Tenets of completing sets, plus a September call-up I can get behind

Tenets of deja vu:

You guys might remember my recent purchase of a jumbo box of 2010 Topps Update baseball, right?  Well as usual, Topps disappointed me by denying me a complete set despite 200% of the cards in the box being extras.

You might also remember that the last time I had this problem, Tenets of Wilson stepped up and filled my wantlist, which was pretty significant considering the number of cards he sent my way (along with some other great stuff!).

Well guess what?  History has repeated itself.  For a pittance of a few 2010 Update cards Matt needed, I got all 17 I needed to complete my second set of these.  A few highlights (not a lot to show because it was 17 cards):

Jose Valverde, because he's still 100% on save opportunities this year, plus he just set the team record for saves in a single season (and is STILL going strong) with 43;  Ramon Santiago, because he's (a small) part of this Tigers team that's suddenly steamrolling into the playoffs; and J.P. Arencibia, because he's put up some great power stats and I just picked him up to play catcher for my fantasy team in the BA Benny Finals.

A big thanks again to Matt for completing this second set, which, by the way, is available on my newly revamped and sort-of-getting-there trade bait page, along with some other great stuff.  Now would be a great time to hit up Matt's wantlists and get trading with an awesome blogger (but don't forget to come back for the rest of this post).

Some of us would consider Ann Arbor to Cleveland a demotion (i.e., ALL OF US):

Today's a pretty big day for Michigan athletics because Ann Arbor native and former Michigan star Zach Putnam was called up by the Indians.  The local boy was drafted as a pitcher by Cleveland in the 5th round in 2008 (the Tigers took a stab at him in 2005 but for some reason he didn't jump at 38th-round money and headed to UM instead).  He put up relatively decent numbers in the minors, and he'll be working out of the bullpen, at least for now.  

I hope he gets a chance to throw some innings very soon, but regardless I hope his debut is everything he's dreamed of.  Besides the reemergence of closer J.J. Putz, former Michigan baseballers haven't been burning down the league this year, so this is a big positive for a fan like me.  Good luck to Zach in the first step of a hopefully long and productive Major League career!

2010 Topps Update baseball jumbo box

As mentioned briefly in my latest card show report, one of the two boxes I grabbed at this show was a 2010 Topps Update baseball jumbo box.  This won't be a formal review as I already reviewed a hobby box I grabbed at a previous show, but I still wanted to give you an overview of how I did.


But first--yes, this sort of makes me a hypocrite after my constant rants about Topps.  Well, I thought at this price ($45) and for what I could pull (hopefully a bat barrel, which I'd really been wanting) the value was finally there.  Overall, I'm OK with how I did, but based on what I pulled from these two boxes, I don't see how Topps can justify pricing the hobby at more than $40 or the Jumbo at more than $60, if that.  So here's a quick rundown on the results of this break:


Price:  $45
Packs/cards:  10/50


Base set:  313/330 (95%)
Doubles:  77
Triples:  13
Total extras:  90/403 (22%)


God DAMN is that a staggering number of doubles and triples!  If this wasn't a Topps set I would have been sure I pulled a complete set.  I just don't get how Topps can screw consumers over with this kind of collation.  Hell, my very first pack contained multiple doubles, right off the bat.  Oh well, shitty collation is status quo when it comes to Topps, who clearly doesn't give a shit.  For what it's worth, my new wantlist for this set (since Tenets of Wilson kindly filled in my last one):  16 21 32 64 79 82 102 112 138 155 166 167 176 181 232 310 315


Inserts:


Attax:  Yep, got 10 of them.  Nothing to see here, move along.
Million Card Giveaway:  Got 10, no point in wasting time here either.
More Tales of the Game:  Got 10, including seven different of this throwaway insert.

Peak Performance:  2--Austin Jackson and Roy Halladay.  Two pretty good players, at least.

Gold:  10--Starlin Castro, Cole Gillespie, Kerry Wood, George Kottaras, John Axford, Ty Wigginton, Omar Infante, Ivan Rodriguez, Jon Link, Carl Crawford.  Not a great group of players, but decent.
  

Turkey Red:  10--Duke Snider, Miguel Cabrera, Cy Young, Jason Bay, Robin Yount, Mike Stanton, Ryan Zimmerman, Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Quentin, Frank Robinson.  Still a great looking set, especially with the boarder color they used this time.

I decided to use this one because LOL Ubaldo in the A.L.  Thanks, Colorado!

Legendary Lineage:  10--Johnson/Strasburg x2, Greenberg/Davis x2, Palmer/Matusz, Seaver/Leake, Gibson/Jimenez, Banks/Castro, Martinez/Santana, Nathan/Storen.  Goofy combos abound as usual.

Mickey Mouse All-Stars:  1--Chicago Cubs.  I thought I had remembered these being rare, but given the prices I'm seeing, apparently not!  Kind of a throwaway insert for me in that case....

Vintage Legends:  10--Tris Speaker, Honus Wagner, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, Thurman Munson, George Sisler x2, Nolan Ryan.  I still like these.  Oddly enough, I believe I had just flipped my other Nolan Ryan to Thorzul a month ago.  I also now have at least three Sislers, so I'll put a couple in the trade pile.

Yo Mama Cards:  10--Yaz, Thome/Schmidt, Brock/Yaz, David Price, Barry Larkin, Derek Jeter, Eddie Murray, Tommy Lasorda, Nolan Ryan, Mickey Mantle.  Still kind of a fun set, even if Topps has flooded the market with these.

Yo Mama Original Backs:  1--Don Mattingly.  Not the card I would have gone with if I was reprinting Donnie Baseball, but hey, I'm not Topps, which means I'm not thinking of the Yankees morning, noon and night.

Stephen Strasburg 2010 Topps #661:  I'm counting this as an insert since it's not really part of this base set.  Tenets of Wilson already sent me one, so this one's available for sale/trade.


The hits:

Andrew Cashner Peek Performance auto:  This was my guaranteed autograph.  Not the greatest, but I'll take it, since it looks pretty good.  Available for sale/trade.

Jayson Werth Manufactured Bat Barrel:  This was one of the biggest reasons I wanted a jumbo box since these just look awesome, especially compared to the crap Topps tried to foist on collectors this year.  This one's definitely available, but only for another barrel (I have the Sisler on my singles wantlist *hint hint*).

Jhan Marinez Silk Collection:  I apparently got shorted a jersey, but since I got a Silk instead I'm actually happier since these look awesome.  This one's also up for grabs, but I'd really prefer to get a Silk in return.  Make me an offer I can't refuse.


As I said, overall I was reasonably happy, at least in terms of the value I got.  Based on this break, I now refuse to buy a Topps jumbo box for more than $50, no matter how long I have to wait, especially since I know I'll have to put money and effort into completing the base set anyway.  Still, there's worse ways to spend $45, and now I have a bunch of stuff I can trade to you guys.  Just about everything up there is available, but I'll probably throw most of the inserts in with the rest that I have and get a list of each that I have available put together at some point so I can help you guys with your sets.  In the meantime, please help me finish this one!


Next up within a couple days will be the loot from my second Michigan TK Legacy VI box.

Tenets of Wilson in the House (get it?)

So more than a month ago, Matt from Tenets of Wilson saw my post about my so-so 2010 Topps Update baseball hobby box.  That turned out to be a good thing because he had a little something I like to call "every single card I needed to finish the set," which was 53 cards and therefore not exactly chopped liver.  He forwarded me on to his wantlists to facilitate a trade, which wasn't exactly difficult seeing as how he needed a few hundred 2008 Topps, and I just happened to have a staggering quantity of those from my previous box escapes.  Today, that very trade package came, and I present to you the highlights:

(Note:  they actually have top edges, I just did a crappy job scanning)
OMFG it's a Strasburg RC I'm rich!  I quit my job and have already put a down payment on a yacht because this card is literally gold and oh, right, he got hurt and his name isn't Bryce Harper.  Yeah, that's the infamous Strasburg #661 from the flagship base, the card that got put up on the mega crap giveaway first and then eventually inserted into Update packs to nerf the card (that's probably the only time you'll see that term on my blog--I don't even play MMORPGs).  The second Strasburg is one of like 50 in the set, but at least it isn't the "Merry Strasmas" version, right?  Highlight #3 is a sweet looking AJax rookie debut card, which I like very much.

So considering my collation in that box, plus my happiness over finishing something, I'm thrilled to have another set in the books.  But that's not all Matt sent me--he also pulled a few nice Tigers cards that'll bolster my PC:

Another great scanning job, well done!  I like the mix of players here, even the Santiago since I like numbered parallels of teams and players I collect.  The Cobb Vintage Legends is definitely my favorite because I need more of him.  The Hank/Davis card gets the usual "WTF, Topps?" award for the package.  The back of the card says they're both Jewish and have the same build but don't bat from the same side.  So apart from the minor inconvenience of statistics, this is another obvious comparison that Topps knew collectors would love (I'd better watch it--jj, the MojoBeard's new resident troll/poet laureate/dribble-hater may accuse me of unfair criticism of Topps) and therefore had to produce.  In all seriousness, another Greenberg is great to have.  Finally, I've held onto a bunch of those hologram discs like the Tigers logo up there, but I don't think I actually had a Detroit one left, so that was actually pretty cool to get as well.

All in all, a pretty nice package that earns an easy A for finishing one of my sets and allowing me to get some use out of my own set-fillers.  Head on over to Matt's blog and do some trading with him yourself when you get the chance.  Thanks, Matt!

2010 Topps Update hobby baseball box

As promised, here's the other box I nabbed at Saturday's autograph signing/show.  Also, you'll note that once again I'm tinkering with the way I do box reviews because I'm always trying to get something that looks good, provides reasonable information and doesn't take five hours to do.  I hope you like this latest incarnation.

Box:  2010 Topps Update baseball hobby box
Packs/cards:  36/10
Price:  $25

Base cards:

Front

Back

Design grade:  B-  A typical Topps effort, with not a lot that stands out.  Being a bit old-school, I preferred the original concept of "traded and rookies" instead of "traded, rookies, all-stars, home run derby and whatever else we could cram in there".  The older sets were under 200 cards and this one is 330, which is more than I really needed.


Base set completion:   239/330 (72%)
Extras:  20 doubles (8% of base cards pulled)
Collation grade:  D

Once again, Topps sets the bar pretty low on collation--without those doubles I'd be closer to 80% of the set.  I bought this box knowing I wouldn't be that close to completing the set (this many inserts will do that to you) but I still thought I'd be better than 72%.

Inserts (99):

Vladimir Guerrero Black #27/59 (1:105, 0 expected):  A-  I generally like Topps' various color parallels and black works here; I just wish they went back to the serial numbered stamping instead of just printing it.

Peak Performance:   4 (1:8, 4 expected):  B  This seems like a reasonable set, a continuation of an insert that started with the 2010 flagship set.  I at least like the design, and the concept's kind of cool.

Turkey Red:  9 (1:4, 9 expected):  A  This is simply a classy looking set.  I don't collect it myself, but it's a solid effort on Topps' part.  Only the Cabrera is a keeper for me.

Vintage Legends:  9 (1:4, 9 expected):  A  Because these aren't straight-up reprints, but rather players depicted in past Topps set designs, I'm on board.  Again, I'm not actively collecting these, but some of them really look nice, my favorite being the Campy, which just looks awesome.  Former Wolverine Sisler is PC, the rest are up for grabs.

Million Card Giveaway:  9 (1:4?) including #s 21-30 except 28:  B-  This is kind of a retroactive grade, but considering my feelings on the MCG, I'm still a bit lukewarm.  I bought the box knowing these were no longer active, so don't think I was holding that against Topps.  I do like that the cards themselves are somewhat collectible, featuring past great Topps cards. 

Cards Your Mom Threw Out:  12 (1:3, 12 expected):  A-  My only real ding to this set is that Topps has done the reprinting thing to excess.  Granted it's nice to see some that haven't been reprinted before, but that's mainly because they've only existed for 10 or fewer years.  Former Michigan star Larkin's PC, the rest are yours.

Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs Joey Votto (1:36, 1 expected):  A-  Same grade as the above since the excessive reprinting is still a ding, but I do like the original back concept.

Legenardy Lineage:  5 (1:8, 4 expected):  C  The design is pretty good, and in general the concept is great, but REALLY, TOPPS?!  Walter Johnson/Stephen Strasburg?  I'm sorry, if we're making a comparison to that HOFer, Justin Verlander is a good active player to consider, not a guy with a handful of stars.  Dubious comparisons abound in this set, my biggest annoyance with it.

Gold:  6 (1:6, 6 expected):  A-  I'd be worried if I bought a Topps box and it DIDN'T feature Gold parallels!  As usual the design is great, but like the Black set I miss real serial number stamping.

More Tales of the Game:  6 (1:6, 6 expected):  D-  Baseball history:  good.  Baseball history as chosen by Topps:  bad.  Baseball history as chosen by Topps on cards with butt-ugly design:  1990s Detroit Tigers bad.

ToppsTown:  36 (1:pack, 36 expected):  Z--  Quite possibly one of the worst things Topps has ever done, and that's saying something.  If not for these wastes of cards plus the doubles, I'd need just 35 cards to complete the set I wanted.  Not pictured for obvious reasons--KNOCK THIS SHIT OFF, TOPPS.

Rookie Refractor Box-Topper Jon Link (1:box, 1 expected):  B-  Not a terrible idea, but disappointing when you consider many box-toppers are at least hits.  Also, mine was creased pretty well (more noticeable on the back) despite the fact that the pact itself looked fine.  In its favor:  it's a Refractor, and everybody loves those.

Overall insert grade:  C-  This is simply waaaaaaaaay too many inserts.  One per pack would have been reasonable maybe, but I always buy Topps flagship for the base set.  ToppsTown is an abomination and there's no way I needed many of these at the expense of base cards.  

Hits:

MLB All-Star Game Workout Jersey Brian Wilson (1 auto/relic:box, 1 expected):  D  Here's the other reason I was strongly considering getting a jumbo box when (or IF) the price was right--I definitely prefer autos and was hoping at least for a bat barrel card since I liked the look of those.  Instead, I get the traditional boring jersey card, albeit of a currently popular player.

Overall hits grade:  C  I cut Topps a little slack here because the box is clear that you get one auto OR relic per hobby box, plus it's not like this is exactly a premium product.  Still, would it kill Topps to take the lead in killing off boring one-color jerseys, or at least relegate them to truly low-end sets such as Opening Day, if we must put up with that yearly crapfest?

Value grade:  B+  Despite my complaints, I got all this for $25, which seems about right.  Much more than that (such as the original price) and I'd be complaining a lot more.  I think the inserts and lack of a chance to pull a complete set pull this down quite a bit, but a lot of what you get is worthwhile, and 36 packs needs to continue to be the Topps hobby box standard.

Recommendation:  Buy this set, but get a jumbo box.

As stated in the insert list, everything except what's noted is available for trade.  As of the time of this posting, here's my wantlist for this set:
1 3 9 13 14 17 20 22 28 42 48 49 54 55 59 66 71 72 78 83 84 87 88 89 105 109 111 113 116 120 121 122 126 131 134 135 137 143 144 145 159 163 164 169 177 181 182 183 200 201 202 205 206 208 209 212 213 214 217 218 223 224 227 234 242 248 251 252 255 259 261 263 264 266 268 269 270 273 276 283 289 294 298 301 307 309 311 321 322 324 327 Strasburg661