As I have mentioned before, Chrome is one of my favorite sets of the year by far. I love the look of the cards, the design, and of course, the on card autographs. In the past, Chrome has consistently delivered the highest valued chase cards of the year, mainly because of how much prestige the Superfractor maintains within the hobby. That doesnt mean the product isnt without SIGNFICANT issues this year. Here are some of the worst of the worst.

Print Run

In the past, Topps has determined the print run for Chrome (and many other sets) according to the volume of pre-orders received from many different parties. This year was one of the first years where that apparently did not happen. As a result, this is easily the highest volume run of Chrome ever printed, and that’s putting it lightly. If you remember back to 2012, the run was higher too. As a result, there were similar issues, but the quality of the class helped mask them.

People on message boards have estimated that there are THOUSANDS of cases printed above the normal run, and not all of them are sold yet. That means that the box price is going to plummet as it heads to close out, making it more difficult to get out of this product what you put in.

Ripples of Said Print Run

Because the print run is so ridiculously high, that means there needs to be more cards printed to fulfill it. More base cards, more refractors, and of course more autographs. You would think that adding more cards to the run would be a win, but it just makes the serially numbered cards that much more difficult to pull.

It also means that the better autographs of the better players are close to impossible, even though the number of cards they signed is comparable to previous years, if not a little more. Guys like Bridgewater, Manziel, Watkins and company have the normal amount of autographs we usually see, but lets be honest, you will have to bust through 4 more cases to have a shot.

Because it costs a ton of money to get "Money Manizel" to sign a thousand more cards, he is not the card that Chrome is loaded with. It will be guys that Topps can get for pennies on the dollar, and that is a huge problem for people who are buying a box at a time. Hell, its just as big a problem for the mass case breakers as well.

The scary part of this whole situation is that when you do pull a top autograph, they ARENT worth that much more than they normally would be. So, in theory, its just longer odds to get the cards you want. If this was a year like 2012, I think this wouldnt be as hard a pill to swallow, but no one is playing up to that standard yet. Of course, Topps didnt know that when they signed the order, but still.

Refractor Cases

Collation on this product, especially in the type of refractors in every case, is not even close to adequate. There are entire cases of Chrome that have nothing but refractors of Veterans, based on reports from case breakers, which is horrible. The veteran refractors are not why people buy Chrome, and that means that you will be stuck with dud refractors to match your dud autographs. Ouch indeed.

Add this into the fact that color refractors are harder to pull (and have similar value to previous chrome releases), and all of a sudden there is a larger problem at bay. Chrome is a product built for both the high end chasers and the set collectors, and this year is creating a chase that no one wants to complete.

Why Do These Problems Exist?

I love Chrome’s cards this year. They are not only great looking, but are defintely worth checking out even if you are frustrated with your break. I think that we have a situation where Topps knew that they could take advantage of the hobby’s attachment to Chrome, and they did it in quite the sneaky way. Although pack odds remain listed on the side, no one really reads them. They just buy because, like me, they love Chrome. Not knowing what is going on, they may not walk away with the understanding they should be having, and that creates some intense dissatisfaction with the product. For a company to do this on a brand with a potential to remain at the top? Product suicide. Remember, there is only one more year of this left, and Topps knows that we want to get our fill before it goes away. Personally, as a business, I dont blame them. Its a good move.