One pic pack rip – 2010 Bowman (hobby)

(Yes, it’s short a card. And yes, of course, the missing card is a chrome. No Strasburg lotto ticket for me.)

One pic pack rip – 1993 Stadium Club

A haven from the foolery: One pic pack rip – 2006 Fleer

Consider Priceless Pursuit a safe haven from the April Foolery taking place across the blogosphere.  In fact, after the following sentence, there will be no more words!  Enjoy this picture of a recently ripped pack of 2006 Fleer, and rest assured that its mediocrity is no joke:

Final lap!

Only two Topps-O-Cuffs rip-off posts remain.  I’ve got Mike and JD on the ropes, but I’m struggling to come up with the knockout blow.

Pack 1

• Daniel Hudson (+5 horizontal)
• Cliff Lee
• Garret Anderson
• Jair Jurrjens
• Adrian Gonzalez Topps Town
• Justin Morneau Peak Performances
• Dwight Gooden CYMTO
• White Sox Franchise History
• Adam Lind
• Mike Cameron

Pack 2

• Skip Schumaker (+10 flip-up shades, +5 bonus player)
• Padres Franchise History (+5 parallel)
• Ross Ohlendorf (+5 parallel)
• Steve Carlton CYMTO Original Back
• Jon Garland
• Brian McCann
• History of the Game – Dodgers/Giants move to CA
• Jon Niese
• Adrian Beltre
• Frank Francisco

Pack 3

• Legendary Lineage Gehrig/Teixeira (+5 horizontal)
• Phillies (+5 horizontal)
• Vlad Guerrero Topps Town (+5 gold)
• Million Card Giveaway
• Ryan Spilborghs
• Ian Desmond
• Tim Lincecum
• Jim Thome
• Shairon Martis
• Freddy Sanchez

Pack 4

• NL RBI Leaders, Fielder/Howard/Pujols (+5 horizontal)
• AL Wins Leaders, Hernandez/Sabathia/Verlander (+5 horizontal)
• Vernon Wells (+5 sunglasses)
• Omar Vizquel (+5 bonus player)
• Jerry Hairston Jr. (+5 Yankees base)
• Evan Longoria Topps Town (+5 gold)
• Million Card Giveaway
• Tim Lincecum Peak Performance
• Jermaine Dye
• Ryan Franklin

These packs netted a respectable, albeit underwhelming, 75 points.  A good effort, but not the final blow I’ve been looking for.  I’m at 735 points total with four packs to go…will it be enough? Saturday is the big finale.

Topps Tuesday

We’re in the home stretch of the great 2010 Topps-O-Cuffs rip-off!  Mike pulled a possible game ending black border which resulted in a negative overall score for Saturday’s packs.  The only positive for him is that my box has been solid and consistent, but nothing crazy.

Pack 1

• Legendary Lineage Yastrzemski/Youkilis (+5 horizontal)
• Berkman/Hampton in a pose the already regret (+5 horizontal)
• Travis Buck (+5, flying bat)
• Chris Snyder (+5, flying face mask)
• Million Card Giveaway
• Bengie Molina
• Austin Kearns
• Josh Hamilton Topps Town
• Humberto Quintero
• Aubrey Huff

Pack 2

• Mark Teixeira Turkey Red (+5, modern player)
• Daniel Murphy (+5, flying bat)
• Jorge Posada (+5 horizontal, +5 Yankees, +5 bonus player)
• Neil Walker (+5 horizontal, +5 sunglasses, +5 bonus player).  I love cards worth more points than the number of fans pictured in the stands.
• A’s Franchise History (+5 horizontal)
• Coco Crisp (+5 sunglasses)
• Gordon Beckham (+5 sunglasses)
• David Wright Topps Town
• Mickey Mantle Cards Your Mom Threw Out – 1968 Topps
• Adam Jones

Pack 3

• Lance Berkman (+5 sunglasses)
• Fernando Martinez (+5 sunglasses)
• Brandon Phillips (+5 sunglasses)
• Ryan Dempster (+5 umpire)
• History of the Game, First MLB game played in Japan.  I remember setting my alarm to wake up and watch this game at 2am PST.  (+5, horizontal)
• Justin Upton Topps Town (-5, bottom team)
• Adam Jones black border 10/59.  Jersey number!  If I were a lame ebay seller I’d promote this as a 1/1.  I am not a lame ebay seller, but if you want to trade for this, remember it’s an… ummm… 1/1.
• Kyle Phillips
• Gary Sheffield
• David Wright

Pack 4

• Howie Kendrick (+5, sunglasses)
• Matt Lindstrom (+5, umpire)
• Jason Grilli (+5, umpire.  Gotta look closely on the left side)
• John Lackey (+5 horizontal)
• Clayton Kershaw (+5 horizontal)
• Legendary Lineage, Mantle/Chipper Jones (+5 horizontal)
• Adam Dunn Topps Town (-5, bottom team)
• Million Card Giveaway
• Joe Mauer
• Joe Saunders

Pack 5

• Chris Davis (+5, sunglasses)
• Will Venable (+5 horizontal)
• Babe Ruth Turkey Red (+10 old timer).
• Andre Eithier
• Willy Taveras
• Roy Halladay Topps Town
• Eddie Murray, Cards Your Mom Threw Out, ’81 Topps
• Pat Burrell
• Carlos Delgado
• Carlos Ruiz

Pack 6

• Stephen Drew (+5 horizontal, +5 bonus player, +5 sunglasses on said bonus player!)
• AL RBI Leaders (+5 horizontal)
• Josh Johnson (+5 umpire)
• Andrew McCutchen Topps Town (-5 bottom team)
• Jonathan Broxton
• Pablo Sandoval.  I didn’t realize this guy had such a good season in ’09 until I checked out the stats on the back of the card.
• Jeff Francoeur.  Wasn’t he supposed to be the next Mickey Mantle?  According to the back, the only thing he’s ever led the league in was games played (tied for first) in ’06 and ’07.  Only slightly impressive.
• When They Were Young, Gordon Beckham.  I don’t think I like these cards, they’re kinda creepy.  Collecting cardboard pictures of grown men is one thing, but pictures of these grown men as kids is a little weird.
• Cards Your Mom Threw Out, 2006 Topps Alex Gordon
• Bobby Abreu

Total from these six packs: 160 points, bringing my overall total to 665.  I’m pleased with the consitency of my packs, but from an overall value standpoint this box has been a bit bland.  Good for the rip-off, I guess, but it’s made for some less-than-thrilling pack rips.  I dodged a bullet with the Adam Jones black border, though I also missed an opportunity to put this contest away once and for all.  I wish Topps had gone with a fancier approach for the serial numbers themselves, though.  The black ink is slightly raised, but it still has a desktop printer look to it.

One pic pack rip – 2007 Topps Chrome

One pic pack rip – 2008 Allen & Ginter retail

One pic pack rip – ’09 Updates and Highlights

As is the case with most bloggers, I enjoy posting pack and box rips.  It generates trade interest, shows off some nice cardboard, and generally prolongs the enjoyment of each pack.  Of course, some packs are more interesting than others – high end stuff usually warrants a card by card break down, especially if a nice relic or autograph is involved.  Other stuff, however, is generally less interesting on a pack-by-pack basis.  This latter category is made up of brands like Upper Deck and Topps flagship, any Updates sets, etc.  You know, stuff that is catered to the set builder.

I started a new “feature” on Twitter:  One Pic Pack Rips.  I spread out all the cards from one pack – including the wrapper – and take a picture.  That’s it.  There are no words dedicated to it other than the title, people can quickly glance at the contents and move along.  I like reading about pack/box rips as much as the next guy, but I don’t typically care about post after post of the same stuff.

So is born “One Pic Pack Rips”… you like?  I was going to keep the feature Twitter-exclusive, but there’s no point in depriving anyone who has yet to jump on the micro-blogging bandwagon.  Bloggers and Tweeters alike will have equal opportunity to gawk at my mundane packs.

First up is a pack of 2009 Topps Updates and Highlights.  Never again will an “OPPR” entry be so wordy.

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).