2014 Topps Chrome Baseball jumbo box

Sport:  Baseball
Product:  2014 Topps Chrome jumbo box
Break Date:  September 5, 2014
Hit Breakdown:  Five autographs
Summary:  So three hobby boxes in, and I was STILL 98 cards away from completing the 220-card 2014 Topps Chrome baseball set. I told myself "one more box." Just one more.

But, rather than go hobby, I went JUMBO!

I figured, at least I'd have five autographs out of the ordeal, and maybe I'd hit an Abreu or something - I mean, everyone else seems to be pulling Abreu, so why can't I?

Now, the absurdity of all of this Topps Chrome business is that I'm now nearly $400 in the hole to build a set that I could buy for 10% of the buy-in cost...but that's obviously not nearly is fun.

I didn't pull my Abreu, and I'm still about 50 cards shy of the set. But, at the very least, this box was great.

The first auto that came out was a good start - a refractor Marcus Stroman. The second was a Wilmer Flores, who everyone seems to be pulling. The third and fourth were Nick Castellanos and Yordano Ventura, so I was pleased with those.

Then, I hit the last pack of the box, knowing that I was due one more. I saw the edges of a Chrome Connections card and figured it was the second insert, since those seem to fall two per box. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got to that card in the stack and saw it was signed by Paul Goldschmidt, and numbered to 25. A HUGE hit, because I have been wanting a Goldschmidt and it's a sharp card.

Overall, the box was a home run in my opinion, and I was certainly due having stepped to the plate three times already with little show for it. Out of the four autos, really only one was pedestrian.

Oddly enough, there was no Topps Shelf insert in the box, and I know those fall one per hobby box...either I was shorted it or they don't fall in every jumbo box. But, that's really insignificant.

On another note, the fact that I've opened two hobby boxes and one jumbo box and still need about 20% of the set is pretty insane (the second hobby box was the refractor hot box, so I don't count that one). A 220-card set shouldn't be that hard to complete.

Grade for the product:  A-

Grade for the break:  A+

Chrome Connections Die Cuts Autographs /25:  Paul Goldschmidt
Rookie Autographs Refractors /499:  Marcus Stroman
Rookie Autographs:  Nick Castellanos, Yordano Ventura, Wilmer Flores
Sepia Refractor /100:  Tommy Medica (RC)
Blue Refractor /199:  Matt Kemp
Chrome Connections Die Cuts:  Ryan Braun
'89 Chrome:  Masahiro Tanaka (RC), Yasiel Puig, Buster Posey, Robinson Cano
Xfractor:  Hisashi Iwakuma, Jonathan Lucroy
Refractor:  Trevor Rosenthal, Andrelton Simmons, Christian Bethancourt (RC), Avisail Garcia