Contest reminder and 2005 Topps Football tins

Contest reminder:

It doesn't matter that it was the last post I wrote--I'm duly obligated to remind you to enter my contest if you haven't yet.  If you're awesome and follow this blog,

which included this post the other day, then you already know to enter the contest here.  Seriously, it can only benefit everyone the more people that enter, so get in!

On with the retail:

Armed with a small amount of gift card money, I set out to Meijer in search of tins of 2005 Topps football that I'd read about on Blowout, and I wasn't disappointed.  For $5.99 each (not sure what they used to be), I got two of these, each including 60 shrink-wrapped base cards:

The main attraction with these was, of course, RCs of Aaron Rodgers, but in my case, despite already owning a complete base set, I thought it would be fun to shoot for those as well as any of my other favorite football players because I really enjoyed busting rack packs (REAL rack packs, not overpriced "value packs") of these when they came out.

The first tin featured this card on top, which was promising:

While I didn't hit anything big, and in fact hit a run of doubles in each, I did end up with a few cards I liked,

plus a couple pretty cool collectible tins celebrating Topps football's 50th anniversary.  Because I don't need two, I'm happy to offer one to anyone who's interested--please just make me a trade offer and that can be part of it.  I'll have to figure out the logistics of shipping it because I'm not quite sure if it'll fit in a standard baseball card box, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Anyway, for a way to spend a few gift dollars, these were kind of fun, so if you have a Meijer near you, keep an eye out for a relatively cheap and fun shot at some quick Discount Double-Check cash!

2005 Topps Draft Picks & Prospects Football box

(I promise to get to some baseball boxes real soon.  I still have the 2007 Topps Series 1 box from DACardWorld, but we're making progress--this isn't a Topps jumbo football post)


Today I'm celebrating the 2010-11 college football season by opening a box of 2005 Topps Draft Picks & Prospects I grabbed cheap off eBay.  This is another set I started in the past, probably mostly through packs, though I might have grabbed a cheap box at a show not too long ago.  Because of the low number of cards per pack, I still need a bunch, so this was a cost-effective way to put a dent in that wantlist.  Plus, two guaranteed hits is pretty nice.
 

• Purchased from/price:  eBay, $25.49
• Packs/cards:   24 packs / 5 cards
• Set size:  165 base cards (110 veterans, 55 RCs) (same for Chrome versions)
• Key features: One Chrome per pack, one rookie per pack, two relics or one relic and one autograph
• Key cards:  RCs of Braylon Edwards, Aaron Rodgers, Heath Miller, Marion Barber, Frank Gore, Kyle Orton and Darren Sproles, among others, plus autographed RCs of Alex Smith and Ronnie Brown
• Michigan Wolverines: Braylon Edwards RC, Chris Perry, Drew Henson, Marlin Jackson RC, Tom Brady

Base card front

Base card back

Base RC

Chrome base card

• Set completion:
• Base:  96/165 (58%)
• Chrome:  21/165 (13%)
• Extras:  
• Base:  0
  
• Chrome:  0
  

Chrome Gold Refractor

 

Meh jersey

Sweet jersey

• Insert:  Chrome Gold Refractor J.P. Losman (1:35, #'d/199)
• Autographs:  None
• Relics:  Senior Standouts jerseys of Cedric Houston and Carlos Rogers (2:box)

• Best pack:  Believe it or not, I'm not going with the pack that included Chris Perry, Tom Brady and Carson Palmer.  This goes to #18 thanks to the presence of the beautiful Cedric Houston jersey patch seen above.  The rest of the pack wasn't as inspiring:  Tony Gonzalez, Domanick Davis, Chester Taylor and Marcus Spears RC.  But as an added bonus, the jersey replaced the usual 1:pack Chrome card I didn't want.  Sweet!
• Worst pack:  Nothing terrible this time, but I'll go with #13:  Derrick Blaylock, Billy Volek, Ernest Wilford, Carlos Rogers RC, Hines Ward Chrome.  Yawn.
• Quality control:  8/10  Some of the base card corners were dinged, and both jersey cards had pretty soft corners  
• Collation:  10/10  No doubles = A+ 
• Value: 8 /10  For about $25 delivered I got more than half the set (and a bunch towards my wantlist), 24 rookies and two relics, including a pretty spiffy jersey, even if it's a player I don't care about.  The only real negative was a small number of cards per pack, which meant I ripped through this box pretty quickly
• Set design and player selection:  8/10  The cons:  the cards are almost entirely white and the player choice leaves a bit to be desired, partially because the set is small, and most of all, the Chrome set feels like an afterthought and a waste of a base card towards the set.  The pros:  lots of rookies, and my favorite feature:  rookies in their college unis.  While I would have preferred the cards to denote which teams had drafted them, I'm guessing these came out before the draft, making that impossible.  But seeing some of my favorite NFLers in their college days was a big plus for me.  Also, one of the jerseys was a pretty boring white, but the Houston card had a nice swatch, albeit likely from a photo shoot/all star game-type jersey
• Inserts and extras:  6/10  One insert.  ONE.  And it was J.P. freakin' Losman.  But getting two guaranteed hits for that low price was a plus

Overall score:  40/50


This set has its flaws, and you'll need a few boxes to put together the set yourself, but at the prices you can get it nowadays, this is worth your $25.  And now the question on everyone's mind:  how much did this help me in my ongoing pursuit of the set?  I needed 61, including 28 rookies, and with only 24 in the box I wasn't going to finally complete it, but I knocked 28 cards off my list, including 10 RCs, so not bad.  The extras and Chromes as well as the Losman Refractor and Rogers jersey are available if anyone wants them.

Wolverines?

Wolverines

2005 Topps Football Jumbo Box

Our second review comes from the same Dave & Adam's Card World purchase as the last post.  This time I'll be busting a jumbo box of 2005 Topps football.  This is actually a set I was working on closer to when it came out thanks to the prevalence of rack packs in retail stores (I believe this is the year they brought that feature back).  The were fun to grab because many of the best rookies (including Alex Smith at the time) were viewable right on top.


Anyway, I never ended up finishing the set and still need a bunch, so when I was shopping for other deals on DACardWorld, I snagged this box as a way to finally tackle one of my older wantlists and maybe get a few more useful cards in the process.

• Purchased from/price:  Dave & Adam's Card World / $37.00
• Packs/cards:   12 packs / 35 cards
• Set size:  440 base cards
• Key features:  One Tribute Box Loader card
• Key cards:  RCs of Aaron Rodgers, Ronnie Brown, Braylon Edwards, DeMarcus Ware, Frank Gore, and many more
• Michigan Wolverines: Amani Toomer, Braylon Edwards RC, Brian Griese, Charles Woodson, Drew Henson, Tai Streets, Tom Brady (x3)

• Set completion:  401/440 ( 91%)
• Extras:  0

Base card fronts

Base card backs

• Inserts:
• Black parallel:  12, the best of which was Big Ben (1:2, 6 expected, according to Beckett, but I believe they actually were 1:1)
• Golden Anniversary:   2, Joe Namath Golden Greats and Michael Strahan Gold Nuggets (1:6, 2 expected)
• Throwbacks:  2, Marvin Harrison and Corey Dillon (1:6, 2 expected)
• 50th Anniversary Topps Tribute Box Loader:  1, Ray Lewis #0307/1199 (1:box)  
• Autographs:  None
• Relics:  Rookie Throwback Jerseys Alex Smith (1:27)

Big Ben Black parallel

Golden Anniversary inserts

Throwbacks fronts and backs

Alex Smith Throwbacks jersey

Ray Lewis Tribute box topper

• Best pack:  #10, a.k.a. the "Where were you five years ago?" pack:  RCs of Mike Williams (the Lions megabust WR--more specifically, the Lions megabust WR named Mike Williams), Pac Man Jones, Alex Smith (the QB, not the TE), and Vincent Jackson;  base cards of Warren Sapp, Dante Hall, Tiki Barber, Marshall Faulk; All-Pro subset cards of Tom Brady and LaDainian Tomlinson; the Rookie Throwbacks Relics jersey of Alex Smith
• Worst pack:  Nothing really stood out as especially terrible this time
• Quality control:  9/10  A few minor dings and dents here and there, but overall, everything came out in great shape
• Collation:  10/10  Can you do better than perfect?  More than 90% of the base cards with no doubles!  My biggest gripe was missing out on the Braylon RC, of which I already have a couple, so no big deal there.  All inserts were as advertised and I even beat the odds on the Smith jersey
• Value:  9/10  This is a great set from the set collector's standpoint.  The inserts aren't anything to write home about, but you get most of a great set featuring a good number of players, lots of rookies and a good crack at a relic card
• Set design and player selection:  8/10  My only real complaint with the design is the fact that the white borders are so large they take away from the photography of the cards; many feature good to great shots.  The backs look good with a solid group of stats, short bios and mini pictures.  As this is a larger set the player selection is a bit more varied, which is good for the flagship product.  As with the Bowman set previously reviewed, there's a pretty large (though only half as many) selection of rookies, a few of which turned into stars, though maybe not as many as people hoped at the time
• Inserts and extras:  8/10  Two main gripes here:  the Black parallels are boring, pretty much the equivalent of Bowman Golds.  The other is that you really don't get many inserts, especially considering Topps' recent jumbo pack entries, which often include something like five at a time.  What they do include, though, is solid.  The Golden Anniversary set offers a nice mix of past and present players, albeit on a somewhat unpleasant design.  The Throwbacks are the real highlight, featuring some very good players on some excellent designs from past years.  Getting the box topper Tribute card was a nice, shiny bonus.  And to top it all off, the Throwback jersey was a nice touch, even if the design, which includes an inset of the regular Throwback insert and a large Topps logo, leaves little room for a tiny jersey swatch.  At least the jersey wasn't the usual boring white square that's often included.  I consider myself lucky to have grabbed one of the most valuable from the set (the other being Ronnie Brown;  Braylon was a few bucks less at $20 but would have been a great pull as well)

Overall score:  44/50

As jumbo boxes go, this was a fun one to open.  Getting a large chunk of the set plus a few nice inserts and a relic, and most of all NO DOUBLES, made for a great experience;  this box gets a big thumbs up from me.  More importantly, it knocked 62/75 cards off my wantlist from collecting the set previously.  Yes, it's strange that between a bunch of rack packs and this box I haven't completed the set, but that's what can happen with rack packs I guess.  Refer to the wantlist link above if you can help with the set; I'll figure out what to do with the second set extras at some point.

Finally, as always: