Opening a Blaster of 2024 Topps Chrome Football

Recently I was shopping at my local Target because my old HP printer was out of ink again (by the way, HP really has a racket going on when it comes to the cost of ink).  The shrinking tech aisle where laptops, printers and supplies use to be displayed really doesn't hold much anymore.  In fact I think I saw only one printer displayed.  It took me a couple of passes to actually find the shelf holding ink cartridges.  My printer takes ink cartridges labeled 61.  I started at one end with cartridges beginning in the eighties and counted down to...62!  That's where it ended.  Ugh, this was a waste of a trip...or was it?

As I exited the aisle I took a left turn and to my surprise I found a shelf holding blasters of 2025 Panini Optic basketball, Chronicles football and 2024 Topps Chrome football.  I grabbed 3 blasters of Topps Chrome football and made my way to the checkout.  This is where it got interesting.  The checkout lady scanned the first box, then the second and on the third box the computer sounded a weird beep and a big message displayed on the screen - max count exceeded!  I didn't know buyers were limited to only 2 blasters.  

Are collectors, or rather breakers, still knocking down doors to buy up everything?  That policy seemed a bit extreme to me but I remember the videos from the Covid era with people fighting over these things, so in that regard it makes sense.

Anyway, after some chit chat the checkout lady rang up the third box as a separate purchase (easy way to get around that policy).

The box says there are 7 packs with 4 cards each and right there you can see it, there are 4 exclusive refractors and 1 prism refractor.  So let's see how I did.

Starting with these inserts I pulled 3 pink, one of which is numbered /399.  I love the Earl Campbell card as he is one of my favorite running backs.  But the highlight of this bunch is the Jayden Daniels Future Stars.

Here are the refractors I found.  Tyler Nubin is a favorite because he played for the home town Gophers and Billy Simms is the promised prism refractor.  But wait, I seem to be one short.  The cards of Nubin, Brown and Holt are all marked on the back as refractors.  Where is the 4th refractor?

No refractors here, but it's always good to pull rookies.  Being that 1/3 of the set is rookies there better be a few in each box.

And more rookies!  Though it's not marked as such, the Jayden Daniels is the 4th refractor!

Here are all the rest.  Vets from days gone by.  These players make up the other 2/3s of the set.  Brady is the main player of this bunch but the Ricky Williams is a refractor, though again, it's not marked on the back as being one.

Overall this blaster was a blast (pun intended).  9 inserts, 8 rookies, 6 total refractors, and 1 numbered card.  I pulled 2 cards of a big name rookie (Daniels), a Brady, and a card of one of my favorite running backs (Campbell).  I'll take that kind of blaster any day.

Despite a checklist that contains 200 past players and 100 rookies (no McCarthy!), I've officially made the decision to complete this specific football set.  This marks my first attempt at a high end football set since I finished the 2020 Prizm football set, an endeavor I undertook before this blog was established.  It's surprising that the appealing design of 2024 baseball chrome set didn't lure me in, but I'll save that for another time.  

I don't anticipate this set will take long to complete and I definitely will be going back to Target to buy more.  Hopefully the computer doesn't get mad again.