2009 Topps Chrome is on a collision course with baseball card collectors on Wednesday August 5th.
At least that is the scheduled date, which is correct within a day or two about fifty percent of the time it seems.
If you are planning on starting off with some hobby boxes, each box will contain 24 packs and each pack has four cards in it.
The base set will be comprised of 220 cards which are made up of 50 rookies and 170 veterans.
As we have come to expect from Topps Chrome, each card will also have multiple parallel insert cards.
There will also be 100 World Baseball Classic cards along with their own parallel insert cards.
The World Baseball Classic insert set consists of 100 of the best players from around the globe that played in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
These cards will be found at a rate of one per four packs.
A few of the featured international stars include Aroldis Chapman and Yoennis Cespedes from Cuba, and Hisashi Iwakuma, Norichika Aoki, Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka from Japan.
The most sought after of the 2009 Topps Chrome World Baseball Classic cards will be the hobby exclusive one of one Printing Plate cards and Superfractors.
Additional WBC parallels include Refractors that are numbered out of 500, Blue Refractors that are numbered out of 199, Gold Refractors that are numbered out of 50 and Red Refractors which are limited to 25.
The 2009 Topps Chrome base set will also feature some tough pulls.
Just like the WBC cards, the Printing Plate cards and the Superfractors will only be inserted into hobby packs and boxes and will each be one of one cards.
There are actually four different versions of each printing plate making a total of 880 printing plate cards.
Additional parallels include Blue Refractors which are numbered to 199, Gold Refractors which are numbered to 50 and Red Refractors which are numbered to 25.
2009 Topps Chrome Rookie Autograph cards will be seeded at a rate of 2 per box, and include future stars like Matt LaPorta and Elvis Andrus (who is actually doing quite nice already).
If you guessed that the rookie autograph cards would have their own parallel versions, they you are correct.
One of one Superfractors and Printing Plate cards will be found only in hobby boxes.
Standard refractors are numbered out of 499, Blue Refractors are numbered out of 199, Gold Refractors are numbered out of 50 and Red Refractors are numbered out of 25.
If you bought 2008 Topps Chrome or 2008 Topps Heritage cards, you will probably remember that Topps split up the Topps Heritage chrome set into three series, with the second series consisting of card numbers 101-200 being found in regular Topps Chrome packs.
Most collectors did not like what they assumed to be a marketing tactic and it looks like Topps will not be including Heritage chromes in the 2009 Topps Chrome packs, unless there is a last minute surprise.
This years chrome set looks to be another hit, especially with collectors outside of the United States thanks to the World Baseball Classic set.
At least that is the scheduled date, which is correct within a day or two about fifty percent of the time it seems.
If you are planning on starting off with some hobby boxes, each box will contain 24 packs and each pack has four cards in it.
The base set will be comprised of 220 cards which are made up of 50 rookies and 170 veterans.
As we have come to expect from Topps Chrome, each card will also have multiple parallel insert cards.
There will also be 100 World Baseball Classic cards along with their own parallel insert cards.
The World Baseball Classic insert set consists of 100 of the best players from around the globe that played in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
These cards will be found at a rate of one per four packs.
A few of the featured international stars include Aroldis Chapman and Yoennis Cespedes from Cuba, and Hisashi Iwakuma, Norichika Aoki, Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka from Japan.
The most sought after of the 2009 Topps Chrome World Baseball Classic cards will be the hobby exclusive one of one Printing Plate cards and Superfractors.
Additional WBC parallels include Refractors that are numbered out of 500, Blue Refractors that are numbered out of 199, Gold Refractors that are numbered out of 50 and Red Refractors which are limited to 25.
The 2009 Topps Chrome base set will also feature some tough pulls.
Just like the WBC cards, the Printing Plate cards and the Superfractors will only be inserted into hobby packs and boxes and will each be one of one cards.
There are actually four different versions of each printing plate making a total of 880 printing plate cards.
Additional parallels include Blue Refractors which are numbered to 199, Gold Refractors which are numbered to 50 and Red Refractors which are numbered to 25.
2009 Topps Chrome Rookie Autograph cards will be seeded at a rate of 2 per box, and include future stars like Matt LaPorta and Elvis Andrus (who is actually doing quite nice already).
If you guessed that the rookie autograph cards would have their own parallel versions, they you are correct.
One of one Superfractors and Printing Plate cards will be found only in hobby boxes.
Standard refractors are numbered out of 499, Blue Refractors are numbered out of 199, Gold Refractors are numbered out of 50 and Red Refractors are numbered out of 25.
If you bought 2008 Topps Chrome or 2008 Topps Heritage cards, you will probably remember that Topps split up the Topps Heritage chrome set into three series, with the second series consisting of card numbers 101-200 being found in regular Topps Chrome packs.
Most collectors did not like what they assumed to be a marketing tactic and it looks like Topps will not be including Heritage chromes in the 2009 Topps Chrome packs, unless there is a last minute surprise.
This years chrome set looks to be another hit, especially with collectors outside of the United States thanks to the World Baseball Classic set.