2013 Topps Retail - Product Review & Trade Bait

Yesterday I was able to stop by Walmart and pick up some 2013 Topps - I was pretty excited to see them on the shelf.  I picked up 2 blasters, a rack pack and 2 regular packs.  I thought I would share some of my favorite base cards along with the inserts and parallels I pulled and do a semi-review of the product.

My LCS is going to hold a Jumbo Box for me when it comes in tomorrow so expect another post with the Jumbo box goods.

Let's start with the base.  Here are a few of my favorites:

 You can tell I am a fan of action shots, but aren't we all. Loving the crowd reaction in the Raburn card.  The Machado with the ball at his hat is a great action shot, I like it when the ball in motion makes it into the picture.  Daniel Murphy is getting some sweet air with a twisting throw to first.  I am enjoying the Brandon Crawford slide into the plate with the dust flying. Kipnis is turning two and getting a little air himself.  Finally Jon Jay crashing into the wall and I think making the catch.

The Brendan Ryan card features another turn of two and ball in flight.  Will Middlebrooks is in process of making a diving play.  The Aceves and Inge have been shown quite a bit and are awesome cards.  Finally we have the Kung Fu Panda launching one of his three Game 1 HRs to propel the Giants to victory.

I love the Rookie Cups and got 3 in these packs.  Glad to score a Harper and Davish.

Next up is my one and only gold parallel:

Wishing I would have scored a Giants card.  Only pulling one of these makes me think these may be harder to come by this year, just how much product did Topps produce?  It will be interesting to see how many I get out of the Jumbo box.

The emerald parallels are a little more common:

I am actually liking the green parallels and looking forward to making a Giants team set.  Got the Romo to start it off.  Heath Bell is an obvious Photoshop job.  I scored 6 in my packs, again should be interesting to see how many show up in the Jumbo box.

The Walmart blue parallels are different this year with 2 per pack so I got a pretty big stack. I will just show the Giants (woo hoo I got 5!) but there will be a list by team at the end of the post as trade bait.

The Scutaro in the rain card is a beauty!

Let's take a look at some inserts, I am scanning all the inserts I scored in these packs:

These are titled Chasing History and feature a chase at a record, some successful and some not.  I like that both are included. The Santana and the first Dunn are the Shiny version that I believe came in the rack pack.  I am guessing these will be more limited and maybe only to the rack packs. Methinks I will only be going after the non-shiny ones even though the shiny looks pretty nice.  We have an obvious mix of current and former players which I happen to enjoy.  My favorite is probably the Carew sporting the Twins uni.

 Next are the Calling Card inserts.  These kind of look like an Allen and Ginter type insert to me with the coloring and fancy borders.  These feature something the player is known for - Fielder his size, Ortiz with his pre-hitting ritual, Lincecum with his year long dirty hat and Phillips his hitting crouch. I like the concept, not sure on the design quite yet. I suspect it will grow on me.

 This is the Chasing the Dream set and features younger players who are starting to make a name for themselves.  The write ups feature something about the player when they were growing up.  The write ups are somewhat unique, not a horrible concept.  Again, not too sure on the design.

And the Minis! I am a fan.  They are printed on cardboard stock and feature one of my favorite designs from 1972.  Gwynn was the only retired player I received, can't wait to see some of the other cards of players post 1972 who are retired. Two thumbs up from me, I am liking them even more than the 1987 from last year.

I didn't score one of the sweet looking die cut inserts.  Hoping my Jumbo is kinder with the die cuts.

Here are the two Commemorative Patches from the boxes:

 The Pedoria doesn't really excite me too much both in design and subject matter.  Seems pretty similar to other manupatches we have seen.

My assessment of these is far different.  These are silk mini reprints of the rookie cards and I scored I nice one in Ken Griffey Jr.  I am going to need to track down at least Willie McCovey, Rickey Henderson and Willie Mays. These may be worth going for the whole set.

So what do I have in the way of trade bait?  Once I get my Jumbo box and put together a set, I will have tons of base for trade, I should know what is available by the end of the week so let me know.  The Gold parallel and non-Giants Emerald parallels are for trade.  The Pedroia is available as well.  I think I may hold onto the Griffey but could be enticed for one of my guys.  I am keeping the inserts as I will be putting sets together.

Finally, I have a big stack of Walmart parallels, I sorted them by team as most of us seem to be team collectors.  I really would like to trade for either inserts or Giants parallels I need. I am in a couple of group breaks so I would prefer waiting until those are over to finalize any trades. If you have something else off my trade list, we can probably work out a deal as well.  Also, if you want to ask me to put something aside until the breaks are done, I would be happy to do so, especially if we have traded in the past.

Here is the Walmart parallel list:

A’s

85 Sean Doolittle

259 Bartolo Colon

Astros

319 Brian Bogusevic

Brewers

307 Norichika Aoki

Cardinals

125 Matt Holiday Wild Card X2

4 Yadier Molina

321 Allen Craig

130 Jason Motte

Cubs

280 Rafael Dolis

Dodgers

263 Ted Lilly

74 Kenley Jansen

295 Brandon League

Mariners

277 Brendan Ryan

157 Carter Capps

Mets

109 Kirk Nieuwenhuis

60 Jon Rauch

129 Ike Davis

Padres

77 Dustin Moseley

324 Cameron Maybin

Phillies

249 Vance Worley

Pirates

174 Jason Grilli

Rangers

30 Neftali Feliz

Reds

251 Sean Marshall

166 Logan Ondruske

Red Sox

91 Alfredo Aceves

64 Will Middlebrooks

66 Daniel Nava

Rockies

165 Ramon Hernandez

Royals

243 Aaron Crow

Tigers

121 Delmon Young

327 Jhonny Peralta

White Sox

49 Chris Sale

285 Addison Reed

Yankees

326 Andruw Jones

114 Casey McGehee

Leaders

194 AL RBI Leaders – Cabrera/Tigers, Hamilton/Rangers, Encarnacion/Blue Jays

287 NL Wins Leaders – Gonzalez/Nationals, Dickey/Mets, Cueto/Reds

272 NL RBI Leaders – Headley/Padres, Braun/Brewers, Soriano/Cubs

I am very excited that Topps 2013 is released and looking forward to some increased trade activity.