2012 Topps Tier 1 Box Break

Last Friday I went to the local shop and picked up the newest release from Topps for a cash total of $90.  As you know with this product this year it only comes with 3 total cards with 2 autographs and 1 relic card.  The card to get is a 1/1 Bat knob of any player it seems... they're going nuts on ebay.  Needless to say I didn't get a bat knob, but I did get some sweet mojo!  Check it out...

I busted the box open and picked up my one silver pack of cards.  It didn't feel overly thick and dashed my own hopes of a batknob card before I ever opened the pack.  When I did crack it open I went from the top and peered down and what I saw were 4 cards as opposed to 3 cards.  At first I though maybe I got a booklet, but no dice.  I later found out through other blogs that random packs had four hits, but at the time of opening I was unaware and naturally felt like I had gotten some type of error pack.

The first card I pulled was

79/235  Chris Heisey Auto

At first I thought this was a dud, and while he still might not be a stud, he did hit 3 homeruns in a game against the Yankees... and that makes him a fan favorite in the catalog.

Next I pulled

369/399 Adam Lind

Oh Adam, what the hell happened to you buddy? In 2009 you hit .305, hit 35 jacks, and had 114 RBIs.  Now you're playing for the AAA Las Vegas 51s.  No offense man... you're up for TRADE!

Next...

Jason Motte Jersey Card 14/199 (I think, pics a lil blurry and I don't feel like running to the basement to double check) Fun Fact about Jason Motte... He was pitching when the Cardinals recorded their last out to win the 2011 NLCS and 18th Pennant.

That should've been it.  Had this been my actual box I'd have been really miffed.  However I was lucky and got a bonus hit and being from Baltimore I got to say it saved the box for me!

Eddie Murray Game Used Jersey 99/150

Now I know this is just a jersey card, but its an Oriole HOF jersey card and by all accounts shouldn't have been in the pack.

I doubt I'll buy another box so that's it for me this year.  Hope you guys have some good luck if you bust it this year as well.  Let me know what you got if you got a killer hit, please!

Till next time...

2012 Topps Series 2 Case Break

***Please Note... The original title was "My first time..." and was obviously my lame ass way of being clever and funny about partaking in my first team case break.  For some reason when I put the products and whats happening in the title I feel like I get more traffic so I changed it to try and bring in more readers or atleast entertain the 26 ones that I have now... with that in mind... READ ON!!!***


I'm sure many of you have already taken part in one of these, but this was my first time.  I was a little nervous at first to be sharing it with so many people but was more excited about the prospect of what could happen... would I be extremely satisfied? Blown away?? or just mildly pleased???

I am of course referring to Team Box/Case Breaks.

The concept is simple enough.  Someone buys a box or case of cards and then sells each team individually out of the box/case and the buyer of said team receives all cards from the break for that team.  The point of doing this is to try and get a big pull from someone on the team you bought for a very modest price. 

You may recently remember a post in which I criticized my beloved Orioles for their poor play and told my fellow fans to prepare for the worst.  However it's late June and the Orioles are still 9 games over .500 and are only 2.5 games out of first place in the AL East behind those goldamn Yankees.  For that I must apologize to my team and fellow fans for not believing.  Granted, I wasn't the only one... everyone felt the same way I'm sure.  But they proved to us that they have fight and want to win.  I can now say with out a doubt that my loyalty will not falter again... but don't you dare break my heart like you did in 2005.  We were 42-30 then and spent 2 months in first place.  We finished 4th that year and you cut me deep in the process.

This time feels different... and as a sign of my renewed faith in the Orange and Black I decided to buy the Orioles in my first ever Team Case Break.  I decided to go with bigc202014 from Ebay for my first ever experience.  He was selling teams for a 2012 Topps Series 2 12 Box Case Break.  After the auctions ended you would go to his YouTube Channel at bigc2020141to watch the Case Break and see what you pulled.

I picked up the Orioles for $19.99 + $5.99 S/H. 

I'll start by saying that I did NOT pull any game used or autograph cards, but did enjoy the cards I got and am happy to share them with the community.  I'll start off with the Inserts and work my way down.

These 3 inserts are my Favorite! 1987 Topps Mini Insert Set, Brooks, Frank, and Palmer... HOF Orioles!

Next are several different Insert sets.  Top Left Corner are Adam Jones and Jim Palmer Golden Moments cards and the Cal Ripken Jr Golden Moments Card on the Right 3 down.  2 Gold Standard cards for Cal and Frank Robinson on the bottom left, as well as a Career Day Frank Robinson bottom right corner.  Lastly we have a Cal Ripken Jr. Cut Above Insert top right and below a Jim Palmer Mound Dominance.

I got 4 gold parallel cards total including Markakis, Jim Johnson, Hardy, and Hunter.  I got one Black Parallel of Robert Andino number 50/61.

Lastly here are all the Oriole Base Cards I received.

Hunter, Britton, Adams, Johnson, Roberts, Hardy, Chavez, Markakis, and Andino

Betemit base, Guerrero Check List, and Wei-Yin Chen rookie card!

Now these are all the cards I got from the break and since it was a 12 box case break I got at least 3 each of the insert cards and likely 10 or more of each base card.  It was quite a haul of new Oriole cards and naturally I have no desire to keep a large amount of duplicates.  So as a way to really show my Oriole pride I decided to set up this display at work to help spread the Oriole Magic.

This has been the greatest part of the case break!  I knew I'd get some kids that would love some free baseball cards, but its the BIG kids that really got me smiling.  Men of all ages would pick these cards up and just shuffle through them and everyone of them would pick 3 cards and keep them for themselves.  The best were the guys who had their wives with them who didn't understand why they wanted 3 baseball cards and their feeble attempts to try and explain and defend why the cards are great and should be aloud to take them.  Needless to say, my cards are already almost gone and I now think I have a new solution for all of my old duplicate base cards!

Stay tuned for my 2012 Topps Tier 1 Box Break with some interesting MOJO!

Until then...

2012 Topps Archives Box Break Review

2012 Topps Archives Baseball Hobby Box Review

So it came out a while ago and naturally I bought a box the day it came out.  Obviously there has been a lapse in time and that is because I had the terrible bad luck of getting a box with damaged cards.  This was the first time I'd gotten a box of cards that yielded so many damaged cards.  Take a look and see what I mean...

Jacked up... and another

I had a Torii Hunter base card that had a tear right in the middle of the left side of the card.  Needless to say the quality control in my box left something to be desired. 

However, I really have been looking forward to this product for a while now and while I didn't pull any monster type hits I was pleased with my product over all.  I decided I would get the cards replaced that had been damaged and post my finding after the new ones came in.  Low and behold.

Not only did they replace my cards quickly...but they replaced my cards quickly.

I once waited 11 months for a redemption card that initially said 6-8 weeks.

In the time they took to return I ended up buying a bunch of packs and have essentially over time picked up about an extra box worth of loose packs as well as the one box I bought when they first came out.  So here is how it all broke down.

As far as the actual base set goes I have a near complete set for the cards 1-200. I'm only missing 5 total cards which are

53 Adam Wainwright,

 57 Josh Beckett,

126 Rickie Weeks,

141 J. P. Arencibia,

176 Eric Hosmer.

I have a ton of duplicates so if any one has them let me know... I'm up for a trade.

I believe the short prints are numbers 201-240. Of those I have these cards

202 Mike Scott

208 Frank Howard

214 Mitch Williams

222 John Kruk

224 Terry Pendleton

226 Jay Buhner

228 Ron Gant

229 Roger McDowell

233 Oscar Gamble

235 Ed Kranepool

236 Chili Davis

237 Robin Ventura

238 Jose Oquendo

Then of course there is the Super Short Print 241 Bryce Harper which I did NOT pull, but someone in the same shop I buy from did.  I think they fall like 1 out of every 200 boxes so it was pretty cool.  Since I have so many of the short print cards.I only need 27 more to have a complete set of the SP cards or 28 if you count the Harper card which naturally I will ultimately want one day.  It goes for $200 right now, but if he ends up not panning out maybe I can pick it up for real cheap in a few years.  Will see...

They have a few insert sets in Archives and most of them are stickers.  Here are the inserts I pulled in my boxes

Gold Parallel cards 1 out of every 12 packs

Ryan Braun, Tommy Hanson, Victor Martinez, Ryan Howard, and Geo Soto

Cloth Stickers 1 out of every 6 packs. 7/25 cards

Chris Carpenter, Catfish Hunter, Willie Stargell, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bunch

Deckle Edge Set 1 out of every 12 packs. 5/15 total cards.

Bob Gibson, Harmon Killbrew, Roy Holliday, Evan Longoria, Roberto Clemente

1967 Topps Sticker Set 1 out of every 8 packs. 5/25 total cards.

Derek Jeter, Josh Hamilton, Ian Kennedy, Adrian Gonzalez, and Pablo Sandoval

Topps 1968 3D Card Set 1 out of every 8 packs. 6/15 total cards.

Miguel Cabrera, Willie Mays, CC Sabathia, Babe Ruth, Matt Kemp, and Roberto Clemente

Topps Archives Reprint Set 1 out of every 4 packs. 11/50 cards total.

Willie McCovey

Eddie Murray

Darryl Strawberry

Monte Irvin

Bob Feller

Brooks Robinson

Yogi Berra

Don Mattingly

Johnny Bench

George Anderson

Robin Yount

and lastly the hits!

Each box guarantees 2 on card autographs and I got 4 total.  This set does have a relic card checklist, but I think they must come like one in every 3 or 4 boxes, because I haven't seen any odds and that would be my best guess.  These are the autographs I managed to pull...

My First box yielded Carney Lansford and Wally Joyner.

Lansford played for the A's most of his career but was drafted by the Angels and traded to the Red Sox before he played the rest of his career with the A's from 83 to 92.  In 81 he won the Silver Slugger Award and batted second behind Rickey Henderson during the A's dynasty when they played in 3 straight World Series 88,89, and 90. He was an All Star in 1988 and they won the World Series in 1989.

The Wally Joyner auto was neat only for the fact that he is one of the cards pictured on the box.  Joyner was an All Star in 1986 and was also co-winner of the Home Run Derby that same year.

In the loose packs I picked up afterwards I picked up the Ed Kranepool first and a couple weeks later the Bobby Richardson.

Ed Kranepool was 17 when he made his major league debut and was an All Star in 1965. He was also a starter for the 1969 World Series Mets.

My favorite card of all of them was the Bobby Richardson auto. Richardson played his entire career for the Yankees from 1955 to 1966.  During his career he was a stand out player making 8 All Star appearances and has the distinction of being the only World Series MVP to be named on the losing team.  That was the year Maz hit his Game 7 walk off home run to end the series.  He played in 7 World Series and won 3 of them.  He also won 5 Gold Gloves during his career and the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1963.  A great addition to the collection.  The others are all up for grabs.

All in all I was impressed with the turn around time Topps showed in replacing my damaged cards and loved the design and theme of the set.  While I really wanted one of those monster hits its an $80 box and you get what you pay for.  Fun for anyone who likes to build sets.  Hit me up if you see anything you want to trade for and we'll make a deal. Thanks for reading...

WTF Baltimore

This is going to be short and sweet...

WTF BALTIMORE!?!

Welcome to the month of June fans... it was fun in April and May, but it's time for a strong dose of reality.

I love my Orioles like no other and have welcomed many fans back with open arms as most of the people who all of a sudden like them were back because at one point we were the hottest team in baseball.

Now after a 6 game losing streak including 8 loses out of the last 10 I think we are seeing what type of team we really are.  With the last place Red Sox only 3.5 games out of 1st, it will be very easy for my lovable losers to go from 1st to worst! 

Oh well... this is the natural cycle of most Baltimore Fans.  Baseball season starts and hope springs eternal.  We get excited for the season to start and think "what if this is the year we finally win and make a run..."  Then we get let down ultimately, but it's always okay... Football season is right around the corner and we happen to be very good in that department.  Then sure enough the Ravens kick ass all year long, but then break our hearts late in the playoffs....

However, when that happens we have another Orioles season fast approaching.

And again... Hope springs eternal.

The cycle of the Baltimore fan continues.