Cards
Collector reaps rewards of building rare 2020 Topps Stadium Club Chrome Refractor set
When Scott Reinold first ripped a pack of 2020 Stadium Club Chrome Baseball, he was enamored by the cards.
For the first time in 20 years, Topps brought Chrome back to life in the Stadium Club product.
“I remember opening a pack and being like, wow, these cards have a real premium feel and look to them,” said Reinold, who lives just outside of Boston. “The quality was great, the photos were obviously great, good-looking checklist. I’m like, yeah, I like these cards.”
But Reinold started collecting other baseball products in late 2020 and forgot about 2020 Stadium Club Chrome. Flash forward two years and Reinold was looking through his collection for cards to sell. He knew he had a nice stash of Chrome Refractors from that Stadium Club set, and he thought about selling them in lots.
“During that process of starting to price out some of the Refractors, I kind of started digging more into the product and kind of stumbled onto how limited and unique of a release it was,” Reinold said. “It was the first time Topps had released a Stadium Club Chrome standalone set in 20 years, since 2000. I never knew that.”
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Reinold, 48, figured he had around 150 to 175 Chrome Refractors in the 400-card set. So, at that point, he decided to go all-in and collect the entire Refractor set. He already had a number of the high-value cards.
“It was going to be more of a grind to get it done, to find more of the commons and stuff,” Reinold said. “I thought it could be a fun challenge.”
Reinold started searching eBay and other online outlets for hobby and blaster boxes. There wasn’t much available on the market. Luckily, he found two cases of hobby boxes and quickly snatched them up.
“I’m really glad I [bought the cases],” he said. “Basically, me and one other collector that I know, who was also pretty passionate about 2020 Stadium Club Chrome, we bought up pretty much all of the product that was on the open market.”
Reinold opened one of the cases and checked off more Refractors from his checklist. The Refractors aren’t numbered, but they are short-printed. With 16 boxes in a case, 14 packs per hobby box, and six cards per pack, Refractors are inserted only one in every other pack. So, Reinold pulled just seven to eight Refractors per box.
Reinold figured out that the Refractors in the set only have a print run of about 675. One reason the set has held his interest is its scarcity. He also loves the great mix of current players, Hall of Famers and legends.
“I love the stock. They’re on a thicker than normal stock, so just the quality of them,” Reinold said. “The card design is very simple, but quality. The images, obviously. There’s a lot of iconic images.”
COMPLETING THE SET
Reinold figures about 60 percent of his Refractor set came from opening product, while the rest came from eBay sales and cards given to him by folks in the collecting community. He worked on the set with entirely raw cards.
He started the project in January 2025 and by early July needed just 40 cards. But those last cards were easy; he still needed to pick up the slick-looking Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, and Bryce Harper.
When he was opening the case, Reinold actually pulled four Sotos, which are referred to as the Soto Shuffle, because of the image Topps used on the card. Reinold ended up grading all four Sotos—each getting a perfect PSA 10—and selling them all to help fund the rest of his project.
The Soto, Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw cards, as well as the Yordan Alvarez and Bo Bichette rookies, are his favorite cards in the set.
Reinold’s goal was to finish the set by the time the World Series champion was crowned. He did it, picking up the Ohtani in mid-October.
With the 400-card set completed, it’s the largest set Reinold has ever put together.
“Feels great to have it finished,” he said. “It was a challenging, fun and rewarding accomplishment. I love everything about this set, and as far as I’m aware it’s the only one completed in the world.”
Reinold enjoyed piecing together the set, despite hitting some obstacles along the way.
It was fun “chipping away and seeing myself get closer to completing the set with each card acquired,” Reinold said. “Also, finding cards I needed at shows felt like finding a needle in a haystack. That was always a thrill.”
