Topps Chrome EXPLAINED

[...0.4s]Hello collectors. I am so excited about this episode, cause this episode is all about how to collect one of the most iconic trading cards in the sports trading cards market tops Chrome Baseball.We're gonna go through everything of what is topps Chrome, how do you know what's valuable in the pack? Where, how do you understand odds and read labels, where to find product? We're even gonna do a live tutorial of opening a pack, so you can understand in real time what cards to keep.Joining me today is an industry legend, Susan Lagerai, aka sues at Yanks kick on Twitter.Sues has worked at some of the industry greats, including tops Jacket Golden, and is now leading marketing at CGC, one of the fastest grading trading card companies in the industry. So stay tuned, so excited to walk through this with you. I'm Danny Moss, and this is built to collect. What is Topps Chrome Baseball.Yeah, so tops [...0.6s] today like stay being 2025 essentially puts out like 50+ baseball products in a year. So it's incredibly hard to be like, what is what? But tops Chrome is one of, like, the flagship products that they put out every year.Now the flagship product when we talk about flagship is, are the base cards. They're made from paper, essentially, just like glossy paper with, like, the photos.That's the stuff that you're gonna get like Target, Walmart. It means every year when you, like, essentially like, I wanna buy a pack of tops cards, that's the flagship product Chrome. Tops Chrome [...0.4s] is, well, for lack of a better term, the Chrome version [...0.4s] of those cards.So you have the base card which is paper and then you'll have the Chrome version which essentially looks like, like metal in a way. Um, or, like you know it's like on a chrome finish on a car that makes it like sparkly and shiny. That's essentially what the chrome cards are.It's like a sparkly finish to the base cards, but they look like they're, they're almost metal in a way. [...1.2s] So why do people collect? So [...0.4s] let's talk about sort of mass production versus, like, exclusivity. Why do people collect Chrome versus something else?Um you know, Chrome is collectible because, well, there are less of it, let's say, than Top Space, but there's still a lot of it.So I don't wanna pretend like it's much more this. It's more scarce, but when it comes to rookies, and that's always gonna be, like, really the driving things of so many different sports cards products.It's the rookies that drive it. So when it comes to rookie cards, and now we're talking not just rookie cards, but the signed rookie cards, like the Autograph rookie cards, Topps Chrome is centrally the product where you want to own the rookie autographed card because that tends to command the most money.Um, you'll have a wide variety of rookie cards in those products, so not everybody's gonna command a lot of money. But let's say [...0.6s] you pulled Paul Schemes's, you know, signed rookie card, which was in tops update last year. That's gonna get, that's gonna come in a lot of money in the secondary market.So when it comes to tops Chrome, you know, for a long time, [...0.6s] there was a saying for a long time, I haven't heard as much in recent years, but for a long time, there was a saying Chrome is king because [...0.4s] Topps Chrome was the chase for the rookie card autographs. [...1.7s]Amazing. And then to that point, right, not [...0.6s] when you get a box, when you get a boxer pack of these cards. It's not there's, there's effectively, right, like a listing of how many of each card exist in the world and what you can expect of potentially getting, just called pulling, um, from a pack, right?Like, there's you can go on tops and see this is, this is what's been produced, [...0.5s] and then you get to see the probability or is that sort of anyone's guess.No, so the the, they call them the odds. When you're talking about the probability, like, what are the odds that I'm going to pull a rare card, [...0.5s] and it depends on [...0.5s] the rarity, but they list them now on tops. Com.So if you go to Tops's website, there's a section, I wanna say it's under Discover Tops [...0.7s] where it'll say odds. And then you click on that, and you can find any product under there that top puts out. So they list the odds of you pulling [...0.6s] a specific, like, one specific card and one specific path.So let's say it's a refractor which we bought it before, which is a parallel of the Chrome base cards.So you'll have the Chrome base cards looks like a metal finish, the base refractor [...0.4s] has a rainbow finish to it. And they'll have the odds there that say like [...0.6s] one and four. So that means for on average, now keep that in mind. It's on average cause you could open 100 packs and maybe not get that.But on average through the entire run of the product, for every four packs you open, you should get one refractor card. And now the odds are different for [...0.8s] every card.Essentially, that's in the set, it'll list the different odds for everything, so there could be up to like 100 different listings on the odds.And just to be clear, the [...0.4s] refractor is effectively right the finish, and then the parallel means there's a base card. So the ones that were sort of mass produced on paper, that image now has been paralleled into something glossy, potentially like different colors.And that's what the parallel is like, that base card exists, it's just not as, [...0.6s] it's not as rare and cool looking with as many finishes.Yeah, so let's say the base, let's say there's a million base cards because there probably is, if not more, [...0.5s] um, on Chrome, you might have 100,000 of the Chrome and the refractors, you might have 10,000 of the refractors.So it [...0.5s] depending on the rarity, like it goes down in volume, is like how many of that individual card exists. Okay, so I walk into a, let's say I walk into a hobby shop and we'll get into hobby versus retail.But if I walk into a hobby shop [...0.5s] and I want it bring cards to a friend, and I look at the wall and I see tops, but I see Chrome, I see prism, um, I see all these options, what am I look, what am I looking at?Yeah I mean, for Tobbs Chrome, it's right now, it's only baseball, but will be coming to football and basketball potentially in the near future. Um, so Tobbs Chrome is, I mean, to, to be fair, they were, they were the beginning, right?Tobbs Chrome started in 1996. So when it came to like [...0.9s] this sort of technology and that's the best way to think about it too.It's like a different technology because, you know, back in the 90s you had do fix and I know these are crazy words, but like like [...0.4s] do fix and all this other types of technology that, you know, companies were using [...0.5s] to make a paper card stand out a little more than like their counterparts.So in topsist case, they created this technology with what they call Chrome [...0.5s] and, you know, [...0.4s] other, [...0.9s] I feel like I might be forgetting somebody might have done it before them, to be quite honest. But [...0.6s] I might be forgetting.But Dave essentially perfected it. And then in time, you know, panini came around. Panini can't make chrome because chrome is a trademark for tops.So they created, um, a similar product, um, on chromium stock as I think has how people worded to get around sort of like trademarking issues, um, called prism with a z P, R, I z m. And prism is Panini's answer to, to Chrome.And, you know, panini will have it on their, their line of IPS that they own, that they have, like, the rights to make cards to.So, you know, it was basketball and football, and, you know, they've used it for other things like Rolling Stones. Recently, they put out a prism set, so, you know, prism and Chrome are the same, essentially the same technology, just made by different companies [...1.3s] interesting.And then in terms of, like, the license for baseball players, um, [...0.8s] it's not just tops, like, there's Bowmans around Bowmans in there too with baseball. What's the difference for you as you think of?It's, if you're starting out these, think about buying Bowman cards versus tops cards. So Bowman and Bowman is owned by top, so that's the same company, they just have different names. But Bowman is the home to prospects meaning guys in the minor leagues, guys who just getting their start.So the first place you're ever gonna find, um, most players, like, 99% of players will be in Bowman products. Like, Bowman Draft is usually that product where they come out and draft, meaning, like, this product came out right after them will be draft.So Bowman is the home to the prospects, [...0.6s] and [...0.4s] tops is the home to, [...0.4s] like, the Major League Baseball players you'll find. And I know it's confusing, cause you can find Major League Baseball player cards in top, I mean, in Bowman.And there's also rookie cards in Bowman. However, [...0.8s] historically based on, like, secondary market, and, like, essentially consumers have decided Bowman is the home to the prospects, and that's the only place you're gonna find prospects.You're not gonna find the prospects, and tops cards are only gonna be in Bowman products, and then rookie cards are for tops, and those are the rookie cards that are more desirable, the ones coming out of tops. [...1.7s]Got it. And then just let's go into, um, before I be like, hopefully we're not confusing everybody, but let's go into. It's a little confusing and it takes a while to, like, get you to it.Yeah, so [...0.9s] let's go into, [...0.5s] I wanna buy again, I wanna buy. [...1.0s] There is a difference, is there a difference between, [...0.5s] or can there be a difference between buying at a hot inventory from a hobby shop versus buying inventory from, let's say, like, a Walmart or target?Yeah, 100%. So [...0.7s] there's a, I'm gonna say different skews. And by different skews, it's like, you know, it's like the UPC symbol essentially, but, like, the different skews are like the different types of boxes you could find, um, with tops chrome. [...1.1s]I'm gonna get, probably get it wrong, but there's, like, five different types of boxes that are in existence right now. One, [...0.7s] see, I'm saying cause as I'm saying it, as I'm saying it out loud, I'm like, I think there might be more.So, um, but one is a blaster box which is use. If a long as it's not hanger boxes, which is like a much smaller thinner box, or rack packs, which is a plastic pack that's, like, long like this as we call rack packs. Um, I'll start with the blaster.The blaster boxes are usually the most inexpensive of the group. So I'll start from lowest to highest when it comes to, like, the cost of them. And inside you usually get this year, let's call it 28 cards [...0.5s] per box, [...0.5s] and each pack of tops chrome regardless [...1.1s] not, regardless, and most of the skewes has four cards per pack. So when you get [...0.8s] divide, divide four into 28, but is it six?Hopefully my math is correct, you're seven, [...0.6s] you get those many packs per box. It's like seven packs per blaster box, 28 cards.Then next up in the line are Mega boxes and Mega, I actually have one here. So this is a Mega box size. So the blasters are actually a little bit taller, but they're thinner. This is a Mega box size, so in here, it says you get [...0.7s] 7. This also has seven cards, [...0.7s] seven packs.Oh, six cards per pack in here, so that's why it has changed over the years. Used to be just four, and this comes with 42 total cards. And it does go up and more in cost.Then you have a hobby box. So this mega box and the blasters usually are what you find in Walmart and target and what are, like, the big box stores. [...1.0s]You will not find hobby boxes in those stores and targets in Walmart, um, Hobby Boxes and they call like jumbo boxes. Those are reserved for card shops and essentially like, people who do breaking online, but those are reserved for card shops only.And historically the reasoning was, [...0.4s] you know, [...0.5s] almost like targeted Walmart versus hobby stores.You, you know, Thompson had a responsibility along with the other car manufacturers to drive traffic to these hobby stores because that was [...0.6s] the only way essentially [...1.3s] before, like current times, um, people can get cards. You know it's like tops was not indirect to consumer distributor.They've done that a lot more in recent years, but the only central places you could go either target or Walmart or hobby stores.So they had different offerings in both. You know, the retail will get blasters and later in time, megas where the hobby stores will get these hobby boxes and now jumbo boxes which has by the name as it sounds, more cards per pack. Um, they do get more expensive hobby boxes, have guaranteed autographs or guaranteed what we call hits.Hits are like autographs, game used cards with game use pieces inside, or they're like really special cards [...0.8s] blasters. And like the retail boxes, blasters and megas don't guarantee those hits. You can get an autograph.You could find what the odds of getting an autograph are on that we spoke about it before, um, but they're not guaranteed in those two types of boxes, but in the hobby box you're at right now, cause it changes all the time. You're guaranteed at least, I wanna say, well, at least one autograph.And then in the jumbo boxes, I wanna say it's three, but I would have to double check that, but they do get more expensive hobby boxes. You're looking at, like, a several hundred dollars, like this year's [...0.5s] release.I wanna say is [...0.5s] plus$300, [...0.4s] whereas, like, the jumbo boxes, you're looking maybe around$500 for a box, which has more autographs, more chance to pull those, like colored different color parallels.So [...0.8s] cheaper, [...0.4s] more attainable, [...0.8s] you know, but not, you know, not guaranteed hits [...0.5s] more expensive guaranteed hits, but it's also [...0.6s] way more expensive. [...1.9s] And then if I'm, sort of starting out, and I'm all, and I'm excited and pumped to go by this and do it.How, [...0.5s] how do you advise are as you're pulling? If I'm not a savant and I'm now opening these packs and I'm sitting there and I have, you know, [...1.4s] I'm ready to go on sort of what we would refer to as sleeping because this putting a plastic coating and protecting the cards of good value, I'm ready to go, how do I know what I'm [...0.6s] looking at?Or like, what do you advise people to do if they don't, if they don't know what they're handling?Yeah, so I mean, honestly for me, I would say the first thing and this is even before you go buy anything, watch YouTube breaks of these products because so many people are opening them online and as they're going through, [...0.4s] you know, people in the chats talking about it, you know, they're like, oh, we hit this and you kind of get a feel for like, oh, these are the types of cards I should be looking for because I get, that's how I got my, that's how I get my education with a lot of products.I just watch people who open them on YouTube. Um, so I think that's, that's actually a great place to start.First is watch these breaks on YouTube before you go open the product. Then [...0.7s] you get what you want, whatever [...0.7s] skew, whatever box version you want, you get what you want, have your penny sleeves, have your top loaders.Those are the things, like you said for Protection. And then, like, if you pull anything of color, and you'll know because, like, as you put as your opening box, like, everything is silver, because it has this, like, chrome finish. If you pull anything of color, sleeve it up.You pull any inserts, they may not be worth anything just yet, but sleeve them up, because, like, you don't know that at this very moment in time. Sleeve them up, and then, like um, obviously any hits hundred percent slip them up, and then notable rookie card names.If there are rookies that you're like, oh, that's, [...0.4s] you know, I'm trying to think who's, like, this year, like, Ben Rice, [...0.7s] yeah, not a huge rookie, but, like, you look example, like, he's still a Yankees rookie, which always commands secondary market value.When it comes to rookie cards, Ben Rice sleeve them up, um, trying to think of just like, who are some of the rookies this year. Brent Rucker, I think is a rookie in this, in this year's product or not right now, yeah, maybe, but anyway, sleeve them up.But so, like, names that, you know, that are rookie cards, sleeve them up, and then you can take those cards, go to eBay, [...0.4s] check, like sold listings and see how much those cards are currently selling for.And then, [...0.6s] you know, some are gonna be like, oh, this is a great card, I wanna keep it, I wanna sell it, you know, you figure it out. And then there's some cards I like, aren't worth anything, but you know what?For me, I would say put those aside and like a different box, a separate box and sort of like your bulk and hold on to them.And then in three months, check them again, and in the six months, maybe check them again because value changes over time, especially if like players will have breakout seasons.Um, I go back to actually, like, for this is a good example, like Aaron Judge, [...0.5s] he was not [...0.6s] a highly sought after prospect in 2016 when he made his debut, and his autograph cards were found so cheaply at the time. I mean, I was, I was by, and I'm a Yankees fan.So hence why like, I, I just sticks out to me, but like, I was buying cards of his for like 20, twenty five dollars [...0.4s] at the time. And then suddenly his rookie season comes in 2017 and he cannot stop hitting home runs and his [...1.0s] values of cards shot through the roof, [...0.8s] so great news.Then you have those cards. This could happen to other players. I'm not saying that there's a next Aaron Judge in this box of cards, but you never know when a player is gonna have, like a breakout season and then becomes collectible. I mean, Cal Raleigh is a really great example of that for this year too.Is there any value with, um, [...0.9s] for Topsco sort of collecting the whole, [...0.5s] collecting the whole set or collect getting like all the, [...1.2s] all the colors of the rainbow and then listing it as a grouping?Like, is there any, is there any value in that? Or is it all really about, like, individual card performance? You know, [...0.7s] historically, um, selling in lots will net use the least amount of money.So, so you wanted to make the most amount of money. It's your, it's best to break them up. Um, so it's not gonna get you the most value.And I think because of just how many you mentioned, like the rainbow. So rainbow is like, if I have, if in tops chrome, there is the base, there's a refractor, but then there's the blue version, the red version, the green version, the gold version. At this point, there's like, [...0.6s] 20 something different versions if not more of that of the base card.So one like chasing that is difficult, but, you know, for collectors, it's a lot of fun. It's part of, like, the chase, so it's a lot, you know, it's a good chase to have, but selling them as a lot will probably not net you as much as it did if you ended up selling them separately. [...2.9s]So set collecting and tops Chrome [...0.6s] is not really something people do as much anymore. Maybe cause, um, the way product is created because of all the different parallels and refractors.It just becomes really difficult to, to do. [...1.7s] And then are we, are we opening this box right now a little bit or no, you holding on to this one.Yeah, we can open this for sure. Can we do a visual for those who are watching on YouTube? Let's walk through, [...0.6s] how do you, how do I know what of all of these myriad of information that we just threw on to everybody? How do I know what I'm buying?What are you reading when you look at this box? So top Chrome, this is the mega box, so right here's the year, so you wanna get the year, so it's 20, 20, five tops chrome.Um, and then you can see, like, even down here says, like, so they do give a little something even though I talked about hits being exclusives, like hobby and jumbos, like, guaranteed.And this you'll see, it's like, oh, find 10 exclusive X factors, that's a type of parallel, and you'll see that when we pull it.It just has a different types of design on it, so you'll see that it has it on there, and then they try to give you, like, different things, like here says, like, Green Parallels, Green refractors. Those are usually just reserved for retail products like the blasters in the megas.So you wouldn't find a green in any of the hobby or jumbo. So every once and again, they'll give you a little, like, exclusives and send out tells, you see, um, [...0.8s] collect the entire 300 card base set. The base set meaning cards 1, No. 1 to 300.So that includes 300 of the players from Series 1 and 2, um, which has [...0.8s] 700 cards. So they actually have to widow it down to, like, the best 300 cards that are gonna get the Chrome version of their cards to him. [...1.7s] And then general, you can just tell by the shape of the box. Like, this is a mega box.And like I said, the blasters are like, they look like a milk carton in a way. The blasters, like, they're kind of, I don't know if anybody even knows what milk cartons are anymore, but they look like more of a milk carton than. And then the hobby boxes, they usually lie flat like this, and they're longer because they have more packs inside. [...1.6s]Okay, [...0.6s] and then I'm only gonna ask you to open one pack, and we'll just through what you look at, because you enjoy this with your [...0.6s] family and have fun with it. [...1.0s]Alright, so the best thing to do is have a letter opener or a, [...3.2s] a razor blade, like you know, a box opener, because otherwise you'll sit there forever. So then this is how it comes in.They try, you know, they wanna protect the cards on the inside, so I'm just gonna pull one in the middle, [...0.4s] so they used to have, and if you ever, like, if you ever open packed a day when they use actually have the odds where we talked about, like, the rare, like, how to pull on the backs of the cards. But now it tells you for approximate odds per pack, please visit tops.Com. So they do so give it to you, they're just not on packs anymore. So [...1.3s] now we know there's cards per pack, so you pull it out, and there is an X factor in here.So we'll get to see the X factor, so this is what a base card looks like. And as you can see, like, it's reflective, you know, so you see the light shining off of it.And this is what a base Chrome card looks like. It has that reflective finish where on a paper card, it's just paper. Like, it'll reflect because it's glossy, but it's just glossy paper. [...2.0s]So this is another base, and they could come in other like either horizontal or vertical. They're just using the image from the flagship product [...0.4s] to rig scuba. So speaking of, like, in years past, like, he would put his rookie cards in a box, and you wanna hang on to them.Here we have, this is a called an insert, [...0.5s] so this is a Fortune 15 insert, and you can see it's different from the base. This is not just like a sort of pickup of the past image that they use in Series 1.This is an insert. It's a little bit different. The checklist is different. Where on the back of this, you know, it says 2:58. That's critique school's card number. Like on the 1 to 300 checklist. It's numbered differently on the backs of the inserts. And you can see up here it says roughly [...0.5s] F15 dash 9.So F15 standing for Fortune 15 and then this being the ninth card in the checklist. And those are less frequent than the base card.So I did pull one per pack, but they're not guaranteed one per pack. This is an X factor. So now you see it has that chrome finish but just comes with this sort of checkerboard design on it. And then this is an X factor. Um, [...1.0s] not as plentiful as the base cards [...0.4s] not numbered.However, if it was numbered, I think they put the numbering on the front these days.It would be like, somewhere up here or in the corner, where if you, let's say there's only 99 [...0.4s] copies of one card made. It would say, like, 1 slash 99, meaning that was actually the first card of the 99 that got stamped [...0.4s] on that 99 run.But otherwise, but it would have numbering if it was a numbered refractor, and then we did get another. [...1.3s] We're X for actor, this one of Kate Povich rookie card. So for me, like, I'd probably sleeve this one up, just hang on to it, cause who knows what could happen in like four or five years from now. [...1.3s]That was, [...1.9s] that was super helpful in terms of the, like, I'm gonna ask you guys a few more questions, and this [...1.1s] is like, I Learned a lot actually, um, [...0.7s] in terms of [...0.8s] sort of how you seen like, tops Chrome evolving over time. You know, it's change ownership. Um, what are you excited about?What would you love to see? Um. What would you sort of be excited to see Kate in the market [...0.7s] just like as a collector? What are you, what have you noticed? You know, for me, uh, I think what's exciting is tops chrome and other sports.Um. It's been a long time since we've had tops chrome basketball [...0.6s] and top school football. So I think having those, you're gonna see a lot of excitement around those cards when they eventually put, and I say potentially cause there is [...1.1s] a lawsuit, [...0.8s] there's a lot of suit hanging out there.Um, but if those cards get made, I think you're gonna see a lot of excitement back from collectors for those cards. Nice. And if you, um, [...0.4s] if you were starting out, [...0.7s] um, [...1.0s] what would you sort of recommend to people as their first person?When I started, I used to, I would go to hobby shops and buy it and then, um, and it actually did exactly what you sort of recommended, where I'd watch YouTube, [...0.5s] um, [...0.5s] mainly, I think partly side of the cool part of my nephew's, um, as well as to learn.And then would you sort of like eBay and take photos [...0.6s] after and tour to see what, what I pulled?But what's what's your, what's your, sort of final advice for new people? Um, it's a great question, actually was in the shop this weekend, and a parent was asking me this question for their kid. Um, so it does depend, and I say depends on your budget.Now if you have a budget where you're like, you know, I could spend$300 on a box of cards. I probably buy a hobby box because there is a guaranteed auto.And to be fair, it's exciting to pull an autograph [...0.4s] now I will say like, the checklist for Chrome, and that's the checklist is every card is listed on the checklist. So, you know, every, everything that's gonna be in the product is on that checklist.The autograph checklist for the card is not that strong this year. And I think that's something that's really important to also consider when buying a box of cards. Cause there's some years with a rookie card checklist is like amazing. And you're gonna, and you know that like there's a chance that you're gonna pull [...0.5s] one of these like really top rookies.And there's some years where the checklist is not as strong. This happens to be one of those years. Now you can pull a James Wood autograph card, which would be amazing.Um, but like right now top scroll is filled with a lot of sort of like [...1.1s] rookie relievers from last year who did not come back to their major league team this year.So that's frustrating if you would pull something like that. But having said that, [...0.7s] I would probably buy a hobby box because you get the one autograph at least. But then there's also the inserts, is a lot of inserts.You're gonna pull, you're gonna pull refractors, you're gonna pull color, color refractors. So I think there's still a lot of fun to be had, even if you know you, maybe you're not gonna pull a James 1 autograph. [...1.3s]This was so great, thank you so much. Um, I think for everyone watching or listening again at Yanks Chick is where you can find Sue's chat. Follow her on Twitter. It's super informative. Um.Thank you, thanks Susan. So this was so helpful and [...0.7s] no, no problem, I appreciate it. I like to talk about baseball cards all day long. So I don't mind, I don't mind. [...1.1s]Thank you and thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you again to sues for a fantastic episode. As a reminder, you can find her at Yags, check on Twitter and thank you for watching built to collect.We're gonna have more episodes like this of how to use across other categories like watches and more. So subscribe, share with your friends and please drop in the contact in the comments what you'd like to see next. Uh, I'm Danny Moss and thank you for watching build to collectcollect