Chrome Season has begun! I like to refer to the September through December period as Chrome Season, as Topps typically rolls out several major Chrome issues (Topps Chrome, Bowman Chrome, Bowman Draft w/Chrome, Bowman Sterling) during this time. They squeezed Bowman Platinum into this period last year as well, but decided to spread the Chrome stuff out a little more this year and put that product out in July. We will have Leaf Metal Draft to replace it this year though. So lots of Chrome stuff to enjoy in the next few months.
I do usually enjoy Chrome cards and this issue is no exception. It appears that Topps fixed most of the production issues that plagued last year's Topps Chrome set (curling cards, terrible centering, blemishes in the chrome itself, etc.). This is a strong effort, and it features a nice selection of Cubs cards to collect.
As always, we get the base set and a number of refractors and other parallels. Amazingly enough, there are quite a few new things to see just in this area alone. The best of the new in my opinion are the Atomic refractors. These feature kind of a random looking mosaic in the background and the new design really works for me. We also have Sepia refractors, which are re-colored pictures in a refractor format. I don't love these and I don't hate them either. Then there are the black refractors, which have been inserted in some Bowman products the last few years, but haven't been in Topps Chrome in a while. These look good as well.
As for inserts, as usual with this product there really aren't too many. The Topps Heritage Chrome high numbers are back again in this product, and they are what they are. I added these to the Topps Heritage Cubs breakdown post. Topps also included a Throwback set that features modern players on the 1996 Topps Chrome design (the first Topps Chrome set). I didn't love this design in 1986, and I still don't love it now. But it is a unique new set and I will definitely want the Castro from it.
The breakdown of Cubs in this issue is below!
Base Set - 12 Versions- Base, Refractors, Xfractors, Orange Refractors, Purple Refractors (#/499), Atomic Refractors (#/225), Blue Refractors (#/99), Sepia Refractors (#/99), Gold Refractors (#/50), Red Refractors (#/25), Gold Canary Diamond Refractors (1/1), Superfractors (1/1), and four colors of printing plates
#17 Starlin Castro
#91 Alfonso Soriano
#104 Matt Garza
#111 Marlon Byrd
#112 Carlos Pena
#131 Tyler Colvin
#179 Marcos Mateo
#191 Andrew Cashner
#193 Darwin Barney
Base Set Rookie Auto Parallels - 9 Versions - Base, Refractors (#/499), Blue Refractors (#/199), Black Refractors (#/100), Sepia Refractors (#/99), Gold Refractors (#/50), Red Refractors (#/25), Atomic Refractors (#/10), Superfractors (1/1), and four colors of printing plates
#191 Andrew Cashner
#193 Darwin Barney
1996 Vintage Chrome
#18 Starlin Castro
Topps Heritage Chrome High Numbers - 3 Versions - Base Chrome (#/1962), Refractors (#/562), and Black Refractors (#/62)
#137 Carlos Pena
#144 Kosuke Fukudome
#161 Alfonso Soriano
USA Baseball - 7 Versions - Refractors (Base), Blue Refractors, Autos, Autos Refractors, Autos Blue Refractors, Autos Gold Refractors, Autos Atomic Refractors
No Cubs Included
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