Dime Box Doozies

I have no words..

Dime Box Doozies

Do I look pretty?

Dime Box Doozies

Cause Smoltz was totally a "future" star after he'd already been in the majors for 17 years and established his HoF candidacy. Good job Upper Deck.

Ultra Amateur

Recently I've been putting some of my full and near full sets into binders. Thankfully I had a ton of Ultra Pro pages left from the late 90's that I never used. It wasn't until this week that I needed to buy more. I saw in walmart that they had Ultra Pro pages for sale in 35 page packs. The UP penny sleeves I've been buying at walmart I have been very happy with. But these pages...JUNK. The pages I have from back in the day are heavy, thick and sturdy. These new pages however are very thin and flimsy. The cards fit very loosely inside the pockets and I'm afraid the borders of the pockets will tear each time I slide a card in. The packaging says that the pages are "Made in the U.S.A." So maybe producing a crappy product is what they do so they can put that label on the packaging. I'm not sure how I feel about that...

Sorry for the rant.

A trip to the LCS and a...big(??) pull..what do you think?

Last week I was in the town with the closest LCS so I stopped in. I wasn't looking for anything in particular but I figured I would get something. I ended up spending about an hour talking to the father/son team that runs the shop. The father is getting up there in years and it really seems like the hobby as well as the business has left him behind. I say this not just because of some of the things he said but also because they have factory sealed boxes of Topps, Donruss, Score etc. from the late 80's/early 90's that are priced at $35+. These are boxes that I could get 3 for $5 from a dealer at the show in the area I've been to a couple times.

Talking to the son was much better. He's in his early 30's and really has a handle on the state of the card business. We talked a lot about his biggest pet peeves in dealing with the card companies, mainly putting redemptions in a product for players that haven't signed autos in years. This isn't an issue for me as I've never pulled a redemption but it is certainly an annoyance that makes sense.

But let's get to the cards. Pretty much everything in the shop is overpriced but I couldn't go in without buying something. They don't have a cheap singles box and the singles they do have are overpriced. So after quite a bit of looking back and forth and back and forth I decided on three things.

First of all I picked up a pack of 2001 Topps Gold Label. I recently received a few cards from the '99 version as part of a prize package from Brian at Play at the Plate and quite liked them. So I thought I would give this a shot. Here is a parallel base card from the pack.

Jermaine Dye Gold Parallel #084/999

One thing I love about this shop is they have mystery card grab bags for $5. Every bag contains a hit or a rookie card of a super star. I know that I'm unlikely to get a card worth $5 or more from this but its a fun thing to purchase. This is what I got.

059/100

Actually quite a nice card and the couple that are listed on comc are for more than $5. 

Lastly I decided to buy a minibox from 2007 Upper Deck Elements. I was not previously familiar with this set. Apparently one hobby box has three mini boxes with each containing a different type of base card. One mini box has foil board cards, another is LTFX cards which I believe are more contoured, and the last box has PETG acetate cards. Each mini box contains five packs with three cards. The box I bought was the regular foil board. Each hobby box is seeded with three hits: a relic, auto and an auto-relic with normally one in each mini box. There are also dual (#/15), triple (#/5), and quad (#/1) auto cards that are rare inserts. 

Here is what the base cards look like.

In the fourth pack I pulled this card

Well..it's a hit. A very meh hit. 

Then in the last pack...

Dual Elemental Autographs Jim Thome/David Ortiz 15/15

Well not only did I get one more hit than I expected but I got a big one. The thing is, I don't know how big. I asked the shop owner son what he thought the insertion rate was for this and he figured it was somewhere around 1:300 packs but said that was just a guess. Upper Deck was of course not kind enough to print the rates on the pack like Topps does (One thing I love about Topps). So I did some online research and can't find anything. Baseballcardpedia.com doesn't have insertion rates. Comc doesn't have any dual autos listed. Cardboard Connection never reviewed this product. And since Upper Deck seems to have never released the print run numbers I have no clue how rare this card is or what it might be worth. Does any one have any idea? 

2012 Topps Olympics blaster

The last box I picked up from Blowout was a 2012 Topps US Olympic Team blaster. I generally don't buy non-baseball products but I love the Olympics and I was intrigued by this set so I gave it a shot. The set is short on inserts but has a wide ranging base set. I got plenty of cards of big name US Olympians and some from people I've never heard of. Each pack included one bronze parallel with silver and gold parallels seeded 1:2 and 1:3 packs respectively. The only difference with the parallels from the regular base cards is the athletes name and the logo are in foil rather than ink. Here is an example of the base cards as well as each parallel.

I can understand having the same background for each card to accentuate the patriotic nature of the set. But I would rather the action shot cards, like those above of Lolo Jones, Allyson Felix and Jordyn Wieber, to have the background of the original shot. Posed photos, like that on the Tyler Clary card, make more sense to have a patriotic type background.

Overall this is an interesting set. I may pick up a hobby box in the future if the price is right.

A couple more hits

Recent Blowout purchase yada yada yada.

I also picked up a 2007 Upper Deck series 2 retail box and a 2011 Topps series 1 hobby box. Each contained one hit.

Nice! My first relic of a guy already in the Hall of Fame! The only thing is that the swatch looks and feels very modern. I thought back when Reese played they still wore wool jerseys. But the other Reese relics I looked up from all sorts of sets had many that looked similar as well as some that had a much more vintage look to them. So I don't know. Cool card to pull though.

2012 Topps Chrome

One of the boxes I picked up from Blowout last week was a 2012 Topps Chrome retail box. The hobby version of this set has become outrageously priced, I assume because of sustained demand due to the possibility of pulling a Bryce Harper rookie card auto. The retail boxes Blowout was selling were very reasonably priced though at $30 for a 24 pack box. I didn't pull any autos and didn't expect to. But I did fill in a good portion of the base set as well as pulling some refractors and X-fractors. Here are some of my favorites from the box.

Weirdo Ginter box

Last week Blowout was running some deals all week in addition to their normal Black Friday fire sale. So early in the week I took advantage and picked up some boxes at great prices. The box I was most looking forward to busting was a hobby box of 2011 Allen & Ginter. I fell in love with A&G this year and jumped at the opportunity to get a box from a past set as previously I'd only been able to get a couple blasters from 09 and 12. Well this past Monday the boxes arrived and I got right to busting. I like to save the best for last so I saved the A&G box till the end. However I wanted to share it's contents with you guys first because of how strange the box was. 

Here are the contents:

Box Loader

CB-3 Dallas is Perfect in Oakland

Pack 1

20 Jeremy Hellickson RC

247 Yadier Molina

208 Marco Scutaro

AOM 19 Ascent of Man Hominini

AGR-EL Evan Longoria bat relic

226 Andre Ethier mini black border

HH26 Hometown Heroes Torii Hunter

A hit from the first pack and a nice one at that!

Pack 2

177 Aaron Crow

80 Joey Votto

179 Shane Victorino

218 Bobby Abreu

BHS-23 Baseball Highlight Sketches Mark Teixeira

315 Jayson Werth SP

FF12 Floating Fortresses La Gloire

 And so it begins. Only seven cards in the pack and no mini.

Pack 3

176 Brian Bogusevic RC

202 Nick Swisher

143 Carlos Zambrano

16 Gordon Beckham

47 Phil Hughes

287 Yovani Gallardo Ginter Code Parallel

122 Ryan Dempster mini

HH23 Hometown Heroes Dustin Pedroia

Pack 4

159 Shawn Michaels

40 John McEnroe

195 Tommy Hanson

292 Wade Davis

158 Billy Butler

87 Colby Lewis

163 Ian Kennedy mini A&G back

HH74 Hometown Heroes Jayson Werth

Pack 5

277 Hank Conger RC

273 Brent Morel RC

9 Joe Saunders

55 Dustin Pedroia

132 Colby Rasmus

337Drew Storen SP

35 Adam Dunn mini A&G back

FF2 Floating Fortresses Mary Rose

Pack 6

24 Kristi Yamaguchi

70 Evan Longoria

2 Ty Wigginton

204 Jim Thome

229 Juan Pierre

83 Scott Rolen Ginter Code Parallel

156 Marlon Byrd mini A&G back

HH58 Hometown Heroes Jimmy Rollins

Pack 7

274 Stan Lee

298 Peter Gammons

118 Rafael Soriano

250 Ichiro

264 Adam Jones

344 Danny Valencia SP

315 Jayson Werth mini SP

HH53 Hometown Heroes Justin Verlander

Pack 8

94 Josh Rodriguez RC

59 Jeremy Jeffress RC

75 Jose Reyes

173 Mariano Rivera

22 Michael Bourn

309 Kurt Suzuki SP

FF15 Floating Fortresses USS Cairo

And here's another pack with only seven cards.

Pack 9

178 Ben Revere RC

254 Denard Span

56 Scott Kazmir

39 Stephen Drew

235 Cole Hamels

AOM 2 Ascent of Man Eukaryotes

HH100 Hometown Heroes Travis Snider

Annnd another seven card pack.

Pack 10

20 Jeremy Hellickson RC

44 Ozzie Martinez RC

193 Jorge De La Rosa

240 Matt Holliday

AGR-JP Jorge Posada jersey relic

298 Peter Gammons mini

HH35 Hometown Heroes Alex Gordon

A Yankees relic..yay.....

Pack 11

234 Chrissie Wellington

50 Carl Crawford

157 Corey Hart

63 Neil Walker

BHS-15 Baseball Highlight Sketches Aroldis Chapman

346 Brett Gardner SP

223 Chuck Woolery mini black border

HH80 Hometown Heroes Cliff Lee

Why is it that all of the Baseball Highlights Sketches cards vertical but the pictures in some of them are horizontal? Bad design.

Pack 12

34 Pedro Ciriaco RC

242 Cheryl Burke

30 Hanley Ramirez

117 Jonathan Sanchez

233 Ben Zobrist

313 Leo Nunez SP

SRU3 Step Right Up Fire Eating

MMF31 Minds That Made the Future Dmitri Mendeleev

Pack 13

86 Greg Halman RC

121 JD Drew

275 Justin Verlander

200 Josh Hamilton

68 Max Scherzer

AOM 25 Ascent of Man Homo Sapiens Sapiens

PP9 Portraits of Penultimacy Thome E. Dewey

HH15 Hometown Heroes Matt Holliday

Dewey looks like a shady used car salesman.  

Pack 14

263 Mark Trumbo RC

201 Andrew Romine RC

220 Prince Fielder

124 Chad Billingsly

41 Carlos Santana

325 Giancarlo Mike Stanton SP

WMF1 World's Most Mysterious Figures Rasputin

HH50 Hometown Heroes Josh Hamilton

Pack 15

262 Manny Pacquiao

238 Rudy Ruettiger

194 Rick Porcello

171 John Lackey

146 John Danks

122 Ryan Dempster

WMF5 World's Most Mysterious Figures DB Cooper

HH90 Hometown Heroes Ryan Howard

Pack 16

165 Jo Frost

147 Dubya

297 Travis Hafner

268 Dallas Braden

166 Geovany Soto

217 Shaun Marcum

WMF9 World's Most Mysterious Figures The Babushka Lady

HH94 Hometown Heroes CJ Wilson

Three WMF mini inserts in a row and five mini inserts in a row overall. Weird.

Pack 17

3 Lou Holtz

205 Kendrys Morales

62 Alfonso Soriano

11 Marc Forgione

AGR-AR Alex Fraudriguez jersey relic

289 Paul Konerko mini

217 Shaun Marcum mini black border

HH65 Hometown Heroes Adrian Gonzalez

The card in the pack most deserving of a scan

Huh?! This pack contains a relic yet still has eight cards and includes two minis...I'm so confused. And at this point in the box I was pretty disappointed with it seeing as I had three framed mini relics including two Yankees, one being King Juice. The swatch even smells like steroids. (Whatever steroids smell like, that's what it smells like.)   

Pack 18

45 Annika Sorenstam

245 Brian McCann

295 Chris Carpenter

251 Ian Desmond

BHS-8 Baseball Highlights Sketches Cody Ross

345 Zach Greinke SP

MMF20 Minds That Made the Future Leonhard Euler

And here we have another seven card pack.

Pack 19

44 Ozzie Martinez RC

36 Eric Sogard RC

128 Michael Cuddyer

142 Michael Young

175 Jose Bautista

307 Ryan Ludwick

UG1 Uninvited Guests Bachelor's Grove Cemetary

HH38 Hometown Heroes Andre Ethier

Pack 20

14 Adrian Beltre

289 Paul Konerko

37 Fausto Carmona

271 Chris Young

258 Howie Kendrick

348 Russell Martin SP

61 Brian Roberts mini A&G back

MMF40 Minds That Made the Future Benjamin Franklin

Pack 21

95 Dan Uggla

71 Chris Perez

29 Johnny Cueto

78 Luke Scott

AGA-NC Nelson Cruz autograph

167 Adam LaRoche mini A&G back

HH36 Hometown Heroes Gordon Beckham

Well now I'm just completely thrown for a loop. Topps NEVER has boxes with more hits than advertised, at least not that I've ever seen. The bad thing is that I assume since I got an extra hit then someone else probably got shorted one. I'd gladly give them the Anabolic Emperor relic.

Pack 22

119 Nancy Lopez

206 Tsuyoshi Nishioka RC

38 Angel Pagan

184 Pedro Alvarez

67 Delmon Young

335 Jason Heyward SP

77 Rafael Furcal mini

SRU9 Step Right Up Knife Throwing

HH47 Hometown Heroes Phil Hughes

Now we have a pack with nine cards including two minis. This box makes no sense.

Pack 23

12 Hope Solo

126 Jair Jurrjens

211 Fransisco Rodriguez

257 Andrew Bailey

BHS-12 Baseball Highlights Sketches Armando Galarraga

312 Cody Ross SP

346 Brett Gardner A&G back SP

HH2 Hometown Heroes Colby Rasmus

Pack 24

228 Brandon Snyder RC

81 Yonder Alonso RC

213 Xavier Nady

152 Jordan Zimmermann

169 Dan Haren

281 Adam Lind

15 Diana Taurasi mini

HH3 Hometown Heroes Brian Wilson

  What a strange, strange box. Topps' collation can be bad at times as far as duplicates in a box, but I've never had a box with some packs having fewer cards than they're supposed to and packs with more cards than they're supposed to. Not to mention receiving an extra hit. Very odd indeed. Any of you had this happen to you before?

Dime Box Doozies

I found this Julio Teheran card very interesting for the fact that it is obviously pouring rain in the photo. Not sure I've seen any others like it recently.

Trade with Play at the Plate

Over the last couple weeks Brian from Play at the Plate and I worked out a deal. I sent him some cards he was looking for an in exchange he sent me some Braves. I received a bubble mailer from him this morning and this is what was inside.

I love color parallel refractors from Topps Chrome. The purples that they put in blasters are nice but I love the oranges that they put in rack packs.

Sweet Chipper Jones commemorative patch!!

Thanks for the trade Brian!!

Dime Box Doozies

Andruw being Andruw...

He was such a flashy centerfielder in his younger days and sometimes it got him into trouble. At times he would take unnecessary risks in fielding a ball to show off for the crowd. More than once it got him removed by Bobby Cox in the middle of an inning. But when he went for it he really went for it. His speed and willingness to give up his body to catch a ball is what won him 10 straight Gold Glove awards.