I’ve been a bit pre-occupied in recent days with the birth of my son to find time to blog, but today I found something that needed to be said.

Topps hit the nail on the head with its new Topps Chrome retail packaging.

On Friday, I found some time to go to Target, and there I found the new Topps Chrome, which I believe hit Hobby Shop shelves a week ago. At Target, they had the product in three forms — Blaster boxes, Gravity Feed retail packs and a new Value Pack-style rack pack as seen above.

One of the major issues with retail products in general is the fact that it is impossible to find the stuff in un-searched.

Blasters are nice, but they require you to spend $19.99 to get the packs. So you’re basically out of luck if you only want a few packs. Topps has apparently solved this issue with the new Value Packs.

As you can see, for $8.99 you get three sealed, un-searched retail packs and then a bonus packs of three orange, retail-exclusive refractors. Are you saving any money? Not really. But you are ensuring the integrity of the packs … and you get the free pack of shiny goodness.

So yeah, kudos to Topps and their packaging company.

I guess you’re wondering if I bought any? Yes. I bought one. Not really in a position to go nuts on cards right now, plus retail Topps Chrome is rough. Odds on rookie autographs in retail? 1 in 171 packs. Ouch. Hobby odds I believe are 1 in 12 packs.

The three free refractors are a pretty cool touch. They come in a see-through package that can easily be searched once outside the main seal. But while inside it is impossible. Again, loving this. My pack contained theseKila Ka’aihue (RC), Kevin Russo (RC), Aaron Hill.

Out of my three main packs, I pulled three refractors, including two purple (1:12 packs) refractors serial numbered /599 and a XFractor (1:3). Also five rookie logo cards.

It’s tough to judge a product based on three packs, retail ones at that. But the “fun” factor was solid. Would I recommend these for others? Depends on the type of collector you are. A few packs here and there won’t; just don’t go overboard thinking you’re getting a steal.

This entry was posted on October 8, 2010 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Newspaperman with tags baseball, baseball cards, Refractor, rookie cards, Topps Chrome. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.