Topps MLB Chipz could be a safe bet

Posted Jan 10, 2013 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Mar 27, 2013 at 09:42 PM

Is Topps gambling by unveiling MLB Chipz, a game that incorporates poker-style chips of major-league baseball players?

It’s a safe bet that these chips might be winners for some collectors. So, not a gamble at all.

MLB Chipz is scheduled for a May release, and the chips will include autographs and relics, along with gold and silver parallels, and magnetic and glow-in-the-dark versions.

A pack will include four chips and a game board, and there will be 36 packs to a box. The base set will be 100 chips — 50 veterans and 50 rookies — with gold parallels in every three packs and silver in every four. The glow-in-the-dark chips can be found in every other pack, while magnetic chips will fall one in every four packs.

Autograph chips will be numbered to 25, while relics will be numbered to 50. So far, Topps has revealed 10 players who will have autographed chips: Jose Bautista, R.A. Dickey, Prince Fielder, David Freese, Paul Goldschmidt, Starling Marte, Dustin Pedroia, Buster Posey, Mark Trumbo and David Wright.

Players who will be on the relic cards so far: Elvis Andrus, Jay Bruce, Tony Gwynn, Josh Hamilton, Adam Jones, Ian Kinsler, Evan Longoria, Brooks Robinson, Pablo Sandoval and Dan Uggla.

It looks like an interesting product. Reminds me, in a bizarre sort of way, of the 1964 Topps metal coins that were inserted into wax packs that year. But since this year’s version looks like poker chips, there will be more of a solid feel to them. So if you happen to drop this year’s Chipz, it won’t have that metallic clang that the ’64 coins had.