Christmas Cards: 2012 Bowman Draft Picks Hobby Box

Here's the last and favorite of my Christmas gifts.  It's hard to believe Christmas was 2 weeks ago today!  This gift came courtesy of my mother and father in laws.  They did good, real good!

I'm a fan of Bowman and all of the prospects that come out of the product.  I like to keep my eye on the future of MLB players.  Sure there could be some tweaking of the entire lineup of Bowman products but I still like it enough to keep collecting it.  I'm not really sure why Topps made Bowman Draft picks a hobby only product this year.  It always seemed to sell pretty well at retail as far as I can tell.

Without further ado, lets see what I got from the box:

Here's one of the 2 insert sets available.  The other being Bowman's Best.  These seem like a Timeless Talents/Legendary Lineage ripoff from Topps flagship.  Some of the player pairings are somewhat strange.  Utley/Naquin, Bruce/Cecchini, and Fielder/Tulowitzki seemingly have not much in common.  I didn't bother to read the backs so I'm sure there's some connection.  I understand the Hamilton/Harper card since they were both #1 overall picks with skills off the charts.

Here's the 2 regular standard Orange and Blue bordered cards from the prospects set.  Never heard of either of these fellows but you never know what they could turn out to be in a few years.

I'm a fan of the Ice parallels from this year's Bowman products.  It's hard to tell from the scan but they even have a refractor-y shine to them too.  The blue refractor of the Rockies farmhand might be the worst photoshop job ever.

I got my promised autograph in the first pack I opened from the box.  Talk about breaking the suspense early on.  I've had this happen a few times over the last few boxes I've broken down if I remember correctly.  Lucas Sims seems like a decent enough autograph to get from the product.  I already own a USA autograph of his from a few years back, but it was a band-aid stickergraph.  I think this box should have ended up in a Braves' collector's hands and you'll see why a little later on.

The box produced it's 6 promised refractors.  I couldn't be happier about the Sean McAdams, it's one less I'll have to track down on COMC.  The Orioles cards produced pretty  well as I almost ended up with an entire team set of the base set and quite a few Chromes.

Bowman is all about the Rookie Cards and I was hoping for a few nice cards the bigger rookies and prospects from this years "class".  I think I did really well in that regard.  Check it out, I got:

The Chrome and regular Will Middlebrooks,

Regular and Chrome Trevor Bauer,

Regular and Chrome of Kevin Gausman (for obvious reasons)

Regular and Chrome of Mike Zunino

Regular and Chrome of Yu Darvish

Chrome and regular of Bryce Harper

This box was veritable Who's Who of 2012 Rookies and Prospects.

Now I said above that this box was a Braves box.  Check these out:

The Orange Refractor on the left is numbered out of 25 and the Blue on the right is #d to 500.  I pulled these out of back to back packs.  Plus the Harper Chrome and Darvish regular were nestled in with the Orange refractor.  Hot pack indeed!  I'm not sure what to do with them yet.

So that does it for Christmas 2012 for me.  Now back to your regular scheduled non-posting from "O" NO!!! Another Orioles Blog.

Trade with Matt of DocHoloday.com

There's a relatively new blog in town called DocHoloday.com.  It's run by Matt who is a friend of Sam from the Daily Dimwit.  Matt contacted me about 2 weeks ago about some Orioles cards that he had for trade.  Matt said that Sam suggested that he try and trade with me since he has traded with me a couple times in the past.  I'm sure glad he did.  Matt sent me a really nice package of cards, so lets look at a few of the highlights:

Here's a nice looking Eddie Murray card from Lineage.  I'm still a little bit confused about the actual name of this parallel.  Are they just straight up "Refractors" or "Platinum Refractors"?

Well here's a card that I'm sure I know what it's called.  This is undoubtedly the purple refractor from Topps Chrome.  I'm a little puzzled why retail gets 3 different refractor parallels: purple, x-fractor, and orange.  Why don't they just do x-fractors and call it a day?

And here's a nice shot of Mark Reynolds playing baseball in the dark.  I remember as a kid playing t-ball in the backyard after it got dark and catching a batted ball with my face.  Also I've probably touched on this before but does Topps know that the Orioles have never worn Orange socks?  Do they know they can look up the official uniforms at Chris Creamer's Sports Logos page?  Do they even care that their photoshopping jobs really blow sometimes?

Thanks Matt for the great cards you sent.  Also thanks to Sam for sending Matt my way so I could get my hands on some new Orioles cardboard.

While proofreading this post, I noticed I asked a lot of questions that mostly only Topps could answer.  If anybody has any hilarious answers to the questions posed, please feel free to comment!

Trade with the Night Owl

Night Owl contacted me about the availability of a couple of the Topps Update Dodger Shinnies that I had pulled from my hobby box and retail packs.  I was happy to make the trade since we have made several great swaps in the past 2 years.  At first he said he didn't really know if I'd be interested in this card:

This is one of the Cloth Stickers from Lineage.  The best one out of the set if you ask me!  This is the first cloth sticker that I've actually gotten my hands on and they really do have a neat texture to them.  

 Here is the second card that the Owl wasn't sure if I'd be interested in.  Moldy is one of my favorite current O's and I really hope he gets a chance to shine as an everyday player this season.

 And here is one of the surprise cards of the package.  A Red Orange Refractor of Mark Reynolds.  Why must everyone's scanners make these retail exclusive refractors look like a super rare hobby only pull?  Anyways, I really dig this card!

Thanks for the nice package you sent my way Greg and I hope you really like your shiny new Dodgers1

Two 2011 Topps Chrome Value Packs

The Fiancee and I stopped into Target to pick up some birthday cards and also add a few things to our wedding registry.  We're less than a month from our big day and starting to feel our stress and anxiety levels rise.  What better way to relieve some stress by busting a few value packs of 2011.  I let her pick the two out that I purchased and I'm glad I did.  She always picks packs with the best cards!

I can't go wrong with an Orange of the best player in baseball.

I got a regular Jeter in the same pack...

I was happy to get this rookie refractor of Teheran.  I think he's capable of some big things and we'll be hearing his name for years to come.

 

This was the reason I let her pick the packs when she's with me. My goal for the packs was to get and Orioles Orange refractor or and X-fractor in them so I'm especially happy I got one for my growing Markakis PC.  Pulling this out of a pack makes one less card I have to scour COMC for.  The X-fractors look much better this year BTW.

Here's the other highlights of the packs in non-picture form:

Refractor: Brett Anderson

Orange Refractors:  Lance Berkman, Matt Cain, Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez, Carl Crawford

X-Fractor:  Chris Pettit

Purple Refractor:  Chris Young

Everything listed is up for trade except for the Markakis X-Fractor.

Topps Customer Service Roundup

A short while back, I bought a box of 2010 Bowman Chrome and had so-so results. I was shorted an autograph card until this came in the mail earlier this week:

I have never heard of him, but that is usually the case with Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs. Mets fans, is this guy a top prospect?

Also in my box I had 4 of the USA Baseball inserts that were miscut. Topps also replaced them card for card with better centered cards!

I also recieved in the mail last week my Red Hot Rookie redemption #2. Jose Tabata has a bright future in Pittsburgh and an even brighter future when he is traded away to a contender for prospects. I like this card because it reminds me of the Orange Refractors I like so much from this year's Topps Chrome.

I did hear back from Topps about my expired Nolan Reimold Finest redemption card. I got an envelope with the actual redemption in it on Christmas Eve. On the back it was stamped "Offer Expired". Oh well, you can't win them all. I was holding out hope that maybe Topps would give me at least a little something for the expired redemption. Here's to hoping for better collation in 2011!

Adventures in Retail #2

Just a quick post today. I ran into Target on Black Friday to get my 2 year old nephew a Christmas present. I got him the Rumblin' Chuck toy that's made by Tonka. Wow, their toys have changed a lot since I was a kid. Anyways, I had to stop by the card display on the way out and picked up a value pack of 2010 Topps Chrome. Here's the damage:

The base cards were nothing special save for the Mike Leake Rookie card. The x-fractors are nice but not really my cup of tea. The Markakis Orange Refractor wasn't a total surprise but it did influence my purchase a little bit. My fiancee actually saw the telltale O in the logo thru the front of the outer plastic sleeve and said I should get it. Good eye, babe! If you have picked up one of these value packs you know how they are situated in the outer plastic sleeve. I guess it wasn't a total win though because it's off-center and it has a blemish in the finish above his left hand.

This Daniel McCutchen Autograph was quite a surprise since they fall about 1 in 171 packs. I am really killing the odds with these value packs. I might get a few more for my birthday coming up in a few days.

Box Break: 2010 Bowman Chrome

I had been waiting for hobby boxes of Bowman Chrome to drop for while. I was able to get one delivered for less than 50 dollars (I learned my lesson with reordering!). I had never opened any of the product and I have always been a Bowman fan. I know there are two camps in the Bowman world, people who love it and people who hate it. I love seeing all the young prospects on their first cards, hanging onto them for a few year and digging them out when they make it to the Major Leagues. So you get 18 packs of 4 cards and one promised autograph card. I like that Topps changed the photos from the regular Bowman set. Nice touch, Topps! Let see what I got.

The regular refractors are really nice looking. I'm actively seeking the Orioles Team set. The Josh Johnson is my favorite because I like horizontal action shots.

My one insert was Topps 100 Prospects Jard Mitchell. The Kung Fu Panda Blue Refractor was a nice surprise, numbered 23/150. Blue Refractors fall 1 in 48 hobby packs.

The Team USA cards look nice with the white borders. I'm a little disappointed in the fact that they are miscut.

And here is my autograph card:

What's the matter? Don't see it? Neither did I. I did not get one in my box! I've already sent in the wrappers, UPC code, copy of my receipt, a letter bitching about how I was shorted an autograph card and why after 15 years of printing chrome cards that they still can't figure out how to cut the cards correctly.

I have a theory on why my box was shorted the autograph card. On the back of the packs the odds of pulling an autograph card are 1 in 24 packs. There are only 18 packs in the box! So either Topps had originally intended to make the boxes 24 packs or they ain't being no good at maths. Part of the evidence supporting my hypothesis is the 2 extra sheets of thick cardboard in the bottom of the box. Why would Topps "give" me two sheets of cardboard these days with many companies slashing productions costs? It just doesn't make sense to me. Anyways, I will keep the blog-o-sphere up to date on the status of my missing autograph card I was shorted.