Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #51

I hope everybody's  Thanksgiving was good.  I'm tired, hungover, and tired of Turkey sandwiches, but relatively unharmed.  I think it's best we get back to the Top 100.

I picked up #51 off of the 'Bay. Long before Ryan won NL MVP, well a year anyway.  I've pulled a couple of these Bazooka backs ripping A&G, but I really wanted one of my main man here or at least some other Brewer.  When this bad boy popped up I snagged it.  I don't remember what I paid, but I remember it was reasonable.  

So number 51 on the Top 100 (which are in no particular order)

2010 Topps Allen and Ginter Ryan Braun #3 Bazooka Back #d 18/25.

My Top 5 Sets of last year. (Yours may differ)

Alright this is going to be a subjective list with no exacting criteria other than I liked it.  This is going to be an all sport top 5 as well.

Here.....we.......go

Coming in at #5 it's a tie and the only Panini products to make the list

Score Football and Hockey.   Why you ask is a $1.00 a pack products on the list? Because you could get hits like this....

I'm numbered to 10!!!

I also pulled a Timmons auto and a Hockey rookie redemption auto.  Plus Score football had lots of fun inserts and numbered parallels that made it fun to open.  The one draw back from hockey was the lack of numbered parallels and the few inserts.  Sorry rookies aren't inserts but still a fun set to put together and cheap.  And it didn't look half bad. Still need a  few Score hockey cards if you have them I sure we can work out a trade.

#4  My other Hockey obsession.  UD Champs Hockey.

I know this was from the 2009-2010 season but it came out around mid April last year.  Just gorgeous cards and on card autos.  The bad about his set was how few cards you got per pack and this is a set builders worst nightmare.  All cards in this set were part of the set.  Mini's, autos, relics all numbered into the set.  There was at least one guy I know from around here that was close to completing a master set but way too expensive for me.  But a great retro design and who doesn't love a set with dinosaurs.  Again looking to complete this set, check out the need list.

And speaking of dinosaurs that leads us into #3

Allen and Ginter.  Always a fan favorite it was highly anticipated and I pulled some nice stuff from it. Which I didn't scan but I got my first rip card from it and I can't believe I didn't rip it.  It was a Hanley Ramierez card and I think I ended up getting about 60 bucks for it so I was happy.  Never did find out what was inside.  Plus I think Monsters of the Mesozoic is my favorite insert set this year.  Plus the cards looked great as always.  I guess the only draw back is that they look very similar to the last 2 years but I love the card stock and these cards are great for getting autographed.  And I do love mini's.

#2 I'm not sure if I can count this as this year or not or if it came out just after New Years but since I won't remember it for next years top 5 I'm going to put it here.

Topps Magic football.  And it's even better this year.  With UD grabbing the NCAA license Topps couldn't use college uni's this year.  So we get our favorite stars in their pro uniforms.  Plus the art work for the cards is great.  I don't care how they did it, photoshop or whatever.  They look great, plus mini's!! I got insanely lucky and pulled an auto out of the first pack I picked up and ripped.  I promised myself I was going to be good and not buy anymore boxes till Series 1 comes out next month but it's so freaking tempting and I'd love to put this set together.  Maybe if box prices fall a few more bucks I might have to take the plunge.

And my #1 favorite set is....

Yep the product that probably should have just been called Stadium Club.
I mean come on these cards are beautiful, the design great, and the hits can be awesome.

A great full bleed photo the name, team logo, and topps logo don't interfere at all.  And the photos are kick ass.

One of my first packs I pulled this..

And then I ended up picking up a pack for a redemption card and pulled this...

Best hit of the year, except maybe for my Score Manning auto. 
I would love put a set of this together but it's way too pricey for me to try.  There is the option of putting a retail set together as it considerably cheaper, but retail cards are printed on thinner card stock.

I was thinking of doing a worst card sets of the year but I think that would be dominated by Panini. 
Lets hear what your top 5 or 1 favorite card products of the year were.

Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Sterling if you like it....

I've been picking up a few 2010 Sterling cards here and there.  I'm bummed that Topps didn't give Rollie his own base this year but he at least has one nice relic auto book in the set.  I've seen 2 so far on ebay #'d to 10 and missed both of them. Mainly because I'm too cheap.  But when I get bored I look around for good deals and ended up picking this Reggie #'d to 50 up for cheap.  Reggie actually has 3 cards in the set one of the A's, Yankees, and Angels, but no Baltimore card. 

I'm pretty sure this is the mystery card in the Sterling box.  I could be wrong but I was led to believe that all the base cards in the box are #d to 250. 

I think I like this card best out of his 3.  Kinda like the Alpha and the Omega, since he started with the A's and ended with them.  I've watched a fair number of video box breaks on this year's Sterling and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed with what I've seen.  I've seen boxes that didn't have any autos.  I mean if I'm going to pay $250 a pop for one pack of cards, which I'm not,  there better be a damn auto in there plus they're sticker autos to boot.  Not only that but have you noticed that sometimes they use one swatch and make it look like two or three different pieces of jersey by covering it with their goofy cut outs?

I'm looking forward to seeing what's going to come out of Panini's P and P and  Topps 5 Star.  Two more products I won't be buying a pack of but I probably will be buying singles off of the bay.  The previews look nice although they kinda look similar.

cb out.

Some Topps Prime

I have been making it my Sunday ritual after watching football at the bar to make a pit stop at Don's Sports Cards on my way home.  I like to peruse the drop board and look though anything new he has laying about.

Well if you didn't already know Topps Prime is out and I like it.  It reminds me of Stadium Club.  As a matter of fact I'm wondering why this isn't Stadium Club?  Why no Stadium Club Topps?  This of course is a mid level product with boxes going for about 100 bucks for 10 packs and packs going for about 10 to 11 bucks, although you can get a box of this off of Blowout for $76.  They come in a nice tube like Absolute. 

I picked up 2 packs to try it out.

Here are 3 of the base cards. Mr. Stafford, Wallace and Smith.  Nice full bleed design with great photos, the name and team logo don't detract from the card at all.  I meant to scan the backs too but forgot there nice as well.

Each pack comes with 5 cards and at least 1 insert.  I got this quad Rookie running back card.  This card also has a relic versions where the team logos would be replaced by a piece of jersey. Oddly enough if you look at the sell sheet this is the quad 4th quarter example on the sheet.

Another DMC card.  This card is called a Prime Rookie and has the PR prefix. I've been pulling lots of McCluster rookies this year.  Get healthy!!

I'm not sure but this might also have a relic or auto version.

A nice Colt McCoy gold parallel.  I like this kid and I think if he can stay healthy and if the Browns can get a few more people to catch the ball and maybe shore up there line, and if Hillis doesn't pound himself into the ground, they might have a good season next year.

Another Eagle auto.  At least this kid made the team.  Although he's been hurt a lot too.  Sticker auto though.

If you were to buy a box you would be 4 hits.  2 Relics, 1 relic auto and 1 auto.  So I got the one Auto outta the box.  The book auto relics look pretty sweet too.

All in all I like the cards, I like the set, but way too expensive to try and complete from pack buying.  Although I stopped by Target to pick some stuff up after I left Don's and saw that they have rack packs of Prime for 4.99.  That could be a way to go.  With 150 base cards and getting 4 or 3 per pack (base cards) in a hobby pack that's just not going to do it, but 14 cards per rack pack or 28 for the same cost as a hobby pack.  I didn't pick any rack packs up but I might have to buy a few and see if I can pull a nice hit out of retail.  Oddly enough there seems to be some nice hits in the retail packs coming from Topps and Panini this year. 

cb out

My wrapper redemptions come in.

Well I had a few bubble mailers in the mail box this Friday and one of them is that distinctive Topps Fulfillment envelope, but different.  And inside was a slim foil pack.  My wrapper redemption pack had arrived and unfortunatly it didn't have green varations or auto's or Jason Heward, Buster Posey, or Stephen Strasburg.

My 3 refractor variants were.....

Lou Gehrig, Carlos Santana, and Mike Stanton.

And the backs.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this exact same pack posted around the blogotopia, so it looks like there is no collation in the packs.

Nice and shiny though.

cb out.

2010 Topps Platinum Box Break

Well I broke down and bought a box of Platinum.  I saw some really nice hits at trade night last week so Friday I picked up a box.

For those that haven't seen this product here is what the base veteran and rookie cards look like.

The rookies are chrome and the base vet's look like they were produced by Panini.  Very shiny.

There are also Rookie Variations.

These cards are thick but unnumbered.  I like that Topps makes it's decoys collectible.  It beats a blank white card or a super think advertisement  Hint hint, Upper deck and Panini.

So here were my hits.

I got 2 numbered rookie refractors plus the 3 variations up top there.

Brandon LaFell #d to 999

David Reed #d to 499

The box boasts 2 rookie autos and one patch auto per box.

Here they are.

Armanti Edwards #d to 900

Marcus Easely #d to 599.  It's just coincidence that I pulled his rookie card for the comparison up top.

And a really nice Emmanuel Sanders Auto Patch # to 10!!

Not terrible.  Very shiny.

What do you guys think?  Nothing like more sticker autos, huh?.