Cheap Wax Wednesday Box Breaks: 2020 Topps Mini Baseball
2020 Topps Mini Baseball was an online-exclusive available on the Topps website. The checklist was made up of all 1,000 cards from the Series 1, Series 2, and Update releases. The design? Remember the shrink ray from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? Just use that on the cards from the flagship releases. They are exactly the same, both on the front and the back.
Each single pack should have 35 cards in it. Thirty of those will be base cards, two should be 1985 All-Stars inserts, and the final three cards should be numbered parallels. Parallels are available in just four colors: Pink (/25), Blue (/10), Red (/5) and Platinum (1/1). There are also autographs, but they are tough to pull. The auto checklist isn’t so hot looking at it four years later. The list is only ten players long. While Juan Soto, Luis Robert, and Andrew McCutchen are still good names, guys like Aristides Aquino (remember him?) Abraham Toro, and Luke Voit are also included.
Some numbers. It looks as though 13,401 boxes total were sold. With 30 base cards in each both, that would add up to 402,030 total base cards printed. Divide that by the 1,000 card set, and (assuming all base cards had equal print runs) each card should be limited to just over 400 copies.
2020 Topps Mini Baseball Box Break
Cards per pack: 35
Packs per box: 1
Price paid: $25
Shop for 2020 Topps Mini Baseball boxes on eBay.
Pitcher highlights:
Hyun-Jin Ryu, Max Scherzer Leaders & another Mad Max
Outfielders:
Adam Duvall, Jackie Bradley, Jr. & Mike Trout
Infielders:
Ketel Marte, Michael Brosseau RC, Robinson Cano, Fernando Tatis, Jr. (yes, he used to be an infielder) & Andrelton Simmons
It turns out the Tatis card is a pretty rare photo variation! Most of the photo variation short prints from the flagship releases are also included in the Mini set.
Parallels:
Freddy Peralta Pink (23/25), Francisco Lindor Blue (02/10) & Alex Bregman Red (2/5)
Lastly, the Lindor card back:
For some reason my pack did not include any of the 1985 AS insert cards. The names on the parallels made up for it, though.
I grabbed this pack as part of a Black Friday sale order last year. I was happy to get it for the same price it was on release! It looks like they can be found pretty easily for under $40 currently.
Shop for 2020 Topps Mini Baseball cards on:
Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.
