Topps Chrome Team Sets

Just gauging interest here. I have one set remaining of this year's Topps Chrome baseball. If I were to bust it up into team sets, how many people would be interested? I'd have to get interest from 5 or 6 people before I went ahead of busted the set. The starting point for sets would be $2, but I'd have to do some adjusting up and down on a few teams. Obviously any teams with notable rookies (Hosmer for example) would be a little higher. The handful of teams that aren't well represented in this set would go for around a dollar.

Since I just sent some packages out to people, I can hold on to this until I have something more to send to you if you're interested. I don't want you to make the USPS rich.

So, let me know if you're interested and if enough people are, I'll start figuring out individual prices.

Topps Diamond Giveaway: Part 4: 20 Codes

Big hit in this batch!

 

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Topps Diamond Giveaway: Part 3: 10 Codes

Let me know if there are any cards that you want to trade for. I should post screen captures of my portfolio so people can see if they want to work out any trades for Sox.

 

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Topps Diamond Giveaway: Part 2: 10 Codes

This one is torture to watch. The site was running extremely slowly. Topps must have been loading in all of the new diamond 1/1 cards that I would have no shot at.

 

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Topps Diamond Giveaway Redemption: Part 1: 20 Codes

These videos are barely watchable. The camera angle isn’t as good as I thought it would be. I should have worn a hat and clipped the cam to my bill. If you want to hear a bunch of ridiculous comments as I struggle through entering these codes, please watch.

 

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Case Break: 2011 Topps Update: Box 6

The Chrome case ended with a bang, let's see how the Update case does.

Daaaaaaaaaaaryl! Daaaaaaaaaaaryl!

Hosmer and Cobb highlight the diamond parallels from this box.

Lots of stars here perfect for team and player collections.

I was a little disappointed in the collation of the insert cards. I would have liked to have gotten closer to sets. Now I see why busting multiple cases is the way to go. I won’t be doing that though.

Next year: Topps Terrific Trios, it’s a game changer!

Now to track down the Kimballs that I need for series 1 and 2. Still hope to bust a jumbo box of each.

A nice batch of young stars here, but they’re ToppsTown so no one cares.

Julio Teheran hot box! The nameplate has been claimed, but the autograph is still up for grabs. The Lester is going into my collection, but I may have to send it in to Topps for replacement first. It’s got two soft corners. Any Yankees or Noesi fans out there? I’ve got a ton of Noesi stuff available from this and Chrome. The Cobb is nice and I always liked the silk cards. I’ve got a few of the Murad silks in my collection.

 

Technorati Tags: 2011 Topps Update Baseball,box break,case break,Julio Teheran,Jon Lester

Case Break: 2011 Topps Update: Box 5

Time to see if I can bounce back after getting shorted a hit.

This might have been the best box for Cognac Liquorfractors. I got three SP Legends with the Yaz being my favorite. The Jeter and Castro aren’t half bad either.

To make up for the great Cognacs, the Diamond parallels were extra boring this box. They’re still beautiful cards though.

This box had a trio of nice gold youngsters in Hosmer, Ackley and Castro.

The foil on these cards is impossible to read in these scans, but it’s not as bad when the cards are in front of you.

Aaron and Bautista?

I’m 5 away from completing this set, if anyone out there has some extras, let me know. I’ll get my want list together.

Topps does Panini foil board.

The Vogelsong is nice, but the dent in the bottom of the card isn’t. Nothing spectacular in this box.

 

Technorati Tags: 2011 Topps Update Baseball,box break,case break,Frank Thomas,Ryan Vogelsong

Case Break: 2011 Topps Update: Box 4

Got caught up in the game last night and never got back onto the computer. I also seem to have injured myself in my sleep so typing is a bit of a chore. I’ll suck it up though and press on.

Mr. Cub!

Allen Craig! The only player hotter than him right now is David Freese. I have to get that card up on eBay immediately!

Yawn.

It’s always tough seeing Carlton Fisk wearing the wrong Sox. See Cubs fans, competent management makes all of the difference. There was a time when the Red Sox had bumbling fools running the show as well. Things will get better.

So, Sandy Koufax’s mother’s last name was Braun before she got remarried. Let’s throw them on a card together!

A little less East Coast representation in this box.

Does anyone do ToppsTown any more? I checked it out when it was new, but haven’t been on the site in years.

This is where paranoid me thinks that the hit I got shorted should have been a jumbo patch, dual relic or one of the bigger hits available. Honestly, if something goes wrong, it’s not going to go wrong with the basic ASG jersey swatches. I’m sure that’s what Topps is going to send me as a replacement though.

The Hope Diamond Ortiz will make a nice addition to my collection. I want to do a post showing how many different cards I have which use that same picture. Between Topps flagship and Chrome, it’s got to be in double digits. The case breaks have helped that, but I’ve picked up a few on eBay as well. There has got to be something wrong with me.

The Bard will also probably end up staying in my collection as well. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Red Sox handle things with Papelbon and Bard. Papelbon was lights out until the end of the season when the whole team fell apart. Bard started slow, was amazing in the middle of the season and them stunk up the joint at the end of the season. I don’t have a Bard auto yet, so it’ll make a nice addition to the collection.

Someone had posted about being interested in the Phillies, but I haven’t been able to contact them. So, the Hamels will be available if I can’t get in touch with them or if they aren’t interested in it.

 

Technorati Tags: 2011 Topps Update Baseball,box break,case break,David Ortiz,Daniel Bard,Cole Hamels

Coming Next Week

I used my credit from the game used cards that I sent in as well as some overtime pay to place an order with Blowout Cards. That Topps Update case gave me an itch for a change of pace. So, this order is all non-sports cards. I’ve got some fun stuff coming. I’ll be busting boxes of Marvel Heroes & Villians and Dangerous Divas hoping to pull a Katie Cook sketch card or something cool like a sketch card puzzle. I’ve also got a box of Heroes Archives coming. Sure, the show got progressively worse with each season, but the first season was a hell of a ride. This box contains 6 autographs and one relic card. For $5 a hit, I’m game and maybe I’ll be lucky and get an autograph of one of the major stars. I had pretty good luck in both of the Lost boxes that I opened from Rittenhouse. Rounding out the order were extremely cheap boxes of Hellboy and Shrek the Third which both contain sketch cards. I also picked up a box of Scooby Doo to open with my daughter and a Simpsons sticker set.

The best part of all of this is that I already got the shipping notification from Blowout and so this stuff will be traveling over the weekend. Hopefully that means a Monday delivery instead of a Wednesday delivery. Stay tuned non-sports card lovers and get ready to skip a couple of posts those who aren’t fans.

Case Break: 2011 Topps Update: Box 3

Once you start opening these packs and jump right to the cards in the middle, you realize there's not much difference between this and the packs that only contain 4 or 5 hits.

Another Belt parallel. This product is a dollar at a time product. If you’re lucky, you can sell a lot of cards for a dollar and use combined shipping to entice multiple purchases from buyers. Since I don’t have an eBay Store, this type of product really isn’t for me. You’ve got to bust multiple cases of this stuff like Brent and Becca do in order to get some master sets and really make out well. I think I would go crazy with all of those base cards.

The landscape diamond parallels come in bunches.

Gold!

Topps should have either made this a 60 card set total (20 in each series) or had each series contain 60 cards.

What exactly do Adrian Gonzalez and Jose Batista have in common other than playing in the AL East together?

Mine, all mine except for the 15 duplicates.

Are these even worth posting?

This was a pretty decent box. The Belt autograph and the Hosmer black parallel are worth a lot more than the two relic hits. Unfortunately, the Hosmer card is pretty dinged up and has to be sent back to Topps. You all know where the Kemp is going.

Second half of the case later. I’ll be replying to those who have already claimed cards tonight as well.

 

Technorati Tags: 2011 Topps Update Baseball,box break,case break,Eric Hosmer,Brandon Belt,Matt Kemp

Case Break: 2011 Topps Update: Box 2

I apologize, but these box breaks are going to be big on pictures and low on wordage.

This box contained two Cognac legends. From what I’ve seen on eBay, these do carry a little bit of a premium. I may have to wait until next month to list a lot of these cards since I’ll want to wait until I’ve got a new batch of 50 free listings to use. Every little bit of money saved on this case is going to help.

Two Big Papi’s in one box? Yes, please. I’m hoping that the Red Sox decide to bring him back. It would be too weird seeing him in another uniform.

Did I mention David Ortiz? If I were just buying one box for myself, I would never get this kind of box that puts three cards into my personal collection. Any cards here that you want in your collection? Drop me an email or leave a comment. If you do leave a comment, make sure that I have a way of contacting you.

I noticed that a lot of the cards in this installment of the Topps 60 insert set have players in jerseys that you don’t normally see them in.

The relic version of the Hosmer/Belt card is one of the cooler pulls available from this product. They look a lot like Panini relic cards since Topps just shoved the windows into the regular cards.

I really don’t get this whole East Coast Bias thing that people keep writing about. There’s 3 Yankees, 2 Red Sox, an Oriole, a Philly and a Ray…oh.

Is there anything to be said about ToppsTown?

I think I may have to start a Jimmie Foxx SP collection. I’ve got two now, but hopefully this one will be sold on eBay. The Rubby De La Rosa will be on its way to Night Owl and the Beltre will be off to Play at the Plate. The other three are up for grabs if you want them.

 

Technorati Tags: 2011 Topps Update Baseball,Jimmie Foxx,Ozzie Smith,box break,case break

Case Break: 2011 Topps Update: Box 1

So, after a delay of a day and lame excuses from UPS, the case finally arrived and I got to break it. This was a beast of a break. It’s just a ton of cards and it’s going to be a lot of work to make back the money from this case. I think I’ll need to stick to things like Chrome and Finest in the future.

There’s no way that I was going to scan all of the Cognac Liquorfractors from each box. Here’s a random sampling of 9 for your viewing pleasure. If there are any particular players that you’re interested in, you can see if I pulled him in the video or drop me an email and I’ll let you know.

Three series in and these cards still look great. The pictures really pop off of the sparkly background. It’s easy to see why they’ve been so popular even though there’s no serial numbering of any sort.

I think the gold parallels have finally run their course. Serial numbering this high doesn’t mean a thing and at this point these cards have just become pack filler. People are chasing the unnumbered Diamond parallels more than these.

These aren’t terrible looking cards, but they haven’t grabbed my attention either. It’s a given these days that Topps is going to load up the flagship set with a ton of insert sets. It’s true of all of the sports. The mix of legends, veterans and prospects makes this set an interesting one.

Another thing that you’re going to see in Topps flagship sets are insert cards with two players on them. The pairings don’t always make sense and it’s strange when Topps seems to pair up players based on religion, but that’s Topps for ya.

This is the only insert set that I’m going to complete and keep in my collection. I love what Topps did with these cards. The complete set has a great checklist as well.

The ToppsTown cards are actually kind of tough to come by in this set. You get either a Duos or ToppsTown card in each pack. The Duos set is 30 cards and the ToppsTown set is 50 cards so this is a tough set to complete. You don’t even get enough cards in a case to do it.

Here’s the hits from the box. I think I still have Sale autos form the Chrome break. If so, maybe they’ll sell together in a lot. The Belt Black Parallel numbered to 60 is a nice pull. Serial numbered Yankees are always nice since there’s always interest and the Molitor is just a great looking card.

 

Technorati Tags: 2011 Topps Update Baseball,box break,case break,Joe DiMaggio,Brandon Belt,Paul Molitor

Why The Wait Topps?

When I purchased my case of 2011 Topps Update Baseball, a product that released on October 7th, I made the decision to enter the code cards form my case and try to get something nice. I ended up with one die cut cards, some nice vintage cards and that was about it. Come to find out that one reason was that all of the big cards to be claimed weren’t available yet. Today, the following post showed up on Topps’ Twitter:

Maybe I’m an idiot, but I would have assumed that these cards would have been available when the product went live. Why wait three weeks after the launch date to throw these cards into the prize pool? I wonder if it has anything to do with the lukewarm reception that this product has had. I wonder if it has anything to do with the prices dropping each week since this product has come out.

One problem that I have with this is how Topps tries to position it. Topps is thanking us for all of the codes that we’ve entered on the Diamond Giveaway site, by giving us more cards to chase requiring collectors to spend even more money. If they really wanted to thank people, they’d thank those that went out and purchased their product. Anyone who has entered codes in the past three weeks is getting the shaft.

That being said, I still like the promotion and I’ve done pretty well with it. I would have appreciated at least one other die cut card from my 60 codes, but I’m not sure just how frequently those fall. I just wish that the timing on these additional cards was better. After thinking that this promotion was a success for most of the year, I’m now left with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Seriously?

So, when people such as myself and I Am Joe Collector speak out about our dissatisfaction in regards to redemption cards, most people reply with, "Too bad, you knew they were expired. The company owes you nothing."

A story comes out about a collector who had a Jeter autograph fade on a 1999 Topps HD card and suddenly Topps is responsible for replacing the faded autograph 12 years after the release date even though there are plenty of examples of this card in perfect condition. There's no mention of how this person stored the card or what kind of protection he used. It's really laughable how people are responding to this. To me, it's the equivalent of asking a company to replace a card that you drop and damage 10 years after pulling it out of a pack. Then again, I think that companies should keep redemption cards for a minimum of 5 years if not indefinitely so what do I know.

Let's Get Ready To Update

So, the case is all busted and the dust has cleared. Chrome was such a fun break the last time around, how does this compare? Not well at all. It's kind of a chore digging through the jumbo packs for the inserts in the middle. It still took over 10 minutes to open each box of just 10 packs and that was with me barely talking about the cards or players. Not my idea of a fun break to watch.

It looks like I should end up with 6 full sets at the least. If the extras from each box work out well then maybe I can eek out a 7th. If anyone is interested in a set, I'm thinking that they'll be somewhere around $25 a set delivered. Shipping gets pretty hefty on these sets since 330 cards are pretty heavy so that works out to something around $15 for the set and $10 for shipping. As always, if you were to buy a set and anything else it would be shipped along with the set for free.

If all of the sets aren't spoken for, what I will probably do is break one up for team sets. I'm thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of $2-$3 for each team depending on how many people are interested in team sets. The multiplayer cards might make things a little rough, but I'll figure things out.

I've got lots and lots of cognac, gold and diamond parallels that will be available. Discounts will be available for multiple purchases as well as one shipping price (2.50) for everything.

The most frustrating thing about this break is that a few of the better inserts came out of the packs damaged. So, I've got to send these off to Topps and wait a month or so for them to come back and hope that people are still looking for these cards when they come back.

The other frustrating thing is that I got hit with the Topps hit shortage that seems to pop up in almost every product. (In other news, my 5-year old got a job offer from Topps' pack-out facility.) You know it's not a run-of-the-mill insert that failed to end up in your box, but that's what Topps is going to send you. There's no way they send you a patch or anything like that.

I've still got a little more scanning to do which may not take place until next week. I work all this weekend and straight through until Wednesday. I almost ended up with a 4-day weekend next weekend, but they we were told that we've got a meeting on Sunday so there goes that.

Drop your player/team/set requests here if there's anything you're sure that you want. I'll start setting them aside before I even post the box breaks if you do. Once I start posting the box breaks, if there's anything you see just post right there.

Thanks in advance for checking it out.

Jumbo Update Delayed

Evidently, it’s really tough to tell the difference between a 6 and an 8. So, instead of the UPS delivery being made to the place where both myself and my wife were home, the package wasn’t delivered to a place where no one was home. Hope they don’t screw it up again tomorrow.

Jumbo Update

So, you may have noticed that I not so subtly put the exact name of the next case that I was getting in my teaser post. I like the added /60 parallels in Update and am hoping to pull a decent canary or 60th Anniversary Continuity autograph. I'm going to have tons of shiny cards available and will offer them to my readers before I start putting them in lots to sell on eBay.

I'm leaving some money on the table with this case break because I plan on using all of the Diamond Giveaway codes for myself. I know that these sell for between $2 and $3 a piece even in big lots, but I have yet to purchase a box of this year's Topps and haven't been able to get in on the die-cut chasing and digging. It is tough to ignore the fact that I could sell these for $160 - $240, but I want them. Maybe I'll get sick of it if I only redeem crap and then sell a bunch, but as of right now I plan on entering all 80 codes.

Other than that, I'll be keeping a set for myself and then selling off the rest. Sets of this size don't seem to be all that popular online since the shipping can be a killer, but if anyone wants a set they'll be available at an affordable price.

Let me know what you need for inserts as well. I'll be filling all kinds of wantlists. Get them in ahead of the game. The case is arriving today.

Collecting For A Cause

During the season, The Red Sox Wives foundation ran a special fund raiser where a donation of either $10 or $10 of non-perishable food allowed you to select one autograph from a Red Sox player. Since I work 10 minutes from Fenway Park, I figured that I would check it out after work. I’m glad that I decided to go. It’s always good helping out a worthy cause, but I got to do so and pick up some nice items for my collection.

The Sharpie was running out, but this is still a nice Beckett autographed picture. It’s not an official collection, but I’ll add any autograph to my collection of someone from one of the World Series winning teams. Beckett was part of the 2007 Champions. The Papelbon looks even nicer and he was here for both the 2004 and 2007 Championships. He can be a bit of a dope, but he’s also one of the most dominant closers ever to play the game.

I like what they chose for the autographs for this giveaway. For those of you out there who have ever requested a fan pack from the Red Sox, these pictures might look familiar. These are the pictures that the team includes with those mailings. Items like this are perfect for autographs are these are awesome additions to my collection.