Get Open: Topps 2021 Chrome Tennis Cards

A recurring column/video series where I open things! This week...tennis cards.

A perfect storm of circumstances formed recently that led to one of the rarest of all sports happenings … Americans talking about tennis.

You can chalk that up to two things. For one, most major American sports are in the midst of their respective off-seasons. The only one going right now is Major League Baseball, which is essentially the tennis of major sports in terms of how much people care about it in the United States these days.

Actually, attendance is up this season. No idea why.

Also, an American male tennis player made it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. I don’t think I needed to say “tennis player” in that last sentence. If it was, say, Golden State Warriors point guard Chris Paul who made it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, you’d for sure know by now. That would be truly unprecedented.

It wasn’t, though. It was 27-year-old Christopher Eubanks.

Hard to tell from this distance but I think that’s him.

He was a two-time All-American when he played college tennis at Georgia Tech, so him making it deep into a professional tennis tournament shouldn’t be that surprising. Unfortunately, he’s carried a lot of “peaked in college” vibes with him since turning pro, so much so that he and his agent had a heart to heart a couple of years ago about him maybe pivoting to commentary work.

Then, earlier this year, his career just started turning around kinda out of nowhere. It’s a neat story for a bunch of reasons, including the part where American men’s tennis has mostly sucked for about 20 years now. We talk about all of that a bunch on this week’s episode of You Don’t Even Like This Show, if you’re interested.

As for today’s work, Chris Eubanks makes for a great segue, because there was another convergence of perfect circumstances that led to this column. Specifically, it was a convergence of two relatively recent passions of mine … tennis and sports cards.

I’ve always sorta been into tennis, but it has become my actual favorite sport over the past few years. That started when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep so I turned on the TV and just happened into watching Rafael Nadal mount one of the most inspiring comebacks in sports history at the 2022 Australian Open.

Then I went to the US Open later that year and watched a bunch of opening round matches and saw Carlos Alcaraz break a guy’s hamstring and drank a lot of Honey Deuces and I’ve been way into tennis ever since.

The only good thing the honeydew melon has ever done.

The other thing I’ve been into lately? Sports cards. That’s because I’ve recently been co-hosting a pack breaking show with my bff (big fucking fuckface) Jeff May called You Don’t Even Like Sports (Cards). It’s a show where we open packs of sports cards and, you know, hope something in there makes us rich. It probably never will, but it is a very fun thing to do.

I was super duper into sports cards, and specifically baseball cards, when I was a kid and, as it turns out, I’m way into them as an adult, too! So imagine my joy when, earlier this year, legendary sports card brand Topps released the 2021 Chrome Tennis set.

Wait, earlier this year? So then why “2021” tennis cards? It seems like no one is 100 percent sure, but my guess is these cards were probably one of the last things pulled off all those cargo ships that piled up in your local harbor when our supply chain broke that one time because, again, no one in this country cares about tennis.

Whatever the case, these cards didn’t come out until this year, and I was very excited when they did. So excited, in fact, that I bought two boxes of them to open. Then I recorded a video of myself opening them for this column!

Unfortunately, I was using the wrong microphone when I did that and didn’t realize it and it’s not like I can just put all of those cards back in their packs so, whoops, I had to buy two more boxes. Then I filmed myself opening those! Here it goes!

What was that you said? That was the best internet video you’ve ever watched? Why, that feels like an over the top reaction and one I frankly don’t agree with. But I am glad you liked it, if that’s a thing you did (hint, hint).

Let’s look at some of the stuff I found!

A Bunch of Clay Court Refractor Cards

If you’re wholly unfamiliar with sports card collecting, one term worth knowing is “parallel” cards. In most cases, there is a “base” set, which is made up of the most common version of each card. In this set, all of the base cards have a chrome look to them, hence the name.

And then each of those cards have a bunch of “parallel” versions that are varying degrees of harder to find.

The cards at the top of this entry are all Clay Court Refractor parallels (that’s what that pattern is supposed to look like). They are one of the more common parallel cards in this set, found in approximately 1 out of every 9 hobby boxes. So, they can all go right to hell, if I’m being completely honest.

Mark Woodforde Purple Wave Refractor #4/199

Arguably the fanciest looking card I pulled from these boxes, this Mark Woodforde Purple Wave Refractor is just the fifth rarest of them all. But still, it’s so pretty when you move it around in the light!

Simona Halep Aqua Refractor #49/150

Now we’re talking! This is not only a much harder to find card than the Mark Woodforde card, but also Simona Halep is the far more famous player of the two. Unfortunately, at least some of that fame has to do with her being out of tennis since testing positive for banned substances at the 2022 US Open. Nevertheless, this is a neat card.

Conchita Martinez Mini Diamond Refractor #89/125

This is a Mini Diamond Refractor. These are also available in a black and white version (see the second Coco Gauff card above), but those are only available in the Hobby Lite boxes. I was opening Hobby boxes, so I never stood a chance of getting a version of this card where Conchita Martinez looks like a ghost.

Yannick Noah Blue Refractor #71/99

Of all the cards I’ve pulled out of any box since I’ve gotten back into sports cards, this is up there among my favorites. It’s super pretty, rarer than most, and Yannick Noah is still a pretty huge name, albeit now more so for being a musician and having a kid who played in the NBA than his tennis career. He was pretty good at that too, though.

Kerry Melville Reid Chrome Auto #26/50

Hell. Yes. Everyone’s favorite parallel. A certified autograph. Those tend to be among the more valuable parallel cards, for obvious reasons. This isn’t anything I’m gonna cash in and retire on, but very cool nonetheless.

And that’s it! Next time around, I’m opening a still sealed copy of Fleetwood Mac’s 1978 Tusk album. Here’s hoping you’re here for it!