Group Break Goodies from Thorzul

I know I'm getting a little behind posting but I wanted to share my take of cards from Thorzul's November group break. I really liked the new idea he had where 15 slots were teams that the participants picked and the last 15 teams were randomed off among the 15 original slots. I know it sounds a little confusing and I can't seem to get the wordage right( lack of sleep), but trust me, it worked out well. I hadn't seen any of the 2004 Upper Deck Legends Timeless Teams cards before and also was intrigued by the 2009 Finest box. Heres the spoils:

Out of the Legends box I ended up with a good assortment of Orioles. 3 Jim Palmers and a Brooks Robinson. I am a confused with one of the design decision UD made though. On the t3 Palmers, niether of the years match up with the respective uniforms he is wearing. While this is a minor flaw in my eyes, it still makes one scratch his head a little bit. At least the Brooksie card shows the correct World Series with the correct play.I was skunked with my second assigned team, the Royals, in the Legends box. Upon my inspection of the checklist, there are no Royals to be had in the entire base set. Another interesting design decision by Topps. I thought the Royals team from 1980 that won the AL Pennant or the World Series Champion 1985 squad would at least have some players in the set.

I didn't get the same shaft from Topps in the Finest box though:

I have no idea what I am going to do with this card. If somebody is interested in trading for it, I am all ears. I'm not a huge fan of the Manu-patch cards that Topps has been loading up all their products with lately.

Of the Orioles I got out of the Finest box I ended up with these:

All cards I need for my team set. Now I'm just missing #88 Aubrey Huff. Thorzul also pulled a redemption card #8 which is supposed to be Nolan Reimold. The redemption was technically good until 4/30/10. Technically I think that having a redemption card good for only one year sucks. When I am looking at older boxes I look at the checklist to see if it has any redemptions and if they are already expired. This weighs greatly on me whether or not I will purchase the box. Knowing my luck I'd pull a Cal Ripken Super Logo Patch Autograph #d to 10 that expired already. Im pretty sure I would cry if that happened. I don't think that redemption cards are bad idea. I think that it allows the card manufacturer a way to put more value into their boxes that otherwise would not make it because of printing deadlines and street dates of products. What I do have a problem with is the expiration dates. One year is not enough, 3 years isn't either. I think that a 5 years from the release date of the product is reasonable. Seriously is it going to be a problem for Topps or UD to hang onto the actual cards for that long? I'd like to think not.

Anyways, I already sent that sucker in so we'll see what happens. I'm willing to take a chance to see if they will give me something else or maybe the actual card I should get.

Thanks to Thorzul for the group break, I'm looking forward to your next one.