So today as I was flipping through my various boxes in trying to pick out some stuff for a potential trade with another blogger, I was perusing my box of almost-complete and sort-of-started sets. The almost-complete ones are all on my set wantlist while I left the latter there to have them together in case I decided to pursue them later. As I was sorting through a small stack of Bowmans, I noticed I had put a couple in penny sleeves, as I occasionally do when I know a rookie is worth enough to try to keep it in good shape. Who was this mystery RC, a card I had totally forgotten I had?
None other than Greg Z.'s man-crush, Matt Kemp! This is, of course, his 2005 Bowman RC. Now that I know I have it, I'm reserving it for the prestige of my baseball RC PC.
My pre-trade sorting wasn't just lucrative because of the Kemp, though--I even found three 2009 Bowman singles I need towards that set, which is pretty cool since I already needed just a small handful. If I've taken anything out of this, it's that putting in the effort to find some cards to trade is good karma. As opposed to being symbolic of the worst parts of the hobby and screwing over Greg, which is definitely bad karma; Chris Olds, may every football box you bust from now on contain nothing but Bilal Powell and Akili Smith!
So I had a bit of spare money to blow on some packs this weekend. That made me head down to Meijer to look for some decent deals on packs/blasters of sets I'd actually want to collect. I almost grabbed some cheap blasters of 2008 UD Masterpieces football, but then these caught my eye. If there had been a more random number available, like 17, I probably wouldn't have grabbed all of them, but 20 was hard to resist. And anyway I've been interested in this set as much as anything Bowman recently. Check out how I did:
Purchased from/price: Meijer, $3 each (x20) Packs/cards: 20 packs / 20 cards (generally 11 base, 4 Prospects/WBC, 3 Chrome Prospects/WBC, 2 WasteACard Gold Parallels) Set size: 220 base cards, 90 Prospects, 20 WBC Prospects (ditto on the Chrome versions of Prospects and WBC) Key features: Lots of rookies/first year cards; autographs; Chrome! Key cards: Aroldis Chapman WBC, plus lots of other base RCs (none of which is worth a ton at the moment, but it's only been a year)
Gold Parallel that is a total waste of one or more cards: 40 total, 39 different (two of Pujols), 4 Prospects and 1 WBC (2:1, 40 expected, but certainly not wanted)
Refractor (#d to 599): Luis Jimenez Prospects, Jarred Bogany Prospects (1:8, 2-3 expected)
XFractor (#d to 299): Kyeong Kang Prospects, Jon Mark Owings Prospects, Nino Leyja Prospects (1:15, 1-2 expected)
Autographs: Scout Autographs Pat Daugherty (1:26, 0-1 expected) WTF!?!? Relics: None (none expected) Best pack: #12 included the Aroldis Chapman WBC card (see next item) and Nino Leyja Xfractor (see above). By Beckett value alone this pack is great (and worth $20+) but more importantly, those are two sweet cards
Best card: (In an effort to be more positive in these reviews (other than the actual review part below), I'm getting rid of "worst pack" and replacing it with this category):
Yeah, I'm going with the Chapman WBC card. He's hot right now and anyway, this is a great looking card
Quality control: 5/10 I ended up with a LOT of dinged cards. As always (and this is no surprise, Topps), black cards are more prone to chipping, so maybe we shouldn't use it so much, guys? Collation: 6/10 I'm sorry, this is WAAAAAAAY too many triples and quads, even for a random assortment of packs. It's even harder to believe I pulled so many extras of the Chromes and WBCs since there are fewer. I bumped this up because I beat the odds on all my inserts (three XFractors!) and even that "autograph" Value: 5/10 Compared to what they used to cost, these packs were at a pretty decent price (especially considering you're getting twice as many cards as you usually do for your $3). Still, these aren't worth a lot yet since most of the guys are unproven or unknown. I didn't pull many big-ticket cards besides the Chapman and inserts, and if I haven't mentioned it yet, that autograph is a piece of crap. Jeez, at least get Matt Holliday's John Hancock on the thing to make it an interesting insert Set design and player selection: 7/10 baseline of 5; +1 for good photography, +1 for Chrome, +1 for Refractors, +1 for XFractors, +1 for generally good player selection, +1 for lots of rookies, +1 for WBC; -1 for chipping-prone black, -1 for illegible font on numbers, -1 for numbering cards with letters in front (ie BCP-11) which also makes them hard to read, -1 for only one year of stats plus career totals, -1 for 800 combinations of sets and parallels Inserts and extras: 4/10 If not for the WBC cards, Refractors and XFractors (and the low but conceivable possibility of actual player autographs) I'd give this a 1. God damn is that scout autograph stupid. No offense, Pat Daugherty, but not even somebody in your family would give me a buck for your signature on a sticker
Overall score: 27/50 Ok, let's review my reaction to pulling that "autograph" from the last pack (compounded by the numerous triples and quads) internet meme and YouTube video style:
Yeah, that's a start anyway. What's even more ridiculous is that Mojo had the very same thing happen to him recently! I don't just mean he pulled one of the same autograph set, but the very same card! Think I'm going overboard? IT'S A GODDAM SCOUT AUTOGRAPH! It's not a player, it's some schlub that was involved in drafting him. Not the guy that actually drafted him of course, just a guy that watched him play and thought, "Gee, that Matt Holliday seems to be pretty good." No offense to scouts, it's a tough job, but I bet even they wouldn't want each others' autographs. Also, really, a sticker? The guy couldn't be bothered to sign an actual card? FAIL, Topps, FAIL.
Anyway, aside from the horrendously bad autograph, I'll be combining what I pulled with whatever I already had (as soon as I can figure out where I stashed those piles) and putting together wantlists, so keep an eye out for those soon. In the meantime, don't bother picking up more than a couple of these rack packs (which I normally ordinarily enjoy), you'll be disappointed
