2014 Topps Baseball Series 2 jumbo hobby box

Sport:  Baseball
Product:  2014 Topps Series 2
Break Date:  June 13, 2014
Hit Breakdown:   One Autograph, Two Relics
Summary:  My son and I were at our LCS back in April and picked up a jumbo box of 2014 Topps Series 1, intent on putting Topps' annual base set together. After the break, we had a decent amount of inserts, parallels, and a few hits. It was a mediocre break, but at the very least, we had the entire set minus ONE card - 330 out of 331.

Fast-forward a few months - Series 2 launched with decent buzz. People were pulling some nice hits out of their boxes, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on one.

If it's possible, this box was worse than the series one box. I know that, for the most part, Topps releases their base set for set collectors - not those looking to turn a profit. And, in general I'm not collecting to turn a profit anyway.

But, this thing was a hot mess. I don't have close to the entire set. The company obviously doesn't make any sort of claim that collectors will come close to a set out of a box. But, the collation was horrific. There were doubles of some base cards, triples of others, and there is no reason anyone should EVER hit two of a serial-numbered parallel in the same box did with the gold /2014 A.J. Burnett, ever. 

The hits themselves were pretty bad. Out of the three advertised hits, only the Cespedes /99 relic is of any real interest to anyone.

The box did have decent color - the Pink, Black, and Camo parallels are really nice, and I'm not sure if there are gold /2014 in every pack in all boxes, but this one did have one per pack. And, the two stamped buybacks, at the very least, were in good shape unlike the total disasters out of the first box.

At the end of the day, though, I bought the box to build the set and there's no way I came even close. I can't justify grading this break any higher than a C-.

Grade for the product:  B

Grade for the break:  C-

Trajectory Autographs:  Chris Owings
Trajectory Relics:  Alex Cobb
Class Rings Gold /99:  Yoenis Cespedes
Short Print Photo Variation:  Taijuan Walker
Pink /50:  AJ Burnett
Black /63:  Adam Dunn
Camo /99:  Jedd Gyorko
Gold /2014:  Tim Beckham (RC), AJ Burnett x 2, Avisail Garcia, Josh Willingham, Albert Pujols, Brandon Kintzler, Stephen Drew, Jeurys Familia, Felix Doubront,
Red Hot Foil:  Max Scherzer (Cy Young Award), Dallas Kuechel, Wandy Rodriguez, Dee Gordon, Zach McCallister, Peter Bourjos, Wil Myers (ROY), David Ortiz, Freddy Galvis, Conor Gillaspie
Power Players:  David Price, Matt Cain, Allen Craig
Stamped Buybacks:  Clarence Gaston (1975), Mike Bacsik (1977)
Future Stars that Never Were:  Jose Canseco, Greg Maddux
1989 Die Cut Mini:  David Wright, Juan Gonzalez, Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Robin Yount
Saberstars:  Matt Carpenter, Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Josh Donaldson
The Future Is Now:  Michael Wacha, Sonny Gray, Jarrod Parker, Kevin Gausman, Taijuan Walker 43, Taijuan Walker 44, Xander Bogaerts, Billy Hamilton 35, Billy Hamitlon 36 x 2, Freddie Freeman