Topps Community Break Box #9: 2003 Topps Finest

Mini boxes!  It’s like we’re opening 3 boxes in one!  If you’re into products with a butt-load (technical term) of superfluous packaging, then this is a box for you.

It still makes me feel special to open Finest

It’s worth mentioning each and every time, all of these boxes are courtesy of our good friends and Community Break Sponsor: BASEBALL CARD EXCHANGE

I apologize in advance for the lack of focus.  I can’t adjust it on camera, and evidently as I lost light in the room, the focus got worse and worse.

Who wants to see some in focus scans?

Random assortment of cards. Only just now noticed how fake that ball looks in the Jennings card

I think this would have to be the “honeycomb” design.  All these human worker drones make me want to play some Super Mario Galaxy, or watch The Price is Right.

Shiny bees!

People have come to expect refractors in every single pack of everything these days, including Opening Day, Topps Stickers and 1988 Topps wax packs.  This box hearkens back to a foregone era where refractors were still somewhat legitimately scarce.  Yes, we only found 3 in our 3 mini boxes.  Luckily for Dave, one of those was the Delgado X-Fractor /99.

I could go for some Honey Comb cereal right about now.

Also included in the box was an uncirculated gold X-fractor numbered out of /199.  That means it’s actually more common than the circulated Delgado.  But at least it’s slabbed and sealed.  It’s also up for trade, since no one claimed the Angels.  That team is silently killing this break.

Shiny, pulsating relic holes. That sounds really dirty.

Lastly, the hits.  Yup, there were more hits than parallels in our master box.  I think we did pretty well.  In terms of autographs, the LaRoche is the best non-legend available and maybe the only one still playing.  The Goose isn’t the biggest name, but it’s probably in the middle.  The relic checklist is almost all good names, but we avoided the few total duds (unless you count Ramirez as one).

Only two more boxes to go.  Next up is Total.  That might take me a little time to sort, scan and count, as I still haven’t had time to do that.  Expect that to go up on Tuesday, I think.

Team breakdown so far:
Anaheim Angels – Base:  41 –Inserts/Parallels: 2  –Hits: 2
Arizona Diamondbacks – Alec– Base:  17 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Atlanta Braves – Colbey– Base:  52 –Inserts/Parallels:  5 –Hits:  1
Baltimore Orioles – Hobb’s Knights– Base:  25 –Inserts/Parallels:  2 –Hits:  0
Boston Red Sox – Summa Cum Lousy– Base:  29 –Inserts/Parallels:  4 –Hits:  1
Chicago Cubs – Base:  28 –Inserts/Parallels:  4 –Hits:  1
Chicago White Sox – Base:  28 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Cincinnati Reds – Jason C– Base:  27 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  1
Cleveland Indians – Baseball Dad– Base:  38 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  1
Colorado Rockies – Cards From the Quarry– Base:  27 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Detroit Tigers – Grand Cards– Base:  18 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Florida Marlins – Base:  30 –Inserts/Parallels:  2 –Hits:  0
Houston Astros – Base:  31 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Kansas City Royals – Base:  19 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Los Angeles Dodgers – Stealing Home– Base:  29 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Milwaukee Brewers – Base:  11 –Inserts/Parallels:  0 –Hits:  0
Minnesota Twins – Base:  16 –Inserts/Parallels:  3 –Hits:  1
Montreal Expos – Base:  24 –Inserts/Parallels:  4 –Hits:  0
New York Mets – The Sandlot– Base:  35 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
New York Yankees – Baseball Card Hall of Fame-Base:  65 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  3
Oakland Athletics – Base:  27 –Inserts/Parallels:  2 –Hits:  0
Philadelphia Phillies – Daddyoho– Base:  41 –Inserts/Parallels:  3 –Hits:  1
Pittsburgh Pirates – Base:  20 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
San Diego Padres – Base:  23 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
San Francisco Giants – Cheap Card Collecting– Base:  23 –Inserts/Parallels:  2 –Hits:  0
Seattle Mariners – Baseball Card Hall of Fame– Base:  25 –Inserts/Parallels:  2 –Hits:  0
St. Louis Cardinals – Cards on Cards– Base:  38 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Tampa Bay Devil Rays – Base:  15 –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Texas Rangers – Play at the Plate– Base: 28  –Inserts/Parallels:  1 –Hits:  0
Toronto Blue Jays – Dave– Base:  30 –Inserts/Parallels:  3 –Hits:  0