2014 Stadium Club Mini Box Break

I really have strayed away from baseball cards over the past couple of years, but when I found out Topps was going to re-introduce Stadium Club, I knew that I would at least be dipping my toes in the water on this one. Stadium Club has always been one of the best-looking cards out there, with full-framed photography, minimal design on the card, and a high-gloss, high-quality card stock. 

Topps did things a little differently with this one, producing a box of 18 packs of five cards, but dividing each box into 3 mini-boxes of 6 packs. Each of those mini-boxes contains one on-card autograph, so you can still enjoy this product at an affordable price.

The base cards bring back a lot of what Stadium Club featured in the past, but there's significantly less gloss on the card surface, which is something I kind of miss with this one.  They still had the full-surface photo and minimal design, though, and I like how they included retired players in the set.

There are also parallels, like the Mike Napoli Rainbow Foil Parallel that I pulled, along with inserts, like this Justin Verlander Field Access card. My favorite one, though, is the Mike Trout Luminous card, which is both chrome and die-cut, and of a pretty good player, as well.

Lastly, my autograph was of Jake Marisnick. The card itself, appears to be identical to the base card, but with a, open space for the player's signature. Marisnick is featured as a member of the Miami Marlins, who he played for in 2013 and the beginning of 2014, but is now a member of the Houston Astros, after a six-player trade in July.

Stadium Club brings back a lot of the elements I missed in its absence, which is great for me. Not only that, but if you break up the full hobby boxes into the mini boxes, it can be a very affordable product, with potential for some pretty great pulls.