RIPPED Stops at an LCS to Rip with Customers
Travis Spude and his two daughters have all been blessed with the card collecting gene.
The girls showed up with their dad to Tim’s Sports Cards & Nascar Die-Cast in northeastern Wisconsin on November 13 to offer support and good luck on this big day.
Spude—a big baseball card collector—had been waiting all year for 2024 Topps Chrome Update Series Baseball to drop. The end-of-the-season product always features many star rookies who recently logged their first MLB games.
Spude always goes after the top young talent in the game. That chase has intensified for him and his fellow baseball card collectors in the last two years. Last year’s Chrome Update release marked the beginning of Rookie Debut Patch Autos (RDPA), which have cranked up the scale as the ultimate 1-of-1 card. Getting a chance to pull one of the coveted Superfractors had Spude ripping plenty of product in store.
“I absolutely love it,” Spude said. “I love the fact that they put the whole patch into the card, too. I think that was a great idea by Topps.”
With RDPAs in their second year, the mind-blowing list of this year’s cards is what prospecting collectors only thought possible in their dreams. After 91 RDPA cards appeared in the 2023 Chrome Update product, 251 are buried in packs this year. The list includes Paul Skenes, Elly De La Cruz, Jackson Merrill, Jackson Chourio, Jackson Holliday, Jasson Dominguez, Wyatt Langford, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and plenty more.
“The rookie class just in general is incredible,” Spude said. “I’m waiting to see the results for the Rookie of the Year because it’s going to be some of the toughest decisions they’ve ever had to make. You take the Jackson 3, Holliday’s rough start and then how great he played when he came back. Merrill played pretty well throughout the whole year. Chourio started off decent and then had a lull and came back and probably was the best out of the three of them to finish the season. Then Paul Skenes is in a world of his own right now.
“There’s so many guys in this class, and the list just blew up. I think it’s a great thing, especially for the hobby.”
There was a nice flow of traffic stopping in at Tim’s Sports Cards on Wednesday afternoon into the early evening to get their hands on Chrome Update.
Spude watched his daughters Payson, 12, and Aaliyah, 10, each open a pack from a hobby box. Payson pulled a Shohei Ohtani MLB All-Star Game refractor parallel to win a friendly family pack war.
“I think they are cool-looking cards,” said Payson, who is a hardcore Allen & Ginter collector. “I like how it kind of fades on the outside, from dark to lighter.”
Spude purchased one jumbo box and a pair of mega boxes to tide him over while at the shop. Spude, who owns three million trading cards, pulled a Logan Webb MLB All-Star Game autograph gold parallel numbered to 50 and a Twins rookie Jair Camargo autograph orange parallel to 25.
Father-Sons Road Trip
On Wednesday, the Oostburg School District had a half-day of school—admin must have known it was Chrome Update release day—so Chad Miller took his two sons and a friend on a road trip.
Miller took the three boys 75 miles north to Tim’s Sports Cards because he loves the quaint hobby shop. The guys have different interests in what they collect, but they were all intrigued to learn about the RDPA cards. Each one wanted their shot at pulling a life-changing card.
Connor Miller, an 11-year-old soccer collector, grabbed the first four-card pack from a fresh 24-pack hobby box.
“C’mon, 1-of-1,” said Connor.
It was quickly apparent one of the cards in the back was a colored parallel. Connor hit a purple lava lamp refractor autograph numbered to 299 of A’s rookie Brett Harris. It wasn’t an RDPA, but a collector can’t go wrong with a numbered auto of a prospect on the first pack of a box that guarantees one autograph.
“Connor. He’s the lucky guy,” said his dad.
Miller family friend Jack Townsend, 13, was next to open a pack. Out came a beautifully-colored Skenes Future Stars card.
“That’s probably the only person I know out of this rookie class,” Connor joked.
“The insert’s pretty cool. I’m not going to lie,” Townsend added. “It just pops with all the color.”
Carson Miller, 14, got his shot at a pack. He got an Adley Rutschman Future Stars card. Being a basketball collector, Carson doesn’t know too many baseball players. However, he knows Rutschman’s name.
“The design’s cool, and there’s a great rookie class,” Carson said.
Pulling a Big One
Tim’s Sports Cards regular Brian Warner made his way down from Sturgeon Bay, the biggest city in historic Door County, Wisconsin.
There aren’t any hobby shops in the county’s seat, so Warner makes a half-hour-plus drive to feed his sports card fix. Just like Spude, Warner wasn’t going to miss Chrome Update release day.
“I like to have the possibility of pulling a monster,” Warner said.
With a jumbo box staring him in the face, Warner proceeded to pull three autographs in seven packs. A 40-year collector of Topps, Warner enjoys the look of this year’s Chrome Update.
“It’s nice. I’d like to see more of these color variations, but I only opened seven jumbo packs,” Warner said.
Warner is a big fan of the RDPA cards. Knowing each player’s patch was worn during their first MLB game makes them more special. Even though Warner didn’t pull a 1-of-1 in store, that’s not going to stop him from continuing to buy the product he loves.
“I don’t have the best of luck, though, you know that,” Warner joked to Tim’s Sports Cards owner Tim Paye.
“You have over time,” Paye said.
“Yeah, I have,” Warner said. “It’s something different. And every card’s a 1-of-1, so that’s better yet.”
Before leaving the shop, Warner picked up a couple of boxes to rip at home. Less than an hour later, Paye received a text from Warner. Warner had pulled a rare Skenes, a Helix insert. The new 10-card subset has the odds of pulling one in every 4,585 hobby packs.
Warner’s luck doesn’t seem so bad any longer.
