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. 

51 retired again

the seattle mariners are retiring number 51, again, tonight. it was retired last year for ichiro, and now they are going to recognize the "other" 51 in franchise history, randy johnson. i've had his 2022 topps stadium club chrome xfractor

at the ready for this event, and it is now tucked away in my retired number collection.

johnson was part of the mariners' core in the 1990s that secured the club's future (now present) in seattle when there was concern about the viability of the franchise in the pacific northwest. along with ken griffey jr, edgar martinez, and jay buhner, johnson led the team to their first postseason berth in 1995 and the funding for a new ballpark was committed shortly thereafter.

johnson sits at or close to the top of many mariner all-time franchise pitching leader lists, with felix hernandez the only one surpassing him in many of those categories. of course, hernandez made 145 more starts as a mariner than did johnson.

the mariners' number 51 is the latest number to be retired by a single franchise for multiple players, joining the yankees (number 8 for bill dickey and yogi berra), the expos (number 10 for rusty staub and andre dawson), the cubs (number 31 for greg maddux and fergie jenkins), and the a's (number 34 for rollie fingers and dave stewart). i would expect the angels' number 27 (mike trout and vladimir guerrero) to join that list someday.

chrome doesn't like me much

it's not a rock in my trick or treating pillowcase, but it still stinks to get this "card"

in a pack of cards. specifically, this came from a pack of 2025 topps chrome update that was included in a mega box that i purchased directly from topps. just a blank refractor which i suppose you could use to create your own art card. i understand that these are printing blanks and are (obviously) not supposed to be sent out in the packs, but it has happened the last couple of years.

the mega box was the last bit of chrome update i purchased, but i had bought a lot of it prior to that order, and in all sorts of distribution methods. as a result, i wound up with a bunch of the different guaranteed parallels, like sepia

xfractor

and topps logo 

refractors. the nick kurtz sepia refractor is nice, and i would have preferred to find his xfractor and topps logo refractor instead of willie maciver's but here we are. overall, my purchases seemed to be american league west heavy. here are some of the other sepias i found:

ben williamson

gunner hoglund

and yusei kikuchi

i'll stick with the al west theme to share some of the other cards i found, such as all-star game inserts of brent rooker

and bobby witt jr

night terrors insert of cam smith

power players inserts of kurtz

wyatt langford

and cal raleigh

plus refractor parallels of jacob wilson

blaine crim

and eugenio suarez

suarez also appeared in raywave refractor form

as did ben williamson

while denzel clarke

was one of the prism refractors i found

i came across a very small number of numbered parallels, but one was a purple raywave refractor of hoglund

numbered to 250.

to complete the card type tour via the al west, here's a base card belonging to kurtz

the only other card types i found that i couldn't represent using a player from the angels, astros, rangers, mariners, or athletics were the fortune 15 inserts (here's rafael devers)

and the aqua wave refractor rookie auto card i found in a hanger pack. it's omar cruz

and i would have preferred a different nl west team be represented.

that cruz card is a sticker auto, but not all of the signed cards in this set are like that. the card i wanted most from this release sure isn't. a week or two before chrome update was released, steve garvey made this post on the socials

i am slowing down in my additions of new garvey cards, but a chrome auto is a must have!

sadly, this is the only dodger card i found in all of my sealed product purchases - hyeseong kim's rookie debut base card

to complete the team set, i went to sportlots and bought the cards of will smith

jack dreyer

and dalton rushing

which left me a roki sasaki card short of the team set.

i added some parallels and inserts to these orders as best (and cheaply) as i could. i wound up with a prism refractor of smith

plus his all-star game insert

as well as that of clayton kershaw

and freddie freeman 1990

and power players inserts

plus the mookie betts power players insert

as well.

it's no surprise that i had to go to ebay to find the garvey legends auto, and i was successful fairly early on. the "base" versions are numbered to 50, and that's what i have

on card beauty!  here's the back:

i've seen some other variations sell for silly prices, including the 1/1. i am content to have this singular version. in fact, i would likely purchase one of orel hershiser's cards from this release before i targeted a garvey parallel.

in all, i would have had more success for my collection had i purchased a team break slot for the dodgers and seek out the garvey card as i did rather than buy as much sealed product. but where's the fun in that?

2025 topps stadium club mega box review

i think it would be a great job to be tasked with finding photos for the stadium club set. a few years ago, i went and found some photos that i would like to see on stadium club cards, and since then, a couple of those photos have shown up on cardboard - including one as a stadium club auto card. that's pure coincidence i know, but it gives me hope that the folks at topps are looking for good photos in the getty images database.

one of my favorite cards in this year's set is luisangel acuna's

on field photography has really changed the look of baseball cards in the last couple of decades, and the smoke machine giving a sort of haze in front of mr. and mrs. met provides an interesting image that doesn't appear in other sets. i am still glad that the dodgers don't have a mascot, but i recognize that it is fun to see mascots on cards.

for the most part, however, this year's (or last year's, technically) stadium club release feels different in terms of photos used and players featured. from what i can tell, there is only one player included from before the 1970's (two if you count nolan ryan), and the retired players featured don't necessarily have the most dramatic photos. there are still plenty of good images, but i didn't get the same "wow" factor from most of the cards that i've had in the past.

at any rate, i bought a couple of mega boxes directly from topps. i'll run through one of them here.

pack 1

right away, the austin riley card leading off the pack gives classic stadium club vibes. the second card, ezequiel tovar's, features a stadium club staple dugout shot, but those images have started to leak into flagship sets, too.

the mark vientos card is the light blue foil parallel, of which mega boxes guarantee nine.

pack 2

i should note that freddie freeman is the cover boy for 2025 stadium club. the boxes and packs feature an image from his 2024 world series game 1 walk-off grand slam. the first card in this pack, however, features an image from an early 2025 game in which the dodgers wore their gold lettered champion jerseys. i am a bit surprised that there have been so few cards in 2025 that showed images from that historic home run.

the tip of the cap from pete alonso is another classic stadium club shot, but the rest are sort of run of the mill. chase petty is showing the pete rose memorial patch, and george kirby is the second light blue foil parallel of the box.

pack 3

kevin alcantara's dugout exit > dylan cease's dugout exit due to the cheetah print glove he's sporting.

topps did a reboot of inserts with this set. triumvirates are the only ones carried through from previous years. one of the new ones is the in case of emergency cards with the one in this pack featuring albert pujols.

max scherzer's card is a numbered (to 99) turquoise foil parallel

pack 4

honus wagner is, as far as i can tell (i didn't scour the checklist) the only pre-war player featured in stadium club this time around, and the only player from before nolan ryan suited up. this is a big departure from recent years when we could count on cards of brooklyn dodgers, milwaukee braves, and the occasional st. louis brown along with their contemporaries.

michael busch's card image comes from a game at dodger stadium, and mark mcgwire's card continues the tradition of people riding in cars getting cards in stadium club. finally, ronald acuna jr provides the third light blue parallel of the box.

from here on out, i'll just share some of the other cards that caught my eye.

not including players of old like walter johnson or even harmon killebrew makes room on the checklist for more recently retired players like johan santana

it's good to see santana back on cardboard and in the hubert h. humphrey metrodome, to boot.

also in a dome is checklist mainstay ichiro

who joins santana in the hat waving club

another regular checklist retiree is ken griffey jr

featured with one of his signature activities - blowing a bubble

derek jeter's jumpman logo is almost replicated on his card

which also features the long gone evergreens of the first few seasons of target field.

prince fielder

is sliding home at fenway

chase utley

is reaching for the ball

and ryan zimmerman

is reaching for home. i can appreciate a fan favorite like zimmerman on the checklist even if it came at the expense of sandy koufax or jackie robinson. i was hoping to see orel hershiser on a (base) card this year, though.

one of the older players featured in this set is george brett

who looks like he just soiled himself. no wonder we haven't seen that photo used a bunch in the past.

i found most of the cards bearing images that were shared by topps in advance of the set's release, such as paul skenes

jackson holliday

trevor hoffman

and kristian campbell

that campbell card allows me to segue in to other current player cards that i took the time to scan

bobby witt jr

and wyatt langford

show that getting post game gatorade dousings are good ways to get on stadium club cardboard

there were some horizontal cards that stood out, like riley greene's

which features a small portion of the little ceaser's mascot

fernando tatis jr's card

features some nice soft light

mike trout's card

shows off some led lighting with the angels' home run halo

kyle tucker's card

features the bright lights of the big (windy) city. this might be the best wrigley field lights card since that card from score back in the late 1980s.

lights are also visible on gunnar henderson's card

which features a low-five

mookie betts' card

is a breath of fresh air amongst the normal fielding cards, as is this card

featuring the "other" max muncy

twins' rookie luke keaschall's card

shows good flow 

and braxton ashcraft's card

is really the only card featuring a portrait that i came across. suitable for framing by the ashcraft family.

hands down my favorite card of the set is shohei ohtani's

we need more cards of players rounding third, especially at dodger stadium. i would love to chase rainbows of this card, but the beauty of it is in the color of the base image, so i'm not prioritizing. i will pick up another copy for my dodger stadium collection, however.

speaking of which, matt mclain's card

like michael busch's above, features a photo taken in dodger stadium but i think i've stopped adding cards like these to that collection

i've also toyed with closing up my tatooine collection, but i think i will just limit entry to more interesting cards like chase dollander's

from here on out.

jimmy rollins' card

was quickly admitted to my double play collection

topps has done a nice job in recent years of featuring a card showing the cardinals' retired number murals in the background, and this year it's masyn winn's card

doing the honors. it's too blurry to make my retired number binder as a header card of sort, and besides, it features the same folks as brendan donovan's 2023 topps heritage card.

tarik skubal's card

gives me 1978 topps don gullet vibes, which is a very good thing

aaron judge's card

features an image that would also work on a 1978 topps card. only one year and a couple of months until 2027 heritage - just sayin'.

royce lewis' card

had me do a double take because the background is so light compared to the rest of the cards i was pulling from the packs

case in point, lewis' teammate brooks lee's card

is much darker. lee is wearing the twins' "aquaman" jersey. that's my term for it and it makes more sense to me than city connect since their alternate (twin cities) jerseys have that covered even if they aren't the official cc jerseys. thanks nike.

juan soto's card

features mr. met in the background, but not nearly as dramatically as luisangel acuna's card up top.

and, honus wagner may be the only old-timey player in the set, but he's not the only one wearing an old-timey uniform as joey votto's card

features him wearing one of the reds' throwback uniforms they wore from time to time a few years ago. 

bryan woo's card

is pretty colorful

matt chapman's card

was the only one i found featuring an award (another stadium club staple), but this time the photo used is from the tail end of the recognition ceremony which is unique for a card

adolis garcia's card

gives the illusion that he is at the fence to make a catch, but i don't think he is even on the warning track (and he's not)

denzel clarke, on the other hand,

is definitely at the wall on his card. this photo shows him about to rob nolan schanuel of the angels of a home run.

clarke's teammate nick kurtz' card

is a nice one to find in any 2025 product

ok, just a few more base cards, and they're all dodgers

clayton kershaw

roki sasaki

will smith

and dalton rushing

i am left needing only hyeseong kim and yoshinobu yamamoto to complete my team set

inserts! in addition to the in case of emergency insert i showed earlier, topps has introduced savage sluggers, of which nick kurtz is one

the backgrounds have a sort of skull island vibe going on.

another insert set is concentration, represented here by kumar rocker

and its background features a big ol' eye. i think.

the last of the regular insets that i found is yours for the taking (here's fernando tatis jr's card)

but i am not sure what the title of these cards mean. the backs don't really spell it out, either.

i am owed a few more light blue foil parallels, and they were there - paul skenes

nolan ryan

sandy alcantara

and some mariners - george kirby

randy arozarena

and logan gilbert

the box promised two sepia parallels as well, and i found zack wheeler

and nick kurtz

that's not too bad!

and, if you were counting, you'd know that there is one light blue foil parallel i haven't shown yet. it's yamamoto's

which was a heck of a surprise because stadium club hasn't been friendly to me with the dodger parallels in recent years.

i always enjoy seeing stadium club released, and this year was no exception. lots of interesting photography even if the wow factor seemed diminished to me. i think it would great if they expanded the checklist to include a fuller array of players from baseball's history, but taking a year off from some of the perennial subjects isn't a bad thing, either.

what do you think of the stadium club cards you've seen this year?