As usual, the progression of information is a bit “off” at the Topps offices.  We brought you the extremely vague information about the 2011 Topps USA Boxed Set release, but it had no checklist or card images.  The product is set to release very soon and we still haven’t seen a legit sell sheet with any more info.

Thanks to Gilmore at Freedom Card Board, we have actual scans of the cards.  Very interesting stuff.  We’re still debating on the design, but it seems to be all on-card autographs, which is nice.  Check them out for yourself and let us know what you think.

Two of the more attractive and interesting superfractors showed up on the market this week.  The first one features a former USA collegiate player who is flying a bit under the radar.  Not only is Ryan Wright a solid middle infielder defensively (although a move to 2B is likely), but he also has been a producer offensively in his first MILB season.  He was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him as a 2012 late season call-up.

2010 Bowman Platinum USA Collegiate Team Ryan Wright SUPERFRACTOR AUTO 1/1

The second superfractor is of arguably the most followed international free agent not named Yu Darvish.  Cuban defector Yoennis Cespedes went from best player in his country to internet phenomenon overnight.  We wrote about him and the video last week, but now comes the market hype for his cards.  This card was listed at the right time for the first wave of hyped pricing, but the true money would be when he signs.  He’s likely to be scooped up by a big market team, so if he gets to the Rangers Red Sox, or Yankees….who knows what it could sell for.  Cha-ching!

2009 Topps Chrome WBC Prospects Yoennis Cespedes SUPERFRACTOR 1/1

This is a bit of a teaser, but at least it has some info for you all.  Topps has released some preliminary info for the 2011 USA Baseball Boxed Set. We have yet to see any images of the cards, as well as a checklist, but we do know the key points in regards to the structure of the product.

• 61 card base set
• 3 teams are featured: Collegiate (22 players), 18U (19 players), and 16U (20 players)
• Each sealed boxed set will include (7) Autographs and (3) Relics
• All base cards will feature 1/1 printing plates

For the autographed cards and triple relic cards, there is a new addition to the product structure…

…..new this year will be Gold parallels — cards limited to just 25 copies singed in gold ink. There also will be red (/99) and Green 1/1 parallels as well. Autographed Triple Relics will have Gold (/20) and Green (1/1) foil parallels as new additions along with the Reds limited to 25.

Triple Relics will be paralleled with Red foil (/25) and Gold (/10) while there also will be Green 1/1s to be found.

For insight into the rosters for the Collegiate/18U/16U teams, check out USAbaseball.com for names eligible for the set.  Once the checklist goes live, check back for more info on this USA release from Topps.

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After all the speculation and confusion on the 2011 Topps Chrome USA Collegiate Team Auto redemptions, we finally see them….LIVE!  A collector on Freedom Card Board Forums just got theirs in the mail, which happen to be the Atomic Refractor versions #’d /10 copies.

As you can see, the cards look great, albeit for the sticker autos (pretty much expected).  What was originally thought to be a redemption for entire sets of parallel autos, turned out to be 5-card packs of cards.  Each redemption card has randomly selected players of the given parallel, so good luck trying to get an entire set of the rarer parallels.

This collector made out extremely well on his player assortment.  Mark Appel and Deven Marrero are arguably the best of the set.