Pack of the Day 189: I Missed the Gint-a-Cuffs Entry Deadline, but Here's What I Pulled

I announced my intent to join in on Gint-a-Cuffs again this year, but I must have missed the official sign-up deadline. I had already ordered a box, though, so let's bust it open and see what Allen & Ginter looks like for 2018.

2018 Topps Allen & Ginter offers 3 hits per Hobby box, with a variety of cards acting as hits. Most often you get one 'A-design' full-size relic card, one 'B-design' full-size relic card, and then one of the other hit types.

The bottom of the box lists the Box Loader odds, as well as the No Purchase Necessary rules.

The pack looks like an Allen & Ginter pack. A box contains 24 packs, with 8 cards in each pack, unless you pull a thick hit. If you do, your box will be short a few base cards.

Here are the odds for all the stuff you might pull in a pack of Allen & Ginter. Each pack contains a mini card of some kind.

My box loader features Cal Ripken Jr, posing on a baseball field near a house in the woods.

Here are some of the base cards I liked. The set looks like a pretty typical Allen & Ginter set. I am not a details guy, so I can't tell you specifics about how it differs from previous sets. It just looks like Allen & Ginter to me.

You should get 12 short-prints in a box. Here are the first 6 that I pulled. I'm not sure how Topps goes about choosing who makes the short-print checklist.

Here are the other 6 short-prints from my box. Eckersley is probably my favorite of the bunch. Julia Morales, part of Houston's TV broadcast team, recently ran as Eckersley in Oakland's mascot race at a game. That was pretty entertaining.

I think these are the 9 regular minis I pulled from the box. Pretty standard stuff, although it was nice to pull an Astro.

It looks like I got three black-bordered minis, a couple of SP minis, and 5 A&G-back minis. The Bo Jackson is probably the best one here.

Here are the Fantasy Goldmine inserts I pulled. I kind of like seeing a set based around the WAR stat. I acknowledge that WAR probably still isn't a perfect measure of a player, but I like to use it because it's relatively easy. I am not enough of a math-head to understand it all, but I do know a lot of folks take issue with how defensive WAR is calculated.

World Talent is another neat set, with MLB players hailing from so many different countries around the globe. I got a nice mix of countries represented in this group.

Baseball Equipment of the Ages isn't my favorite insert ever, but it's a nice enough set that matches the theme of this product.

World's Greatest Beaches is another insert that fits the product well, but doesn't interest me a whole lot. Fun fact: I hate the ocean and other large bodies of water. They are fascinating, but I don't want to be in or on them. I love tide pools and frog ponds, though.

I do like the Magnificent Moons insert set. It's a little funny to me that all these other moons have cool names, and our moon is just 'Moon.'

Here is my Home Run Challenge card of the box. Pretty decent player to get. I guessed September 10th, and Goldschmidt did not hit a home run on that day. Oh well.

Here are some mini inserts. I guess Postage Required is my favorite in this group. I really enjoyed stamp collecting when I was young, but fell out of it at some point. I think I would like Folio of Fears better as a set if they used different pictures. This ghost just looks like a poorly-filtered photo. I would prefer a drawing or a picture over a picture doctored to look kind of drawn.

These are the other two mini inserts I pulled. Much has been said about the Flags of Lost Nations set, which appears to be a favorite among bloggers. I think I prefer The World's Hottest Peppers, though. I don't have a high tolerance for stuff like that, but I will test my limits every so often. The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion has a cool name, too.

On to the hits! This would have been a great box for a Cubs collector, just to foreshadow things a bit.

First up is a basic B-version relic (1:20 packs) of the Cubs' star second baseman, Javier Baez. He's having a pretty good year.

Next up is a framed mini relic (1:56 packs) of Yu Darvish, who struggled for the Dodgers in the World Series last year, pitched a little for the Cubs this year, and then went down with an injury. He had an elbow surgery a couple of days ago.

The last hit is a Rip Card (1:161 packs) of another Cub, Anthony Rizzo. It is numbered # 03 / 75. I debated on whether or not to rip it for a couple of hours, but I couldn't resist the urge to see what was inside.

The prize inside was an extended-checklist mini of Boston's Rafael Devers. He has struggled this year, but he's also just 21 years old. There is plenty of time for his talent to catch hold.

Here is the back of the mini. The Devers card is number 360 in the extended set.

That does it for this box of Allen & Ginter. It wasn't the most exciting box for me, an Astros fan, but it probably would have earned a decent Gint-a-Cuffs score and it's always fun to get a Rip Card. Maybe next year I'll get my entry in by the deadline. I have gathered most of the non-baseball autographs and relics I wanted from the 2018 set, so I probably won't be buying much more Allen & Ginter this season.

Pack of the Day 180: 2017 Topps Holiday Box

I was at Wal-Mart last night, looking at Collector's Boxes of Topps Gallery but unable to justify $70 for one of them, when I saw some Topps Baseball Holiday Boxes next to the Gallery display. They had a more reasonable price tag, and I grabbed one of them along with a hanger pack of Topps Gallery.

Each box advertises that it has 10 packs of 10 cards each, with one relic, autograph, or autographed relic card per box. Maybe not quite as enticing as the two promised autographs in a Collector's Box of Topps Gallery, but quite a few of the Gallery box breaks I've seen haven't had autographs worth writing home about anyway.

Here are the pack odds. You are likely to find 5 snowflake parallels and a relic card in each box. Autographs fall about once every 27 boxes, and every other hit has pretty astronomical odds. There is also some No Purchase Necessary information on here for those who are into that.

The product is basically the same as the 2016 version. It takes the current year's basic Topps design and adds a snowflake pattern to the upper right corner. The card backs have different numbering. I think the checklist has 200 cards, so it's pretty much a stars and rookies kind of product. I haven't checked to see if the card backs contain different write-ups or if they are the same as the base product.

Here are a few of the standout base cards. I was lucky enough to pull a few Houston Astros from this box. I also pulled a few stars from the teams that the Astros vanquished on their way to the championship this year. Max Scherzer got included because I like him and Ben Zobrist got included because Astro Evan Gattis makes a cameo on his card.

I got the expected 5 snowflake parallels, which are just like the base cards except that they have glitter affixed to the snowflake portion of the card. I guess Yu Darvish is the best pull I had on that front. In the bottom right is my relic card, featuring World Series MVP George Springer. Not a bad box for an Astros fan. The only disappointment with the relic card is that the relic doesn't fill the window. There is a distinct gap at the bottom of the window where the fabric doesn't reach the edge. I'll probably wind up buying another box or two of this in an attempt to complete the base set.

Contested Shots 20: Announcing the Winners of My Contest

I've been trying to get to this for most of the day, but it seemed like things kept coming up. I recently announced a contest on this blog for a couple of 2012 SEGA Card-Gen doubles that I'd picked up, an Ichiro and a Yu Darvish:

The Darvish comes with a card case. These card cases (with cards inside) were prizes for the Card-Gen arcade game, redeemable by presenting a card from the machine to the arcade attendant.

According the contest rules, an entry was gained by commenting on the contest post and stating which card you would prefer to win. After the entry period, I would randomize the entries 4 times on Random.org. The person at the top of the list would get the prize of their choice, and the person at the bottom of the list would get the remaining prize.

Here are the 11 entries I received before closing things down, as well as the selection each entrant made:

The Lost Collector - Ichiro

cynicalbuddha - Ichiro

Al Kawamoto - Ichiro

defgav - Ichiro

arpsmith - Ichiro

Sports Card Collectors - Ichiro

Mark Hoyle - Darvish

Angus - Ichiro

John Hazen - Darvish

R Laughton - Ichiro

Tim B. - Ichiro

And now it's time to announce the winners! Here are the results after four randomizations:

Mark Hoyle was the lucky person at the top of the list. He bucked the trend and picked the Yu Darvish card and case as his prize, which means last-place winner cynicalbuddha also won his selected prize, the Ichiro card. I will be in touch soon to get shipping information. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all for taking the time to enter the contest!

Contested Shots 18: A Contest for the New Year

I've won a few prizes in contests over the last year and I've been the target of generosity from other bloggers, so I thought it was about time to hold a contest of my own and give back a little bit. I've got some prizes that I think are pretty desirable. This is a pretty simple contest. All you have to do to enter is state which prize you prefer in a comment on this post, and you're entered. I'll close it down in a week, so on the evening of January 8th at some point. After that I will randomly sort the names on the list 4 times and assign the prizes based on the list. The first name on the list will win the prize they have expressed a preference for, and the last name on the list will win the prize that remains.

And now, the prizes:

The first prize is this 2012 SEGA Card-Gen EX card featuring Ichiro. It's a pretty cool card, and I recently acquired a duplicate copy. Unfortunately I did not acquire a duplicate of the case the card arrived in, so the case won't be included in the prize package. Here's what it looks like, though:

I was hoping that a couple more of these would come up for sale, but they haven't yet. Maybe the seller read my previous post about this next prize and caught on to my game.

This prize includes a card and a case. The card is the Yu Darvish 2012 SEGA Card-Gen EX card, which I posted about a little while ago. I picked up a second one, and someone will be winning it.

This prize does come with the card case. If you want more pictures of it, you can click the link in the previous paragraph.

And that's it. To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below, stating which prize you would prefer to win. Good luck!

Prize #1: 2012 SEGA Card-Gen EX Ichiro

Prize #2: 2012 SEGA Card-Gen EX Yu Darvish w/Card Case

SEGA Card-Gen Deck Box

Here is a pretty cool collectible I picked up from Japan by way of eBay. It's a card box for the SEGA Card-Gen arcade game, similar to the deck boxes you see for other trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon. I have never played the game itself (it was a Japan-only thing), but I have managed to accumulate a number of the cards that go with it. I'd never seen one of these deck boxes, though, so I placed a bid and wound up a winner.

Here's the front of the box in the packaging. It's your fairly standard card box with a Velcro closure. It's got Card-Gen branding all over it.

Here it is outside of the packaging. Not much else to say about it.

The back of the box has a celebration scene printed on it. It looks like someone just hit a walk-off home run and the team is waiting to celebrate a victory. Hopefully no one gets injured in the scrum.

I found a surprise inside when I opened it up. I'd made the purchase just expecting to get the case, but it had a card enclosed. Bonus cardboard is the best cardboard!

It's a pretty good card, too. This is a 2012 SEGA Card-Gen Yu Darvish EX card. Zippy Zappy commented on my post about an Ichiro card back in 2015, explaining that these cards (with cases) could be obtained when the Card Gen machine spit out a redemption ticket instead of a standard Card Gen card. You took the ticket to the counter, where the arcade worker would exchange it for a case with one of these special cards inside. I'd just never before made the connection between this case and that comment until I started writing this post. I've got a couple more of these cases on the way, one that looks like this one and one with different colors, so soon enough I'll find out if they hold any more treasures.

Pack of the Day 135: Blaster Box of 2016 Topps Archives

I've looked at quite a few breaks of the new 2016 Topps Archives set on blogs and forums, and there have been some pretty good pulls posted. Archives is traditionally one of my favorite products, although it has gone downhill quite a bit (in my opinion) since the 2012, 2013, and 2014 sets, with 2014 being the beginning of the slide.

I haven't been able to get a Hobby box yet this year, but I did order a Retail blaster box from an eBay seller. I had to wait over the weekend for it to arrive, but even with shipping I saved about 7% off of what it would have cost me at the local box store.

Yu Darvish was the first card out of the box, so he is my first Archives card of 2016. I like Darvish well enough, but not right now when there's an Astros-Rangers series going on. The Rangers took the first game of the series on a walk-off double by Roughned 'Facepunch' Odor.

The base cards done in the 1953 Topps design are probably my least favorite in this set. They're not horrible, but they're not great. Some of the headshots look pretty weird, and sometimes it looks like a low-resolution photo was blown up too big and forced into the design. Some of them look all right, though.

I like the 1991 Topps design. I guess it's my second-favorite design used in this set, although I'd really have to rank them card by card. I wish that Billy Butler could get himself back together, but it looks like maybe 2009-2013 was his peak and he might not have another good run in him. He still looks good on cardboard, though. That Hunter Pence card is pretty sharp. He's out for a couple of months with a hamstring injury.

I haven't gone back to look, so I have no idea how closely the card backs match the originals. I know there has been a lot of chatter about changes to the team name on the card fronts, specifically the inclusion of the city name. I am not really bothered either way, if I even end up noticing the differences.

The 1979 Topps design is my favorite one used in this set. Again, I don't know how accurately it mimics the originals, but it looks good to me. That Biggio might be my favorite base card in this blaster.

The card backs for the 1979 and 1991 designs carry full career stats, which is something that several people have brought up. I think in past products the stats for some players have been cut off.

As far as inserts go, I got exactly what the odds said I should expect. I was hoping for a parallel or an auto or something, but the insertion odds were against me on that. These 1969 Topps Super cards are inserted at a rate of 1:4 packs, and I got two in my eight packs. I'm not a huge fan of either player, but I do like this card design. Like others have said, for me it calls to mind the Mother's Cookies cards of the 1980's and 1990's more than a Topps issue from well before I was born.

I pulled one of these 1985 Topps Father-Son cards, which are seeded 1:8 packs. It's a cool idea. It is unfortunate that the autograph versions only feature one signature, as it would be cool to get the father and son autographs on one card. The text on the back seems wrong to me, as some information is included for the father, but the same information is not included for the son, and vice versa. It bugs me. 

These Bull Durham inserts are the big tie-in for this year's Archives set. Like the Will Ferrell and Major League inserts of the last couple years, these are not my favorite thing in the world. They add expense to a product without offering something that is valuable to me. I haven't seen Bull Durham, so this set doesn't carry any nostalgic value for me. I'd rather see Topps revisit a couple more insert set designs from past products than tie-ins to movies I haven't seen. But these things are undeniably popular and maybe they push sales enough for Topps to justify continuing producing Archives. Is this a product that would succeed without the big pop culture tie-in? I don't know.

This last card is a 1985 Topps #1 Draft Pick insert of Alex Rodriguez. It's a decent card. It would be nice to see some more variety in the Archives product, like the Firebrands, Gallery of Heroes, Deckle Edges, Stickers, and other designs that were used in previous Archives products. Heck, even a return to the foilboard parallels from 2012-2014 would be welcome, at least for me. I had a lot of fun chasing the Gold parallel foil sets from 2013 and 2014. In 2015 Topps moved to a couple of bland bordered parallels, and this year the borders are more colorful but still don't have any shine to them. I have to wonder how much longer this product will survive, as Topps seems bound and determined to suck all the fun out of the baseball cards while relying on the media tie-ins to carry the sales. I'll probably still try to build the base set this year, but that's about it.