Baseball Cards 101

UPS delivered this baby to me today.  Last year was my first 2 boxes of anything high end and I must have been bitten by the bug.  This year I ordered early a full 9 box case.  Big cash layout, but I think I got good value out of it.

With this many base in a 9 box case I might try for the base set.  Standard configuration goes like this: 9 boxes to a case; 2 packs to a box; 3 base, 2 parallel and 1 triple relic or triple relic auto per pack.

I pulled all of the following:
Base #/1350 - 1, 5, 7, 8 (x2), 13 (x2), 15, 18, 20, 22, 23, 28, 31, 36, 40, 42, 46, 50, 56, 60, 62, 64 (x2), 65, 67, 69, 71, 74, 75, 76, 78, 91, 101, 103, 107, 116, 225, 227, 230, 231, 233, 238, 239, 240, 243, 245, 250
Sepia #/525 - 9, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28, 35, 38, 40, 49, 51, 56, 64, 79, 82, 83, 86, 88, 225, 246
Emerald /#240 - David Wright, Bob Gibson, Francisco Cordero, Eric Chavez, Travis Hafner, Wade Boggs, Red Schoendienst, John Bowker
Gold #/99 - Roger Maris, Billy Martin, Tony Gwynn, Tom Gordon
Black #/30 - Hanley Ramirez
Sapphire #/25 - David Ortiz

Here’s some video if you’d like to watch the break unfold.  Couldn’t wait to get home so I busted the first box at work.  The rest is broken into two videos: boxes 1-4 and boxes 5-8.

The common complaint I’ve seen about Triple Threads is about the plentifulness of rookie autos.  I don’t think I did too bad at 6 total.  Only 2 were the base version.

Sam Fuld - Base version, team initial variation

Elijah Dukes - Base version, team initial variation

Hunter Pence - Sepia version #/75

Seth Smith - Emerald version #/50, team initial variation

Chris Young - Emerald version #/50

Justin Ruggiano - Gold version #/25, team initial variation

but to go with those rookie autos I did get a Rookie Triple Relic Triple Auto :

Armando Galarraga, Fausto Carmona, Troy Patton - Emerald #/18

Beyond rookies I pulled some nice Relic only pieces of current and retired players:

Grady Sizemore #/36

Tom Seaver #/36

Whitey Ford - Emerald #/18

Justin Verlander - Emerald #/18

Robinson/Palmer/Robinson #/36

V.Mart/Sizemore/Hafner #/36

Mathews/Chipper/Murphy - Sepia #/27

No complaints with those.  Now how about a couple star/retired auto relics?

Big Papi - Base? yet #/18 - there’s some pack damage to this one, hopefully Topps can take care of this.

and it gets better:

Paul Molitor - Sapphire #1/3

and better still:

Chien-Ming Wang - Sepia #/27

Best for last, how can I do better than the last one???

BIG PAPI!!! - Letter Plus Relic #3/3

That just became one of the top items in my collection.  With that said if anyone approached me about trading it for a Letter Plus Relic or a Jumbo Plus Relic of a Twins player I would trade straight up.  (I can hope right?)