2012 Topps Chrome: A Tale of Two Blasters

As I mentioned in my morning post, I'm losing my baseball card money job at the end of the month.  I received that news on Monday morning along with my final check.  Since I love Topps Chrome, I decided to spend the whole enchilada on Chrome if I could find it.  Find it I did.

I picked up two blasters and three rack packs.  I think if I had bought one blaster and opened it, I might have avoided Chrome for the rest of the year.  Fortunately, I bought the second one and it brought me back from the edge of the cliff.  

For your personal viewing pleasure, or displeasure as the case may be, here are the odds for the blasters, which have eight 4 card packs.  One of the packs is chock full of purple refractors.  

Refractors - 1:3

X-fractors - 1:6

Blue refractors - 1:300

Black refractors - 1:760

Sepia refractors - 1:930

Gold refractors - 1:1,525

Dynamic die-cuts - 1:24

Base card variations - 1:13,500

Autographs - 1:bazillion or something ridiculous like that.

Here is blaster vs. blaster comparison showing just the highlights.  

Blaster 1

The very first pack had this Brian Wilson X-fractor.  That's a kick in the family jewels.

The third pack revealed a Nick Swisher refractor.  As I was recoving from the low blow, this card was a knife in the back.

I celebrated like Jay Bruce to get a refractor that wasn't a Yankee or Brian Wilson.  Yay me!

Just when I thought the fight was over, I get double teamed by a Curtis Granderson X-fractor.  That's not a fair fight and Topps knows it.  I was about to open the purple refractor pack and praying that it didn't have a Yankee.

Cat hair and all, at least Alcides Escobar is a Royal and not one of those other teams.

High fives all around, it's a Diamondback.

Indians aren't Yankees.  Unfortunately, the joy at not pulling one of them is wearing off because I'm realizing the blaster isn't going to have any Rangers.

Rounding third on blaster #1 with an Eric Hosmer purple refractor.

If you didn't read the odds I posted above, the chances of you getting any color other than the guaranteed purple from these are not good.  I've seen reports on Blowout of some hot blasters containing packs with purple refractors.

After blaster #1, I was a little sick at my stomach knowing I still had another $50 of this stuff to open, but open it I did.

Blaster 2

The first card in the first pack was this base Leonys Martin.  Blaster #2 wins the battle already.

The second pack gave up a Josh Hamilton refractor.  Throw away your score cards, this fight is over.

Pack 3 made it a runaway victory for blaster 2.  A Yu Darvish X-fractor was more than I could have hoped for at this point in the box.

Not even a Jaime Garcia refractor could take the shine off this box.

Now for the purple pack.

Ha ha!  Arod, you can't bring me down!!!

I know this guy hit a homer last night to beat the Phillies.

Matt Moore helped the Rays complete the 4 game sweep of the Angels so I have to like him, right?

A purple play at the plate is icing on the cake as blaster #2 comes to a close.  Overall, I'm happy with Chrome as always (except for the 2010 burrito factor).  I'll post the results of my rack packs too, but I don't think I'll be buying any more Chrome this year.

Not unless I can get another cushy baseball card money job.