Happy Wolverine Tuesday, plus group break idea (for real!)

Sample hit.  Not bad, eh?

Group break idea (possibly for real, no guarantees)

(To start with, for those of you not as Wolverine-inclined)  I recently kicked around a few group break ideas in hopes of popping my group break-hosting cherry, but I never ended up with anything I really liked.  I think in many ways football is too difficult for me to do, what with Michigan alumni scattered over so many teams.
However, while scoping out Blowout and DACardWorld daily I remembered a set I hoped to get in on at one point because of the good number of hits and my general disinterest in the base set:  2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition baseball!  There's a good number of young stars, plus for my interests some good 2010 Detroit draft picks, and even a couple Michigan picks to boot.  Checklist (including teams) here for those interested.
So?  So I'm thinking something like 4-6 boxes.  Each gets you around 6 hits (all autographs of some type) plus more inserts, and four boxes per 20 box case are "hot boxes" with 10 hits.  That means 5 boxes could net us anywhere from 30-52 hits (more likely 30-34, of course).
With boxes going for approximately $63 on BO and $70 on DA, 5 would run me a bit over $300 shipped, plus I'd have to factor in shipping/materials for participants.  I'm thinking something in the neighborhood of $30-$35 per slot for a total of 10 slots (including me), each slot getting 3 teams, possibly determined via a draft or something (though to be up-front, I'm immediately calling the Tigers, my only real stipulation.  

UPDATE:  BA Benny suggests that each person gets to pick teams up front or pick two and then have the rest go into a draft.  I'm open to either of those if people prefer--I just want to make sure everyone gets a fair shot at teams they want without one or two people taking all the "best" teams themselves.  I think we can make this fair.

UPDATE 2:  Blowout is quoting me a price of $60/box, which is pretty nice, and means I could do 5 or 6 depending on everyone's preference.  I think 5 would be enough for a 10-person break, but if enough people are willing to put in enough (say $40/slot) that would be cool.  If we go with 5 boxes I think about $30/slot, give or take another $1 or $2 for shipping at most, would be fair.  The sooner I determine there's enough interest, the sooner I'll get these ordered!
Hopefully each person would get 3-4 hits, a few inserts and plenty of base.  Multiplayer cards and other unclaimed stuff would be randomed off as fairly as possible.  I'd also allow trading of teams/cards prior to shipping if there's interest in that.
With all of that in mind, do I have any interest in this?  I'd be looking for 9 other participants, and I'd take a stab at the whole live video break/recap deal to make it fun for everyone.  What do y'all think?  Please leave comments and if there's enough interest I'll get off my ass and make this happen.

Hail to the Blowout forums

By now you know the drill--I find a guy dumping a bunch of Michigan stuff on the BlowoutCards forums and everyone wins.  In this case, the guy happened to live pretty close to Ann Arbor, so despite only confirming the deal on Sunday, they're here today (Tuesday).

The latest haul, at a low, low cost of $55 to yours truly (guess where they're ending up?):

Adrian Arrington 2008 Press Pass SE Gridiron Graphs Gold auto:  this one didn't wow me design-wise, but it's a nice looking signature, features him in his Michigan uni, and was a nice throw-in

Chris Perry 2004 Bowman Chrome auto RC:  my Perry collection has grown by leaps and bounds despite his brief, disappointing NFL career.  Oh well, my gain

Leon Hall/Alan Branch/LaMarr Woodley 2007 Ultra Signature Class Triples auto:  did I mention this one's numbered 13/25?  At $60 this card alone is worth more than I paid and generally looks great.  Hall and Woodley have both gone on to star in the NFL while Branch...um...has survived being on the Cards this year without hanging himself, which is an accomplishment

Leon Hall/LaMarr Woodley 2007 SP Rookie Threads Multi-Marks dual auto:  these guys look familiar.  I seem to attract numbered Leon Hall and LaMarr Woodley multiplayer autographs like Michigan attracts star O-linemen

Jake Long 2008 Topps Rookie Premiere auto blue:  This is my first Topps RP auto of any kind, and at $40 represented a nice value considering my $55 total price.  As if I needed more Long autographs, right?  Can't help it, he's a guy from that awesome 2008 team that I love to collect

Jake Long 2008 Topps Rookie Premiere auto red:  Yes, the guy had both, and no I wasn't intending on grabbing both, let alone either.  Basically I said "a bunch of these don't have prices, are they available, specifically these?" and he gave me a ridiculous price, even crazier considering the one above is $40 and this red version is unpriced due to its rarity.  I don't do multiples of the same card as far as my Michigan hits go, but this one's different so it's a keeper

Mario Manningham 2008 Topps Rookie Premiere auto blue:  more Super Mario and more Topps RP autos!  This was sort of another "throw-in" for the guy, at least in the sense that he didn't have it posted up on his PhotoBucket but decided to mention it to me later.  Another $40 hit, and the value just kept on coming.  Mr. New Math will blossom into a star WR if he gets more chances to start, plus a QB who isn't an inaccurate little bitch

Marlin Jackson 2005 Topps Draft Class Marks auto:  man was this guy good when he played corner at Michigan.  He parlayed that into a nice draft selection, then quickly became as brittle as 2000s Ken Griffey Jr.  A sad NFL career, but I'll always remember his lockdown play at CB for the Wolverines.  By the way, just my second Marlin autograph

Marlin Jackson 2005 Topps Draft Senior Standouts jersey:  another Marlin hit, and this one presumably a piece of a Michigan jersey, which is a nice plus

Tim Biakabutuka 1999 Score Supplemental Inscriptions auto:  I'd seen some of these around but never had one of my own.  Somehow this is my fourth TB hit, to go with a helmet piece picked up from one of those Target "get a guaranteed random memorabilia card and some crappy packs" deals, plus two lower-quality Classic autos from another deal (which are still appreciated).  This is a very cool fairly transparent card and the highlight of my TB collection thus far

So all 10 of those cards for $55 delivered, which come to $250+ (due to the unknown Jake Long price, so probably closer to $300+) in value.  Or, you know, priceless, as far as they go towards adding to my burgeoning Wolverine collection.

2008 Topps Series II baseball hobby box

Definitely a blast from the past today as I nabbed a 2008 Topps Series II hobby from Meijer as part of my 20% off purchase mentioned yesterday.  The box was already discounted from about $50 or $60-something (according to the shrink-wrapping; I mean you've been able to find these online for $30 or less for a while anyway) to $30, plus the 20% discount knocked it down to about $24.  I've already completed one 2008 Topps baseball set but I thought for $24 I'd take my shot at the guaranteed hit and whatever else Topps would throw my way, plus I've seen so many of these at Meijer the last few months that they've been staring me in the face, and I was starting to feel bad.  The damage:


Purchased from/price:  Meijer, $23.99
Packs/cards:  36 packs of 10
Set size:  330 base cards
Key features/cards: One autograph or relic per box; Red Hot Rookies redemptions; it's flagship Topps, what more do you want?

Sample front

Sample back

Set completion:  298/330 (90%)
Extras:  18

Inserts:  43

Trading Card History:  6 (1:6, 6 expected)

Historical Campaign Matchups:  6 (1:6, 6 expected)

Gold Parallels:  7 (1:5, 7 expected)

Topps Stars:  6 (1:6, 6 expected)

Topps All-Star Rookie Team 50th Anniversary:  7 (1:5, 7 expected)

Year in Review:  6 (1:6, 6 expected)

Mickey Mantle Story:  2 (1:18, 2 expected)

Black Parallel: Al Reyes (#33/57) (1:63, 0-1 expected)

Campaign 2008:  Al Gore SP (odds???)

Red Hot Rookie Redemption:  #19 (Collin Balester, expired) (1:box)

Autographs:

Highlights Autographs Shane Victorino (1:box)

Relics:  None (one auto/relic per box)

Best card:   The Victorino autograph, of course
Best pack:  #35 included the autograph plus a Chase Utley Gold and Alfonso Soriano Topps Stars.  Yay inserts!


(NOTE:  I've changed my scoring system again; it's still a work in progress, I guess, but I'm hoping to get something that more accurately reflects my opinion of a product I've opened.  All feedback is welcomed)
Quality control and collation:  16/20  -1 point for a couple dinged cards and one that wasn't quite cut right and had foil stamping issues; -3 points for too many doubles (about 6% of my base cards) considering I only got about 90% of the base set.  All inserts were as promised, and I was pleased to get an autograph instead of a relic.
Base set:  17/20  I don't know that this set needs to be this large anymore--at least I could do without some of the crappy subsets that have cropped up over the years.  Add to that the fact that I miss those really well-done multiplayer rookie cards and it'll probably be a while before I'm truly happy.  Still, the basic designs are solid, other than the weird "divot" the Topps logo causes at the top of each picture.
Inserts:  12/15  Of the ones I pulled, I really liked the Trading Card History set (that King Felix just speaks to me, for some reason, though I'm not necessarily in love with '86 Topps), liked the All-Star Rookies, Stars and and Black parallel and am always cool with the Gold parallels.  I'm not really a fan of any of the Presidential cards (though I guess the Gore was a tough pull, I'll have to research that), the Mantles don't really do anything for me and hate the Year in Reviews (BOOOOORING).  Still, 43 inserts in 36 packs is pretty nice (though I would have just as soon taken fewer inserts plus no doubles to complete the set out of the box).
Hits and extras:  14/15  For the price (what I'm sure was essentially originally $36-$40 at most card shows and much cheaper now) the guaranteed hit was nice (and as I said, even better because I preferred the autograph) as was getting a guaranteed rookie redemption at the time (since expired, unfortunately).
Value:  28/30  This box gets a high value score from me (even at what I think I remember its original price to be) for many reasons:  36 packs (all flagship Topps boxes HAVE to keep this feature), more than an insert per pack, an outside shot at a near complete set, a guaranteed hit and another extra on top of all that.  High marks to Topps for another excellent hobby box.


Overall:  87/100
Recommendation:  buy


As they get more and more expensive (until their prices come back down to earth) Topps boxes aren't always good values, but the next time you're at a retail store and you need a box-busting fix, grab one of these and have some fun, I think you'll enjoy it.

Pretty much every insert you see up there is available for trade/sale.  Also, please help me out with this set (through the magic of keeping old doubles I don't need the 32 I originally did from busting the box):  332 335 337 350 354 370 416 451 452 456 487 500 508 533 536 538 575 602 605 644 651 654 

2010 SAGE HIT Low Series Football blasters (x3)

This is going to be a bit of a mini-review as these boxes don't warrant too much discussion, but it's been a while since I had something useful to post, and maybe these'll interest some of you.
Today (Sunday) I headed down to Meijer since they were actually advertising cards being 20% (which doesn't happen very often).  I grabbed three of these boxes, plus a couple others of baseball that may get posted eventually.  The SAGE boxes were actually already half off (originally $20), so these seemed like a nice deal.  I'd purchased a few before and did decently well, so for $8 each I thought I'd grab them.  The goods:

Purchased from/price:  Meijer, $7.99 (x3)
Packs/cards:  20 packs of 5 cards each (x3)
Set size:  50 base cards (with #s 46-50, the "program" cards being SPed)
Key features/cards:  2 autographs per box; players in college unis; lots of star rookies, including Bradford, Spiller, McCoy, Mathews and Gerhart

Sample front and back

As you can see, the design is fairly simple (read: BORING), but the cards generally feature good action shots, and I mostly approve of the backs as well.

Set completion stuff:  I already had a bunch of these, so I mashed them all up together, and as expected because of the stupid SPs (some of which seem to be more SPed than others) I only ended up with one complete set.  I'm working on more, of course, so if you can help, please let me know:

Set 1: 53 56 59 66 79 95 96
Set 2: 44 47 53 56 58 59 63 65 66 73 79 83 84 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98
Set 3: 44 47
Set 4: 37 41 44 45 47 49
Set 5: 37 39 41 42 44 45 47 49 


The hits:  Each box is configured such that you get 20 packs of 5 base cards (and ONLY base cards--NO inserts), plus a separate shrink-wrapped pack (or a mini zip lock bag, in one case for me) with two autographs.  While the base cards only include the low series, the autographs come from both, including parallel versions.  Here's what I got:

As you can see, I ended up with four silvers, which is pretty cool.  All told I came out with about $50-$60 worth of autographs for my $24, not to mention a buttload of base cards.  While I didn't end up with the players I got the first time I bought these (including Sean Weatherspoon and Brian Bulaga) I think I did alright.  All of these are available for trade if you see your favorite team.

Overall:  this is a recommended buy from me because the two autographs are worth your $8-$10 (but not $20, really) alone, and if you grab a couple of these you should be at or near 1-2 sets, depending on those stupid SPs.

Expect to see some giveaway action considering all the extras I ended up with, but first I'll probably work on completing some of these sets.

New stuff Friday!

Well, I can't say I've had much to post about recently, considering the relative dearth of decent new stuff to bust, and a completely rational decision to stop buying such a ridiculous amount of stuff anyway.  Still, I make it a point to check the BlowoutCards buy/sell/trade forums a couple times a day, and last week a particular thread piqued my interest.

In it a guy was offering $5 lots of cards (usually in groups of 6-9) first come, first served.  The thing about them, though, was that they were generally pretty damn good.  In most cases 50% or more of the lot was certified autographs, with some in-person signed cards mixed in.  Occasionally there were duds (he claims he picked these randomly) and sometimes the price went up to $10 or $25, and those weren't always as attractive, but the huge selection of stuff combined with ridiculous prices and a page refresh competition that wore out F5 buttons nationwide made for a hugely enjoyable thread that went 70+ pages (each 10 comments).

Yours truly was able (and willing) to snap up three separate lots--oddly enough, a $5, $10 and $25 each.  I went for those that looked reasonable enough considering the short amount of time I had to decide (the guy was putting lots up about one every 10 minutes, then they would usually be snapped up within probably 30 seconds).  Here's a look at what I ended up with--a group of cards that easily are worth WAY more than $40 (delivered!), including some worth $40 by themselves:

Group 1:  Highlights include auto/RCs of Takashi Saito and Mike Jacobs, plus a sweet Hanley Ramirez ManuPatch

These Tristar autos all came in one lot with some other stuff.  A couple of decent name players, including Mayberry and Schafer.  The first two are Green parallels #d to 50 and worth a few bucks, so this lot proved to be pretty nice.

A few 2009 and 2008 Donruss Elite autos, all of which, again, have some pretty decent value now, and might even jump up a bit in the future.

All of these are in-person autos (I believe the guy stated he got a lot of them from minor league games, which is pretty believable).  A pretty nice group considering it includes Cliff Lee, plus top prospects like Drabek and Ramos (and Hosmer's nothing to sneeze at either).

So all in all, some pretty good value out of a thread that was just about as enjoyable as busting packs considering the gambling involved, plus there was even a little skill thrown in too (I got so good at obsessive refreshing that eventually I essentially had my choice of every lot, but only went with the ones that looked inviting enough).  When's the last time you got 25 hits out of two or fewer boxes, much less anything that cost $40?  NEVER, THAT'S WHEN.

Here's hoping the guy does another one of these in the future, but for now I've gone a long way towards reloading my auto/trade bait collection that I depleted after selling off a huge lot of mostly crap on eBay.

I should not that I'm not especially attached to most, if any, of this stuff, so if you see something you like, just holler and we'll work something out.  Also note that I think some of these cards seem like prime candidates for contests/giveaways, so keep an eye out for that in the future.

2010 Absolute Memorabilia football retail rack packs (x6)

I've made it no secret on this here blog that I like rack packs.  Well as usual when I got a chance I headed over to Meijer with some bottle return money and snagged some packs.  These guys looked like a pretty good deal, and as you'll see, they're just about that, really.  After paying about $9 a pop for about 15 Topps Chrome cards, these seem like a relative steal.  While that's not exactly the case (quantity doesn't always equal quality), they seem like a fun set to bust.  Read on for details.

Purchased from/price:  Meijer, $4.99 (x6)
Packs/cards:  6 packs of 40 cards each
Set size:  100 base cards (also 100 #d rookies, which are harder to pull)
Key features:  Lots and lots of cards; Rookie Premiere Materials and autographs
Key cards:  rookies out the wazoo

Sample front

Sample back

Set completion:  
     Set 1:  91/100 (91%)
     Set 2:  78/100 (78%)
Extras:  
     Triples:  40
     Quads:  25

Inserts

Inserts:  6
     NOTE:  according to packs all inserts fall at an average 1:2 packs, though I got one insert in each pack. 
     NFL Icons:  Joe Montana
     Absolute Heroes:  Devin Hester
     War Room:  Rolando McClain
     Spectrum Red:  Eli Manning and Roddy White
     Spectrum Blue:  Amari Spievey RC #68/75


Autographs:  None (none expected)
Relics:  None (none expected)
Best pack:  #1 had the Spievey insert, plus base cards of Gore, Favre, McFadden, Matt Ryan, Sanchez, Calvin Johnson and Aaron Rodgers.  Not a whole lot better than any of the other packs, but the Spievey pushed this one to the top.
Best card:  Amari Spievey Spectrum RC

Quality control:  10/10  No issues to report here.
Collation:  9/10  I ding these packs a single point because I couldn't pull one complete 100-card set from 314 base cards.  Amazingly, though, considering the large number of base I pulled for a 100-card set, I never got more than four of any given card. 
Value:  7/10  40 cards for $5 is almost always a good value.  Granted I didn't pull a complete base set and the inserts weren't much to speak of (besides the Spievey), plus I didn't end up with any other rookies.  Still, I'd guess you're better off with four of these packs than a $20 blaster (which I believe was 10 packs of 8 or vice versa).
Set design and player selection:  7/10  I like the simple, clean look of the set as well as the photography.  As usual with a back like this I prefer more stats, but that doesn't really take away from the overall look.  I was hoping for more rookies but I suppose they became tough pulls to justify the relatively low price considering the number of cards you get.  As far as the veteran base cards go I was fairly happy.
Inserts and extras:  6/10  The inserts weren't terribly exciting, though pulling a Montana was pretty cool.  And obviously since I've mentioned it several times I liked the Spievey.  I'm no fan of non-serial numbered parallels that don't add anything, though, so the Reds annoyed me.  The other inserts were decent if unexciting.  There weren't any other "extras" to speak of, though you do get a somewhat decent shot at a hit.

Overall score:  39/50
Recommendation:  buy 
I'd recommend grabbing something like four or five of these for a shot at a base set, some dupes to trade, and a couple inserts.  Plus, maybe you'll be luckier than me and pull a hit.  I'm thinking if I find a couple more the next time I hit a store I may grab them to try to finish off one, two or even three of the base set, and maybe take one more stab at a hit.

Just a couple this time, but I got two each of Henne and Braylon, which was cool.

I've got more hits than Pete Rose (and without the stupid haircut)

Call me Motown, baby, cuz check out all these hits:

As previously promised, here's a quick look at all the stuff I picked up recently:

Mike Hart Lettermen patch:  I snagged this on eBay more than a week ago, it's just that the guy took forever to ship it, or shipped it through Siberia or something.  Anyway, that puts me up to three Michigan Lettermen Patches from 2008.  I'm putting out an APB for Jake Long's.  On a related note, I found one on eBay listed with an "Or Best Offer."  He was asking $40 for it and it books at $20, so my offer, including shipping, was $10.  I'm sure you're all shocked that he instantly rejected it.  On a related note to THAT related note, I got this Hart for $10 shipped also through a best offer (I think he originally wanted $15 or more), so not bad.

Braylon Edwards (plus a bunch of scrubs) quad jersey:  this came from one of the BlowoutCards forums lots you'll see described below, but because it was double-sided it gets its own scan.  This was sort of a throw-in for me because a Manningham I picked out was no longer available.  Also not pictured, but included in one of the deals, was a 2007 Leon Hall SPx auto/RC, which I already had, and subsequently gave away.

I picked up two great Michigan lots from BlowoutCards' forums (man what a great place to pick up stuff--no joke), one for about $50 and another around $25 I believe.  I feel I got pretty good value considering the sheer volume of cards I picked up, all of which are more valuable to me anyway.
The combined results begin here with a good mix of players:  Jake Long (my favorite card of the bunch--I really like those RPM autos), Tai Streets, Leon Hall, Bennie Joppru (my first I believe), John Navarre and Alan Branch, most of which appear in a Michigan uniform, which is even sweeter.

Another two Adrian Arrington autographs, one of which is in a Michigan uni, two Chris Perry relics (I think I ended up with four or five overall), another Braylon, and a Steve Hutchinson, which is really cool since O-linemen don't get anything special very often, and he's one of the best the game has ever seen, hands down.

Another pretty good group:  two David Harris autographs, rookie autos of LaMarr Woodley and Jake Long, a B.J. Askew (I don't believe I had anything of him either) and a nice blue Manningham jersey (jeez I have a lot of him).

Oh look, another Bennie Joppru, and he's in a Michigan uni!  Also in this group:  two more Chris Perrys (man I wish he hadn't been an NFL bust, but he'll be remembered well here in Ann Arbor), a cool dual-relic Braylon and a meh jersey of him as well, and my second Drew Henson autograph.

Another Jason Avant jersey (I'm starting to get a decent collection of him), a Shawn Crable autograph (I'm getting the impression he'll never pan out in the NFL), a dual Manningham-Henne jersey, and probably my favorite card in the whole lot:  a Bowman Sterling Chad Henne-Mike Hart dual auto.  Sweet!

These took me a while to scan and optimize, as you probably guessed, and I did scan them individually as well, but those won't end up in the PC album for a little bit since those will take longer.  HOWEVA, if you haven't seen enough scans today, enjoy these the following.

Detroit Tigers hits!

The reason I'm posting these now is that I picked up a couple this week, also from BlowoutCards, and I thought that it was time to put them up as well.  They'll also have their own album link up on the top right pretty soon as soon as I get a chance to get them scanned and uploaded individually as well.  For now, please enjoy them in all their group scan glory:

Vertical cards!  In order:  a Topps Chrome Verlander auto/RC I snagged for a nice deal on eBay not long ago; a Boesch Chrome auto/RC/thumbprint from Beardy, a Sizemore from the same set from Georgia Mindset's group break, a pair of aces from a Daily Dimwit trade package, and a Triple Threads White Whale (not a printing plate) Verlander I just got from a BlowoutCards purchase.

Horizontal cards!  The Porcello came with the Verlander White Whale previously mentioned and is just a ridiculously awesome jsy/auto/RC;  I've had this Trammell bat forever; I can't remember when I picked up this Gibby, but it's one of a couple relics I have of him (including a Dodgers bat); a Gibby autograph I picked up way back; a Porcello jersey from Reds and More; a Jack Morris autograph I've had for quite a while; and finally, a Hank Greenberg manu-patch also from Daily Dimwit (holy crap was that a nice trade package for me!).  I'll probably work on adding to this at some point, though Wolverines remain my main focus.  But I feel like I should keep piling up the Verlanders as he keeps piling up wins.

What's that thing called when you're not spending your money on cards, but trying to get money from other people for YOUR cards?

Oh yeah, selling!  As a bit of news, I sold my 2010 Topps Chrome Brennan Boesch Blue Refractor auto/RC from GA's group break, and for a pretty penny at that.  Two items I listed didn't sell, however, so I relisted them.  If you're interested in either:

-Jimmy Clausen 2010 Topps Bowman Chrome auto #1/25:  I had something like 12 watchers but nobody thought to bid.  I'm dying for someone to take this Emu auto off my hands.  Some of you may remember that this was Topps making up for shorting me a pack in a value pack, which was pretty awesome, even if it was Jimmy "I'm a talentless, stupid-looking jerkass" Clausen.

-Ryan Howard 2010 Topps Peak Performance auto/bat:  I pulled this from my 2010 Topps Series 2 box, much to my surprise at the time.  I was very excited until I saw the peeling damage to the clear plastic cover at the bottom of the card.  By the time I contacted Topps I'd thrown out the box and packs they wanted from me (I had no idea they'd be that difficult about it) so I just gave up.  It's still a pretty sweet card, and it didn't sell when I listed it at $50, but as of this writing it's got a $40 bit, which I'm pretty happy about.

Before y'all accuse me of being a greedy capitalist, I'd like to assure you all that all proceeds go to the "Too Many Grandersons?  If anything I don't have enough--let's go buy more shit!" fund, because, let's be honest, anybody that's older than 12 and still buys cards probably isn't the most fiscally responsible person.

Until next time, whenever that is, enjoy this plethora of pictures, and thanks as always for reading.

A huge Saturday post

Lots to catch up on because I've been pretty sick the last few days.

Trade with Beardy:

These came the other day but I hadn't had a chance to post about them yet.  I came up with a bunch of Orioles stuff for Beardy and he responded in kind with some great stuff for me:

A pair of 2008 UD Masterpieces Wolverines.  I didn't even have the regular Long because it was an SP that didn't make an appearance in any of my blasters.  A nice looking card from an excellent set, and better yet it's #'d of 75.
The jersey, if you can believe it, is actually my first Brady hit of any kind, so that's awesome.

A nice assortment of Ripkens, most of which I didn't have.  The Masterpieces cards, of course, are my favorites, and just look outstanding.

A couple of Tigers including a Granderson(!) and Beardy's infamous Boesch fingerprint auto:

Yoinked from Beardy's post

That doesn't really bother me so I may keep this one and sell my Blue Refractor auto that Georgia Mindset pulled for me in his group break. 

Also included:  a few more Wolverines, Tigers and Lions.  A great trade package from an excellent fellow blogger.  I look forward to seeing his upcoming trade post whenever he gets around to it!

In the mail, part 1:

As promised, here's one of the two big hits I was still waiting on from eBay:

This bad boy is a 2008 UD Premier Signature Foursomes of Henne/Arrington/Hart/Crable (yeah, I'm not sure how they ended up with Crable instead of, say, Manningham, but it's still sweet).  Only 15 were made, which makes it even sweeter, but they could have made 1500 of them and I'd still be thrilled.  A nice addition to the PC.

In the mail, part 2:

Quick backstory: a couple weeks ago I bought five value packs of 2010 Topps Chrome from my local Meijer. As I opened the first one, I realized I was short one retail pack (yay Topps QC). I contacted Topps with scans of the packs, receipt, etc., though I didn't expect much. To my surprise, though, they got back to me fairly quickly about sending me a replacement.
Fast forward to this morning, when I checked my mail and found a package from Topps already. Not only did they take care of this quickly, they sent me not one, but THREE packs, and they were all hobby packs. The results:

Pack 1:
Earl Thomas RC
Russell Okung RC
Eric Decker RC
Gridiron Lineage Eric Dickerson/Steven Jackson

At this point I thought Topps gave me a fairly loaded pack to try to make up for their abysmal QA in their baseball and football products this year.

Pack 2:
Ryan Mathews RC
Matt Cassel
Terrell Owens
Jimmy Graham RC Refractor

Still pretty nice. I'd guess that if this was a retail pack this is what I would have been missing from the value pack (I was shorted a Refractor in that one essentially). But it gets better:

Pack 3:
Darren Sharper
Reggie Bush
Jacoby Ford RC
and

Well that's more like it, Topps! I would have been happy with any one of these packs, but what a haul! The Claussen has a bit of a chipped bottom right corner (you can kind of see it in the scan). I'm planning to put it up on eBay in case anyone's interested.  Anyway, if I've learned anything here it's to make sure to contact Topps when any more of their QA issues rear their ugly heads.  

More to come:

I've gone crazy buying some great lots of stuff on BlowoutCards' forums recently, so you'll start seeing those soon.  Honestly I'm enjoying doing those more than blowing my money on crappy boxes--I'm definitely having an easier time getting my money's worth, so keep an eye out for more of those posts than box stuff, at least for the near future.