Topps & Wal-Mart 2016 Ho-Ho-Holiday Set

Gotta admit it…my first thought on reading about this set was, “If Santa Claus designed baseball cards this is what they would look like!” Assuming, of course, that Topps didn’t sue the jolly old elf for infringement.

Certainly the cards were not at the top of my “have to” list, but curiosity got the better of me. It is not every day that Topps puts out what is essentially a blaster box with a guaranteed “hit.” (I am not counting the manufactured coins, patches, etc.) Plus, the die-hard set builder in me thought a little year-end, 200 card challenge would be fun.

By now most baseball card collectors of current cardboard know that the 2016 Topps Holiday box baseball card set is a Walmart-only release. The boxes hold 10 packs of the holiday cards, and five of those packs will contain one Metallic Snowflake parallel. It is a somewhat different parallel as the added snowflake design is the only portion of the card with the metallic treatment. It was kinda cool to pull the Mike Trout metallic snowflake from one of the packs. (Feel free to contact me if you would like to buy the card.)

Also, as promised, each box contained one autograph, Relic or auto Relic. It was no surprise that each of the three boxes opened contained only a basic relic. However, as the set has a short checklist of better players and rookies the relics were at least decent players (Freddie Freeman, Evan Longoria, David Price). The odds on the wrappers show that there are about 26 relic cards for every autograph. Autographs are on stickers according to information released by the company.

Distribution was so-so in the three boxes I opened. I am still about 40 cards short of the 200 card set after opening the trio.

For the most part the set is only different from the regular Topps base set in its numbering and the snowflake design. Maybe there are a dozen or so different photos from the Series 1,2 and update releases. As mentioned earlier, the set is fairly heavy with stars and fan favorites, including players such as Kris Bryant, Ichiro, Anthony Rizzo, and Mike Trout, to name a few. There are also rookie cards of the Cardinals’ Aledmys Diaz, the Dodgers’ Corey Seager, and the Rockies’ Trevor Story (and others).

Were these “great” cards to open? No. But the set is fun in its own way, it is not a hard set to collect, and the parallels present a pretty good challenge. If you enjoy the hobby for its own sake it is worth the time to rip the packs.