2010 Topps Chrome: Blaster vs. Rack Packs

A few days ago, I showed some cards from the 2010 Topps Chrome rack pack I picked up at the big W. I picked up a total of 4 rack packs and one blaster with the intention of sending one rack pack to the October Contest winner, posting one rack pack right away and doing a comparison with the others.

Here is the highly anticipated comparison. What do you mean you weren't highly anticipating this comparison? I'm shocked! And appalled!!

First up is the blaster. It contains 7 packs plus an unbelievable, incredible, stupendous, exc....never mind. It has 8 packs, each with 4 cards. That's a whopping total of 32 cards for $20 plus tax.

Pack 1:

Ian Desmond

Mike McCoy Refractor

J.A. Happ

Erick Aybar

Pack 2:

Allen Craig

Cesar Valdez X-Fractor

Pablo Sandoval

Lyle Overbay

Pack 3:

Josh Donaldson

Jayson Werth Purple Refractor #91/599 Purple Ref Blaster Odds 1:12

Matt Latos

Yadier Molina

Pack 4:

Brennan Boesch

B.J. Upton X-Fractor

Mike Napoli

Carlos Lee

Pack 5:

Mike Leake

Vernon Wells Refractor--That's the second Blue Jays refractor in this blaster

Evan Longoria

Ubaldo Jimenez

Pack 6:

Geovany Soto

Tim Hudson X-Fractor

Michael Bourn

Torii Hunter

Pack 7:

Drew Stubbs

Kendry Morales Refractor

Francisco Liriano

Bobby Abreu

Pack 8:

Sergio Santo

National Chicle Chrome Chase Utley #286/999--These fall 1:81 packs.

Shane Victorino

Manny Ramirez

The refractors and x-fractors both have insertion rates of 1:3 so you should get 2-3 of each per blaster. I got 3 of each, plus the purple refractor (1:12) and the National Chicle Chrome (1:81) so it wasn't too bad. No Ranger refractors or parallels, but that's ok. I got 24 of the 220 base cards with no dupes.

Now on to the rack packs. For comparison sake, I have two of the "value" rack packs. For a total of $18 plus tax, I have 6 packs of 4 cards plus two 3 card packs of the special orange refractors. Two of these don't quite equal a blaster in cost or packs, but the orange refractors are supposed to make up for it. We'll see.

Rack Pack 1:

Orange Refractor Pack

B.J. Upton

Edwin Jackson

Tim Hudson

Pack 1:

Alex Rios

Yunel Escobar X-Fractor

Bryan Anderson

Hideki Matsui

Pack 2:

David Wright

Kanekoa Texeira Refractor

Lance Zawadzki

Andrew Cashner

Pack 3: No scans here...

Joe Mauer
Mickey Mantle

Denard Span

Jake Arrieta

Rack Pack 2:

Orange Refractor Pack

Zack Greinke

Adam Wainwright

Koji Uehara

Pack 1:

Wandy Rodriguez

Russell Martin X-Fractor

Jason Bay

Matt Kemp

Pack 2:

Josh Hamilton

Ichiro

Javier Vasquez

Luke Hochevar

Pack 3:

Tim Lincecum

Derek Jeter X-Fractor

Scott Sizemore

Brian Matusz

The odds on these packs are the same as the packs from the blaster. I got three x-fractors and only one regular refractor.

As for the comparison, it really comes down to whether you want the orange refractors or not. If so, you definitely want to pick up the rack packs. The next time I was at the store they were all gone.