Box Break: 2010 Topps Opening Day

When I grabbed this box, I did it quickly because of the price ($20) and thought that I was buying a box of 2011 Opening Day, but I ended up being very happy with this box.

By now, I’m sure that everyone is familiar with the 2010 Topps design. If you aren’t then you haven’t been reading the blog (since it was featured in the last post). If you need a refresher course, you can look back at the last post or check out the blue parallels below:

All of the cards other than Scutaro are for trade. I’ll let you know now that for some reason all of the blue cards have a bad corner. They were the only damaged cards in the box which is strange.

These ToppsTown cards were much nicer looking than their counterparts in the flagship Topps set. For all of you team and player collectors out there, everything except the Big Papi is for trade.

These Topps Attax cards are pretty slick looking as well. These cards are printed on a nice holofoil that gives the cards a nice look. Everything is available to trade.

At least there’s still one set out there that includes mascot cards. I love these and will most likely end up completing the set. I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t pull a Wally so I’ll just have to grab two of those.

I wish that there were more of these Superstar Celebration cards in a box. I really like the design of these cards and the subject matter couldn’t be more fun. The great picture of Prince Fielder from 2010 Topps would have been perfect for this set.

Walk-off hits, especially of the type that fly over the outfield wall, have become the biggest ESPN highlight these days and so an insert set such as this one makes a lot of sense. The backs of the cards have a little information about the moment pictured on the front of the card.

This box contained a card celebrating Andre Ethier’s multiple walk-off homers, an Evan Longoria walk-off against the Red Sox, an Ichiro walk-off homer against Mariano and a Ryan Zimmerman walk-off.

I was happy to see that Topps brought back this insert set in the 2011 edition of this set. These are just flat out fun cards. I’m glad that there are still some fun cards out there because too many sets only are concerned with “sick” “MOJO” patches poking out from behind 12 windows spelling out some nonsensical phrase.

Here you have Topps’ version of Where’s Waldo. Bazooka Joe went to a baseball game and it’s up to you to find him.

This is the one insert set from this box that I didn’t like at all. It’s like the Things You Can’t Unsee segment from Web Soup. Now that you’ve seen them, these terrible cards will now haunt you forever. Hopefully this box will provide a Palette Cleanser just like Chris Hardwick does every week. It’s not a given though because there aren’t any guaranteed big hits in Opening Day boxes.

There were 4 of these cards in the box, but I’m only posting two. Other than the Cabrera and Chipper pictured here, I also got Kinsler and Wright and all are available for trade.

What’s this? This more than makes up for the Bazooka Joe cards. This is a yellow printing plate of Phillies hurler Cole Hamels. These cards fall every 2,119 packs so I really beat the odds with this pull. You really can’t complain about pulling a printing plate out of a $20 box of cards. The strange thing is, the only times that I’ve pulled printing plates is out of discounted boxes. My other plate came out of a discounted box of 2008 series 2 baseball jumbos. It would be tough to do much better than this…

I guess this would qualify though. I also pulled a black printing plate of Scott Rolen. How the heck does that happen? It’s funny because when I first noticed that this wasn’t the box that I thought I was getting, I was kind of disappointed, but now that the box is opened I couldn’t be happier.

If I don’t get any trade offers on the printing plates then they’ll be making the trip to eBay. These two cards alone might end up paying for the box and then some. I’m always a fan of using the inserts to pay for the base since I’m still a set collector at heart.

I didn’t get any duplicates in the box and only need 12 more cards to complete the set. This is the kind of box break that I love. There’s nothing worse than opening a box of cards and only ending up with one-fourth or one-third of the set. I also got a nice little stack of cards to send off to other people. All in all, an awesome break.

 

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