Ginter keeps on giving

Today I stopped at Walton's Poison Factory and picked up the last two A&G blasters on the shelf. Both boxes contained a full size relic so I saved those two packs for last. One was a Joey Votto jersey. The other was this sweet tie patch (?) of Larry King. Its definitely used as there are threads starting to come out of it like usually happens with silk ties.

eBay spree

You know the drill.

Some PC cards as well as some non-PC cards that are available for trade.

X-fractor 114/299

Available for trade

10/18

This was a preemptive buy for my fledgling HoFer relic PC. A really good offer could pry it away from me though.

380/400

I bought this one simply because I love relics and it was cheap. So it is available for trade as well.

Card show Part 4: Lineage

My last purchase at the show was a box of 2011 Topps Lineage. I bought one of these boxes last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. So at $40 for another box I couldn't resist. Here are the highlights.

Topps Giants box topper

These Platinum Diamond sparkle parallels that were in both 2011 Flagship and Lineage are by far the best common parallels Topps has done.

I'll skip the rest of the inserts and go straight to the hits. Each box features two autos and one relic.

1975 mini relic

1952 auto

Rookie reprint on-card auto

This one was a pretty cool pull for me. My first Boston Braves auto, and probably the only one I'll ever get.

Card show Part 3: Soccer

I'm actually a soccer fan the other 3 years and 11 months that the World Cup isn't going on. I've been to top level professional matches in Europe, ie. Real Madrid, and actually prefer the experience to any live sports experience I've had in the US. There's nothing like being in a stadium surrounded by 80,000 people singing and chanting in unison.

Well anyways, yesterday at the show I bought soccer cards for the first time in my life. One dealer had an open box of 2014 Topps MLS and I picked up five packs.

I like the base set design. Thank goodness Topps decided to go with something completely different rather than the generic variations on the same design that they use year after year with baseball and football.

I thought this was a pretty cool insert.

The box also features 3 autos and 3 relics and in the 5 packs I bought I landed 2 of the autos.

Cool to get an auto of a member of the US World Cup team.

Like normal with Topps, the set also features parallels. And the numbering makes me think that this is a VERY short printed set. The most common parallel at 1:5 packs is blue and they're numbered to just 50. I got two of those.

41/50

44/50

Short printing this set, at least compared to their baseball and football releases, was probably a smart move on Topps' part. I imagine that there likely isn't anywhere near as large a market for an MLS set so they were able to keep the print run low while still keeping it affordable for collectors. Based on my calculations, which are probably wrong, that would mean they only produced 165 hobby cases.

While I probably won't buy anymore of this set, it was fun to open a few packs and land a couple autos as well.

Card show Part 2: Singles

Ya can't go to a card show without picking up some singles.

For the Braves PC

The above two cards I got from a guy selling his relics for $1 a piece. And finding an auto/relic in the box I couldn't pass it up no matter who it was.

#011/170

Unfortunately it's a manupatch. And the contour of the patch makes it difficult to sign. But it's still a cool card that I couldn't pass up.

Card show Part 1: 2014 Allen & Ginter

Today was one of the every few months card shows in Hickory, NC and of course I couldn't pass it up. My #1 goal was to get a box of 2014 Allen & Ginter. Only two dealers had boxes, one selling for $100 which is comparable to online prices, and the other for $89. I don't think I've EVER bought a box from a dealer in person that was cheaper than online prices. At that price I thought about getting two boxes but decided not to push my luck just yet. Here are the highlights of the box.

I really like the box toppers this year.

Some people don't like the non-baseball aspect of A&G. I love it. Particularly the gorgeous ladies!

Why is Topps still putting this joker in sets? 

Black bordered SP. A pretty nice pull.

Now some of the full size inserts.

When I first saw this card I read it as saying Griffith Stadium in Brooklyn, NY. And I knew that to be incorrect as Griffith was the stadium of the Washington Senators. Took me a minute to realize what it was saying.

I love the colorfulness of this year's inserts.

I also love this year's common baseball insert set. I think maybe it's the charcoal grey color.

And now a couple mini inserts.

And lastly of course, the hits.

It's hard to tell from the scan but the shirt swatch on this card seems to have some kind of slight stain on it and it smells sweet. Almost like he was eating donuts and got some glaze on his shirt. At least I hope that's what it is..

And a last pack winner...

Well I guess getting an extra hit in this box makes up for getting shorted one in that 2011 box a couple weeks ago!

Overall I'm really liking 2014 Ginter. I may buy another box or at least some retail.

I should know better

Do you ever finish busting a box and look at the results and think, "Why in the world did I buy this? Am I stupid or something?"

Of course you have. We all have. That's the nature of modern wax busting. Well one of my recent experiences of that nature involved a retail gravity box containing 48 packs of 2010 Topps Series 2. Yes, I know, a few of you are already laughing and saying "NMC you idiot!" On the somewhat positive side the box was only $24 so at 50 cents a pack it wasn't terrible. But it was still overpriced.

I thought with 48 packs that surely I would get at least some crappy relic card of long reliever for the Astros. But nope, no hits whatsoever. The 48 packs were full of fire starter base and crappily designed inserts. The few good cards to come out of the box were these Copper Parallels that I previously knew nothing about. They must have been a retail exclusive and maybe a gravity box exclusive because they're numbered to just 399 which is quite low for a parallel that is only like 1:8 packs.

006/399

210/399

This Ozzie Smith Legends SP Variation that came out of one of the last packs made a valiant effort to save the box. But alas this box was one of the worst card purchases I've made even despite the price.

Have I learned my lesson? Probably not. I'm sure I'll make more ill advised purchases like this in the future. What can I say?

Hello. My name is Andrew and I am a wax ripaholic.

2010 Topps Chrome box

Heritage Chrome

0879/1961

1307/1961

Topps 206 Chrome

416/999

Refractor 244/499

And lastly, the autos.

This one is looking like an auto of better and better value as Donaldson continues to become a key piece in Oakland's lineup. 

Another good auto.

Overall I feel like I did really well autos wise in getting two established players instead of guys who have floundered in the last four years. I should add though that I really dislike the silver/grey space for the signatures. Blue ink just does not stand out well on it. It looks much better on a white background and I'm glad they made the switch in 2011.

A couple thoughts on the box overall: oddly besides refractors I didn't get any color base parallels. Also, 2010 Chrome is notorious for the warping of the cards. Apparently this was due to Topps switching to a new printer in 2010 and they didn't get the material formula right. Well when I opened the box the packs were nice and flat. But as I took them out I saw them start to curve right before my eyes. Thank goodness Topps solved this issue in subsequent Chrome releases. 

Oh man...

I think I hit the retail jackpot.

2008 Topps Chrome box

Another great price for some great cards that I didn't have.

First up are the inserts.

Heritage Chrome inserts #/1959

Heritage Chrome refractor #403/559

There were a handful of chrome versions of the 2008 "Trading Card History" insert. This is a refractor parallel #328/400. Excellent edition to my collection.

Next up are color parallels.

Copper refractor 565/599

482/599

And another Delgado, with a much lower number.

Red refractor #02/25

According to the pack this is a red parallel. But it looks just like this scan. A dark pink hue according to my eyes.

And finally the autos.

Refractor #270/500

And lastly..as I showed the night I busted the box...

SO FRUSTRATING

This would have been a nice card to have. They were eventually made and aren't all that expensive, so I may buy one just so I can have it in my collection.

Even despite pulling a long expired redemption this box was blast to bust. And given the price, $35 I think, I may well order another at some point.