2013 Topps Update Jumbo Box Break and Review

Another one of my day late and dollar short box breaks and reviews.  I finally picked up a jumbo box of 2013 Topps Update Baseball.  I won't bore you by rehashing the continuity inserts and base cards.

We have 330 cards in the set and in that set the super hot rookie Yasiel Puig has two cards, US250 and US330. The US330 is his rookie debut card but both cards have the rookie card logo on them. He also has 3 variations available for his US250 card. But I'll let the Dodgers bloggers tackle those cards. You can see photos here.

Topps continues with the Chasing History and Making Their Mark inserts. Those inserts also have auto and relic variations.

The first new insert for update is the Franchise Forerunners. These have auto and auto relic variations.

 The next inserts is the Postseason Heroes set. This is one I'm thinking about putting together.  I like the look of the cards and they feature some greats of the game. These also have auto and auto relic versions.

There are also the Rings, Coins and mini Silk cards which I got none of.

For some reason Topps did not continue it's mini insert from Series 1 and 2 into Update. Instead they opted to insert a new mini. The 1971 Topps Mini

I got 10 of these and true to form I'll be putting this insert set together as well.

As usual There were plenty of color parallel cards to chase of you favorite players.  I ended up getting 10 gold cards of nobody worth scanning and 10 emerald I did get a couple players of note.

No sapphire or black parallels, but I did wrangle one camo parallel.

I also managed to snag one photo variation. 

On to the hits!  I'm starting to feel like Topps is using false advertising on the boxes now, stating that you get one auto and two relics in every Jumbo box, when one of those "relics" is a manurelic. But I'm not the card police.  

First up we have a card I'd been following on ebay, but had not pulled the trigger on.

I love when I pull a card that I want for my team set or player collection.  And Jean is the lone Brewer in the set with a relic this year. These All-Star stitches have double and triple variations as well and auto relics and jumbo relic cards.

My auto was of Red's pitcher Tony Cingrani.  I have a feeling a certain Red's blogger out there might want to trade for this one, maybe?

And while I dislike that Topps advertises these cards as relics they are still really nice. I ended up with a Commemorative Pin card of Mike Trout.  These cards are thick and heavy and really look good in hand.

I also ended up with a complete set of base cards out of the box which is always a bonus.  Most of my hits are up on ebay right now helping me to recoup some cost and justifying the buying of the box to the wife. But I do have a few extra base if anyone has some set needs and I have a bunch of the other inserts still too.

Looking Back...Topps Exclusive MLB Deal Part 1

I'm going to start this series off slowly.  I have yet to fully organize my thoughts, finish my research, write my letters, yell really loud, and put it all together.  So lets start at the beginning and maybe go back to it from time to time.

I just finished a great article written fairly recently by Brian Tedardis at Sports Card Radio entitled Card Tank: The Topps Company.  It is really well written and after reading it scared the pants off me a little to think just how true the points Brian makes are.  But we'll talk about a lot of that in another post.

First a little history for histories sake.  In early August 2009 it was announced that Major League Baseball and the Topps Company had come to an agreement to an exclusive 3 year deal for making Baseball cards.
It was a little surprising.  OK for me it was a lot surprising.  The time from the mid 1990's to the mid 2000's was a time of Baseball card gluttony.  There were at times so many products coming out there were stacked one on top of another.  It was almost too much to take in. But while the industry was bogged down in what seemed  like a quagmire of choices, one thing emerged from that time.  Innovation.  This era produced the relic, autograph and parallel card.  The foil stamping and serial numbering.  The SP and the SSP.  The redemption, the chrome, the printing plate, and the 1/1.  It's from this era that everything you love or hate came from, unless you just love vintage, but you know what I mean here.

I can remember back in 2003 standing at the counter at Don's Sportscards looking at the shelves and shelves of baseball card boxes and not being able to decide what I wanted.  And I remember bitching to Don about how there was just too much product. And I'll stand by that.  There was absolutely just no way a collector could collect it all.  And I remember a couple of years ago after Topps' exclusive license took hold looking at those same shelves and thinking how bare the cupboard looked.  From one extreme to the other.  I have to think there can be a happy middle ground.

Alright next time I'm going to talked about what Topps and the MLB said about the deal and what really happened having 3 years to look back on.

Oh and I've started a little poll on the side bar feel free to vote your heart.  Cuz I like pie too.

cb out

It's time to start!

First off let me preface this post with this.  I don't hate Topps.  Not one bit.  What I hate is the lack of choice and exclusivity in general.  Second I'm only going to direct this toward baseball cards, not hockey or basketball.

If you read my blog regularly (thank you by the way) you may have notice the countdown I put up on my blog a few years ago.  That's right my "Countdown to the end of Topps Exclusive MLB License" has been sitting over on the sidebar for well over 2 years.  You may also have noticed that we are under 365 days till Topps' 3 year deal ends.  It's been an interesting 3 years under Topps' reign.  I  plan on dissecting it.  I've started going back to some of the original articles from Beckett, SCD, and other news and hobby outlets looking at claims made and how things actually worked out.  I plan on talking to my two LCS's and seeing how the deal has worked out for them.  I plan on writing letters to the Commissioner of Baseball, Bug Selig, and the Exec. VP of Business for Major League Baseball, Tim Brosnon.  Not that they care what I think, but at least there will be some feedback going their way.  It occurred to me way back in '09 that the MLB never bothered to ask us the fans and collectors what we wanted.  I understand from a business standpoint at least for Topps, having almost no competition is a boon, but for us...well I'll talk about that too.

I guess this is the first post of my crusade this year.  Until  MLB decides if Topps gets another multi-year exclusive deal or they let some others in on the fun too.  And while I have no desire to see the hobby go back to the was it was about 10 years ago, with so many products crowding the shelves it was impossible to choose.  I surely think that there is a happy medium compared to now where it seems like there's barely anything on the shelves at all.

So get your torches and pitchforks ready.

cb out.

Is Upper Deck done? Another day of WHY?

Now this got me.  Matt F. over at Heartbreaking Cards posted a link to the NY Post. Which is an article about the whole Upper Deck Yu-Gi-oH debacle.  The thing I got out of it was that this might take Upper Deck down.  I mean no more, kaput, gone, bye-bye, Auf Wiedersien, Ciao. 

I guess it all makes sense now why there are no preview pictures up at Upper Deck's website, and absoluly no news about this at all there either, although I guess that's not that surprising.  But what's going to happen to Upper Decks NFL and NHL licenses??? Will Panini or Topps come and scoop up the carcass up after UD has to pay millions to Kanomi or will some other company emerge? 

My other question is WHY?  Why on God's green earth did Upper Deck do it?  I'm confused as to the motivation and what was to gain from this?

Another question is if this goes to Upper Deck's credibility, what of all there "authentic" game used cards and autos??  Can we still trust an Upper Deck Guarantee?    mmmmmm.  I've seen card companies come and go and get swallowed up by other companies but this is the first time I can remember a card company shooting themselves in the head. 

I wonder how this will all play out.