Baseball Cards 101

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…)

Take your pick or do both, watch the video:

Or read the results:

Very close to the odds again,
19 Gold Foil - Best of the bunch, Matt Garza or Scott Rolen
8 Golds - 9:Riggans, 77:E.Santana, 87:Langerhans, 91:Buckner, 120:Berroa, 182:Ponson, 263:Patterson, 287:Headley
6 Year in Review - 132, 148, 150, 162, 166, 174
6 First Couples - Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon
4 World Baseball Classic - Zambrano, Beltran, Bell, Lee
2 Ring of Honor - Luis Aparicio, Whitey Ford
2 1986 Mets Ring of Honor - Darryl Strawberry, Ron Darling
2 Mantle Story - 67 & 71
1 - Take Me Out To The Ballgame, 1:72 packs!
The box topper - Chrome Rookie #6 Nick Adenhart

The box hit?

Corey Hart - All-Star Stitches

Decided I needed a change of pace with this product.  I’ve been doing Jumbo boxes on the base Topps issue since 2007 series 1.  This time I went Hobby and only bought 2 boxes.

Not too much new stuff with U&H.  They continued a couple of the inserts for the year with Mickey Mantle Story, and Year in Review.  Additional they added in some World Baseball Classic preview cards, Ring of Honor and First Couples.  Ring of Honor highlights World series MVPs.  Ring of Honor also comes in a 1986 Mets World Series Champs flavor.  Why 1986?  No clue!  First couple is all about past US Presidents and their wives.  Yes, I can’t wait for election year to be over too.

So with those in mind here are the stated pack odds with the hobby packs:
Gold Foil Parallel 1:2; Gold Parallel 1:5; Black Parallel 1:59; Platinum Parallel 1:9,434; Printing Plates 1:457; Year in Review 1:6; First Couples 1:6; WBC Preview 1:9; Ring of Honor 1:18; 1986 Mets Ring of Honor 1:18; Mantle Story 1:18; Ring of Honor Gold 1:11,743; 1986 Mets Ring of Honor Gold 1:12,787; Ring of Honor Auto 1:2,569; 1986 Mets Ring of Honor Auto 1:2,849; Sketch Cards 1:214; All-Star Stitches 1:44; All-Star Stitches Gold 1:373; All-Star Stitches Platinum 1:23,017; All-Star Stitches Auto 1:6,394; All-Star Stitches Dual 1:5,994; All-Star Stitches Triple 1:5,994; All-Star Jumbo Patches 1:4,496; All-Star Jumbo Patch Auto 1:23,017; Baseball Card History Buybacks 1:1,384; Silk Collection 1:246; Presidential Stamp Collection 1:867; Take Me Out To The Ballgame 1:72; 2008 Highlights Auto Group A 1:38,362; B 1:11,066; C 1:4,082; D 1:5,587; E 1:6,851; F 1:1,116; G 1:1,109; H 1:1,985; Topps 2008 Presedential Pick 1:15,984

Watch the video to see what I pulled in box 1 -

Or read the full post to get a listing with scans (more…)

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?)