2018 Topps Series 2 Chicago Cubs Preview
Tomorrow (Wednesday 6/12) marks the release date for 2018 Topps Series 2. Normally, I don't even buy blasters of this product, only picking some up in my stocking at Christmas. But this year it seems somewhat enticing, maybe because I had fun breaking Topps Series 1 this year. Also, my wife will be out of town for 10 days so I'll have more than enough baseball card time. So, I decided to buy a few hobby boxes.
The Cubs are well represented in the checklist, as they also were in Series 1.
Series 2 Cubs base checklist
384 - Addison Russell
391 - Ben Zobrist
399 - Cubs team card
422 - Victor Caratini
432 - Albert Almora
436 - Yu Darvish
487 - Carl Edwards Jr.
498 - Jen Ho Tseng
500 - Kris Bryant
529 - Cubs Combo Card
552 - Kyle Hendricks
572 - Dillon Maples
643 - Justin Wilson
691 - Jason Heyward
699 - Drew Smyly
Love the series 2 base checklist. Another Drew Smyly card is odd (he was also in Heritage), since he won't play this year. Other than that nothing stands out here.
The Cubs also get several variations and short prints, including the above Yu Darvish variation.
There are plenty of inserts, including the 1983 All-Star cards.
83AS-33 - Kris Bryant
83AS-34 - Anthony Rizzo
83AS-35 - Addison Russell
83AS-49 - Ryne Sandberg
Jen-Ho Tseng and Dillon Maples are in the 83 Rookies Insert set.
I will have to pick up some retail boxes, because it's the only place to pull the Future Stars cards that include a few Cubs.
FS-23 - Ian Happ
FS-33 - Addison Russell
FS-35 - Javier Baez
FS-37 - Kyle Schwarber
Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Willson Contreras all have Home Run Challenge cards. Billy Williams is in the Instant Impact set.
Legends in the Making is also available retail only.
LITM-5 - Kyle Schwarber
LITM-6 - Addison Russell
LITM-7 - Javier Baez
Another subset with plenty of Cubs honors the home run. It's the Long Ball Legends.
LL-4 - Willson Contreras
LL-20 - Kris Bryant
LL-26 - Anthony Rizzo
LL-33 - Kyle Schwarber
Another retail only is the United States flag patch, in which Javier Baez has a card.
Additionally, there are autographs to these Insert sets and other relics available. After seeing the checklist, I seem to want more cards out of retail than hobby. Stay tuned, I will be ripping 2018 Topps Series 2 later this week.