That’s My B-Oyo

I keep going to big comic book conventions and I’m not sure why. I really only buy new issues of comics and I’m not looking to pick up any vintage issues or dig through long boxes looking for bargains. There are only a handful of artists that I’ll stand in line for in order to obtain a sketch. I can’t stand a room full of people who don’t know how to act when out in public. I don’t mean to further stereotypes, but the best analogy I can think of for how people travel through a Comic Book Convention is a game of electric football. I never have this problem even when walking through the most crowded of sports card shows.

That being said, I took a different approach to this year’s Boston ComicCon. Since I knew that I probably wouldn’t end up spending a lot of money there, I decided to spend the money before the convention on commissions to pick up at the convention. That part of my play went very well. I also have a tendency to find some nice sports collectibles at the ComicCon which seems to be a completely unexpected result. Last year, I picked up the Rondo and Shaq McFarlane figures for $10 a piece. This year, my purchase was a little smaller.

I’ve had my eye on these Oyo mini-figures since I first heard about them. I’ve been collecting the blind packed LEGO minifigures and have a bunch of the LEGO NBA minifigures. LEGO did release a generic baseball player in one of their minifigure releases, but a licensed product is so much cooler.

These Oyo figures have more articulation to them than your typical LEGO minifigure. First off, these little guys have elbows. That’s huge for sports figures. As you can see in the picture, David Ortiz can actually hold his bat. The second thing that you might notice is that these figures also have knees. Look at that leg kick.

Each figure comes with a bat, glove, ball and home plate shaped base. With the multiple accessories that come with each figure and the high level of poseability, you can do a lot with these figures. Oyo has gone pretty deep into many rosters so you can set up the majority of many MLB teams. If a particular player hasn’t been made, you could by the generic figure that they have for each team as a stand-in.

Just about the only negative that these figures have going for them is the price point. The MLB license must have been pretty expensive. LEGO minifigures can be purchased for anywhere between $2.99 and $4.99. The suggested retail price for these figures is $12.99. The only reason that I purchased the ones that I did was because they had a price tag of $10 on them. It still seems a little steep at first, but the extra articulation and accessories make it worthwhile. I would definitely buy more of these at $9.99, but I can’t see myself paying $12.99.

Overall, I love these figures. Oyo did a great job on making the tiny little heads resemble the players they are representing. The accessories are great and the articulation is awesome. The price point is a little high, but I’m hoping that future releases might be a little lower in price. These are definitely worth checking out if you happen to see them somewhere. You can also order them on the Oyo website.

Check Out More Cards

I had a couple of big sales on CheckOutMyCards out of the blue and decided to put those funds to good use. It’s interesting to see how my collecting has changed. In the 90s, I would pick up new stuff almost exclusively at card shows. I would pick stuff up at card shops as well, but not as frequently. These days, I might have a new card arrive to become part of my collection every day of the week. It’s always a pleasure to see a package arrive from COMC since a whole bunch of new cards will be added to my collection.

First up are a couple of 2011 Finest Tom Bradys. I’ve been slowly getting back into football due to Panini driving me away from basketball cards. When I saw that this year’s Finest offering pictured Brady in the Patriots throwback uniform, I had to have it. For good measure, I decided to pick up both the base card and refractor version of the card since they were both very affordable.

Whenever I get the chance, I’ve been adding Bryce Brentz autographs to my collection. If I remember correctly, this all started when I pulled one myself and from there things have snowballed. Both of these Brentz cards are from In The Game. The cards look nice even without any logos on them. The autos are on opaque stickers, but they go well with these designs. The only additional thing that I’d like to see on these cards is serial numbering. These days, a little detail like that on a card can make all of the difference. Brentz is currently the 8th ranked prospect in a loaded Boston minor league system.

Here’s a little bit of old and new. I picked up an off-center Dennis Johnson rookie and a black bordered parallel from Panini’s Basketball Hall of Fame set. Like most Panini products, this set is best acquired card-by-card. Every single card in this set with the exception of maybe 1% of the cards produced can be acquired for less than you’d pay buying them by the pack. There seem to be a lot of singles on COMC for around a dollar a card which is perfect for me.

Sticking with off-center 1978-79 Topps cards, here’s a Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell rookie card. It’s not quite as bad as it looks in the scan. I guess I inadvertently cut off the right edge of the card.

I have to chuckle a little bit at Upper Deck including Dee Brown in the Immortals section of the 2009-10 hoops set. I think these are short printed. Eventually, I’ll need to pick up a second copy of this card since I need one for my set and one for my Dee Brown collection. Dee had one of the best dunks ever in the Slam Dunk Contest, but in no way is he an immortal.

BRAINS! Like a zombie, I’m always on the lookout for Brains. Bobby “The Brain” Heenan was the best thing about wrestling in the 80s and 90s. I probably mention this every time that I post cards of The Brain, but his humor was really the only way to make it through some of the terrible matches from the 80s when half of the WWE roster consisted of jobbers.

These Brains all come from 2010 Topps WWE Platinum. The first two are part of the Platinum Performance insert set with the second being a green parallel numbered to 499 copies. The final card is a green parallel of the base card and it is also numbered to 499 copies.

As a kid in the 80s, my two main player collections were Dwight Evans, who played for the hometown Red Sox and Kent Hrbek who played for the Twins. It was pretty random when it came to deciding to collect Hrbek. I noticed that he popped up in a few of the 44 card retail sets that I had purchased and that I had a good number of his cards already.

Though the selection may have been random, I knew what I was doing when I picked Hrbek to be one of my player collections. Like Evans, Hrbek was insanely popular with the hometown crowd, but his abilities weren’t as widely known to the majority of baseball fans.

I couldn’t remember if I already had the 1982 Topps Traded Hrbek XRC, but for the price it was listed at, I wouldn’t mind picking up another one. This would almost definitely be in better condition than anything I would have had from my collection in the 80s. I knew I already had both the 1982 Topps Future Stars card and Hrbek’s 1982 Donruss rookie, but there purchases were made solely for condition upgrades.

The Starting Lineup Talking Baseball card might be the only new addition to my collection. I remember this game being heavily advertised when it came out, but I never owned it. The game came with the AL and NL All-Star teams, but the rest of the MLB teams could be purchased on additional cartridges. The cartridges came with cards of the players included on the team rosters. These painted cards stand up well next to current releases such as Masterpieces or Chicle.

Not too long ago, I finally picked up a Kevin McHale rookie for my collection, but this isn’t that card. This is a reprint from 1996-97 Topps Basketball. Topps has been doing this rookie reprint thing for a while now and have produced so many iconic basketball cards. It’s a shame that they can no longer produce basketball cards.

Here’s another card from current basketball card serial killer Panini. Panini relies far too much on serial numbering to create value in their products. They are lazy in design and uninspired in execution. I won’t even get into their tremendously horrible customer service because I’m sure that all of you are sick of hearing about it.

This Robert Parish rookie is the real thing, but right below it is the chrome version of his rookie reprint which like the McHale is from 1996-97. The Heritage insert from Studio is one of the nicer looking Panini inserts that I’ve seen. Of course, the player is way over to the side to make room for a jersey swatch that is shoved into some of the cards. The main thing that these cards have going for them is that the autographed versions of these are on-card autographs. Wrapping things up is another Panini Basketball Hall of Fame black bordered parallel. Who knows, I may complete the Panini HOF set by the time that their exclusive license runs out and Topps can (hopefully) make basketball cards again.

You know that any package that comes in the mail from COMC is going to include some Mike Piazza cards. This is one of the better batches that I’ve gotten though.

First up is the 1997 Donruss Preferred X-Ponential Power insert numbered to 3000 copies. I’ve had the Tony Gwynn from this set for a while now and think it’s the coolest card that I’ve ever seen. The background is printed on clear acetate, it’s die cut and there’s a good amount of holofoil accents. Once I obtained this card, I was willing and able to trade away the Gwynn which promptly went into a trade pile that will some day be headed off to Fuji.

Next up was a card that I picked up mainly for nostalgia reasons. Back in the 90s, I was completely hooked on watching Don West pitch sports cards on the Shop At Home network. These Elite Dominators were available exclusively through the network when you purchased a box of 1993 Donruss for $99. That’s a huge markup on those boxes for one extra card numbered to 5000 copies. You did have a chance at autographs of Juan Gonzalez, Nolan Ryan, Don Mattingly or Paul Molitor, but there were only 10,000 autographs out of a total print run of 100,000 Elite Dominators. Not terrible odds, but at $99 a box it wasn’t a great gamble either.

I picked up a couple of cards from great 90s Upper Deck insert sets. The Generation Next Era has a motion hologram on it that moves as you tilt the card. The Mickey Mantle Long Shots is printed on that classic Upper Deck holofoil, not the garbage that Panini uses these days. Both of these sets were retail exclusives, but redemption cards for the complete sets could be found in hobby packs.

To round things out is a 2010 Sterling. It’s a great looking card, but Sterling is ridiculously expensive for what you get. I’m perfectly happy just picking up the singles.

One of the few sets that I liked from Panini last year was Totally Certified. It wasn’t quite the original Certified and it wasn’t quite Dufex, but it was a nice combination of the two. I liked it until I busted open a box which reminded me how bad of a value any Panini product is. I ended up picking up the base card, red parallel, red jersey card and Fabric of the Game card pretty cheaply. To top things off, I also picked up the Crown Royale card which is a great looking base card.

The Totally Certified base card is numbered to 1849, the red parallel is numbered to 499, the red jersey card is numbered to 249 and the Fabric of the Game is numbered to 299. Does anything numbered this high really matter? You can usually pick up a card numbered to 499 for the same price as one numbered to 1849 (and I did). These days, unless the numbered is double digits or lower, it doesn’t seem to have a huge effect on the card.

These jersey cards were were purchased for $3.50 and $4.00 which is about the same as a minimum bid plus shipping on eBay. Does this make you happy if you open a box that sells for over $100 and pull a jersey card of one of the top players in the league? This is $60 box content.

I had already finished this set a while back, but I hadn’t noticed that one of the U cards had a crease from the bottom edge to the “relic.” So, when this one popped up cheaply, I had to grab it. These cards are a perfect example of serial numbering not meaning everything. These cards are numbered to 55 copies and don’t carry a lot of value while this year’s Topps manufactured relics are numbered to over 700 copies and sell very well.

There you go, a pretty big batch of cards. Normally, I would have broken this up into smaller posts, but I hadn’t posted in a while and have a ton of other things to write about so you get a marathon post. Thanks for reading and don’t forget about the Red Sox Frankenset. Where else can you possibly win prizes from trading away Red Sox commons?

2012 Topps Jumbo Box Break

I love Topps jumbo boxes. The fact that most of the time they contain a complete set is a huge plus, but you also get a guaranteed autograph and a whole bunch of inserts and giveaway cards. On the basketball side of things, I’ve pulled a  couple of rip cards and a Blake Griffin McDonald’s All-American autograph. As far as baseball goes, I haven’t pulled anything ridiculously good. Here’s what I pulled out of this box.

A lot of people have criticized this year’s Topps inserts for their Panini-like qualities and they’re right. Far too much blank space on there cards. I really hope that Topps doesn’t make a habit out of designing cards for the autograph variations. From this box (plus my one pack) I pulled Ryan, Molitor, Ripken, Banks x2, Reggie, Seaver (Reds), Cobb, Thome, Jeter and Seaver (ChiSox). Everything is available for trade especially if you are offering gold, red or blue Red Sox or 1987 Minis.

This is the Topps nonsensical pairings set of the year. I could do without these cards altogether unless they greatly improved the pairings. I pulled Molitor/Braun, Mattingly/Hosmer, Mays/Kemp, Robinson/Bautista, Sandberg/Uggla x2, Bench/McCann, Bob Gibson/Halladay, Joe Morgan/Brandon Phillips, Banks/Tulowitzki and Edgar Martinez/David Ortiz. Everything except for the Ortiz is available for trade.

Here are some more Panini inserts. I pulled Derek Jeter, Dawson, Prince, Braun, Jered Weaver, Paul O’Neill x2, Pujols, Brooks Robinson, Kaline and Aparicio. Trade me stuff for these.

I think these cards might be the worst offenders when it comes to mimicking Panini’s laziness. The logo holds the place of the relic and the grayscale image on the bottom holds the place for a potential autograph. It’s still not as bad as Panini because they do this with their base cards and insert cards, but it’s still pretty damn bad. Trade me stuff for these as well.

I think these might be the best inserts in Series 1 that aren’t minis. I pulled Gehrig, Ryan, Mays, Mays, DiMaggio, DiMaggio, Jeter, Clemente, Ripken, Aaron and Ruth. All of these are available for trade as well.

Ok, so maybe there are too many inserts in Topps Flagship. I pulled Lavarnway, Britton, Chapman, Hellickson, Kimbrel, Arencibia x2, Rizzo, Stanton, Dee Gordon and Arodys Vizcaino.Everything but the Lavarnway is up for grabs.

Here’s the gold parallels. I’ve got Betancourt, Teixeira, Dee Gordon, Jeremy Moore, Joe Benson, Kelvin Herrera, Scott Downs, Brian Matusz, Michael Taylor, Chris Parmelee and Mark Trumbo. All are up for trade.

I’m going to be putting this set together, so none of them are available for trade except the extra Jeter that I have which is only available for another mini that I need.

Here are the traditional hits from the box. Even though the Billingsley is a powder blue swatch instead of the typical plain white that you usually see, it’s still kind of boring. The basic jersey card has run its course due to overuse and overproduction. When some players have had hundreds of jersey cards, you know that too many have been made. I wouldn’t be that disappointed at all if jersey cards were to disappear from the hobby. At least limit their production a lot more and keep them all serial numbered.

Then there’s the sticker auto. What is there to be said about the sticker auto that hasn’t already been said. At least Topps is using clear stickers instead of the gaudy foil stickers that they used to stick on cards.

So, you’ve got a terrible autograph on a lazy, Panini-like insert card. That’s not game changing at all. The Byrd is available for trade.

The black parallels are a standard of Topps Flagship releases, but since this product is so hot right now the black parallels are selling for a lot more than then normally would.

I also think that a lot more people are chasing the black parallels since there aren’t any cards serial numbered to 2012. It seems like the increased production would have required a numbered parallel in every other pack so they just decided to leave them out this year. Seems strange to me to leave out the gold parallels in the gold set, but that’s Topps for ya.

This is where Topps hit the jackpot. These pin cards, the ring tops and the embedded coins are all beautiful cards with unique card designs. Check out the sale prices for most of the jersey cards from this set and then check out the sale prices for the rings, pins and coins. Big difference, isn’t it? Personally, I know that I’m more interested in a good looking card and innovation than and endless stream of jersey cards. The Ortiz and Pedroia pin cards are beautiful looking. Great job done by Topps on these.

Overall, I like the base cards and hopefully will be able to fuel a lot of trades with the inserts. When you factor in the wrappers for the redemption offer, the three hits, the Golden Giveaway cards and getting a complete set this is a great deal. Considering that I got this box for double digits when most places were selling them for $120 makes it an even better deal.

Slick Ginter

I’m a fan of the Allen & Ginter sets that have become a staple of Topps’ yearly release schedule. The only thing that I’m not a fan of is how difficult it is to complete the set.  You don’t even get enough cards in one box and then when you factor in all of the short prints, completing the set becomes more of a chore. Buying the complete set is no fun and so 2011 was the first year since I returned to collecting that I didn’t purchase a box of Ginter.

Topps did something different with 2011 Allen & Ginter that they hadn’t ever done before which was offer a factory set. This wasn’t just any factory set though, this was a limited edition, serial numbered to 999 factory set. The weird thing is, in this day and age, one of these sets ends up being worth more broken up than it is complete. There are a ton of team and player collectors out there.

I found someone on eBay who had broken up their set and had the singles listed at very reasonable prices. Pair that up with combined shipping and I’m a customer. The cool thing about getting all of these from the same person is that the serial numbers all match.

I picked up all of my favorite Sox along with Stan “The Man” Lee. Glossy Ginter cards are a first, but it brings me back to the days of the Topps Tiffany sets. Those cards weren’t serial numbered like these are, but they were pretty limited compared to the print runs of the regular cards.

Check Out My Colored Sox Cards

I’ve found that CheckOutMyCards is by far the best place to pick up retail exclusive cards. These cards are no good for purchasing on eBay because the shipping is usually twice the price of the card. So, every now and then I’ll try a search for the various purples and oranges that Topps tucks away inside of retail packs.

The first card here actually isn’t a retail exclusive. This is a purple parallel numbered to 1799 from 2006 Future Stars. Next is an orange refractor from 2010 Topps Curvy Chrome. Batting third is a purple refractor from 2009 Bowman Chrome. In the cleanup spot is an orange Jon Lester refractor that looks really red in this scan.

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

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 Chrome Baseball: Box 12

BANG!

So long non-vintage vintage inserts. At least this box produced two Sox. I’ll have to pick up copies for my own collection though.

Lookie here, it’s the same exact two Red Sox players again. You definitely can’t complain about pulling two inserts of Big Papi and Pedroia. Cano is a refractor. Both Kemp and Cano are available (unless Night Owl wants the Kemp).

Another insert set, another Kemp. You know the drill.

Holy Schnikies did this box ever deliver. The red Belt /25 sold for $33.54 and the Cashner Sepia sold for $9.99 (paired with a standard refractor). We haven’t even gotten to the autos yet and this box has almost already paid for itself. The Bautista and Rasmus are available.

And behind door number 12…a zonk. The Revere is a refractor and he’s having a great final month of the season, but there isn’t a huge demand for his cards. Noesi, more like no sell. Oh well, good thing this box had those great refractors in it. That’s what I really like about this product, you’ve got so many chances to pull big cards. The Black Heritage refractors go for good money, the /99 and /100 refractors do well if you’ve got the right player and the /50 and /25 can do well for almost anyone. Combine that with the fact that there’s a very good rookie auto crop this year and you’ve got a great product for busting.

Well, there you go. No wait, there’s one more card that has to be posted:

This is the redemption card for the standard autographed cards. This card sold for $40 on eBay. 3 to 4 years from now, that could be a steal or it could be a bust. To me, it just means another overachieving box. Pretty cool that redemption pulls bookended the case in box 1 and box 12. Those were both huge pulls.

Thanks for following along. I’m going to get a case recap up which includes how each individual box has done as far as sales go. I had a lot of fun busting this though and feel like I did very well. Thanks for following along.

 

Technorati Tags: 2011 Topps Chrome Baseball,box break,case break,baseball cards,Topps,Brandon Belt,Andrew Cashner,David Ortiz,Dustin Pedroia

Case Break: 2011 Topps Chrome Baseball: Box 6

I have duplicates of Posey, Longoria and Braun that are available from the two boxes that I busted for my birthday.

This box contained two Heritage Refractors. I’m going to have to send the Adrian Gonzalez back for a replacement though. The top left and bottom right corners are smashed and it looks like one card was printed over another. I’ll have to post a high resolution scan of the card so you can see what I mean. Everything except the Gonzalez is available to be purchased.

Chipper got a little chopped, but I did the best that I could to fit all of the cards without having to position any of them sideways. Big Papi is staying with me, but the rest can be yours.

I really got shorted on this box. In other boxes when I was shorted a colored refractor, I would get a black heritage refractor. I had no such luck with this box. All I got was disco Mickey Mantle and nothing else. He’s available if you want him.

Two base autos of players who aren’t in high demand on eBay. Revere has gotten hot for the Twins late in the season from the lead-off position. Drabek hasn’t performed well for the Blue Jays this year. Both cards are available.

It’s always nice when you get a little something different in a box. There was a reason why I was shorted a colored refractor:

With 1/1 Superfractors and Canary Diamonds available, I was pretty disappointed to get a printing plate for my 1/1. This is a Matt Young magenta printing plate that sold for $10 on eBay.

 

Technorati Tags: 2011 Topps Chrome Baseball,box break,case break,baseball cards,Topps,Mickey Mantle,David Ortiz,Adrian Gonzalez