here's a 2026 topps chrome blaster - all 28 cards of it

my blaster of 2026 topps chrome that i purchased directly from topps showed up on wednesday. that was in line with release day which is nice. four cards per pack, seven packs per blaster meant that these cards are priced at just over $1.40 each. that's steep. here's what i found:

pack 1:

three veterans and a gunnar henderson big ticket player insert

pack 2:

three more veterans (meaning non-rookies) and our first rookie of the pack - a nathan church refractor parallel.

pack 3:

konnor griffin base rookie, plus a sal stewart rookie 1991 design card and a raywave refractor of giancarlo stanton. elly de la cruz is sort of lost in the mix here.

pack 4:

the most interesting pack of the bunch! a second dodger for my collection, plus two cards of munetaka murakami. the seams parallel is decent - at least the design is clearly baseball affiliated.

pack 5:

three more veterans and a fernando tatis jr wrecking crew insert, paying tribute to a 30-year old insert design.

pack 6:

a rookie, a vet, plus a past to present insert featuring david wright and francisco lindor, and a george kirby refractor parallel

pack 7:

two vets, a rookie, and a red, white, and blue refractor parallel of daniel schneemann.

so that's it. that's a blaster.

i was surprised to see these packs be so veteran heavy as it feels like more and more of the checklists are devoted to rookies. not a lot to say other than i like the two blaster/value box exclusive refractor designs than some of the more traditional refractor parallel designs.

i also ordered a mega box that will trail this post by a couple of weeks i believe, and there will be more to share when it arrives. 

2026 topps series 2 blaster review

i pre-ordered a mega box (not yet shipped) and a blaster/value box (arrived on release day - june 10) directly from topps back on may 11 when series 2 was first offered. let's take a look at the six packs i opened from the blaster.

pack 1:

not a lot to say now that this is the second go around for the card design. pitchers pitching, batters batting. one fielder and a couple of base runners.

the nolan arenado stars of mlb insert is the start of what was a fairly diamondback heavy blaster, and the jt realmuto holiday foil (base - sun) is the one "new" thing in the pack.

pack 2:

four dbacks in this pack. the adrian del castillo card is clearly showing off a dodger stadium background, so i suppose i will add it to that mini-collection. i've sort of begun gatekeeping that collection a bit more.

chase delauter is one of the rookie cards people were anticipating with series 2, but his bat has cooled off after a hot first week to the season. the last three cards are all inserts/parallels with the oswaldo cabrera card being a rainbow foil. the adrian beltre card is from the "glove works" insert set (no wes parker or steve garvey on the checklist), and the munetaka murakami stars of mlb insert was nice to find instead of someone else. as i write this, i note that murakami has either homered or struck out in exactly 50% of his at bats so far this season. that's 20 homers and 80 k's in 200 official at bats. 

pack 3:

paul gervase is my first series 2 dodger, and he's actually still with the team (although his card is airbrushed). the big news in this pack, however, is that someone at topps forgot to turn on a level in the "titans of the game" insert images before sending them to the printer.

that jackson chourio card at the bottom of the image looks empty. i knew what it was, but still turned the card over 

to confirm that it was indeed a titans of the game card. as a reminder, here is what these cards looked like in series 1

a bit different from series 2

let's cleanse the palate with a look at the back of gervase's card

gervase has appeared in a couple of games for the dodgers this season. if he had not, he would have been in zach lee and bruce brubaker territory in that he would have had a dodger card of his own while appearing in only one game for the club.

pack 4:

here we have justin verlander back in detroit, another diamondback, satchel paige keeping the browns' legacy alive, and a stars of mlb card featuring a red sox rookie that i am not familiar with.

pack 5:

the penultimate pack of the blaster was my favorite, largely because of kiké hernandez showing up, but it also included the "hit" of the blaster - the gold holofoil parallel of heston kjerstad. those are numbered to 399 on the back

speaking of backs, let's look at kiké's

nine-plus dodger seasons in the books for him, and he is the franchise's all-time leader in postseason games played. i am hopeful that he recovers from his injury and increases that number this fall.

pack 6:

perhaps the worst pack of the bunch. the combo card is strikingly boring compared to the action shots on the other cards, and the marcell ozuna card boasts a poor photoshop job. at least the juan soto insert is different - it's a league leader type card but is from the "crooked numbers" insert set.

i still have a mega box yet to be delivered, so i'll get another chance to rip some series 2 packs. i don't think i'll purchase any additional sealed product from this set, however. let me know if you have some dodgers to trade!

breaking in a couple of new (to me) card shops

back in mid august, i visited a couple of card shops that i had never been to before thanks to some work related road trips. first, i ventured into wisconsin and found a shop not too far from the minnesota border. it's been open for just over a year and looked pretty promising once i entered the shop.

i told the owner that i was looking to dig through some cards, and he pointed me to a couple of racks featuring monster bargain boxes organized by team! this made things easy for me as i focused on the dodger cards. there was a lot of bowman related product, but also some nice finds. the belle of the ball was this 2020 topps heritage cody bellinger action image variation

but i came away with a bunch more dodgers, too.

2021 topps stadium club chrome cody bellinger beam team

2021 panini mosaic sandy koufax all-time greats orange reactive mosaic

2022 panini prizm albert pujols red prizm

2023 topps chrome update gavin stone youthquake

2024 topps chrome update james outman youthquake

2024 topps cosmic chrome mookie betts launched into orbit

2024 topps chrome mookie betts refractor

2024 topps chrome update gavin stone negative refractor

2024 topps pristine steve garvey squeaky clean

2024 topps jason heyward gold parallel

a quad of 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary dodger parallels

and an in person signed 1988 donruss matt young card

i also chose a card signed by the late joe beckwith

who was my dad's golfing partner in a tournament back in 1980.

i perused other loose singles on the counter, and grabbed a few including a couple of 2025 topps chrome parallels

i don't think either salvador perez or josh bell will get any mvp votes this year, but i didn't leave these refractor parallels behind. i also bought a blaster of chrome that was pretty much garbage with nothing really worth sharing here. meanwhile, a guy was busting a box of chrome at the counter, and i saw him pull a blake treinen world series champion gold refractor /50.

a few days later, i was returning from a work day trip, and stopped at a northern twin cities shop. gallery is more like it. they "don't do bulk" but instead had a small number of vertical cases set at $5, $10, $25, and "as priced". they had a big breaking area and a small office that was set up for online breaks, plus a ton of boxes of various product. someone was opening a box of some star wars release and apparently pulled a couple of decent cards based on the yelling and screaming that was taking place. acting on the collector's folly, he purchased a couple more boxes afterwards. i didn't stick around to see what the results were.

i was not immune to this siren song, however, as i bought a jumbo pack of 2025 topps chrome that was worthless. i figured that the next pack would pay off, and it sort of did with an autograph

but it was still money not well spent.

i should have stuck with sportlots which is where i have purchased almost all of the 2025 topps chrome dodgers that i own (i'll share in a separate post).

i did buy a single from one of the cases - a 2021 topps japan edition clayton kershaw jade green parallel

it's numbered to 75

with so much breaking happening in this store, i was hoping to find some discarded singles but they really did not mess with that end of the hobby.

i did make one other stop in early august at a hobby shop in superior, wisconsin. this was a shop that i had been to several years ago. unfortunately for me, they are now focused solely on upper deck hockey and pokemon as far as cards were concerned. of the three shops mentioned here, i think i will likely only return to the one in wisconsin. go figure.

i bought some 2025 topps, too

i actually pre-ordered a few different forms of 2025 topps from mlb.com and fanatics. the first to show up was a super box.

pack 1:

david festa, matt vierling, lamonte wade jr

joey cantillo, dj herz, isaac paredes

anthony volpe, pete crow-armstrong, brandon lowe

rhett lowder, jarred kelenic, corey seager (stars of mlb insert)

trevor larnach, davis schneider

some initial observations: 

• like everyone else, seeing the foil with these cards in hand was a bit of a shock. 
• the position designation graphic isolates the primary outfield position played, rather than identifying players as just outfielders which is a nice side effect of the design. the multi-position players, like schneider, are also easily represented as such.
• unfortunately, the position designation doesn't really work for designated hitters like larnach. i like the idea, but the design should have figured out a better way to show the dh position without making it look like they are on deck.
• i also don't understand a design that differs so much between the portrait and landscape orientations. team abbreviations on landscape cards but nicknames on portrait cards, except (as we will see) in the case of the athletics. why create a design that does not work for all teams?
• and why have the "future stars" designation eclipse the team name, as opposed to a banner across the top?
• the stars of mlb inserts are really ugly this year. really bad.

here's the card back:

pretty clean. i like seeing "st. paul" on card backs again, even if they aren't the triple-a dodger affiliate this time around.

pack 2:

corey seager, padres team, max schuemann

jake burger, jake cronenworth, brooks baldwin

brendan doyle, francisco lindor, ryan thomson

tommy edman, adrian beltre (first pitch insert), vladimir guerrero jr (stars of mlb insert)

twins/checklist, ryan o'hearn

a few more thoughts:

• first dodger this year is cf-ss tommy edman. his card back lists him as "outfielder/shortstop" though

• the first pitch cards are back with fewer subjects than in 2016 and 2017. it's interesting to me that the team logo was left off the card in this installment, especially with a former player like beltre being featured
• 28 cards in and you are starting to get a sense of how many cards topps printed this year. the number of parallels are astronomical and they are still hard to come by. there are probably more base cards than grains of sand this year.
• i started to realize that with so many uniform designs, it isn't as easy as it used to be to tell which team is represented just by looking at the photo.
• the stars of mlb inserts are still bad

no more full pack scans

pack 3:

luis garcia jr, league leaders - nl wins, ronald acuna jr, rhys hoskins, andres gimenez, ha-seong kim, bradley blalock, charlie blackmon

the retired blackmon gets a final tribute, which is nice. here's his full career stat load on the back:

that's a pretty solid career. blackmon was a guy who i enjoyed having on my fantasy team for a couple of years, but i don't plan to add this card to my final tribute collection.

ryan helsley, pedro leon, george springer (silver crackle foilboard parallel)

the silver crackle foilboard parallel is a super box exclusive. someday i won't pull so many springer cards.

carlos correa (stars of mlb insert), tyrone taylor, evan carter

pack 4:

jp crawford, coby mayo

seeing a coors light ad so prominently in the background gives me older topps set vibes with the budweiser signs all over the place

zach eflin, jose miranda, nick lodolo, bryson stott

a new dp turn for my collection. stott is captured in one of my favorite moments on the diamond.

ben rice, hunter feduccia

i wonder if feduccia bumps austin barnes from the 2025 topps checklist, or if we are going to have three catchers with cards this year.

joc pederson, vinnie pasquantino, mark mcgwire (1990 35th anniversary insert)

luis robert jr (stars of mlb insert), rays/checklist, masataka yoshida

pack 5:

riley greene, mitch haniger, wilber diaz, yainer diaz, nick gordon, taj bradley, reds team, dillon dingler, jose altuve, randy arozarena, josh hader (rainbow foil parallel)

yordan alvarez (stars of mlb insert), anthony rizzo, yoshinobu yamamoto

seeing the future stars moniker on yamamoto's card makes me think that the dodgers haven't been treated to that very often - certainly not in 1987 with the first of the single player future stars cards.

pack 6:

tyler locklear, emmanuel clase, brent rooker, spencer schwellenbach, clayton kershaw

sonny gray, aaron judge (2024 all topps team)

zach dezenzo, seth brown, ezequiel tovar, yu darvish, fernando tatis jr (stars of mlb insert), brooks lee

lee has a good chance of becoming my favorite non-dodger this season. he's from the 805 which is a big plus!

jameson taillon

pack 7:

danny jansen, league leaders - nl average

marcell ozuna, freddy peralta, seth lugo, lars nootbaar, shay whitcomb, alec bohm, drew thorpe, ty france, river ryan (rainbow foil parallel)

julio rodriguez (stars of mlb insert), teoscar hernandez

early rippers assumed that this was one of the "dancing dodgers" super short prints, and i saw versions of this card going for a pretty high price. it's just teoscar's base card, and i am not sure if he is doing the freddie freeman dance or if he has just completed the oblique crunch that was another of the dodgers' on base rituals

amed rosario

i scanned the rosario card because topps skipped his second dodger tenure which was comprised of five appearances. at least it is captured on the back:

he started the 2024 card season with a dodger card in heritage. he was shown as a ray in update, so this is his first reds card.

pack 8:

jordan westburg, padres/checklist, travis d'arnaud, bailey ober, freddie freeman

ryan pepiot, red sox team, zach neto, yankees/checklist,  miguel vargas, francisco lindor (training ground insert)

brooks lee (stars of mlb insert)

cubs team, geraldo perdomo

pack 9:

gerrit cole, tyler soderstrom, rafael devers, mark vientos, angel martinez, jon gray, orioles team, eugenio suarez, tanner houck, jeff mcneil, kyle finnegan, rafael devers (stars of mlb insert), sandy alcantara, josh jung

pack 10:

mauricio dubon, luis castillo, tyler gentry, michael busch, red sox/checklist, spencer steer, brandon marsh, joey ortiz, jose berrios, mariners team, paul skenes (1990 35th anniversary insert)

james wood (stars of mlb insert), league leaders - al wins, jorge soler

there were no duplicates among the base cards, which was nice.

the super boxes also come with a pack of five silver patterned foilboard cards:

ryan mountcastle

carlos correa

ernie clement

league leaders - nl rbi

david hamilton

the super boxes also included an enamel pin. i had a 1 in 10 chance of getting a shohei ohtani pin, but i decided to sell the sealed package instead. pins are hard to store, and i have all of my garvey enamel pins in a padded snap case so it's not like they are all visible anyway.

another super box exclusive is the oversized base card that is hiding being this header card

my super box had paul skenes

and in between the oversized header card and the skenes, was the "companion card" just flying about loosely. i lucked out and found shohei ohtani

here's the back:

the photo and numbering are different from his base card, which wasn't in any of the super box packs i opened, but was present in some of the others i ripped.

i also found a base skenes card

so let's compare it to the oversized one from the super box

fun.

one more card from one of the other packs i've opened, and it's jj bleday

given the card design this year, and the use of location associated abbreviations on landscape cards, i figured that there would be only portrait a's cards, but i was wrong. for the a's, topps removed any mention of location from the backs, and kept the nickname across both orientations. i don't understand why topps would vary the design for the other teams when they could have just stuck with the nicknames on all cards. sure, the diamondbacks would be fairly narrow text, but if you are going to do it, do it consistently. this annoys me so much.

i will probably show some of the cards from the other orders that have come in as part of a future post. outside of the sealed product i ordered, i've picked up a few singles, including river ryan's 1990 card

and steve garvey's "base" 1990 autograph card

this is the second time we've seen garvey on a 1990's topps flagship design, and both instances have occurred within the past few months. the back is worthless

but i hope this trend continues. after so very disappointingly leaving garvey out of the 1988 inserts in 2023 topps, we've seen him in the past two years on autograph versions of the 35th anniversary cards. i hope that he continues to appear in the coming years, as i am really looking forward to the 1991 card design in 2026.