On my way to some batting cages this afternoon (gotta enjoy the nice weather somehow!) I decided to stop at a nearby Meijer and give Bowman racks another shot. I quickly scanned the card section and came up empty, or so I thought. A guy, clearly older than me--so at least 30s--jumped in front of me out of nowhere and grabbed a huge handful of red rack packs that I eventually determined were Bowmans I had managed to overlook. No big deal, I'm not that desperate, but this pathetic idiot then proceeded to feel up every single one of those packs. I decided to look for some other stuff I needed then come back when he was done so I could grab whatever he left.
That's exactly what I did roughly 15 minutes later, only to find that captain jackass was STILL there, feeling up the SAME packs. What was this guy even looking for? I thought memorabilia cards were worth a pittance nowadays, and I don't know that it's all that easy to pack search autographs. So it's bad enough that I or anyone else that wanted to buy some of those didn't get the chance because he was too busy getting fresh with them, but now even if he does leave the ones he doesn't think have anything in them, they'll have been molested by this guy and possibly bent to hell.
My solution: a card molester registry. Why not snap pics of all these losers in all their glory and slap them up on a Google map or something so they can be celebrated for their stupidity? Anyway, that's my Cool Story, Bro...
On to happier news: undeterred by El Molesto above, I hit a different Meijer on the way home (I left the other one without buying anything) and got the stuff I needed--along with seven Bowman racks. I won't do a full review since that was yesterday's news, literally, but I wanted to show off what I got:
Pretty nice start, right? Guess what? These all came in the same pack! As a reminder, the Greens are #d to 450 and the Blues to 500 (was that really necessary, Topps? Can we have one numbered to 475 and split the difference?)
A couple more Greens and a few more of the inserts I already pulled. AJax is a keeper, natch, but everything else is up for grabs.
Four Purple Refractors (1:4, so I beat the odds there)
As for the updated standings for my pursuit of the base sets:
Base set: 103/220 (47%)
Prospects: 58/110 (53%)
Chrome Prospects: 33/110 (30%)
Extras:
Base: 24
Prospects: 2 (!)
Chrome: 20 (including 5 triples)
Since I'm so (justly) hard on Topps when it comes to collation, I give them this much credit after buying two blasters and seven racks (a total of 300 cards):
I ended up with zero extras in terms of Base and Prospects when I opened the 16 blaster packs
I had zero duplicates amongst the seven rack packs (obviously when combined with the blasters I had some)
Overall, my collation has been above-average for Topps
I now feel justified in my guess that rack packs were the better value (20 cards for $5), and I'm going to keep on keepin' on with those until it's no longer worth it. I'm gonna have to pull my base and Chrome Harpers first, though!
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.
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
