Baseball Cards 101

It’s been so long since I used Ustream I had some difficulty getting it going.  No audio for the first couple of packs.

While I thought the first box was great, the last two did even better!
Final 2 boxes gave me:
16 short prints, 5 were doubles
8 chrome, C30 - Nate McLouth, C33 - Ervin Santana, C43 - Carlos Delgado, C54 - Matt Kemp, C83 - Adam Dunn, C96 - Xavier Nady, C97 - Max Scherzer, C98 - Hiroki Kuroda
2 chrome refractor, C41 - Chien-Ming Wang, C87 Tim Linecum
4 baseball flashbacks
4 news flashbacks
4 then & now
4 new age performer

Clubhouse Collection

Dan Uggla

Real One auto

Jim Proctor

I think I came out ahead against the cost of the boxes.

This years Heritage is based on the 1960 Topps card design.  I think they look better then the last two years.    Topps has simplified the product a little by reducing the number of short prints to 75.  Even better all short prints are easily identified by the darker brown back.  Only 2 variation cards exist and are a very tough pull.  One card features Tom Glavine with his name misspelled “Thom”.  The other variation is of Hanley Ramirez in a Red Sox uniform.

Ad panel box loaders are back again from last year as well as the foil stamped 1960 Topps buybacks.  This is one product that never changes it’s configuration.  24 packs of 8 cards to a hobby box.  Here’s the hobby pack insert odds:
Short print 1:3, Chrome parallel 1:6, Chrome Refractor parallel 1:23, Chrome Black Refractor 1:255, New Age Performers 1:15, Then & Now 1:15,  Baseball Flashbacks1:12, News Flashbacks 1:12, Real One Autographs 1:308, Real One Dual 1:2005, Real One Special 1:514, Flashback Autographs 1:12400, Clubhouse Collection Auto Relics 1:6150, Flashback Auto Relics 1:12300, Clubhouse Collection Dual Auto Relics 1:10200, 1960 Cut Sig 1:250000, Clubhouse Collection Relics A 1:219, B 1:52, C 1:97, Clubhouse Collection Dual Relics 1:4800, Flashback Relics 1:383, Flashback Dual Relics 1:34000

My box gave me;
171 base, 40% of the base set
8 short prints, 11% of the short prints
5 chrome, C14 - Derek Jeter, C16 - Aramis Ramirez, C49 - James Looney, C65 - Ken Griffey Jr., C72 - Adrian Gonzalez
1 chrome refractor, C3 - Miguel Tejada
2 baseball flashbacks, bf4 & bf9
2 news flashbacks, nf6 & nf8
1 then & now, tn10 - Sabathia & Ford
1 new age performer, nap15 - Evan Longoria

My box hit was one of the Flashback Relics

Bobby Richardson

I’ve got 2 more hobby boxes to bust, but I’m waiting to bust them with a collecting friend.  I’ll be doing it live on Ustream.tv March 14th @ 1pm CST.
Baseball Cards 101 Box Breaks

Ustream.tv recently added support for the Adobe Flash Media Encoder application.  This application does the video encoding on your machine before sending it to Ustream for streaming.  One of the benefits is being able to send 640×480 video.  A step better in quality versus Ustream flash encoding plugin.

I also switched up the viewpoint of my break space.  I’d sure like to hear any thoughts on which way you, the reader, prefer.

This box also only had the advertising panel as a box loader.  Hit one with a Minnesota Twins player, Denard Span.

A little off from the stated odds,
8 Short Prints
10 Black Back Variation, unknown how many are in the set yet
7 Heritage Chrome - Best of the bunch, Ben Zobrist?
1 Heritage Chrome Refractors - 245: Maicer Izturis, 296: Brian Moehler
2 Rookie Performers - Fukudome, John Bowker
2 Then & Now - Banks/Rollins, Crandall/Martin
2 ‘08 Flashbacks - Fukudome, Delgado

Just a normal box with 1 hit.

Clubhouse Collection - Carlos Beltran

Next item I plan to break is the 2009 Topps Series 1.

Topps has already released the list of Short Printed cards.  Has to be one of the fastest release times ever.  Usually they wait about a week before publicly posting a list.

Short Prints:
648, 677, 686, 687, 688, 689, 690, 691, 692, 693, 694, 695, 696, 697, 698, 699, 700, 701, 702, 703, 704, 705, 706, 707, 708, 709, 710, 711, 712, 713, 714, 715, 717, 718, 719

I intended to record the live break, but forgot to hit start!  Hopefully tomorrow night with box 3 I’ll get it right, lol.The box only had the advertising panel as a box loader.  I’d be looking to trade mine for any panels that contain Minnesota Twins players.

Almost perfectly in line with the stated odds,
8 Short Prints
9 Black Back Variation, unknown how many are in the set yet
8 Heritage Chrome - Best of the bunch, Fukudome
1 Heritage Chrome Refractors - 265: Carlos Gonzalez
2 Rookie Performers - Joey Votto, Hiroki Kuroda
2 Then & Now - Sherry/Lowell, Aparicio/Cabrera
2 ‘08 Flashbacks - Teixeira, Pujols

2nd box, 2 Real One Autos!

Real One Auto - Jack Fisher

Real One Auto - Jim Kaat

One last box of Heritage High Numbers 11/22.

The first major change in the format of Heritage since Topps started the Heritage series.  High Numbers focuses on the rookies of this past year and younger stand out players.

Still 24 packs, but they made an odd choice.  Every pack contains 2 base cards from 2008 Topps Updates & Highlights and 6 cards from Heritage High Numbers.  The average response to this has been poor.  Might have been a better move if both products had been released at the same time.

High numbers contains 1 new insert set called Rookie Performers, replacing New Age Performers from the normal issue.  Everything else is identical to the regular Heritage.

Here are the stated pack odds with the hobby packs:
Short Print 1:3; Chrome Parallel 1:3; Chrome Refractor Parallel 1:11; Black Chrome Refractor Parallel 1:99; Rookie Performers 1:12; Then and Now 1:12; 2008 Flashbacks 1:12; Clubhouse Collection Group A 1:3,600; B 1:74; C 1:55; Clubhouse Collection Dual 1:1,900; Clubhouse Collection Auto Relic 1:1,815; Flashback Stadium Relics 1:3,175; Real One Autos 1:110; Real One Dual Autos 1:1,850; Real One Special 1:439; 1959 Cut Sig Relic 1:100,000; 1959 Cut Sig 1:65,000

Ustream was having issues.  Took me almost 30 mins just to get sound working.  After that it killed my video connection 7 mins into the break.  It even failed to record the rest of the break.  So if you want, here’s what I do have recorded -

Read the full post to get a break listing with scans (more…)