Nothing beats the thrill of opening packs of baseball card! Buying singles is fun because you can get exactly what you want, but the thrill of the chase can’t be beat.
It’s a little like letting Spotify curate music for you—there are few things better than finding that next favorite song of yours.
How do I determine the best baseball card packs to buy? I’ll take into account price, looks, how fun it is to rip, and more.
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Best Baseball Card Packs to Buy
- Best Packs With Cards That Hold Value
- Best Packs to Hold Unopened
- Best Packs for Ripping
- Best Low Cost Option
- Best Packs for Most Cards
- Most Expensive Packs
Note: I’m going to be using hobby boxes for the breakdowns!
1. Best Packs With Cards That Hold Value: Topps Chrome
Breakdown:
- Price per Box: $225
- Number of Cards: 96
- Guaranteed Chases: 1 auto
- Find on eBay
Topps Chrome is often considered the flagship product for baseball! Their rookies especially hold their value decently well. This is basically the same set as regular Topps Series 1 cards, but they’re thicker cards with the shiny chrome finish.
The big chases are the auto in every hobby box, which are often rookies. The other fun chase opening up Topps Chrome are the color refractors, which come up fairly often! (In past years, I used to get about 2 numbered refractors per hobby box, in addition to several other types of unnumbered ones)
Topps Chrome actually has 27 different types of refractor cards! Many collectors like to try and collect the “rainbow,” but that gets very difficult as most of them are numbered, including a few different 1/1s.
All in all, if you want to open a box for fun but then hopefully get some value out of your cards, Topps Chrome can be the best answer. A great strategy here is to open up these boxes right when you get them, and if you get any refractors for decent rookies, get them graded immediately and be the first to sell! (Or keep the rookies—those who did this with Julio Rodriguez are pretty pleased with themselves)
2. Best Packs to Hold Unopened: Bowman Chrome
Breakdown:
- Price per Box: $250
- Number of Cards: 60
- Guaranteed Chases: 2 autos, 1 prospect shimmer refractor
- Find on eBay
Bowman Chrome is a prospect-heavy product with the big chases being a player’s “1st” prospect card. Similar to Topps Chrome, you’re also on the hunt for refractor cards (with a few dozen variations on these). You also get a chance to grab the first autos available anywhere on top prospects.
Yes, this is a 17-year-old prospect who is still years away from the majors…with a card selling for $5k!
Generally, Bowman Chrome 1st cards outsell a Topps Chrome rookie for the same player—collectors see them as sort of their oldest or first rookie card.
In addition, be on the hunt for SP image variations that sell extremely well.
3. Best Packs for Ripping: Topps Pristine
Breakdown:
- Price per Box: $450
- Number of Cards: 60
- Guaranteed Chases: 2 encased autos, 1 auto relic, 10 parallels, 5 inserts
- Find on eBay
As a higher-end product (but not insane), Topps Pristine offers up one of the most fun ripping experiences, along with the opportunity to collect huge cards!
All of their autos are on-card, and they come already encased—which is always a nice touch!
Their autos of course include this year’s rookies, as well as many of the games biggest stars. They even have past stars as well as huge dual auto cards, such as Trout/Ohtani, Jeter/Rivera, Pedro/Ortiz, and more. Cal Ripken Jr., Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Ichiro, Wade Boggs, and Chipper Jones, among others, have autos in this set!
Of course, you can also get low-numbered parallels for all of these as well.
4. Best Low-Cost Option: Allen & Ginter
Breakdown:
- Price per Box: $125
- Number of Cards: 192
- Guaranteed Chases: Any 3 of autos, relic cards, rip cards, printing plates, and book cards
- Find on eBay
While these actually aren’t quite as cheap as Topps Series 1, I wanted to squeeze these Allen & Ginter cards in here. They are certainly the weirdest rip of the year!
Their chases include rip cards, where you get a card of a player that is sequentially numbered. Then, you can decide if you want to rip it for the chance at an even bigger card inside! Of course, you can get a much worse card as well.
You can also pull cards like this:
Yep, that’s a card with brown sugar in it.
However, they’re also known for their mini cards, nice auto relic book cards, and much more.
You can even get autos from:
- Charlie Chaplin
- Harry Houdini
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Helen Keller
- John F. Kennedy
- Marlon Brando
- James Madison
- Paul McCartney
And lots more super famous people that aren’t sports figures.
If you’re in for a cheap, super-weird set of cards with the potential for massive (albeit extremely rare) hits, then A&G is your best bet.
5. Best Packs for Most Cards: Topps Series 1
Breakdown:
- Price per Box: $75
- Number of Cards: 336 + 1 silver pack
- Guaranteed Chases: 1 auto or relic
- Find on eBay
This is the regular “paper” version of the Topps Chrome cards mentioned above! However, these are the ultimate kid-friendly rip because they are super cheap, give you a guaranteed hit, and give you 336 cards!
If your kid collects a certain player or team, they’re almost certainly going to pull at least a base version of what they’re looking for.
You’re on the hunt for the normal Topps stuff:
- Color refractors
- Image variations
- Autos
Now, also do the research between Topps Series 1, Topps Series 2, and Topps Update. They each have a different checklist and include different rookies. For example, this year, the biggest rookies are Elly De La Cruz, Gunnar Henderson, Corbin Carroll, Josh Jung, and Adley Rutschman
Topps Series 1 – Yes on Rutschman, Henderson, Carroll (autos only), Jung (autos only). No Elly
Topps Series 2 – Yes on Carroll, Jung, Rutschman (autos/inserts only), Gunnar (autos/inserts only). No Elly
Update hasn’t come out yet with a checklist, but it appears Elly won’t be there either. So the main thing here is that you have to decide what you want to chase. If you want an opportunity for tons of Corbin Carroll, Series 2 is your best bet because it will have his base & inserts, in addition to autos. If you’re chasing Elly, wait until next year.
6. Most Expensive Packs: Panini Flawless
Breakdown:
- Price per Box: $1,700
- Number of Cards: 10
- Guaranteed Chases: 7 autos, 2 memorabilia cards, 1 gem card
- Find on eBay
We’ll include this one here for fun, as few collectors buy these as personal boxes, but they’re a popular break product. At a cool $170 per card, these don’t come cheap—but they come with the opportunity for the biggest hits in the hobby. Check out the full checklist, and just scroll down the page to bask in the beauty.
This Julio card here is one of the coolest cards I’ve ever seen (and I’m not even a Mariners fan).
You can get gloves, bats, nasty game used patches, and the cleanest auto cards in the hobby.
The checklist is insane, and you can get almost any player of relevance over the past few decades (yes, Griffey Jr. is here as well).
