"O" No's 1st Group Break: Round 1

The boxes were delivered this afternoon and I'm itching to rip some packs.  First a big thanks to our break sponsor Baseball Card Exchange.  Without their excellent selection of unopened wax, these kinds of breaks wouldn't happen!

So here we are with the first round of packs.  Lets jump right in and see what's inside these packs!

Sports Illustrated:
Pack 1:
#9 Gary Gaetti - Postseason Review - Cubs
#30 Kerry Wood - Season Highlights - Cubs
#49 Cubs Prospects - 2000 - Cubs
#160 Kerry Wood - Cubs
#139 Nomar Garciaparra - Red Sox
#144 David Cone - Yankees

No Crap, they came out of the package like that! Off to a roaring start for the Lovable Losers!

Pack 2:
#18 Kerry Wood/Ben Grieve 1998 Rookies of the Year - Cubs/A's
#45 Blue Jays Prospects

Early Halladay!

#62 Pirates Prospects
#101 Jeromy Burnitz - Brewers
#125 Livan Hernandez - Marlins
#130 Derek Bell - Astros

Pack 3:

#14 Wins Leaders - Clemens, Cone, Glavine, Helling - Blue Jays, Yankees, Braves, Rangers
#93 Ray Lankford - Cardinals
#48 Cardinals Prospects
#172 Cliff Floyd - Marlins  Fun Fact: Cliff and I share the same birthday, he's just 11 years older!
#103 Kevin Millwood - Braves
#108 Sammy Sosa - Cubs

Pack 4:
#31 David Wells Season Highlights - Yankees
#86 Andy Pettitte - Yankees
#61 Phillies Prospects
#177 Dean Palmer - Tigers
#118 Barry Bonds - Giants
#123 Mark McGwire - Cardinals

Pinnacle Zenith

Pack #1
30 Mo Vaughn - Rex Sox
37 Ryan Klesko - Braves
48 Jay Buhner - Mariners
57 Larry Walker - Rockies
Checklist
119 Rocky Coppinger - Orioles
105 Bobby Abreu - Astros

I think Bobby's metabolism may have slowed down over the last few years.

Pack #2
61 Juan Gonzalez - Rangers
97 J.T. Snow - Angels
42 Rickey Henderson - Padres
17 Rico Brogna - Mets
Checklist

131 Albert Bell - Honor Roll subset - Indians
110 Ralph Milliard - Marlins

Pack #3
75 Randy Johnson - Mariners
82 Carlos Baerga - Indians
70 Orlando Merced - Pirates
78 Benji Gil - Rangers
Checklist
118 Rey Ordonez - Mets
125 John Wasdin - A's

Pack #4
65 Edgardo Alfonso - Mets
86 John Valentin - Red Sox
68 Mike Bordick - A's

Maybe Mike should try out for skating with the stars!
80 Robin Ventura - White Sox
104 Robin Jennings - Cubs   ---- ROBIN-JO in this pack
130 Darin Erstad - Angels

Topps Finest:

Pack #1
160 Ed Sprague - Blue Jays
93 Jose Guzman - Cubs
182 Todd van Poppel - A's
66 Mike Mussina - Orioles
191 Ken Caminiti - Astros
206 Dennis Eckersley - A's

137 Darrin Fletcher - Expos

Pack #2
189 Jeff Branson - Reds
40 Luis Alicea - Cardinals
124 Mike Perez - Cardinals
59 Dante Bichette- Rockies
136 Ozzie Smith - Cardinals
206 Dennis Eckersley - A's
133 John Wetteland - Expos

Definitely a red theme to this pack, with 3 Cardinals and a Redleg!

Pack #3
169 Rod Beck - Giants
52 David Cone - Royals
118 Terry Pendleton - Braves
149 Jim Abbott - Yankees
174 Kevin Appier - Royals
2 Kevin Stocker - Phillies
29 Brad Ausmus - Padres

A Royals and Kevin pack!

Pack #4
95 Mark Lemke - Braves
105 Shane Mack - Twins
30 Ryan Bowen - Marlins
141 Chris Hoiles - Orioles

I love cards of catchers making a throw to a base.
165 Ron Gant - Braves
211 Juan Gonzalez - Rangers
37 Joe Oliver - Reds

And I almost forgot our oversized boxtopper:

 Al Martin - Pirates
Congrats to the NY Hitman

Here's the break down so far:

Cubs - 7 cards
Red Sox - 3 cards
Yankees - 4 cards
Brewers - 1 card
Pirates - 3 cards
Blue Jays - 2 cards
Marlins - 4 cards
Astros - 3 cards
Cardinals - 4 cards
Braves - 5 cards
Rangers - 3 cards
Phillies - 2 cards
Tigers - 1 card
Giants - 2 cards
Mariners - 2 cards
Rockies - 3 cards
Padres - 2 cards
Reds - 2 cards
Expos - 2 cards
White Sox - 1 card
A's - 5 cards, including 1 duplicate
Indians - 2 cards
Mets - 3 cards
Angels - 2 cards
Twins - 1 card
Royals - 2 cards
Orioles - 3 cards

Strangely the Dodgers were shut out in the first round but the Cubs had 4 cards in the first pack.  We're still looking for our first insert too.  There's still a ton of packs to be opened.

Group Break Reminder

I'm posting this as a courtesy to all of the people participating in my first ever group break.  I'm anticipating the arrival of the boxes for the break in my hands today.  I don't have a tracking number for the package so I'm not 100% sure if UPS will deliver them to my house today.  If the boxes do show up today, I hope to have the first round of packs busted and posted this evening.

That being said, if anyone wants to trade teams, now is the time to do it!  As soon as the first batch of packs are posted, there will be no trades allowed.

As of the time this post is going live, Roy Z. has offered up the Cubs for anybody willing to trade for them.  Here's the post where the teams were randomed and trade offers are being taken right HERE.

Trade with ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession

Here's another trade that was started by me when I offered up some A&G minis as tradebait a few weeks ago.  Adam from the soon to be relatively world famous ARPSmith's Sportscard Obession requested a bunch of the Giants minis from the lot and in turn he sent me a bunch of cards from my 2012 Allen and Ginter wantlist along with a couple of standout cards. Here's the highlights:

Any Eddie Murray card that I recieve in a trade is a good one especially if I didn't have it before.  I like this card because of the picture of Eddie as he just smashed a ball towards the gap or beyond.

I'm getting really close on the 2010 Bowman Chrome set.  Adam sent along this single Adrian Gonzalez to help me on my quest to finish the set before the end of time.  Can you help me out?  Here's the last couple I need:
2010 Bowman Chrome (1 - 220): 5, 37, 46, 53, 102, 103, 104, 108, 149, 153, 171, 176, 191
2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects (BCP1 - BCP220): BCP1, 10, 40, 100, 145, 187, 208

Also a surprise in the package were several of the 2012 Panini triple play cards.  The jury is still out on these for me.  I understand the need for kid friendly cards in the industry and this product definitely fills that need.  I'm not too big on unlicensed cards but these seem to work well because of the cartoony look.

Thanks Adam for the nice package of cards you sent!

Box Break: 2009 Allen & Ginter

As many of you may or may not know, I'm working on building all of the Allen and Ginter sets from 2006 thru 2012 and beyond.  I didn't used to be a fan of A&G but somehow I turned the corner this spring/summer and did a 180.  Since I purchased the 07 set complete and an 06 and 08 partial set this summer in my now infamous buy from craigslist, I'm now working on 09 thru the present.

I actually bought this box about a month ago and set it on my desk where it collected dust until a few days ago.  I had probably searched ebay for a month prior to finally being able to get the hobby box at a comfortable price for me and my wallet.  I actually missed the auction the first time around and it had ended with no bids.  I contacted the seller and we were able to work out a deal.  Without further ado, the highlights:

These code cards are pretty useless to everyone now but I guess they were the must have cards when the code had yet to be broken.  I'm pretty good at trivia games like Jeopardy but the Ginter code is not my cup of tea.  How anybody figures it out is beyond my comprehension.

I'm not sure if it really qualifies as a hit or not but this is a shortprinted mini of Kelly Shoppach.  I think these are like a 1:24 pack pull.  Even though this particular card is a mini, I do like the design of the base set.  I didn't bother to scan any of the regular sized cards because I'm sure in 2009 each one was probably scanned and shown plenty of times.  We all know what they look like.

These are pretty cool little minis.  They are the national heroes minis.  I had never heard of Al-Qadir but  I have heard of William Wallace.  Yes, that William Wallace, the guy that the movie Braveheart is based on.  I don't think the picture on the card looks much like Mel Gibson!

Here's my other 2 insert minis.  These don't do that much for me but like most A&G mini inserts they are hit and miss with me. 

And now the moment we've all been waiting for!  Here's the hits (aka the ripped up shreds of kitchen towels that are inserted into cards posing to be authentic pieces of jerseys)

Captain Cheeseburger, not a player I care for or collect.

Jimmy Rollins, a player that could be called captain since he's been with the Phillies so long.

And Adam LaRoche AKA the traveling man.  I wonder if he sticks around in Washington next season?

So there you have it, 1 whole hobby box of 2009 Allen & Ginter.  I enjoyed this box even though my hits were somewhat lacking. I would have loved to pull an autograph out of the box but you can't win them all!  Everything shown in the pictures above and the list below is for trade.  Let me know if you see anything you'd like!  Not all of these are from my box, some are from some lots I've picked up over the last few months.

SPs: 306 Cliff Lee, 307 Pence, 318 Delmon Young, 320 BJ Ryan
National Pride: NP2 Upton, 3 Bay, 9 C. Guillen, 61 Teahen, 62 Braun, 63 Beltran, 64 Liriano, 65 Delgado, 67 A. Gonzalez, 70 C. Pena, 72 E Gonzalez, 74 Y. Molina
Baseball Highlight Sketches: 2 Griffey Jr., 9 Thomas, 10 Thome, 11 K-Rod, 12 Yankees, 24 Mariano
Crack the Code Cards: 141 Zambrano, 189 Kotchman
Regular Back Minis: 7 Smoltz, 23 Armstrong, 24 Wiebe, 74 Tuiasosopo, 75 D. Wright, 135 Suppan, 166 Meche, 181 Rowand, 271 Jurrjens, 274 J. Hamilton, 321 Shoppach
Ad Back Minis: 34 Dempster, 78 Byrnes, 79 Electron, 101 Bailey, 208 M. Young, 298 Haren
Black Border Minis: 208 M. Young, 334 Burrell
National Heroes: NH22 William Wallace, NH37 Al-Qadir
Worlds Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks and Bamboozles: HHB2 Pi, 13 War of the Worlds

Here's the cards I'm still looking for to complete the base set and the National Pride insert set:


2009 Allen & Ginter: 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 36, 38, 41, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 81, 83, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 117, 121, 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 131, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 150, 153, 157, 159, 161, 163, 164, 170, 171, 173, 175, 178, 179, 181, 183, 184, 187, 190, 191, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 203, 205, 206, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 215, 219, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225, 229,232, 233, 235, 239, 240, 244, 245, 246, 248, 250, 252, 255, 257, 261, 262, 265, 267, 271, 272, 276, 277, 280, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 290, 293, 294, 296, 297, 302, 312, 314, 316, 321, 323, 326, 328, 334, 335, 339, 340, 341, 343, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349

National Pride: NP10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 40, 58

"O" NO's 1st group break: 2nd Team Randomization

There were 14 different spots in the upcoming break that were bought by 11 different people.  I appreciate the quick payment by everyone!  Here's the info if anyone missed it HERE.

I will randomize the list of teams that didn't get chosen along with the 11 group breakers 3 times each and then match them up.

Here's the list of the 11 "breakers" randomized 3 times:

And the remaining teams:

So the here's the list of breakers and their teams (selected and random)

                    Selected                 Random(s)

Ryan H.       Orioles                   Tigers

NY Hitman  Yankees, Pirates     Marlins, Giants

Douglas C.   Blue Jays, Mets      A's, Cardinals

Tom T.         Angels                    Royals

Jeroen B.      Braves                   Twins

GCRL          Dodgers                 Reds
Ross M.       Mariners                 Phillies
Rod R.         Padres                   Astros
Matt P.        Red Sox                White Sox
Roy W.        Rangers, Expos     Cubs, Rockies
Jack H.        Indians                   Brewers

I will permit team trading.  All trades must be completed before the 1st group of packs is busted.  Most likely this will be on Monday evening after dinner time (if the mailman holds up his end of the bargain).  I must receive an email from both of the team trading parties or comments from both parties consenting to a trade in this post only.

Trade with Night Owl

This is my first return package of cards I received from my Allen and Ginter mini trade bait post I put up 2 Sundays ago.  The Night Owl and I have traded several times in the last couple of years each one being mutually beneficial (aren't all trades supposed to be that way?) to each other's collection.  He claimed several of the Dodger minis from the stack of A&G's among other cards.  Here's the cards I got in return:

First off when I saw this card peeking out from the behind the note he sent in the package, I thought it was an actual 1966 Topps card.  Then I saw the name at the bottom and Orioles fans everywhere began to shudder.  I do like the card though. This one is actually one of the cards that came in Baseball Card Magazine from 1991.  Expertly cut unlike some Post, Kelloggs, and Hostess cards I have seen.  Glenn has been laying low (out of the way of Jeffrey Hammonds foul liners) since his playing time in Baltimore.  Though he still takes it on the chin (not unlike the bar fight he got into in May 1993) from O's fans for being a crappy player during his time in Charm City.

Here's another O's card of a team set I'm half-heartedly collecting.  I might actually have most of the cards so don't go sending me emails just yet with trade offers!

The 2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee set has been a lot harder to complete than I thought it would originally be.  I never bought a hobby box.  I've built the set mostly from blasters, lots from ebay, and trades.  Here's the last couple of cards I need to complete the set:

2, 26, 36, 39, 72, 93, 141, 148, 165, 210, 211, 237, 249, 251, 278, 349, 364, 370, 414, 416, 426, 427, 479,  486, 501

I've also been slowly working on the 2012 Bowman Chrome Prospects set too.  I'll be building the regular set once its released but for now I'm focused on "series 1" of the chrome Prospects.  Here's what I still need of those:

BCP4, 13, 16, 22, 26, 27, 39, 40, 73, 76, 84, 92, 97, 101, 103, 110

Most of the cards in the package were from 2012 Allen and Ginter.  I'm not complaining though, I still need plenty of help to finish off this set.  Though Night Owl took a big chunk out of it, here's the rest of the wantlist:

1, 4, 6, 26, 30, 33, 35, 36, 44, 45, 47, 54, 58, 61, 67, 69, 75, 79, 87, 88, 97, 105, 112, 117, 121, 126, 127, 131, 132, 145, 147, 150, 153, 154, 157, 159, 164, 166, 167, 172, 173, 174, 178, 184, 190, 191, 192, 195, 198, 199, 200, 201, 206, 207, 209, 211, 216, 222, 223, 228, 230, 233, 238, 240, 241, 242, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 255, 257, 263, 267, 271, 273, 275, 276, 280, 282, 283, 285, 298, 304, 305, 307, 308, 341, 349

I only need 5 more shortprints and the rest are base cards, not too bad I don't think.  Sorry for the shameless plugging of my wantlists throughout this trade post but I'd love to finish off some of these sets before the end of time (December 21st for those of you counting down the days in your fallout shelters).  Now, go ahead and flood my inbox with sacrifices, trade offers!

Thanks Greg for the cards you sent, they were much appreciated and the only thing that was collecting in the mid-90's was the dust on mine and your collections.

Trade with Tom of Angels in Order

I was contacted by Tom of the Angels in Order blog about a stack of Orioles cards that he wanted to send me.  Of course I can't resist making a trade so I sent him my address and a few days later, a bubble mailer appeared in my mailbox.  Here's a few of the highlight cards and some random thoughts about them:

I can and can believe that I still need 1995 Fleer Orioles to complete my team set.  Hammonds was the best college player in the land when he was drafted by the O's.  Injuries derailed his Baltimore tenure leaving many O's fans to wonder what could have been.

This Palmeiro card from 1995 Bowman was the last I needed for the team set.  It's "diamond cut" so I'm probably going to be looking for an upgrade at some point.  I would have thought that Topps would have eliminated this issue by then.

Mike Mussina is/was my favorite Orioles pitcher.  Yes I like him more than Jim Palmer.  Sue me.  I've been thinking of sending a TTM to him for some time now but it looks like he hasn't been signing much lately from the looks of it.

Thanks Tom for nice stack of O's cards and the thoughts that were brought up because of them!

Announcement: First Ever "O" NO!!! Group Break

Announcing "O" NO!!!'s first ever group break!

I have decided to hold my first ever "Affordable" group break in the absence of Cardboard Collections for October.  I can only hope to do as good of a job as he does.  I'm going to do my best to keep the seat warm for him until he returns to work his magic!

This box break will be sponsored by the good folks at Baseball Card Exchange.  They have literally tons and tons of great unopened product, so drop by and take a look at their wares


So without further ado, there will be 3 boxes broken:

Box #1


1994 Topps Finest Series 1

I know it's not 1993 Finest but it's still a pretty nice box.  It has 24 packs with 4 cards per pack.  There should be at least 2 refractors in the the box since they fall 1:9 packs.  I also think there is a jumbo sized box loader inside too. I think I'm most excited about this product!

Box #2


1996 Pinnacle Zenith

This box of cards also has 24 packs with 6 cards per pack.  From what I know about the set, this was Pinnacle's answer to Finest.  There's some pretty nice inserts in this product.
There's a 1 in 2 boxes chance of pulling an Artist's Proof card (1:36 packs).
There should be at least 2 Mosaics (1:10 Packs) cards in the box which feature 3 players from the same team.
There's a 1 in 3 box chance at pulling a Z-Team insert
We should also pull one Diamond Club insert since they fall one per hobby box.  These also have a parallel that falls 1:360 packs that acually has real diamonds embedded in the card.

Box #3


1999 Sports Illustrated presented by Fleer

This should be a fun box to open.  I remember opening a box of these cards back when they first came out.  I actually pulled the cover boy (Kerry Wood) Diamond Dominators insert card which was a 1:180 pack pull.  I think I just recently trade that card to somebody here on the blogs.  I think at the time it was the most rare card I gotten from ripping packs.  From what I remember, the Fabulous 40's inserts were embossed and commemorated players smashing 40 or more homers in 1998.  There's also a parallel that is serial numbered to the actual HR total for that player.  Maybe we hit one!  The Ones to Watch inserts had up and coming players printed on foil board and JD Drew autographed 250 copies and they were inserted.  I doubt we'll find one but it would be cool if we did.  There's also the Headliners which fall 1 in 4 packs featuring the popular players of the time period.  There's also the aformentioned Diamond Dominators with hitters being a 1:90 pack pull and pitchers being a 1:180 pull.

There's going to be 14 slots.  9 bucks gets you one team of your choice and a team to be randomly selected from the remaining unchosen teams. 15 dollars gets you 2 chosen teams and 2 randoms.  If you want more than 2 let me know, we can work something out.  I will also give a dollar discount if you pimp out this break on your blog (this only applies until the break is filled, sorry, my rules.).  Also, I'm not going to discourage international collectors, I just may ask for just a couple dollars more for shipping.


All 14 slots have been claimed!  Stay tuned to this blog for the boxes to be busted.

Atlanta Braves - Dutch Card Guy - PAID
Baltimore Orioles - Ryan H. - PAID
Boston Red Sox - Matt Perry - PAID
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians - Baseball Dad - PAID
Colorado Rockies
Detroit Tigers
Florida Marlins
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels - Tom T. - payment pending
Los Angeles Dodgers - gcrl - PAID
Kansas City Royals
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins
Montreal Expos - Roy-Z - PAID
New York Mets - Doug C. - PAID
New York Yankees - NY Hitman - PAID
Oakland Athletics
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates - NY Hitman - PAID
San Diego Padres - Padrogaphs - PAID
San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners - Design on Deck - PAID
St Louis Cardinals
Texas Rangers - Roy-Z - PAID
Toronto Blue Jays - Doug C. - PAID

Since the Rays and Diamondbacks are only going to show up in the Sports Illustrated box, they will not be available for purchase.  Cards from these 2 teams will be randomed among the participants that do not get an insert or in the unlikely event we get a hit.

After claiming your team(s) and you pay, please send me an email (same as paypal address) with your name and address along with the team(s) you've claimed.  The sooner we get this filled the boxes can be ordered and subsequently broken!  I hope to have this happen the 1st or 2nd week of October though it depends on how fast this thing fills up.