2010 Topps Series 2 Jumbo – Bizarro box break

I ripped through my jumbo box of 2010 Topps Series 2 quicker than originally anticipated in hopes of cashing in on the Million Card Giveaway codes as quickly as possible.  And by cashing in, I’m talking about ebay.  They’re going for about $2 a pop, which is equivalent to eight-ish relics/autographs from COMC.   Yes, please!  I’ll happily make that trade.  In fact, I’ve got thousands of cards from ’87-94, and since that’s almost guaranteed to be what you’ll redeem from the Million Card redemption site I’ll cut you a deal – two of my junk wax cards for one of your relics.  Deal?

The rest of the box was an emotional roller coaster.  I’m not scanning every insert, because you’ve seen them elsewhere (and also in Series 1 – the second series was mostly more of the same).  The first hit uncovered was a Prince Fielder “commemorative” hat logo card:

When I saw these on the sell sheets I was wishing I hadn’t pre-ordered my box.  I wanted the ‘real’ manufactured patches of actual hat logos, not the made-for-extra-revenue 4th of July editions.  These, though, are much nicer in person, and I think I like them more than series one.

Luckily for me, there was a second one in the box:

Whaaaaa?  I suppose this is better than a regular relic, if it counts as one, if only because I can sell/trade this and get far more in return than whatever $1.50 (COMC value, of course) relic I would’ve pulled instead.  Or maybe it’s an extra hit.  Keep reading.

The next surprise was a Tom Seaver SP variation.  Very nice:

Followed by another SP variation, Thurman Munson.  Again, whaaaaa?  I call these ten dollar bills.  Search ebay to see what I’m talking about.  I’m only going for the base set (not the master) so I have no real need for these.

As far as the inserts that I liked, the 2020/3-D/Sportflix lookalikes were cool, and I’d be plenty thrilled if all cards were like this in 10 years.  However, it seems to be a step back as far as evolution is concerned, considering that, you know, it was already done 15 years ago.  I got four pairs doubles (Ubaldo Jiminez, Gordon Beckham, Zack Greinke, and Hunter Pence).  Nice collation, Topps.

My favorite insert set is the “Vintage Legends”, featuring vintage legends (duh) on cards they never actually appeared on.  I don’t like all of them, though, just the legends appearing on junk wax era cards:

And that’s it.  Notice anything missing?  Yep, an autograph!  And the relic, unless you count the second hat logo, which I will.  It’s time for a “Dear Topps” letter to get what is rightfully mine.  Hey – I’m not the one promising an autograph in every box, they are.

So the box was sort of a disappointment, but sort of not, because I got two SP variations and two hat logos.  A Rookie Redemption would’ve been nice, too, but there was none to be found. At least jumbo boxes contain the complete base set, right?

WRONG!  Not this crazy box.  I’m 10 cards short of the set, and I’ve got 75+ doubles (and most of the inserts) available for trade if you can help complete my set!  The missing cards:

337, 383, 411, 422, 477, 508, 548, 551, 580, and 591. Don’t worry, tf one of them ends up being some crazy variation with a hidden President, I’ll make sure to return it!

Thanks (in advance)!

Now in stock

Is there anything sweeter than a freshly cracked box of cards? The promise, the potential, the heartache… all inside, in this case, 10 glorious jumbo packs of 2010 Topps, Series 2:

And cards are nothing without top loaders in which to store them.  I picked up a bunch of those, too.  But as for the box, it still sits unopened, and the plan is to bust a pack a day, maybe two when the weekend arrives.  I’ll post highlights, lowlights, and any other oddities I come across, but I’ll spare you all a complete break if only because by the time I’m done you’ll have seen a hundred 2010 Topps Series 2 breaks elsewhere.

One pic pack rip – 2009 Bowman HTA Jumbo

2009 Topps HTA pack rip

I’ve purchased a pack or two of 2009 Topps from Target in the past few months, but this past Friday was the first time I’ve ever gone for a hobby version of the stuff.  And not just any hobby pack, I went with the big boy, the HTA Jumbo:

Good stuff.  I tend to stay away from single packs of flagship lines, mostly because the chances of any decent hits (relics and autos) are slim.  And since I’m not much of a set collector, the base cards don’t do me much good.  Topps HTA jumbo is a little different than the norm; priced at the higher end of the spectrum ($10 per pack) you get odds of slightly less than 1:4 of a relic, autograph, or letter ‘patch’, four or five inserts, and a ton of base cards.  It’s tough to pass up if you’re trying to maximize the amount of cards you’ll get in any one purchase.

I won’t list every single card, since most of you have either already seen them, already collated the entire set, or simply don’t care.  But let’s take a look at the inserts and personal favorites, shall we?

#528 Nick Swisher, #506 Paul Konerko, #BCS11 Adrian Gonzalez

Swisher quickly became a fan favorite in New York upon his debut in 2009.  He’s provided much needed signs of life to the Yankee roster.  The Konerko card made my head spin when I first saw it.  Two players, leaning the same way, facing the same direction… trippy.  Reminds me of how everyone trots off the field in perfect synchronization in video games.  And the Gonzalez is a card of the last remaining decent player on the Padres roster, plus I like the World Baseball Classic.

#595 Vernon Wells, #480 Prince Fielder, #339 Jim Leyland.

True story:  Alex Rios was released by the Blue Jays because of his habit of stealing real estate on Vernon Wells’ cards.  OK, not a true story, but only one player on this card is still a Blue Jay.  Prince Fielder is one of my favorite non-Yankees players, for no particular reason.  He’s big, and he’s fun to watch – what more reason do I need?  The Leyland card is old-school.  I can’t remember the last time I liked a manager card.

#370 Victor Martinez

This is, so far, my favorite card of 2009.  It captures the pure joy of the game for young fans:  a young kid reaching for a ball being flipped in to the stands by Martinez.  It doesn’t look like the ball is heading his way, however, but the kid probably tried just as hard for a ball with each following end of an inning.

Now, the inserts.

Ring of Honor Jonathan Papelbon, Gold Aaron Rowand (#’d 181/2009).  I hate Papelbon, and it seems that the rest of the sporting world (outside of Boston) does, too.

Legends of the Game Robin Yount, Topps Town Carlos Zambrano.  I don’t think these Topps Town cards should count as inserts, as they’re really just an advertisement for some sort of online thingy.  By entering a code I can “bring this card to life”.  Hmmm… a raging Carlos Zambrano storming around our guest/baseball room doesn’t seem like a good idea.  Has anyone ever redeemed one of these codes?  What does it do?  Maybe I’ll try it this weekend.

Finally, the two inserts I actually like:  Turkey Red Ryan Howard, Career Best Auto Austin Kearns.

The Turkey Reds aren’t as nice as other retro themed sets, but they’re still slick.  I was happy to find a ‘hit’, even if it’s just of Austin Kearns.  Call me crazy, but I like holo-foil autographs.  Besides, it’s not like this card would any more valuable if the signature was on-card, it’s only Austin Kearns.  Didn’t he used to be good?

The verdict:  I loved this pack.  The action shots were largely outstanding, and I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at each card in the stack.  Very refreshing when compared to even higher end packs that feature poses and mugshots almost exclusively.  I’ll definitely be buying more 2009 Topps, though I wish Series One HTA packs were also ten bucks (they’re $15 at my shop).

Card shop haul

Friday is too far removed for this post to be reasonably titled “Card Shop Friday”, so you get the less familiar “Card Shop Haul”.  Same great content, same great reason for blogging about it:  I’m bored and want to post scans of the packs/cards I purchased at the card shop to share with the blogosphere since nobody in my household has more than a very mild interest, at best.

I already knew last Friday that I’d need supplies the next time I headed for my shop.  I’d initially planned to purchase supplies only, but quickly reasoned that it’d be a waste of time to not buy at least a pack or two.  I’m getting a bit weary of bargain bin products only, yet I didn’t feel like purchasing an entire box of anything.  After all, I’ve still got half a box of 2008 UD Heroes still to bust.  But I also wasn’t feeling a super high end, five cards per pack product, either.  What’d I do?

Bought a 50 card per pack product!

2009 Topps is fun, and I definitely plan on acquiring the entire set at some point.  Instead of spending large chunks of my budget on entire boxes, these jumbo HTA packs seem kinda fun.  50 cards per pack, 45 or 46 of which are base, plus three or four other guaranteed inserts per pack.  As an added ‘bonus’, relics/autos are inserted at a rate of slightly less than 1:4.

I went in to the shop planning on spending $10.  Between the Topps HTA pack ($10) and the supplies I needed (25 ct box of top loaders: $3), I had a horribly uneven total of 13 bucks.  More cards!!

By this point I was allowing myself twenty bucks and wanted at least one more nice pack before turning to the dollar bin.  The $4-$5 range seems to be my shop’s wheelhouse, so I stood deciding between ’08 and ’09 A Piece of History, various years of Bowman, ’08 SP Authentic, and the pack I eventually picked out:

Yep, believe your eyes, Priceless Pursuit is taking a peek in the Allen & Ginter bandwagon.  For now I’m just sticking my head in and seeing what it’s like.  I’ve got enough Yankees base cards and a handful of relics through trades to know that I do enjoy the product, even if not as much as most others seem to.  Price:  $5

$18 down, two to go.  For the first time I actually looked inside the display cases (which I’m pretty sure are consignment shelves, which seems kinda nice), and saw the most glorious site I’ve ever seen in the shop:  a box of $1 relics (or three for $2!).  There were only a couple baseball relics, so I got the one that I liked best (I already had a couple versions of the other that was in there), a 2005 Donruss Champions Willie Harris game used bat:

Very thick, very nice!  I figured I may as well get three to bring my total to an even $20, so I picked out two football relics.  The first is a 2006 Topps Turkey Red Trent Green:

And the second, a 2005 Leaf Certified Freshman Fabric Ciatrick Fason, serial numbered 0709/1499:

I’m glad the scan was able to capture how refractor-y this card is.  Though Fason clearly was not the running back of the future in Minnesota, the shine was too rainbowy to pass up.  And the Trent Green Turkey Red is simply classy.  In fact, all football card relics are classier than baseball relics.  At least the ‘basic’, one color swatches are an actual color.  I’ll take a plain purple or red swatch over a white/gray jersey any day of the week.

I could definitely have done worse with the $20.  I’m looking forward to my first pack of ’09 Allen & Ginter and to getting started on collating 2009 Topps flagship.  Regardless of what the packs contain, I’ve created a “no lose” situation for myself!  No matter what cards I pull, I’m still three relics ahead of where I was yesterday.  As always, the relics are for trade (I guess in case you’re a team collector of the White Sox, Vikings, or Chiefs).  Stay tuned for the pack rips