The Last Blaster: 2023 Topps Update
A couple of weeks ago I went to the LCS to see what I might be able to find. I picked up some supplies and a couple of 2023 Topps Heritage Blasters that were on sale. As I was heading to the front to pay I took one last look at the sale table and I found a single 2023 Topps Update Blaster. At the time, I still needed two cards to complete my set so I figured why not and added it to my pile. Besides the price was a little lower than normal retail.
The 2023 Topps Update Blaster contains 7 packs with 12 cards in each pack. Exclusive to the Update Blaster are Halloween parallel cards. The Halloween parallels are at the back of the pack and can be seen when you first open the pack. There are 7 different parallels in these exclusives:
Orange and Black Foil - 1:3 packs
Jack O’ Lantern Foil - 1:21 packs
Ghost Foil - 1:56 packs
Skeleton Foil - #/50
Black Cat Foil - #/10
Witch Hat Foil - #/5
Bats Foil - 1/1
In my experience I have found on average three Halloween parallels in each blaster box. There were a couple instances where I found four. In these cases one parallel was one of the other six styles. In addition to the Halloween themed parallels you have a chance to pull all of the other more traditional parallels from across this year’s flagship line.
My pulls:
The first pack in the blaster started off great. Upon opening the pack I found a Juan Yepez Skeleton Foil parallel numbered 03/50. Throughout the rest of the blaster I pulled three of the Orange and Black Foils cards. The players are Freddy Fermin, Matt Reynolds and Pete Alonso. I also pulled a Rainbow Foil of Alec Burelson Rookie Debut.
In the Update Blasters there are plenty of inserts to be found. Each pack contains a retail-exclusive Stars of the MLB insert. The other inserts I found include:
2 - 1988 Topps Anniversary
2 - 2023 All-Star Game Inserts
1 - Time Spanning Tandem
1 - Topps Black Gold
The best card from the blaster came in the fourth pack. I pulled a Home Field Advantage card of Garrett Mitchell. This is the first Home Field Advantage card I have pulled from a pack. The Home Field Advantage cards were introduced by Topps in 2022 Series 1 in response to the popular Downtown cards produced by Panini.
Recap:
Unfortunately, my quest to finish my first set of 2023 Topps Update was not completed with this blaster. I did not pull the two base cards I needed. However, this was a fun rip as usual. The rookie class in 2023 Update is relatively small. Some of the rookie highlights include Partick Bailey, Zach Neto and the pitching Millers (Bryce, Bobby and Mason, not related). Many of the key rookies in flagship have their Rookie Debut cards, but not their true rookies. Those can be found throughout series one and two.
