Sunday, June 23, 2013

A few things to report

This is a long post so please bear with me.

I have a couple things to report on today. Yesterday (Friday) was a great day for me with a big haul of cards! First of all I received a package from Ryan for a trade we recently negotiated. This was our first trade and hopefully not our last. In exchange for some Orioles cards he was looking for and a 2013 Gypsy Queen Cal Ripken Jr. Framed white parallel, Ryan sent me the following:

2013 Bowman- 53 Jesus Montero Silver Ice Parallel
2013 Topps Gypsy Queen- GS-BH Bryce Harper Glove Stories
2012 Topps Chrome- 183 Tyler Pastornicky RC Refractor
2011 Topps- DD-HF Jason Heyward/Freddie Freeman Diamond Duos



Thanks for the trade Ryan!

Now for the second part. Topps Series 2 streeted on Wednesday. On Thursday I went to the closer of my two local Wal-Mart stores hoping to pick up some packs to rip. I arrived at around 4PM on the day AFTER the series was supposed to debut...well, did debut. Unfortunately this Wal-Mart store has one of the worst, most unkempt card aisles I've ever seen. Loose packs everywhere and in the wrong boxes, price tags in the wrong place or even missing, not to mention the fact that the selection is rather poor. I have yet to see Topps Archives show up in this store and they don't carry ANY Panini baseball products. Not even Triple Play. Well much to my chagrin I found that they had not yet stocked Series 2. Thankfully I was in town already for other errands so I didn't waste my time and gas driving there. 

Fast forward to Friday. I had a meeting to attend that was not all that far to the other Wal-Mart in my area so I made a little side trip on the way home to see if they had any S2. Thankfully they did!! I'm not over in the area of this store very often so it had been a long time since I bought any cards there but now I know where I'm gonna go when I'm feeling the cardboard itch. The difference between store #2 and store #1 was night and day! Store 2 had a clean, well kept card aisle with a great selection. All of the current lower end Topps products were in stock, including Series 2, as well as Panini products including Prizm which frankly surprised me. I know Target stores normally carry those kinds of products but I wasn't expecting it from my local podunk Wally World. Wish I had a Target nearby...

But now to the cards!

I decided to limit myself to $20 for this trip and elected to go with a hanger box, rack pack and two loose packs as opposed to a blaster box. I'll take the value of more cards and better odds over getting a manu-patch. I've already hand collated the cards so I will list them in numerical order and show a few of the highlights. 

Base Set



339 Nick Swisher
346 Aaron Hicks RC
350 Albert Pujols
352 Tommy Hanson
357 Juan Francisco
368 Chris Young
369 Bryce Harper NL ROY
372 Jeff Locke
376 Juan Pierre Checklist
377 J.D. Martinez
381 Wily Peralta
383 Matt Harrison
384 Jake McGee
385 Brandon Belt
388 Justin Turner
393 Andres Torres
395 Alexei Ramirez
397 Mike Aviles
398 Mike Fiers
401 Ryan Dempster
404 Ryan Madson
406 Brandon McCarthy
407 Juan Pierre
408 Coco Crisp
412 Everth Cabrera
418 Evan Gattis RC 

Very happy I pulled this one!

420 Rick Porcello
421 Jordy Mercer RC
424 Steven Lerud RC
426 Vinnie Pestano
432 Jose Iglesias
443 Lou Marson
454 Paul Goldschmidt
459 Jesus Montero
460 Ryan Doumit
461 Drew Pomeranz
462 Eduardo Nunez
463 Jason Hammel
470 Jeff Francoeur
473 Josh Johnson
476 John Buck
478 Gavin Floyd
488 Ryan Wheeler RC
492 Jose Molina
497 Brett Myers
503 Clay Buchholz
509 Brennan Boesch
511 Rob Brantly RC
518 Nolan Reimold
520 Peter Bourjos
521 Evan Scribner RC
523 Wandy Rodriguez
525 J.P. Arencibia
526 Tyler Flowers
530 Wade Miley Rookie Cup
531 Craig Gentry
532 Todd Helton
540 Michael Bourn NL Defensive POY
547 Glen Perkins
548 John Lackey
549 Huston Street
559 Travis Snider
566 C.J. Wilson
567 Alfonso Soriano Checklist
568 Steve Lombardozzi Rookie Cup

I love this photo

570 Devin Mesoraco


Odd issue with this card. The foil lettering for Mesoraco's name is only the outlines of the letters rather than solid. This card came out of the hanger box and there was one other card in the box with this same issue. I didn't see any like this in Series 1. Side note: Gotta love the look on Mesoraco's face here.

574 Corey Hart
580 Jordan Danks
588 Jordan Zimmermann
593 James Loney
595 David Ortiz
598 Fernando Martinez
599 Carlos Carrasco
602 Anibal Sanchez
607 Chris Carter
613 Jhoulys Chacin
614 B.J. Upton
615 Mark Ellis
618 Koji Uehara
623 Alexi Ogando
630 Andy Dirks
632 R.A. Dickey NL Cy Young
633 Victor Martinez
636 Cole de Vries RC
638 Andrew Cashner
639 Josh Hamilton
640 Jason Castro
641 Bruce Chen
642 Austin Jackson
643 Matt Garza
644 Ryan Lavarnway
651 Gregor Blanco
657 Jorge De La Rosa
658 David Freese
660 Miguel Cabrera


Inserts

 Wal-mart Blue Parallel
337 Chris Iannetta
354 Casey Janssen
366 Ervin Santana
458 Jake Peavy
507 Lance Lynn
538 Brett Wallace
565 Torii Hunter
612 Robinson Cano


Emerald Sparkle Parallel
375 Wilin Rosario Rookie Cup
401 Ryan Dempster



Gold Parallel
636 Cole de Vries RC 0279/2013


Chase It Down
CD-10 Jon Jay



World Baseball Classic Stars
WBC-3 Joey Votto
WBC-11 Pablo Sandoval


Making Their Mark
MM-9 Tyler Skaggs 1st Win
MM-12 Zack Cozart 1st Home Run


1972 Minis
TM-85 Matt Williams
TM-91 Stephen Strasburg



Chasing History
CH-55 Ken Griffey Jr. Gold Holofoil
CH-57 Cal Ripken Jr. Silver Foil
CH-57 Cal Ripken Jr. Gold Holofoil
CH-65 Gary Carter Gold Holofoil
CH-69 Sandy Koufax Gold Holofoil
CH-75 Dustin Pedroia Silver Holofoil
CH-86 Roy Halladay Silver Foil
CH-97 Troy Tulowitzki Silver Holofoil





So overall it was a fun pack ripping experience. Nothing spectacular pulled but I like the inserts in this year's Topps flagship set. I particularly like the "Making Their Mark" insert that is new to Series 2. Hopefully soon I will be able to pick up a few more packs or a hanger box.

Most of the cards listed above are available for trade, though a few have already been promised. Just ask!! I like Braves and inserts in return!

Also, I got two Million Dollar Chase code cards as well and I have no use for these. So if anyone is participating in this promotion and would like the codes, just ask and I would be happy to send them to you.

Happy collecting!


2 comments:

  1. I will trade you for the Jon Jay chase it down and the two Emralds. just email me back at carwilecards@yahoo.com

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete