers sale at up to full retail prices. Just to show you how corrupt the card industry is Allen & Ginter X was sold out before I even got the email that it was available.

Chrome used to be great break but looking back at the amount of I have dropped on this product the last couple of years, it is simply not worth the money. Way, way too many autographs of players that only their momma’s will ever know who they are. Skipping this year’s product. Actually most products Topps puts out now are watered down from previous years.

I agree…this isn’t a terrible price…the hobby is being DESTROYED by group breaks…not only do they drive up the price but I have . feeling that they somehow get preferential boxes off the line as they are always the ones getting the good!

Topps doesnt make you pay anything , prices get driven up by demand & stupid *** group breaks – which have RUINED this once amazing hobby. I dont get why people whine on here so much, dont like it /think its watered down etc? than dont freaking buy it. just buy singles of what you want on ebay , its WAYYY cheaper anyway.

John is so correct..
Topps clearly does not care in making sure this is the best set.. as it once was..
Panini needs to get the logos permission and MLB needs to tell Topps they are ancient history based on how many reprints they insist on making..

Optic hot boxes – 5 autos at the price of 3 .. and most times they are 3-4 with color
but
Topps makes you pay triple $ to get 5 autos and almost always just 1 color if you are lucky. sux to spend $250 for a 5 jumbo box and get all non-ref autos..
meanwhile all the break sites hit color like crazy..

Come on Topps, Optic can include Nick Senzel
Carter Kieboom, Keston Hiura, Austin Riley – Brendan Rodgers – Why can’t you.

Best 👍 product of the year 📦
topps Chrome it fun to open it 😃
shiny cards ⭐️ Good value 💵 amazing rookie this years Alonzo Guerrero tatis jr love ❤️ this product thanks Topps 🧸

This is something I’ll stay away from until the price comes down (if the price comes down). There’s just not enough in the checklist for me to justify spending upwards of $110 on a hobby box that will likely provide me with 2 rookie autos of guys I’ve never heard of. Some will get nice hits but they will be few and far between. Topps continues to water down their products by increasing production of cards that no one collects. This is more like a $75-$80 per hobby box product IMO. Good luck to those ripping into this next week!

If 201-204 are Sp Rookies I might quit Topps products, they try and make them difficult to pull in flagship and now it seems they’re taking that route in other important brands. I’m sorry, no one should have to spend over the hobby price to keep searching for just one of those sp rookies. They are making update a weaker product, those rookies cards will not carry the same value as SPs

We’re all the new rookies? Or this year’s rc are not that good? Only 5 I can think are ok

why doesn’t topps do players only cards, set should be around 500 cards. eliminate league leaders, playoffs, all star cards which are useless & other sub-set cards.

Easy set for A’s team collectors, 6 base cards, 1 rookie auto card, no base variations, 1 1984 subset card and unfortunately no 1984 auto of Matt Chapman, the only A’s player in the 1984 subset. Oh and of course, NO cards OR auto’s of players including HoFer’s, who actually played in 1984 in the ’84 subset either…

Anyone know if 201-204 are SP or regular base?

Will there be the Wal-Mart mega boxes again with “X-Fractor” cards? I only ask because I don’t see those listed in the parallels.

Just to get rid of those old relics they have from players’ old teams is my guess

Topps is the king of ruining good ideas. On the ‘debut gear’ card: “Item may not be from player’s debut season” . What is the point? OK, then it’s not debut gear. At least their honest. Ugh.

I think otani’s card outta exell but so as some of this card their owesom where do you get such a good idea.