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death2redemptions · 10-12-2008, 01:54 AM

For a case of Hobby ($515) your paying roughly $55 more than a case of HTA ($460) but there are so many advantages:

1. 12 Rookie Chrome Refractors vs. only 6 with HTA. Personally I really liked the Rookie Refractor box loaders from last years Update and the good hits also sold really well. According to the sell sheet there are only 45 rookies in the base set so there are 10 extra rookies that are only included in the Chrome Refractor set. On a side note though, unless they are included in the TBD list, Topps is lacking some really good rookies in the set including Chris Davis, Pablo Sandoval, Chris Dickeron, Taylor Teagarden, Travis Snider and Brad Ziegler, all of whom made the September rookie card cut-off date.

2. You'll pull 5184 cards vs. only 2,760 in HTA. I'm assuming that with a Hobby case you may be able to complete roughly 3 more sets than you would with an HTA case. If this is true than that would more than make-up for the extra $55 that you had to pay for the Hobby case.

3. HTA includes 20 insert cards per box (not including parallels or memorabilia/auto) so that means a case will yield 120. Topps doesn't mention the amount inserted in a Hobby Box but from past experience with Topps Update, I'm positive there will be over 10, which means that there will be more insert cards per case of Hobby considering there are twice as many boxes. HTA also features 10 Campaign '08 per box and since Hobby packs usually have at least one insert/auto/memorabilia/parallel card per pack I'm sure that its possible 5 or more may be found per box.

4. Black parallels are inserted in both Hobby and HTA whereas last year the copper parallels (same as black) were inserted in HTA only.

5. Sketch cards are 1 per Hobby case. They aren't inserted in HTA.

The advantages with an HTA case:

1. There are 30 Ring of Honor and 30 New York Mets Ring of Honor per case. Hobby will only have 24 of each per case.

2. Less packs to rip

There has been no mention of the insertion rate of relic/autos per HTA box so I don't know if there is or isn't an advantage to HTA yet. All I know is that there is 1 per Hobby box which means 12 per case so unless Topps Update does what it did last year with HTA boxes (2 relic and 1 auto per box) there will be no advantage.

I always buy 2 cases of Topps Update within the week that it's released and then pick up 1-2 more cases a couple weeks later. This year my first two cases will be Hobby unless a couple days before release Topps announces per HTA: 2 auto and 2 relic or 1 auto and 2 relics (including 1 special serial #d relic) or some other great thing.

10-12-2008, 01:54 AM	#8 (permalink)
death2redemptions Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Scottsdale Arizona Posts: 582 iTrader: (12 / 100%) ddavisaz	For a case of Hobby ($515) your paying roughly $55 more than a case of HTA ($460) but there are so many advantages: 1. 12 Rookie Chrome Refractors vs. only 6 with HTA. Personally I really liked the Rookie Refractor box loaders from last years Update and the good hits also sold really well. According to the sell sheet there are only 45 rookies in the base set so there are 10 extra rookies that are only included in the Chrome Refractor set. On a side note though, unless they are included in the TBD list, Topps is lacking some really good rookies in the set including Chris Davis, Pablo Sandoval, Chris Dickeron, Taylor Teagarden, Travis Snider and Brad Ziegler, all of whom made the September rookie card cut-off date. 2. You'll pull 5184 cards vs. only 2,760 in HTA. I'm assuming that with a Hobby case you may be able to complete roughly 3 more sets than you would with an HTA case. If this is true than that would more than make-up for the extra $55 that you had to pay for the Hobby case. 3. HTA includes 20 insert cards per box (not including parallels or memorabilia/auto) so that means a case will yield 120. Topps doesn't mention the amount inserted in a Hobby Box but from past experience with Topps Update, I'm positive there will be over 10, which means that there will be more insert cards per case of Hobby considering there are twice as many boxes. HTA also features 10 Campaign '08 per box and since Hobby packs usually have at least one insert/auto/memorabilia/parallel card per pack I'm sure that its possible 5 or more may be found per box. 4. Black parallels are inserted in both Hobby and HTA whereas last year the copper parallels (same as black) were inserted in HTA only. 5. Sketch cards are 1 per Hobby case. They aren't inserted in HTA. The advantages with an HTA case: 1. There are 30 Ring of Honor and 30 New York Mets Ring of Honor per case. Hobby will only have 24 of each per case. 2. Less packs to rip There has been no mention of the insertion rate of relic/autos per HTA box so I don't know if there is or isn't an advantage to HTA yet. All I know is that there is 1 per Hobby box which means 12 per case so unless Topps Update does what it did last year with HTA boxes (2 relic and 1 auto per box) there will be no advantage. I always buy 2 cases of Topps Update within the week that it's released and then pick up 1-2 more cases a couple weeks later. This year my first two cases will be Hobby unless a couple days before release Topps announces per HTA: 2 auto and 2 relic or 1 auto and 2 relics (including 1 special serial #d relic) or some other great thing.