Pack of the Day 43: 2013 Topps Mini Baseball Boxes #2 and #3

This is going to be a relatively condensed version of these two box breaks, because there isn't a whole lot here that hasn't been seen before.

Box 2

  

Base Cards - 225 / 660 - 34.09%

Doubles - 0

I don't even know why I mention collation anymore, because there are rarely doubles in boxes from Topps, at least among products I've busted open over the last year. Unfortunately, when I put the boxes together to build my set there were plenty of doubles across the boxes, but from box to box collation was good. 



Chasing History - 6 - Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, CC Sabathia, Miguel Cabrera, Manny Machado, Joey Votto

There are some pretty good cards in this bunch. Since this is the only insert set in the product, I think I am going to try to put the set together. The Killebrew card is probably my favorite among this group.

Gold Parallel # / 62 - 4 - Dustin Pedroia, Colby Lewis, Johnny Cueto, Hisashi Iwakuma

There are some decent names in this group, which is always nice when there are a lot of potential duds in the set. 



Pink Parallel # / 25 - 1 - Brian Bogusevic

From here on out this becomes an Astros hot box. Not that great when it comes to resale value, but decent if you're an Astros fan.

Black Parallel # / 5 - 1 - Chris Carter

This is my first Black parallel. The limited print run on this product means that the parallels are all fairly low-numbered.

Relic - 1 - Jordan Lyles

Each box promises a relic or an autograph. Here is a relic.

Box 3

Base Cards - 225 / 660 - 34.09%

Doubles - 0

Not much to talk about here. More base cards with decent collation.



Chasing History - 6 - Cal Ripken Jr., Yogi Berra, Ty Cobb, A-Roid, Yu Darvish, Stephen Strasburg

I have decided to chase this insert set, so I guess I should start tracking what I do and don't have. There are about two too many Yankees in this batch, but I will live with it.

Gold Parallel # / 62 - 4 - Joe Kelly, Elvis Andrus, Alcides Escobar, Justin Ruggiano

Not much to see here. I like that picture on the Escobar card, and the Ruggiano ice shower is one of the better photos in the set. You can really feel his pain when you look at that photo.

Pink Parallel # / 25 - 2 - Scott Feldman, Alfonso Soriano

The Soriano card features a nice cameo by Anthony Rizzo. It's too bad that Soriano had to go off and become a Yankee. It seems that I am pulling quite a few Rangers in these two boxes.

Relic - 1 - Fred McGriff

As relics go, this is a pretty good one; much better than the Jordan Lyles I pulled from Box 2. This relic even features a bit of stripe along the left side.

Over the first couple of boxes I have made some pretty good progress toward a base set, but of course as I get more cards in the set, each pack has a greater chance of containing doubles. Through three boxes I did not pull three copies of any one card, though, so I would say collation is still pretty good. Here are my set completion statistics after each box was opened and sorted.

Box 1

227 / 660 - 34.39% (+ 34.39%)

0 Doubles

Box 2

409 / 660 - 61.97% (+ 27.58%)

43 Doubles

0 Triples

Box 3

507 / 660 - 76.82% (+14.85%)

170 Doubles

0 Triples

Rainbow in the Dark 3: R.A. Dickey 2013 Bowman

Here is another rainbow I've been working on lately. It has kind of stalled out for the moment, but there are some pretty good cards here. It combines R.A. Dickey's cards from 2013 Bowman and 2013 Bowman Chrome. Most of the cards I am missing come from the group that are numbered out of #/25 or less, although I still don't have the Blue Refractor that is numbered out of #/250.



Base, State & Hometown, Gold, Silver Ice

Blue #456 / 500, Orange #144 / 250, Chrome Base, Chrome Refractor

Chrome X-Fractor, Chrome Green Refractor, Chrome Purple Refractor #069 / 199, Chrome Gold Refractor # 13 / 50, Chrome Pink Refractor #34 / 35, Chrome Orange Refractor #22 / 25

What eBay Hath Wrought 27: Homer and the Heavy Hitters

It's been a long time since these arrived, but I was able to get a few more of the cards I needed for the 2013 Topps Archives Gold parallel set. Homer Bailey was one of them; but he isn't one of the key big-money cards in the set. Mike Trout I got a pretty good deal on if I recall correctly, and I am pretty sure I also got Jeter and Rivera at well below the going rate for their cards.

I am now at a bit of a sticking point, with 8 cards left to finish the set. Manny Machado, Shelby Miller, and Dylan Bundy are all priced around the internet at ridiculous levels. Ryne Sandberg, Ken Griffey Jr., Joey Votto, Robin Yount, and Stan Musial are all out there too, but I just can't stomach the going rate for them, either. They aren't quite as bad, though. I could probably bag all five of them for the price of one Machado.

Breaking it Down 6: Another eBay Break Post

One of the eBay case breaks I participated in actually paid off for me, although it still doesn't make up for the 1/1 R.A. Dickey autograph I missed out on in a last-second bidding flurry. Most of the time there is not much competition for the Blue Jays, so I think I got into this 2013 Topps Triple Threads break for whatever the starting bid was.

I got a base card of Jose Reyes, purple parallels numbered out of #/650 for Reyes and Jose Bautista, and an Orange? Bronze? parallel of R.A. Dickey numbered out of #/125.

Then, near the end of the break, they pulled this autograph/relic card of R.A. Dickey numbered # 2 / 9. In real life the background has got a holofoil sheen to it, and the only thing that really holds it back is the sticker autograph, although I believe this is my first in-hand autograph of R.A. Dickey, so it's still pretty cool in my mind. But the money in these kind of breaks definitely seems to flow to the guys on the other side of the camera. I have been trying to think of every cost I can related to running breaks of my own, as the initial rush of saying, "I could totally make money off of that!" usually leads down a path of ruin. It would still be an awesome way to make a side income, even if it just paid for my hobbies and nothing else. But it would be cool to actually pay some bills with card money.

I've backed out of actually participating in the breaks for a while, but I still log on whenever I know of one that is going down so that I can look for things that work and things that don't. One thing I've noticed during breaks that aren't going so well is that one angry or belligerent customer can sour the whole experience for everyone, especially if it's a draft-style break and someone new to the whole thing is having trouble making their pick. How do you keep that one guy from driving other paying customers away? That new guy in the room could be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars to you in the future if you keep him coming back.

At the Trade Deadline 10: Trade with All the Way to the Backstop (Another in a Series of Long Overdue Trade Posts)

There are a couple stacks of cards that have been kicking around on my desk for a while now, intermingling with other stacks, being partially sorted into binders, and most importantly, becoming separated from the packages in which they arrived to my home. I actually thought I had scanned and posted about the first stack, but I did not. This is surprising because that stack contains one of the most eye-searing cards in my memory. This post is not about that stack of cards, though, as that stack of cards is rather large and I apparently haven't scanned it yet. This post is about the second stack of cards. I am relatively certain that both stacks of cards came from All the Way to the Backstop, so I hope I am giving the correct person credit for it. I feel bad admitting that I am not 100% sure where the cards came from because it makes me sound like I don't appreciate the cards, which is not true. I just got mixed up in the middle of piles of incoming mail, a move of all of my worldly possessions from one room upstairs to my new basement hobby room, and lousy housekeeping on my desk. I also have misplaced several other items of some importance, so All the Way to the Backstop is not the only victim of my recent behavior.

Enough excuses, let's look at some cards. This package is focused on the Seattle Mariners. Out of this group I especially like that uniform that Jason Vargas is wearing. 

Up next are a few Topps base and Opening Day cards, along with a Gold Parallel.

I haven't bought much in the way of Heritage, so these are all new to me. The winner of the Most Artsy Shot award goes to Justin Smoak, for his wistful look into the distance. Jaso comes pretty close, but he's a little too rugged-looking to be called artsy. He might get the Clint Eastwood Eyes award. Heritage seems to have the market cornered on the 'bat on shoulder' pose. There is also a topps Gold parallel here, from a set I recall from my youth, but since I am currently away from my cards I don't know the year. I don't have that photographic memory like many of you other bloggers do.

Here we have an Allen & Ginter's black-bordered mini of Jesus Montero. I probably should not have blown the photo up so big, but it's funny to me to have a big picture of a little card. It's my blog; I can do what I want.

And finally, here is a nice-looking relic card of Dustin Ackley. It seems like a lot of stuff is going on in this card design-wise, but it all comes together pretty nicely. I like the big logo in the background.

This is a pretty cool bunch of cards, and they expand my Mariners collection quite a bit. Thank you for the trade. I hope I haven't missed anything or misattributed the source of these cards. I will be posting that other stack of cards at some point in the future.

Pack of the Day 42: 2013 Topps Mini Box Break #1

I couldn't stand up to the pressure anymore, so I broke down and picked up some boxes of 2013 Topps Baseball Mini-Cards. Here's what came out of Box #1:

Base Cards - 227 / 660 - 34.39%

Doubles - 0

This is a pretty big set, so one box only gets you about 1/3 of the way there. Luckily, collation is pretty good, so there aren't any doubles in the box. The checklist and photographs are all the same as the regular Series 1 and Series 2 cards, so this is a design we've seen plenty of.

Here is how they stack up with other common card sizes. Standard-sized cards are represented on the far left, followed by the Mini-Cards, then the 1971 Topps Minis from this year's Update set, and a tobacco-sized mini from 2012 Gypsy Queen. So these cards fall somewhere between the retro minis from the base set and standard cards in size.

Chasing History - 6 - Bob Feller, Roberto Clemente, Mariano Rivera, Dylan Bundy, Buster Posey, Justin Verlander

Inserts in this set are pretty limited, with the Chasing History inserts being the only cards inserted that are not parallels, relics, or autographs. You get six of these per box.

Gold Parallels - 3 - Ubaldo Jiminez # 33 / 62, Josh Johnson # 42 / 62, Zack Greinke # 48 / 62

This box only had three Gold parallels in it, while the other ones I opened each had four. The other ones also had two parallels of other colors, while this one just had one. So I am not sure which is normal. This box got four parallels; the other boxes each had six. I guess the Greinke is the biggest name here.

Pink Parallel - 1 - Ted Lilly # 09 / 25

This is a decent-looking card, although I don't have any particular affinity for the Dodgers, unless they are playing against a team I like less. It will be interesting to see if they can make all the money they've spent pay off in the form of a championship.

Relic Card - Brandon Beachy

You are promised one relic or autograph per box, but the checklist isn't exactly strong. I think the odds of getting a relic are 1:29 packs and the odds on autographs are 1:147, so you will probably see a lot of relics before you see an auto. I've read anecdotes of people busting 9 or 10 boxes without seeing any autographs.

This set doesn't really break any new ground. It could be fun for set collectors or people who just want to chase parallels of favorite players or teams. With such a big checklist, though, it might not be advisable to chase a particular player's parallels by busting wax. The only problem is that I don't see a lot of the singles from this stuff up on eBay, COMC, Sportlots, or JustCommons. With it being an online-exclusive pushed directly from Topps.com's webstore, the bulk-breakers that usually get cards out into the marketplace seemed to stay away from it.

At the Trade Deadline 9: A Whole Bunch of Cards from The Prowling Cat (One in a Series of Long Overdue Trade Posts)

A while back The Prowling Cat contacted me offering up some Tony Stewart cards featuring Tony in his #20 Home Depot days. Although it took me a long time to respond, we were able to work out a deal and each sent some cards to each other. I wound up with a whole bunch of cards that touched on many of my collecting interests. For those of you who ignore my posts with NASCAR content (the view counter doesn't lie!), you can scroll down for some Nolan Ryan, John Elway, and other baseball/football content.

He included a variety of brightly-colored, heavily-foiled Tony Stewart cards, although Tony might be hardly recognizable in some of these photos. He seems a lot younger in these pictures than he looks today. We've even got one of those mini-collection cards here of Tony about to apply a Sharpie to some piece of memorabilia and sign an autograph for a lucky fan. 

The goodness continued for several more cards, even touching lightly upon Stewart's post-Home Depot career with a card featuring his Bass Pro Shops car. Just think, that chubby-cheeked kid is making millions of dollars more than you or I will ever see.

Why is that Carmeleon card scanned upside-down? I don't know. But I am too lazy to go back and change the picture now.

Up next we have some cards of Dale Jr., who reminds me of the most douchey trend of the late 90's, frosted tips on the hair. I was never a very popular kid, probably because I never experimented with this hairstyle. Dale Jr. did, though, and he's won the most popular driver award so many times that they might as well just name it after him and retire his number.

When he gets tired of all the attention from the ladies, Junior puts on a hat and goes low-profile.

Also included in the package were a handful of John Elway cards from the 90's. I only had a few Elway cards in my collection, so this probably doubled my stash of the Broncos' greatest Quarterback. Of course, it would be nice if Peyton Manning could give him a run for his money by winning multiple titles as a Bronco, but that's putting the cart before the horse a little bit.

A few other Broncos from the same era round out the football portion of the package.

To start things off baseball-wise, there were a couple of Astros new and old, a need from the 2013 Opening Day Ballpark Fun insert set, and a couple of Mariners. Representing basketball is a card I remember quite fondly, a '94-95 Fleer All-Star insert featuring my favorite player, Hakeem Olajuwon. These cards have little orange textured bumps to simulate the surface of a basketball.

Rounding things out are several fistfuls of Nolan Ryan cards, most of them featuring his days as an Astro. I sure do like getting so many cards of my favorite legend all on one package.

This was an awesome package of cards to open, with a nice variety of stuff inside. It touched on many favorite players from several sports, and I am happy we were able to work out a trade. I am sorry it took me so long to post these cards on my blog.