2012 Topps Update Baseball Box Break

So I didn't find any Update at Bosco's last Wednesday so I headed over to Don's my other LCS in town and found he had a couple Jumbo Boxes so I picked one up.

Box Label

 Back are all your favorite inserts from Series 1 and 2, Golden Moments, the 87 mini's, Golden Greats, Gold Sparkly inserts, ect. But this go around we have a new insert and the return of the numbered gold parallels.

So each jumbo pack contains 3 gold parallel cards along with the sparkly golden parallel.  You get 2 golds from the Series 1 or 2  and then one from the update set.

The new insert is Blockbusters. Commemorating the biggest baseball deals of all time. And there are relic and auto versions of some of these cards too.  Here's a sample.

I won't bore you with the other inserts we've already seen, except for this one.

I was really excited to see Yount in to one of the inserts this year.  Sadly there are no relic or auto parallels of this card to chase, but since I haven't added a new Yount to the collection in months, it's a nice surprise to actually pull the one insert I really wanted.

I did get two black parallels as well and it's nice when one of them is going into my team sets.

I also found one SP photo variation.  I need to go back through my cards to see if anything else came out.

And the best part about the Jumbos is the 3 hits, even if one of those is a manurelic.

Back for round three are the ring cards.  And these still are pretty awesome.  Got me a Gehrig.  Not too shabby.

Next up another card for one of my PC's

I still like the big guy and collect his cards, but to be honest I've not been going after them the way I use to. Still a nice All Star Game card with Princey.

And the Auto.

A Golden Debut card of Tyler Pastornicky.  I wasn't familiar with this kid so I had to Google him.  Tyler played in about 76 games this season, only about 50 as a fielder.  He was sent back down to the minors and June and then called back up near the end of the season.

I also didn't get any Presidential Predictors.  I'll have to dig back through the stack to see if I missed them.

Overall not a bad box, but not spectacular.  I'm happy I got a couple of hits that I want to keep. But for the most part it's standard flagship Topps.  I did get a full set and about 50 extras so that makes me happy. I did put the hits on ebay so my wife wouldn't kill me. But if somethings don't sell I'll offer them up to trades.

TTM Success Russ Snyder

When it rains it pours.  So I got my 71 Phil Roof back the other day and when I sent that one out I also sent out another 71. Hoping to get at least one back and luckily I got both and fast.

Russ didn't actually play with the Brewers in 1971, but he did play with them in the 1970 inaugural season, and it was also his last. Russ also won a World Series in 1966 with the Orioles, who are descended from the original Milwaukee Brewers way back in 1901.  Yeah it's a little beat up, but who cares?  Thanks Russ.

TTM Stats
Russ Snyder
PO Box 264
Nelson, NE 68961

Date Sent 9/27/12
Date Received 10/9/12

Second Annual Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web!!

Well I'll say I'm a little disappointed we only got 12 people to enter this year, but that's better than two and with that we have our contestants.  And we have a lot of new people and I know that there are quite a few bloggers in flux right now or that have left us, so I'll take what I can get

So here we have the 12 contestants for this years Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web.



Dawgbones - Nats over the Birds in 5, with 8 homers.

The Brooklyn Met - Reds over As in 7, 12 with homers.

DHoff - Tigers over Reds in 7, with 11 homers.

Milwaukee Southpaw - Reds over Tigers in 6, 16 homers

arpsmith - Giants over Yankees in 6, 7 homers

The Dimwit - Nats over Yanks in 6; 8 HR

High Five Man - A's over the Reds in 7; 21 homers

Dan - Yankees over Cardinals in 6; 11 HR

AdamE - O's over Cards in 7, 7 HR

BA Benny - Yankees over Reds in 6 with 12 HR's

Shane - Nats over Tigers, in half a dozen, baker's dozen dingers

Wilson - Yankees over Nationals in 7, 10 HR

Good luck everybody, I'll be updating the contest as the Semi's wrap up.

TTM Success Phil Roof

I finally got a 71 Brewer!!  And holy crap was that a quick turn around.  I wrote to Phil Roof about a week and a half ago and just got my 71 Topps back the other day.

I'm so happy that I was finally able to cross off 1971 from my Brewers TTM project.  Phil only played for the Brewers briefly, but he played in Milwaukee before that with the Braves.

TTM Stats
Date Send: 9/27/12
Date Recieved: 10/5/12

Address used

Phil Roof
1301 Pillar Chase
Paducah, KY 42001

Thanks Phil!!

Don't forget the Second Annual Almost the Easiest World Series contest on the web.

Well one of the teams I was rooting for made it through the Wildcard games.

Now that the Playoffs are set I've updated the official contest post.  You have until Sunday Oct 7th, 4pm Alaska time or 12 noon EST, to get your picks in.

Go here to leave your pick.

TTM Success Ricky Bones (Former Brewers Pitcher)

I got another TTM back the other day. I sent Ricky Bones a couple of his 90's Topps cards way back in April and finally got them back. Ricky was the Mets' bullpen coach this year.

1995 Topps

I also sent this 96 Topps because I thought it would be cool to have a 95 like the one in the photo signed along with this 96. Unfortnealty the Blue Sharpe doesn't really pop, but that's not Ricky's fault.

Still nice to get a couple autos back from the mid ninties and one from a set I don't have an auto in yet.

TTM Stats
Date Sent 4/11/12
Date Received 10/4/12

Address used
Ricky Bones
c/o New York Mets - Citi Field
126th St and Roosevelt Ave.
Flushing, New York 11368



Thanks Ricky!

Topps Prime Box Hobby Box Break.

I was at Bosco's for their monthly trade night last Wednesday.  I hadn't bought anything in awhile so I needed to pick something up to get some tickets for their drawing.  No one had won for over 4 months so they were giving away over a $1000 dollars worth of packs.  I was hoping that they would have Update in so I could spend my money on that, but alas they did not so I opted for a hobby box of Topps Prime.  And sadly someone won and it wasn't me.

I really like Topps Prime.  I've liked it since they started putting it out back in 2010. And I think the reason I like it so much is it reminds me of a quality Upper Deck release.

The one draw back is that Hobby and Retail cards aren't the same.  Well they have different card stock.  And I found there are a few photo differences as well.

There are also 4 different pack designs this year.

You can kinda see what I mean. The Hobby cards are almost twice as thick as what you get in retail.  I picked up a blaster earlier this week to check it out.  This is exactly the same as in 2010 and I'm assuming 2011, but I didn't buy any Prime in 2011 so I'm not sure.

Here we have the base cards.  The RGIII on the left is the one I pulled from my retail blaster, the one on the right came out of my hobby box.

The backs are the same.

I did notice that not all the players have these variations, but  I also haven't sorted through the base to see what I could find yet either.

There are a couple base inserts as well.

Prime Rookies. I'm sure that there are a number of parallels to these just like the base cards.  I only pulled one of these out of my hobby box.

The second insert set is the Prime Timers.  I got the two here out of my hobby box. I also pulled one from my blaster.

There are a number of different parallels to the base cards not counting the autographed versions.  Retail has a blue foil parallel, which I didn't scan and hobby has a gold foil, although I've seen the term copper foil thrown around too, but these really do look more Gold to me.  These come one per pack. I guess all the Rookie Gold/copper foil cards are numbered to just 399 And there is a numbered Gold foil parallel too.

MJD Gold/copper  Foil unnumbered.

The backs seem to be the same for all the parallels.

I just can't get away from B Weed. Here is one of the two gold #d parallels. I also got an Aaron Rodgers for my PC collection. I already had that squirreled away when I started scanning.

I also got one of these Copper Rainbow cards #d to 50.  You'll see a theme in the hits of Dolphins and Browns.

Now onto the hits..

See told you.  Each box boasts an auto, auto relic, and two more relics. Here we have the first of the relics. A Weedon/Tannehill combo relic numbered to 405.  Not a bad looking card. At least both of these rookie QBs are starting, but....

Next we have a quad relic of the rookie WR corps.  Again this just reminds me of Upper Deck, which really isn't a bad thing.  I think I like that fact that all 4 swatches are so different in texture.

What's this more Tannehill??!! yep. Nice looking card though even if it is a sticker auto.

And the nicest card out of the pack..

A beautiful quad relic auto of Rueben Randle.  Rueben's only seen action in Week 3, but with  a couple guys in the Giants line up injured he might see some more playing time and catches.

Overall another nice offering for a mid range product.  I wasn't overly thrilled with the hits I got, but then I'm not a Dolphins, Browns or Giants fan.  I still really like the quad relics.  I do really like the base design and it would be a great set to put together, unfortunately you'll have to decided on hobby or retail as the card stocks differ and if you're just interested in collating a set retail would be the way to go with hobby packs selling for over 10 bucks a pack.