2021 Topps Chrome Tennis Hobby Box

2021 Topps Chrome Tennis is the set that carried the first Chrome cards of a generation of tennis stars, and it has stayed sought after. It was Topps' first Chrome tennis release, made as the official trading cards of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Refractors, low-numbered parallels and on-card autographs are the chase.

Factory sealed, shipped from our shop in Plains, PA, just outside Wilkes-Barre.

What is in a hobby box

• Packs: 18 packs per box
• Cards: 4 cards per pack, 72 cards per box
• Box break: 4 Clay Court Refractor parallels per box on the published box break
• Autographs: Chrome Autographs are inserted at random, with no autograph count stated for a box
• Case: 12 boxes per case

The box notes that autographs may include redemption cards with expiration dates.

Hobby box or Lite box

The Lite box is a separate product with 16 packs of 4 cards. Clay Court Refractors and Blue Refractors numbered to 99 are found only in Hobby. Lite carries its own Black and White Mini Diamond Refractors and Blue RayWave Refractors. The easy way to tell the boxes apart is the front panel: this Hobby box reads Look for Chrome Autographs, and the Lite box calls out its B&W Mini-Diamond parallels.

The autograph chase

Chrome Autographs run 90 signers, limited to 50 copies or less, and most versions are exclusive to Hobby. Signers include Coco Gauff, Emma Raducanu, Pete Sampras, Billie Jean King, Rod Laver, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis and Simona Halep. Emma Raducanu is on the autograph checklist only, with no base card in the set. Orange /25, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1 parallels sit above the base autographs.

About the set

The 2021 Topps Chrome Tennis release date is May 19, 2023. The set carries a 2021 date and came out about two years after that. The 100 card base set mixes Hall of Fame legends, active stars and young talent, including Coco Gauff (100), Pete Sampras (60), Chris Evert (99), Martina Navratilova (98), Billie Jean King (35), Rod Laver (38), Martina Hingis (29) and Simona Halep (74).

Beyond the Refractors and Clay Court Refractors, the numbered parallels step down from Purple /199 through Aqua /150, Mini Diamond /125, Blue /99, Green /75, Gold /50, Orange /25 and Rose Gold /10 to Red /5 and a SuperFractor 1/1. Three insert sets round it out: Aces (20 cards), Rings of Honor (20 cards) and Battle of the Baselines (10 cards), which pairs rivals such as Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (BB-10).