My Topps wrapper redemptions come in!!!!

Editors note: I wrote this a few days ago before I left for vacation and this will probably be my only post for the next 2 weeks so enjoy the start to 2011 baseball season and look for me on April 3 at Wrigley field!

I've been seeing the redemption cards pop up on ebay and on some other blogs and figured I should have mine soon.  So when I got home on Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised to see a package from Duryea, cha-cha-cha, Pennsylvania.  And inside were my 3 packs of cards from the Series 1 wrapper redemption. 

Joy!    15 free cool cards all for me!  The best part no doubles.  I will have to assume that there is probably no collation in the packaging and that if you were unlucky enough you could get two packs with the exact same cards in it, but I could be wrong.  On that note I'm not sure how you would tell them apart as there was absolutely no printing or markings on any of the packs.

Here's what I got.

First my favorite card from one of favorite current players.

The Hebrew Hammer!!!

A cuban dictator!!!

Aroldis Chapman deep in thought. 

Andre Ethier looking slightly pissed off.

Felix Hernandez doing his best impersonation of Derek Jeter's "yeah I just screwed your sister" look.

Ichiro seconds before he kicks your ass!  That's Kar-Rot-Tae Hiyaaaa.

Ubaldo Jimenez looking way to innocent, what did you do!!!!

Mat Latos about to give'em the heater.

Nick Markakis looking all dreamy.

Dustin Pedoria not afraid to show his femine side.

Martin Prado official Braves Raccoon.

Albert "soon to be the highest paid man to play a game in the world" Pujols, probably.

Joey Votto staring into the sun.

and Jered Weaver, using his powers to stare into your soul.


Wait was that only 14 cards???

Oh there was also this goodie in one of the packs.

Bawhaaaa!  Who? I'll admit I had no idea who Joe was until I looked him up with a Google search.  He only played for the Browns in the 52 season, before that he played with White Sox in 51 his Big League debut and then 7 years with the Athletics (Philly and KC) and then his final 2 years with the Yankees even getting play in the 1960 World Series, which the Yankees lost to the Pirates in 7.  Joe is currently 82 and still has a very nice sig.

Unfortunately he's not in the HOF and really doesn't have HOF stats but in his 10 year MLB career he did amass 49 HR's, 281 RBI's, and played in 1121 games.  I could have done better, but I suppose I could have done a lot worse and a free vintage sig is better than none.  And hard signed and numbered to 60 to boot.  Looks like Topps still has it's foil stamper that they can use when they feel like it.

Have a great couple of weeks everybody and I'll be back in office on April 4, so look for me then or look for me at Wrigley Field on April 2, as the fiance and I take in a game vs the Pirates.  I'm a Wrigley virgin but I've always wanted to go. 

cb out.

I've got a bad taste in my mouth - 2011 Heritage Hobby box break

First off I apologize for the lack of content coming out of the crack lately.  I've been sick with a crappy cold that pretty much knocked me out for a week and the last thing I wanted to do was scan cards, write semi-interesting things, or even breath.  But I'm feeling much better now.  I will also say that I have this post and one other coming and then I'll be down for 2 weeks as my fiance and I head south to the lower 48 to visit family and friends in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.  Should be fun.  Just found out that I'm going to go see the Cubs play the Pirates on the day after opening day at Wrigley, which I'm super excited about since I've never been to Wrigley and my fiance is a big Cubs fan, her aunt lives relatively close to the field and even said she might be able to snag us some free tickets.  It would only have been better if the Cubs were playing the Brewers.

So anyways, last week I stopped at Target on my way home and spied a blaster of 2011 Heritage and I was like damn.  We never get anything early up here.  So I bought one, and a couple cheap blasters of Opening Day, which helped complete my Opening Day set.  I was going to do a post about the blaster but it really was terrible and I could think of nothing to say other than how shitty it was.  I mean last year I bought one hobby box and about 10 blasters because after that first hobby box prices went through the roof and it looks like it's going to happen again this year.  Last year I was getting chrome cards and variations.  This year I think there were 3 high numbered SPs and 2 Flashback cards, that's it.  Boring.  It left a terrible taste in my mouth.  I had already decided I wasn't going to try and take on this set.  I might buy a few hobby or retail packs I'll probably pick up some Brewers variations and inserts and the team set but I'm not  going to try and put this monster together.  Hint Hint if anyone has any Brewers or Brewer inserts, parallels or variations.

But I stopped in to Don's Sportcards yesterday because I had talked to him the week before about me trying to complete the 2010 Heritage set. Hint Hint y'all look at my need list if you have any extras laying around. And he said that he had a few SP's laying around that he had tried to sell on ebay but nobody bid on and I told him to hold them for me and I'd stop in with my need list.  Well yesterday I printed off my need list and stopped in after work.  Out of the 8 SP's I need 6 and he gave me a really good deal.  But I noticed that he had a few boxes of Heritage still on the shelf after his trade night, which I missed due to my cold, and they were reasonably priced, I'm talking 20 to 30 dollars cheaper than online prices, so foolishly I decided to roll the dice and buy one.  I knew better but what the hell.  Well I wish I could say I was pleasantly surprised by my box, pulling a super hit or getting a hot box with Green Refractors, but no it was pretty terrible all around.

First off my box topper was a Baseball Bucks.  I was interested because I'd seen these on ebay already and was curious about them.

sorry crappy scan

I got a $5 Aramis Ramirez.  Ho hum.  Ok what ever.  I guess it's better than a stamp advertisement of the Royals, but still not very exciting.

I was going to break this scan up into individual cards but to be honest it's not worth it.

It wasn't until late last night after reading the baseballcardapedia checklist that I realized I missed a few inserts and variations but this is the bulk of what I pulled out of the box that wasn't base.
My hit was the Clay Buchholz relic, meh.  I got 3 chrome cards.  I do believe the Coleman is a refractor #'d to 562.  4 Flashback cards (2 Baseball, 2 history), 2 new age performers (a CC and Pujols), ok not bad there, and one Then and Now.

I also got 3 Babe Ruth cards.  I don't think these are inserts they are actually numbered into the set, but after reading the Baseballcardapedia checklist I realized I missed a Jackie Robinson variation, that I know I saw in the mix of cards that I'm going to go back and pull out later tonight, as well as any mid numbered color variations.  I figure after I get back in 2 weeks all the secrets from this set should be out so I'll wait till then to decided what I do with any or all of it.

That's it, pretty boring. 

My rating is going to be low, but I suppose if I had hit a sweet auto or hot box my rating might be a little higher.  The only thing I'm doing right now is kicking myself of the lack of self-control and buy this box when I knew I probably should have saved my money.

Yep it gets a meh.  Just a single Meh.  Like I said if you hit a high end hit  your experience could be much better than mine, but for the price this just isn't worth it  and the blasters are shit too.

cb out

2011 Topps Diamonds and Royals

Do lack the bling?  Do you like huge rings like your class ring only with the Topps Logo and diamonds?  This is old news I'm sure you've heard but Topps had Josten's make 60 diamond rings for their anniversary and they want you to jump through the hoop to get it.  You know Josten's they probably made your class ring from high school.  They made mine. Anyway, I guess when you redeem the Diamond Giveaway cards you get a change to "dig" for diamonds and the goal is to collect 60 virtual diamond rings to win a real one.  Plus Topps is giving out 10 rings to random HTA stores and one to Beckett.  Also you'll unlock a Topps card that I'm assuming is like last year that you can trade or pay to have shipped to you or die cut diamond cards or diamond embedded cards.  We'll have to see I'm not sure when the site is suppose to be up officially.  Since last years MCG site took awhile to work all the bugs out when it was unveiled I'll probably wait to redeem my codes.

Other old Topps news, Topps will be making a Royal Nuptials card for Kate and Prince William.  Joy.  Now I'm going to buy some of that for sure.  Whatever.

Is anyone really excited about maybe getting one of these Topps Rings?  I can say no, no I'm not.  I wonder how much those diamonds are worth?  Does anyone read the Topps Blog anymore?  or the news at the Topps website?  I'll be honest this is the first time I've read either in a while.  I was looking for the official launch date of the TDG which I realize is on the back of the giveaway cards but I don't have any with me at work and I was curious. Someone chime in and tell me.

2011 Topps: I like it!

Sorry this post will be a little lame.  No scans yet.

I went to trade night at Bosco's which is the big comic book store that has a sports card shop attached last night.  It just so happened to be a pretty big night.  They had had a baseball promotion going on all winter giving away an Upper Deck Yankees Master set.  If you bought a box of baseball you got and entry  Every week they picked a winner for a Yankees relic card and if you won you got entered into the Master Set drawing that was last night.  I wasn't overly impressed with the set but the box was pretty kick ass.  I wasn't in that drawing but it brought out a huge number of people.  Add to that free pizza and soda and deals and you can see it's not a bad night.  Add to the fact that it was also release day for 2011 Topps Series 1 Baseball Hobby and it was a pretty good night all around.  I got there just in time to see that they had 2 Jumbo boxes left, and seeing that they were going for about 20 to 30 dollars cheaper than Blowout cards prices I decided to pick up both.  I've been buying 2 jumbos for a few years now and for my money the Jumbos are the way to go.  And I got a case hit out of one of them. No not an inscribed 60th anniversary auto, I wish but over all I did pretty well.  I'm hoping that I can make some of the ching I spent back on the hits.  It'll soften the blow of buying 2 jumbos at the same time.  I was planning on scanning everything last night but ended up working on taxes and financial stuff instead, so tonight I'll get it all organized and hopefully I might even collate my set and have extras to offer, and I think I'm only going to be collecting the Kimball Champions inserts this year (you know I love the mini's).  I tried and am still trying to complete a master set of 2010 and that might be a lost cause.  So that means I'd be willing to trade a lot of the inserts for Kimballs if you have any extras or are looking to get rid of any, I'll have that need list up tonight as well.

 Out of the 2 Jumbos, no damaged cards or missing hits.  As a matter of fact I got both autos, 2 relics, 2 glove nameplates, a variation and a silk card so I count that as 8 hits.  Plus the reason I love jumbos is one of each insert per pack so I have got 20 Kimball's, 20 diamond sparkles, 20 giveaway codes, 20 ect ect. 

Some thoughts.  The diamond cards are a nice touch.  While I don't think we need a third parallel set they are a nice addition and everyone is right they look pretty cool.  I wanted to be the only one who said these things suck, but they don't.  I think Topps could have gotten rid of the gold or black and just numbered the diamond cards. 

I like most of the inserts too, hell I even like the foil board Ticket to Toppstown cards. Does anyone remember the first year Topps put these out?  They were terrible.  No player on the card just Ticket to Topps Town and a code, boring.  At least now they are semi collectible.  I think the Diamond Duo is my least favorite but at least better than last years Legendary Lineage.  I don't even mind the Topps 60 reprints.  Silly, but I don't hate them.  Mainly because I pulled the one Yount in the set in the second pack, but not an original back. 

I haven't seen any diamond glint parallels either, but I didn't look  that hard now I have to go back and sort through 2 jumbo boxes worth of cards to see if I got any of those.

I also got lucky and snagged a bunch of extra wrappers from some guys who were just going to throw them away.  I'm not sure if they realized there is a wrapper redemption going on.  I didn't tell them either, I know I'm a bad man. 

Like I said kinda lame post.  I'll have pictures up tomorrow, promise.  I'm also looking forward to A Cardboard Problems group case break later today.  I'm in for the Brew crew.  And oddly enough one of my hits was a Prince Fielder Bat card.  I'm hoping for a Princey auto and some shiny, or maybe a Braun glove, that would be sweet!!!!


cb out

It's official the Packers have the Zoo animal vote!!!

As if I needed any more proof the Pack are going to win on Sunday, Texas zoo animals predict the Packers to win.  And we all know that animals, especially caged zoo animals know things they aren't telling us.

Last week a coati named Cody in at the Ft Worth zoo picked the Packers.  A coati is a type of raccoon.  And we all know how reliable their predictions are.  And you think that would be enough but NOO!!!

Yesterday Jenny the elephant at the Dallas zoo also predicted a Packer win by stomping on a watermelon with the Steelers logo on it. 

And not to be out done an orangutan in South Carolina also picked the Pack by picking a Packers T-shirt over the Steelers.  Totally scientific.

I don't know why the Steelers are even going to show up with the zoo animal vote so stacked in favor of the Packers!! 
But it doesn't matter the only animal I would take advice from is dead.  Paul the Octopus is gone and I'm not even sure if soccer predictions translate over to American football. 

On a more serious note Topps Series 1 is coming out "officially" tomorrow.  I know that there is already a bunch of stuff up on ebay and the it was out a little early in retail.  Not up in Alaska though.  I've got a trade night tomorrow and I'm praying that they actually get their shipment in so I can bust a box of jumbo.  I've been so good and haven't busted a box in months.  I will put the results up here for all to see.

cb out