4 Mega Boxes of 2024 Topps UFC Chrome

I hadn't planned on getting any UFC Chrome from Topps this year, as the $250+ price on hobby boxes was a little off-putting. Then they released these Mega Boxes at $60 apiece, and I couldn't help myself. With one autograph per box and a variety of exclusive inserts I figured I couldn't pass up the chance to chase the base set and some hits.

As I mentioned, each box offered up 1 autograph and 10 XFractors, as well as an assortment of inserts that were different from the offerings found in other configurations. I ordered 4 boxes. I wound up getting 110 base cards, 40 XFractors, 24 inserts, 14 various Refractors, and 4 autographs.

Here are a handful of the vertically-oriented base cards. The 200-card checklist features a good cross-section of current and former fighters on the UFC roster. I kind of wish there were fewer XFractors and more base cards, as half a base set from these 4 boxes was somewhat underwhelming for a set collector. I imagine if I buy more boxes I will run into more duplicates and eventually I'll have to fill out the set with singles.

The checklist also includes plenty of horizontal shots, including one of the headliners for tonight's fight, Manon Fiorot. I pulled a few doubles in my base cards, so I've got roughly 100 out of 200 cards in the base set from these 4 boxes.

As mentioned before, each box contains 10 XFractors, for a total of 40 in my break. I think these are exclusive to the Mega Box format. I would rather have base cards, but at 10 per box you could have a reasonable shot at building a whole set of XFractors if that is something you wanted to chase.

Of the 14 various Refractors I pulled, most were of the regular and Prism variety. I pulled a decent variety of them, with a small selection pictured here.

I got 2 numbered Refractors, an /199 Aqua of Cory Sandhagen and a /299 Speckle of Brunno Ferreira.

Here are some of the different inserts I got in my boxes. Apparently the inserts in the Mega boxes and blasters are entirely different from those found in Hobby configurations. Inserts shown here are Allen & Ginter, Brick by Brick, Fired Up, Embedded, and Pathblazers. I like the inserts in this product. They all look pretty good.

Finally, I picked up four autograph cards. No huge names, but a couple of names I recognize in Marvin Vettori and Andrei Arlovski. The Jack Jenkins rookie autograph is a Gold /50, and 3 of the 4 autographs I pulled are numbered autos.

Overall this is a fun product to break. I am looking to complete the base set, so I'd imagine a few more boxes are in my future, although I don't think I'll dabble in the Hobby side of things.

A Big Batch of Random UFC Cards

There's a pretty big fight today, so I thought I'd post some UFC cards I picked up at some point over the last few months. Technically, today's fight is a boxing match, but it involves arguably the biggest UFC star since Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor. Topps actually has made a trio of cards available for pre-order under their UFC Now banner, one for each fighter's weigh-in and one for the weigh-in generally. If you buy the individual weigh-in card of the fight winner, you will also get a bonus card of that fighter. I went ahead and ordered a copy of all three cards. As of the time I am posting this, there are still about six hours left on the pre-order window. If that interests you, click here. 

I don't have any new McGregor cards, and I don't think I've got any Mayweather cards at all, so I'll be showing off some other stuff. It's mostly a grab bag of parallels and hits, with these first couple cards being relic cards of UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber. The card above is a Fight Mat Relic card from 2014 Topps UFC Champions.

This one is a Fighter Relic card from 2012 UFC Bloodlines. It looks to be a piece of t-shirt or something similar. This one's serially-numbered # 169 / 188. I wish Topps would bring back a good comprehensive base set to the UFC line, but I can understand that there's probably not much money in that. They are releasing a Chrome set soon, which might be as close as we're going to get to that in 2017. The UFC needs some more big stars to carry the brand, especially maybe some stars who don't pop hot on drug tests.

This Cung Le relic card is another Topps UFC Bloodlines relic card, but it comes from the 2013 version of the product. It also looks like a bit of t-shirt, and is numbered # 011 / 198.

Going back to mat relics, here is a bit of the mat from UFC 76 on a card featuring Mauricio Rua. This card comes from 2010 Topps UFC. At UFC 76 he lost to Forrest Griffin due to a choke submission.

The last relic card in this batch of scans is an Alexis Davis card from 2014 Topps UFC Knockout. The relic swatch looks to be a two-color bit of shirt. She won her last fight, in April of this year.

Jumping ahead to 2015 Topps UFC Knockout, I have an Autograph Relic card of Francisco Rivera. His last fight was in 2016, and the UFC site lists him as a former fighter, so he might be done. That loss marked the end of a stretch where he lost 5 out of six fights over three years, so maybe he just didn't have it anymore.

I may already have a copy or two of this Jessica Penne autograph from 2015 Topps UFC Champions, but she has a cool signature and I am a sucker for cheap UFC hits, so I picked up another. She's lost three fights in a row now, with her latest being a loss by decision to Danielle Taylor in April 2017. Around the same time, she was also the first female UFC fighter to be flagged for a potential doping violation.

This Vitor Belfort card is a parallel of an insert card from 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth. This is the Onyx parallel of his Elite Skills insert, numbered # 13 / 88.

I am having a hard time pulling up a decent checklist for 2010 Topps Knockout, but I am assuming this parallel looks Green to me. It is numbered # 19 / 88.

I don't know why I like Gold parallels so much for UFC cards, but I pick them up when I can. This is a Bethe Correia parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Knockout. It is numbered # 55 / 99. Sorry for the lack of real content in parts of this post. There are some days when I am just not feeling it.

The final card in this group is a Gold parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Champions. Gold parallels from this set are some of my favorite cards to pick up, so I will always try to get them if I can. This one is numbered # 07 / 25.

I am not really pulling for McGregor or Mayweather. I guess the most entertaining thing would be for McGregor to win, as that would potentially throw the boxing world into disarray. I don't know much about boxing, but I am guessing that Mayweather's wealth of experience in the sport will make this a one-sided battle in his favor.

Recent UFC Pickups of All Kinds

I haven't watched the last couple of UFC events, just because I've been busy when they were on. I'll definitely be tuning in to the upcoming UFC 211, though, as there are some good names on the card, like Stipe Miocic, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, and Demian Maia. There are also some folks I like to watch lower on the card, like Jason Knight. I hope he wins his fight, so he gets some time on the microphone. This post is just a bunch of random UFC cards I've picked up recently, if you define recently pretty loosely.

Urijah Faber cards saw a little bit of a spike when he retired a few months ago, but you can get most of them now without spending much. I like this mat relic card from 2011 Topps UFC Finest because it lists the event the mat was used for. I think I may have looked up pictures from WEC 52 at some point to identify where in the mat this piece came from, but that was a long time ago and I'm not doing that right now.

I also got this Urijah Faber Atomic Refractor die-cut card from 2011 Topps UFC Finest, which lists some of his achievements on the back. It's too bad he never was able to get a belt in the UFC, although his understudy, Cody Garbrandt, managed the task against Faber's nemesis, Dominick Cruz. This card is numbered # 62 / 88.

I also have recently picked up a couple of 1st Autographs, including this Jessamyn Duke card from 2014 Topps UFC Champions. Part of the fun of my UFC collection is that I will pick up pretty much anything that is interesting to me, so there is plenty of variety. Autographs tend to be pretty cheap, too, outside of the really big stars.

The second autograph here is a Shayna Baszler signature from 2014 Topps UFC Bloodlines. This one is numbered # 036 / 225. Interestingly, Baszler also appears on a Japanese wrestling card I just picked up. She hasn't fought in the UFC since 2015, and has spent most of the time between then and now working for professional wrestling promotions, although she did have an MMA bout in Japan earlier this year. Her nickname is 'The Queen of Spades,' and this autograph has a Spade doodled alongside her name.

Another UFC collection of mine is low-numbered parallels. I am especially partial to these Gold parallels from 2015 UFC Champions, but I'll take any # / 25 or lower parallels I can find. This Carla Esparza card is numbered # 07 / 25. Her most recent fight was a split decision loss to Randa Markos in February.

Finally, I chased down this 2017 Topps UFC Fire autograph for my Neil Magny collection. Then I ordered a box of UFC Fire and pulled another copy. I guess it could be worse. This one is numbered # 002 / 199. Magny's most recent fight was a unanimous decision victory over Johny Hendricks in December.

Some PC (FC?) Cards in a Random UFC Lot

I snagged some UFC stuff a while back. Judging by the names in this group of scans, I am guessing I won these auctions in mid-January. That's how far behind I am in my posting. I have scans in my Draft folder that will take me well into May. In theory, I could go over a month without buying a card and still have new stuff to post about. That's not likely to happen, though. I'll hit a slow spot at some point and get this queue reeled in.

The key pieces of this lot were a couple of Neil Magny autos for my PC (FC?)* of him. The most important was this autograph from 2015 Topps UFC Knockout, which has the 1st Autograph designation on the front.

I am torn as to what to call PC's of subjects who aren't ballplayers, like wrestlers, fighters, and NASCAR drivers. My understanding is that PC means Player Collection. I guess it could mean Personal Collection, but that doesn't sound right. If it's in my collection, it's automatically a Personal Collection piece. But a Player Collection refers to a subdivision of your collection made up of cards of that individual. So do I call my Magny collection a Player Collection? Or do I call it a Fighter Collection and use the abbreviated FC? Do I have PCs or DCs (Driver Collections) of Danica Patrick and Josh Wise? I guess my life is pretty good if I can sit here and consider these questions.

The other Magny card in this lot was a 2016 Topps UFC Top of the Class autograph relic card. Typically autographs and relics are serially-numbered in these products, but neither of these Magny cards have numbering that I can see in the scans. I could go look at the cards themselves, but it's been two months since I received them, and that means they are in a 5000-count box downstairs waiting for me to complete the sorting project I began a couple of years ago.

Even though the shine has come off her star a bit after losses in her last two fights, I'll still put in a bid on a Ronda Rousey parallel. There's no denying that she put Women's MMA on the map for most of the population. This Green parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles is numbered # 078 / 288.

I will also put in a bid on nearly any UFC parallel numbered to # / 25 or less. I especially like Gold ones. I lose a lot of them, but I win one every now and then. This Johny Hendricks card comes from 2014 Topps UFC Champions. I like these Predictor programs, but I have never won anything from one of them. They probably just make me feel some kind of nostalgia for the Collector's Choice brand from the mid-90's. This card is numbered # 22 / 25.

Urijah Faber prices have come down since his retirement. I've been able to grab some parallels and relics of his over the last couple of months. This Gold parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles is numbered # 52 / 88.

This Gold parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Champions is even better, as it's numbered # 13 / 25. I was pretty happy to get this one.

I have pretty much nothing to say about this card. I was scanning the other cards in the lot, so this one got scanned as well. I probably had the intent to at least put the pictures into the Trading Card Database. It looks like this is a 2011 Topps UFC Finest Gold parallel, and it is numbered # 57 / 88.

I also like picking up relic cards that featured relic swatches linked to a particular event. This swatch of green and black looks like it came from the Mickey's Fine Malt Liquor ad on the UFC 63 Octagon mat. It looks like the picture on the card actually comes from Lauzon's win against Jens Pulver at that event. The card come from 2010 Topps UFC. There were a couple of other cards in the lot, but nothing that was interesting enough for me to write about. I literally (not literally) fell asleep thinking about writing about them, so I just deleted the pictures from the post. It was freeing, in a way.