Box Break: 2010 Topps WWE

This past Friday night was the biannual Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club show at the Aleppo Shriners Hall in Wilmington. While this show is heavily weighted towards vintage cards, there are usually enough modern product there for me to have a good time. Heck, I could have a good time just walking through the show looking at all of the amazing cards for sale. There's tobacco cards, '52s and just about anything you could imagine. Rows of Mantles in various grades by half grades, Babe Ruths, Teddy Ballgame and more.

So, what did I purchase at this show that could almost pass as a sports card museum? Wrestling cards. That's right, I purchased a box of 2010 Topps WWE trading cards. I'm not that into Bowman Chrome and want to wait and see if the price drops any lower before I possibly buy any of that. I decided to try something different especially since I have yet to pick up a box of the 2009 edition of these.

So, what did I think of the box? There are far too many insert sets in this stuff. I pulled 57 insert cards out of my box. It is just like 2010 Baseball in that regard. I did not get a complete set and still need 5 cards to complete the set. I got three doubles and one damaged card that I wasn't putting in the set. That annoys me when it comes to a product such as this one. Singles can be tough enough to find these days for popular sets. Forget it when it comes to non-sports and wrestling sets.

How can you complain, you pulled the best non-parallel card in the whole product? That's true and I'm still buzzing about the dual auto pull, but I'm looking at the box in terms of just the base set first off. The majority of the boxes out there aren't going to contain a card as good as this one and if someone gets a dud auto or no auto in their box (autographs fall one in every other box) then this is something that's going to bother them. When it comes to smaller, oddball sets there has to be a complete set in every box.

I'll speak briefly on the various insert sets:

• National Heroes (1:8) - I really like these cards. The design is simple with the wrestler in front of the flag of their homeland, but it works. These would have been even cooler in the 80s when nationality was such a huge part of wrestling.
• History of... (1:8) - These are completely unnecessary and I could have done without them. It's easy to sum up the history of The Miz or Kelly Kelly in one paragraph, but how do you sum up the history of wrestlers such as William Regal or Chris Jericho in one ten sentence paragraph?
• ToppsTown (1:6) - Sure, if you are copying the format of the other Topps sets, why not. They're actually limited in this with four found in each box.
• Favorite Finishers! (1:4) - This is the first insert set that absolutely belongs here. Finishing moves have become such a huge part of wrestling these days. I almost wish that these were one per pack like ToppsTown is in every other product. The simple design of these cards leaves plenty of space for some great photography.
• Championship Material/World Championship Material (1:6 each) - These cards are a bit of a mess. There are 50 cards of wrestlers who have held the various WWF/WWE titles. Then there's a different 25 card set of wrestlers who have held the World Championship. Then there are variants of these cards with picture puzzles on the back of title bels that fall once in every 12 packs. There are three different puzzles so you'll end up with six of these parallels in the box in addition to eight of the regular cards which is a second layer of unnecessary.
• Blue Parallels (1:1) - Again, it's a Topps staple so I don't mind it. With all of these inserts, there really should have been 8 cards per pack.
• Gold Parallels (1:29) - It looks like these aren't even one per box. Gold makes a lot more sense for a parallel numbered to 50.
• Superstar Swatch Relic (1:28) - It is what it is and what it is is boring. I never really understood wrestling relic cards unless it is from something really unique to the wrestler. Yellow with black polka dots for Dusty Rhodes, a piece of Rick Rude's tights would have been awesome with the airbrushing he had on them or piece of a Hulk Hogan bandana (oh wait, TRISTAR already did that in one of their TNA sets). Yawn.
• Dual Autograph (1:162 or 6.75 boxes) - I really beats the odds just in getting one of these and I was even luckier in pulling the best of the bunch. It looks like this card has sold for around $80 on eBay, but I think that I'm going to hold on to it.