Saturday at the LCS

This Saturday provided me with one of the rare opportunities to devote a substantial amount of time to soring out my collection and cataloguing a few more things that have come out of storage. Of course, it also afforded me an opportunity to visit my local card store as well. Usually I limit visits to during the week and they only last long enough to grab a few random packs and place orders for future product. Today I actually had a chance to thumb through several shoeboxes of singles and the ever-present $1 box, chat with the owner and customers about collecting and basically just hang out.

Armed with a couple wantlists for some of the sets I am working on I wound up with a large number of singles to sort out later. Some of the other, more interesting bounty worth sharing that I came home with helped get me closer to completing some insert sets and started me working on a few more collections.

Having decided not to bother with 2010 Topps Heritage this year has made building the insert sets a bit more difficult to say the least, but I still managed to pick up a few. Three 'Baseball Flashback' inserts featuring Luis Aparicio, Warren Spahn and Roger Maris. Two 'Then & Now' inserts featuring Roger Maris/Albert Pujols and Luis Aparicio/Jacoby Ellsbury and 1 'News Flashback' insert featuring Mohammed Hassan II.


I also picked up 4 of 10 base set cards that will make a nice stand alone sub-set. Cards #'d 401-410 parallel the 'Baseball Thrills' cards from the original '61 set. However, three of the cards' subjects differ from the original set, the others are the same except the Mantle (card #406) is featured with a different photo. Here are the four I picked up today paired with their 1961 counterparts.

2010 Topps Heritage #403 (left)
1961 Topps #403 (right)

2010 Topps Heritage #406 (left)
1961 Topps #406 (right)

2010 Topps Heritage #408 (left)
1961 Topps #408 (right)

2010 Topps Heritage #410 (left)
1961 Topps #410 (right)

Either way it matters to me very little, the only card that might have been better to have in the set was Larsen's Perfect Game but in the end it is still a cool looking page of cards when finished. Hopefully someday I will put together the 1961 set of these 10 cards as well. The last Heritage purchase was a chrome Adam Lind card to go towards this years crop of Blue Jays I will be collecting.


Amongst a handful of base cards for Topps Series 1 I snagged a few inserts too, including a gracious and welcoming Derrek Lee, a card I was never lucky enough to own in the first place let alone risk my mother throwing it out, and a card commemorating THE event in Baseball Card History.


While searching through several unmarked shoeboxes of cards I came across some 2009-10 Upper Deck Champs Hockey minis. When this set first came out it was still fairly early on in my return to collecting and so my sights were set more on reacquainting myself with the hobby and trying not to get overwhelmed by too much product. I ignored this release at the time but some of the sub-set cards were interesting. I found these five cards and decided to try and eventually find the rest.


I wanted to make sure that before I left I would take a trip through the dollar box. Seeing the success that some of the other bloggers have had with "bargain bin" cards I had the itch now. Nothing really amazing to find but a few cards that peaked my interest came home with me. I have gathered a few of the 'Topps 50th Anniversary' Reprints from several sources and added a couple more here.


The Ryne Sandberg 'Spirit of the Game' was just to fill a hole in that player collection. The Heritage mini red-back and the T-205 mini were the first pick-up in what will, more than likely, become a bigger collection someday.


All things considered it felt really good to be able to hang out in the card store and get back to one of the aspects of collecting that makes it fun for me. When you get to gather with other collectors, talk about your collection and listen to others talk about theirs, it reinforces why you do this in the first place. Hopefully I can start to make these Saturday visits a regular occurrence, it sure does the soul some good.

Cheers,

Ebay Finds/Mail Day (aka Topps Delivers)

When I first started seeing scans of 2010 Series 1 Topps I became a bit concerned. Then as time went on and I saw more and more scans I became more and more concerned. Finally, when I got around to busting a jumbo box and put together the set I became really concerned.

I could not remember back to a flagship release from Topps where my personal sub-set collection of cards was not admitting a handful of new members. Players depicted playing "small ball" have always been a part of the hobby. I have enjoyed spending countless hours sorting through boxes and boxes of singles looking for that piece of photographic beauty. I was disheartened to think that Topps had let me down this time.

That all changed when I was trolling eBay looking for some cheaply priced relic cards and happened upon this.....


I just KNEW Topps would be there for me, I just KNEW it could not possibly happen that somehow, somewhere a photog had not snapped a shot of a frackin' bunt!!

Now I can rest until Series 2. Now, I can be happy for a while.

I am a sad, pathetic human being.

I know that.

And, I am okay with that.

Thanks Topps, thanks eBay and thanks, most of all, to Mr. Mailman.


Cheers,

Jumbo Box Redemptions

At the end of the 2010 Topps Box Break post I mentioned that, thanks to some diligent work by Play at the Plate, I decided to redeem all ten of the cards I received in the break at once. Hoping to cash in on the run of 60's and 70's cards that were, and still are, being rewarded at the 'Million Card Giveaway'.

With dreams and hopes in hand I logged in and began entering. The first two cards brought with it some Cubbie goodness and an interesting choice of photo. Both cards are from the 1973 set.

1973 Topps
Card #180
Fergie Jenkins


1973 Topps
Card #32
Fred Norman

Any time I can get a Cub, as well as a Hall of Famer AND a Canadian then things are good. The Norman card is great because he is a southpaw, plus it looks like a practice because the stands are empty.

The next card I hit was probably the best one I have won so far. It features two of my favorite players when I was younger and what is best it feature the one player in the uniform of the team I will always think of him with.

1974 Topps
Card #203
RBI Leaders Reggie Jackson/Willie Stargell

The next four cards feature two from sets I will someday complete, they are the birth year sets of my wife and I. A card that is my first from one of the best designs I think Topps has ever come up with and one featuring the coolest pair of glasses on a card that I now own.

1971 Topps Card #181 Hal Lanier
1965 Topps Card #69 Bill Virdon

1974 Topps Card #70 Dick Allen
1970 Topps Card #41 George Lauzerique

The next card I won got me searching guides and lists looking for error cards. When the redemption came through and when the card was first added to my collection this is what it showed.


Now, obviously that is not Bob Buhl. It IS a 1966 Topps card but that is about it. I searched high and low for info about possible error cards in the '66 set. There are some but this particular one was not listed. I searched out the proper Bob Buhl card and there was no mention of an error. So, I decided to leave it and check again today. When I logged in tonight I checked my collection and saw this.


So, suffice it to say a simple glitch in the workings of the program raised the excitement level of this collector a bit. In the end, however, I am truly happy that if it had to be a mistake it at least went in my favor and I got another vintage Cub.

At this point I was telling myself to hold on to the last two redemption cards for a rainy day. I tell ya though, the pull of this redemption is amazing. I could not help myself and as quick as my resolve disappeared I had two more codes redeemed. One card is a very brightly coloured team card and the other is a depressing reminder of just how fleeting a major league career can be.

1972 Topps
Card #262
San Diego Padres Team Card

1969 Topps
Card #156
1969 Rookie Stars Hal Gilson/Leon McFadden

I had to Google both of these guys to find out who they were. Both Hal Gilson and Leon McFadden had what amounted to a cup of coffee in the majors. Leon's just took longer to drink.

As it stand I am still in love with this promotion and will try to hold out for Series 2 before buying any more packs of Topps. However, I do have a second set that needs completion so another 10-pack might be in store before I call it done for Series 1. Of course, I could just try and build a third set......SEE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME TOPPS??!!!?!?!


Cheers,

Box Break - 2010 Topps Series 1 Jumbo

Soundtrack - Fembots - The City

Having seen enough of the base cards everywhere I will fore go that aspect of this break. Suffice it to say I like this year's offering from Topps but there are a couple things that I am not such a fan of. First and foremost, I am absolutely disappointed that there is not one single base card featuring a player playing "small ball". As a fan of the bunt and a collector of such images on cardboard it disappoints. Secondly, I still feel that the team logos would have worked better on front of the cards. In the end however, these are minor issues with an otherwise excellent product. The 'Franchise History' cards are an excellent idea and any time you can add cards to a set that don't distract from its purpose is a win.

Okay, lets get to the break. What I like most about the boxes of Jumbo packs is the ease of building a complete base set. Barring packaging and production defects you can put together the entire base from a box, as I did with this one, with enough singles left over to help out other set builders.

Base Set 330/330 (100%)

The other welcomed bonus of Jumbo packs is the guarantee of inserts per pack. When building these insert sets it makes it so much easier. The inserts pulled were as follows.

Gold Base Parallels

#34 - Michael Dunn, #66 - Kyle Phillips, #92 - David Eckstein, #131 - Dustin Pedroia, #204 - Checklist(Andrus/Kinsler), #228 - Chris Pettit, #266 - Humberto Quintero, #275 - Chris Coghlan, #292 - Tommy Manzella and #299 - Gary Sheffield


The Cards Your Mother Threw Out

CMT5 - Luis Aparichio('56), CMT11 - Mickey Mantle('62'), CMT12 - Stan Musial('63), CMT13 - Brooks Robinson('64), CMT15 - Jim Palmer('66), CMT28 - Ozzie Smith('79), CMT36 - Bo Jackson('87), CMT-48 Ivan Rodriguez('99), CMT-50 Ichiro('01) and CMT-54 Howard/Hamels('05)

I also pulled 1 SP original back of a 1982 Paul Molitor.


When They Were Young

WTWY-AR Alex Rodriguez, WTWY-BR Brian Roberts, WTWY-CM Charlie Morton, WTWY-CR Cody Ross and WTWY-CS Clint Simmons


This, to me, is an insert set that should have remained an idea. Even as a player collector I am not sure my collection needs these cards.

Turkey Red

TR3 - Nolan Ryan, TR13 - Yovani Gallardo, TR15 - Hank Greenberg, TR20 - CC Sabathia, TR34 - David Wright, TR35 - Stephen Drew, TR38 - Rick Porcello, TR43 - Adrian Gonzalez, TR46 - Babe Ruth and TR48 - Willie McCovey


I am happy this set makes an appearance again this year. I think this set works as an insert better than it does as a stand alone release. Others who have been exposed to Turkey Red for awhile now seem to be a bit jaded but I like these and will continue to chase them this year. These next two inserts as well will have me busy for the next while. As always, any time you can combine baseball cards and learning a bit of history you can never fail.

History of the Game

HOTG8 - Radio, HOTG10 - Ruth HRs, HOTG11 - '33 AS Game, HOTG12 - First Night Game, HOTG13 - Ruth Retires, HOTG14 - HOF First Class, HOTG15 - Jackie, HOTG16 - T.V., HOTG20 - Frank Robinson MVP AL/NL and HOTG24 - Interleague play


Tales of the Game

TOG1 - Ty Cobb, TOG8 - Roger Maris, TOG10 - Jimmy Piersall, TOG11 - '69 Mets, TOG12 - Reggie Jackson, TOG15 - Ozzie Smith, TOG16 - Bo Jackson, TOG18 - Prince Fielder, TOG21 - Curt Schilling and TOG23 - ManRam


Peak Performances

PP4 - Walter Johnson, PP7 - Grady Sizemore, PP10 - Christy Mathewson, PP13 - Mariano Rivera, PP20 - Mark Teixeira, PP25 - Chase Utley, PP28 - Johnny Mize, PP29 - Roy Campanella, PP36 - Dizzy Dean and PP45 - Jackie Robinson


The design of this set feels like more of an afterthought. It works with the current players but the pictures of the Legends seem out of place. It is basically a rehash of the LOTG set from last year as far as I am concerned.

Legendary Lineage

LL3 - Ruth/ARod, LL4 - Gehrig/Teixeira, LL7 - Sisler/Ichiro, LL9 - Wagner/HanRam, LL11 - Schmidt/Longoria, LL14 - Spahn/Hanson, LL!5 - Snider/Ethier, LL18 - Carter/Wright, LL24 - Gibson/Lincecum and LL29 - Yaz/Youk


Regardless of player selection or design this insert set is the one I am most disappointed with. Topps REALLY dialed it in on this one. 'Then and Now' needs to stay in Heritage where it belongs. It does not need to be redesigned and renamed and put into a release that is already too insert heavy to begin with. This was a bad decision on Topps' part and I hope it disappears for Series 2.

Last but not least we get to the "hits" of the box. As you all know for Jumbos it is 2 relics and 1 auto per box, guaranteed, with the added shot at other inserts. I landed 1 extra of those and it is the one I had mentioned in an earlier post that would be of interest to Braves fans.

First the sure hits.

Autograph - Group B (1:37)
#PPA-TT Troy Tulowitzki
Colorado Rockies

Relic - Group B (1:16)
#PPR-TG Tony Gwynn
San Diego Padres

Relic - Manufactured Hat Patch
#MHR-151 Hanley Ramirez (#14/99)
Florida Marlins

And lastly, the "bonus" hit. A 1/1 Black Printing Plate.

Black Printing Plate (1/1)
#233 Ryan Church
Atlanta Braves

This is the third printing plate I have pulled from Topps' product. I have no idea how others have done with pulling these from product but they are definitely a nice surprise to see when you open a pack. I long for the day I open and find one of a player or team I collect.

All things considered I am once again happy with the flagship release from Topps and look forward to Series 2 and the U&H. Topps has struck gold with the 'Million Card Giveaway' and all that remains to be seen is if Topps can sustain this early excitement for the next 8 months. This may just be the shot-in-the-arm the hobby needs to start building a bit of a resurgence among the general public and to generate a whole wave of new collectors. It will definitely be fun to watch what happens.

Okay, most of you right now are probably wondering, "Wait a second, where are the redemption cards and what happened?". Well, I will tell you that they have been redeemed. Thanks to some astute observance from Play At The Plate I decided to mass redeem the cards and in the end I think I did pretty well. After a late lunch I will start working on the post of my redemption success, until then stay tuned.......


As has become customary here at LFB2B, playing us out are the musical guests of this break, Fembots.



Cheers,

Topps Redemption #1

As the mad dash starts here is my first redemption. No complaints.


List of the others to follow......

Cheers,

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!

As I am sure every other person has this post in their hip pocket waiting.

Here it goes...........





Cheers,

2010 Topps - Rip Card 1/1

Having yet to purchase a full box of this years flagship release from Topps I have been relying on loose packs here and there when I get a chance to stop in at the card stores I frequent. Little did I expect to pull one of the rarest cards available in this years release.

For those of you collecting the parallel card of this parallel card you will be pleased to know your cards went up in value along with this pull.

Out of circulation is card #1533 featuring Brandon Phillips of the Cincinnati Reds.


Also, for anyone who collects 1/1's featuring Detroit Tigers I have another from the same pack I pulled this from featuring Jarrod Washburn from the unannounced "crimper press" parallel set.

WTG Topps......nice FAIL!!


Cheers,

The Flagship Flies North of the Border

Seeing as everyone else has been enjoying the budding emergence of 2010 Topps Series 1 Baseball and the mercury here has been sitting below 0 for the last couple days I decided to venture out and see if I could do something to warm the cockles. If there is one thing I succumb to easily it is envy.

I am not proud but I am accepting of my foibles.

Alas, as I walked into the card shop there it was in all its smurfy-blue/Wally-gator-green glory!!!!


Once again a tip of the hat to Topps for taking care of the pack collector. Four variants with four big names. (on a personal note to Topps, Jackie better be in Series 2, okay?) Lets rip the pack with The Mick on the front and see who is first out of the blocks this year in my collection......................

What th............HEY!!......Stop that guy!!!!! He's got my lunch!!!!

Right out of the blocks I am pumped about this product. Chris Snyder launching out of the pack and charging into spring!!

The Detroit Tigers are represented next by Aubrey Huff.

Third card in is elicits another "Yay" from me. My namesake, stretching for a line-drive and adding some nice symmetry to this card........


First Checklist - Texas Rangers Andrus and Kinsler.

Insert Time - Gold Parallel Ichiro #31/2010, Turkey Red Andre Ethier (this set is going to be another hit this year for Topps) and Topps Town Josh Hamilton. Last year I managed to build two full sets of the Topps Town baseball cards. Not sure if I will try for it this year.


Atlanta Brave Yunel Escobar was next followed by Milwaukee Brewer Mat Gamel. The last card in pack number one of the 2010 collecting season sums it up nicely and sends us off the field into the dugout for pack number 2. Magglio Ordonez giving us the "We're outta here!!!" pose......


Pack #2 (Ryan Howard on the front)

Chicago White Sock - Alex Rios (what else do you grammatically call a single player from Chicago's south side? Also, still has one of the coolest birthplaces I have ever seen. Who would not want to be from a place called Coffee??!!??)

Franchise History - Washington Nationals (no matter how hard I try when I see their logo I cannot help but think there is a missed opportunity to brand merge the franchise with Walgreens)


Baltimore Oriole - Luke Scott
Baltimore Oriole Team Leaders card
San Francisco Giant - Randy Johnson (going airborne)
Batting Average Leaders card

Insert Card time - Tales of the Game - 1969 Amazin' Mets, Peak Performance Vladimir Guerrero (a player who's appearance is forever insanely announced in my brain thanks to Stale Gum) and Topps Town Kevin Youkilis.

Closing out this yawner of a pack is San Francisco Giant Barry Zito.

Pack #3 (Albert Pujols front)

Colorado Rockie - Jason Marquis (this card confirms what I have been thinking so far about this design. Clearly the better move is to have the team logo from the back moved to the front of the card. This card is plain "fugly")


Kansas City Royal - Jose Guillen
Cleveland Indian - Michael Brantley (the new RC logo?? - Not a fan, sorry Topps. Switch it back!!)
Cy Young Award Winner card - Tim Lincecum (this pose is TERRIBLY overused)


Cleveland Indian - Asdrubal Cabrera

Insert Card goodness - Gold Parallel Atlanta Brave Reid Gorecki #515/2010, WTWY - Ryan Doumit (ugh, aluminum in the hands of a child....sacrilege), Topps Town Ryan Howard.


Tampa Bay Devil Ray - Ben Zobrist
Houston Astro - Mike Hampton

Finally, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh there we go....thank you Topps. I was starting to feel neglected, starting to think you no longer cared about me. I thought I had done something to upset you. Whew!! Now I can go about my business. I have been ADVERTISED to!!!!! (if anyone actually plays this online email me for the code, it is yours.)


Pack #4 (Going out with a BANG or a BUST rides on the shoulders of Babe Ruth)

San Francisco Giant - Freddy Sanchez
Walgreen National - Shairon Martis (until I become bored of it, that is how I will refer to this team from this point forward. So shall it be......)
Los Angeles Dodger - Jim Thome (sweet looking card or is it just that anyone looks like a classic baseball superstar in Dodger blue?!?)


New York Yankee - Michael Dunn
Arizona Diamondback - Justin Upton

Inserts - Tales of the Game - Ozzie Guillen "flips", Legendary Lineage - Reggie Jackson/Adam Dunn (*note to Topps - leave the 'Then and Now' subset in Heritage and think up something original) and Topps Town Ryan Braun.


Lastly, giving their grittiest effort to bring this pack home as a winner, just look at the strain on their faces. Kansas City Royal, Zack Greinke and Cincinnati Red, Willy Taveras.


As always with any product you care about as a collector there are minor changes you would personally make. However, on the whole I like what Topps is putting out for 2010. The photos, as usual, are well chosen and the design, for the most part, works. I am not sure I will be chasing as many of the subsets this year, like I did last. Turkey Reds will be another big hit for Topps this year and I can see The Cards Your Mom Threw Out set being popular as well.

I will be building this set this year and have already placed the order for my box of jumbos at the local hobby shop.

Before I shut this down I also picked up a single pack of 2009 Topps T-206. I am addicted to this stuff. I placed an order for my fourth box while at the same store. As a bonus pack rip, here is what I got from this.......

Base Cards - Jacoby Ellsbury, Rickie Weeks, Brad Lidge, Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto, Alex Rodriguez, Andrew Bailey and a Mantle Checklist.


Inserts - Bronze Parallel Fernando Perez and Polar Bear back mini Robinson Cano.



Cheers,