Topps Owes Me Nothing!

For the first time in 2 years, Topps doesn't owe me any redemptions.  Here's a sweet card that finally came in the mail yesterday:

Its a refractor #'d 81/500.  Woulda been cooler if it was #'d 103/500.

Box Break: 3 Boxes of 2011 Bowman Chrome

I splurged on 3 boxes of Bowman Chrome when they went on presale earlier this summer.  For some reason, I've become enamored with Bowman Chrome over the past year and I'm probably the only one in the entire blog-o-sphere that has any interest in building sets of this product.  I think half of my decision is that I seem to have piles of Chromes sitting in my commons boxes as "leftovers" from building base Bowman sets and feeling guilty about it.  Also, I think I need a set building challenge.  Let's face it, building flagship Topps and Bowman sets isn't terribly difficult! These are going to be more of long term projects because buying cases of Bowman Chrome products is out of the question budget. Hopefully I can finds some lots left over on eBay that will help me towards my goal and then I can fill in some gaps with Sportslots and at shows.  So without further ado, here's the highlights of my 3 boxes:

We'll start off with one of the more rare cards from the break.  USA autographs are pretty rare in this years product so you know that a blue refractor is even more rare.  It is numbered but it's not that it really matters anyway.  Al seems to have a nice autograph at this point in his career (I think he is a high school senior and is eligible for the MLB draft this coming spring) but it will probably devolve into some scribble like most players autographs these days.

Speaking of scribbles, it leads me to my next mojo hit of a Canadian fella that will be tormenting the O's for the foreseeable future.  Does the facsimile autograph in anyway resemble "Brett" or "Lawrie" to you?

I don't have much to say about this Gold refractor of Youkilis other than it might fetch me a few bucks in trade value or COMC store credit.

This little sucker popped out of the last pack I opened  Wow, Orioles cards look great on the regular Orange and even better as Orange refractors!  If they weren't numbered so dang low, I'd probably have a couple more of them!  This one is #d 24/25.  I saw Ronnie play this past summer and he seemed like he doesn't like to sign autographs.  He just sat up on the railing while the other guys on the Baysox happily signed for me.  Maybe he just having a bad day or I went to the wrong game.

Here are 2 of my autograph cards that I was promised.  From the scouting report on the back, Swagerty seems like he is projected as a back end bullpen guy for the Cards though looking at his Baseball Reference page, he started and relieved this year.  Segura just got added to the Angels 40 man roster and his a highly regarded Top 100 prospect.  I will compliment each of these players on their penmanship.  It even appears Jean ran out of space and just meandered the pen back towards the start his signature!

And last but certainly not least, my redemption cards.  I'm not a fan of Topps' new bland design of these redemption cards.  It reminds me of some crap that Pannini would do.  Regardless, the refractor set of USA baseball card excites me a little bit and the Orange Refractor autograph of Jacob Turner is pretty exciting.  This is my second Orange refractor autograph of the year as I pulled a Sean Coyle from regular Bowman this past spring.  If there was another team that looks great as Orange refractors it would have to be the Tigers.  I haven't decided what to do with the Turner yet.  I might try to sell it on Ebay and see if I can turn it into a 1967 Brooks Robinson.

Overall I have no real complaints about Bowman Chrome this year. The cards don't warp up nor are they off-center.  They look great as always and the particular cards I invested my hard earned money in could not have been much better.  

If I had one complaint though, it would be the amount of cards per pack.  Across all of Topps' Chrome lines, I think packs should have 5 cards per hobby pack. 4 cards just isn't enough to make the casual collector willing to plop down the cash.  Don't get me started on retail as there are 3 cards per pack.  That's a buck per card.

In particular, I noticed in my 3 boxes that whenever there was an insert, refractor, or autograph, it took place of a base set card.  Why couldn't the "hit" take the place of a prospect card.  The prospect set only consists of 110 cards with the base set consists of 220.  If Topps can't add another card to the pack, don't short me a base set card to put in a hit!  

Here's the rest of the inserts and refractors that I will have up for trade:  

Refractors: 17 Granderson, 58 Hudson, 69 Hanson, 74 Hill, 90 Weeks, 106 Bruce, 110 Gutierrez, 121 C.Young, 140 Weaver, 168 Garza, 217 Cobb

Prospect Refractors: BCP121 Gast, 186 Brantly

Green X Fractors: BCP182 Sampson, 193 von Rosenberg, 218 Riordan

Purple Refractors: BCP136 Magnuson, 160 Cole

Blue Refractors: BCP121 Higashioka, 175 Lawrie

Gold Refractor: 166 Youkilis

2001 Throwbacks: Chipper Jones, Ichiro (english), Ichiro (Japanese)

2001 Throwbacks Prospects:  BCT13 Mesoraco, 14 S Miller, 15 Deshields Jr, 18 Chisenhall, 19 A Vizciano

2021 Diecuts: 4 Deshields Jr., 7 Ranaudo, 8 Allie, 12 Singleton, 17 Dominguez, 24 Turner, 25 Myers

2021 Diecuts Refractors: 3 Taillon, 11 Banuelos, 16 Tago, 18 Sano

Bowman's Best Prospects: BBP54 Singleton, 59 Archer, 60 M Perez, 64 Myers(2), 65 Turner

Topps Redemption Fail

For Thanksgiving this year, I present you with my turkey of a redemption.  Sorry but a Jed Lowrie autograph isn't equal to a Alexei Ramirez autograph. 

My Topps Prime 9 Redemptions

While I was breaking my hobby box of 2011 Topps Series 2, I pulled 2 of the Prime 9 redemption cards.  I got redemption cards #1 and #2.  The idea is that you take them to your local card shop during the specified week on each given card and you get a limited edition card of the player of the week.  Basically Topps is trying to drive foot traffic into the hobby shops.

My fiancee was nice enough to drop by the "local" card shop during the first week and pick up  this Johnny Bench:

I got to go back the second week and pick up this Albert Pujols (along with some 800ct boxes):

I'm not particularly attached to either one of them so they are both for trade.

Box Break: 2011 Bowman HTA Jumbo

Since I am a big Bowman Collector, I pre-ordered a Jumbo box of the 2011 iteration way back in January. I always enjoy reading the backs of the prospect cards and gleaning out which are are the true Major League quality prospects and the set filler guys. Probably my favorite section on the back is the "Up Close" section. There are always interesting tidbits of information on the player that any self respecting Jeopardy fan would love (I'm addicted to the show!).

I know a lot of collectors that arent' huge fans of Bowman for various reasons (crazy-ass numbering system, prospects that never pan out, etc...) but I look forward to it year after year. I'm not a "Rookie Card Investor" by any means but I do like to see the next wave of players on the way to the show. So, here's the goods from my box:

I got loads of base cards, prospects, golds and Chrome prospect cards. It's a good start on the set. Nobody wants to see anymore of these so I'll spare you. But if you have needs, let me know and I'm sure we can trade.

Chrome Prospect Refractors seem to be a little more rare this year. I got two: Chris Dennis, Brandon Guyer. Guyer already made the majors this year and jacked a homer in his first At-Bat.

Gold Refractor: Everett Teaford 17/50. I did get some color in this box (more farther down) so that's exciting I guess. I don't know if Teaford is a hot prospect for the Royals or not. They have so many nice young players down on the farm to keep track of.

The box also produced the promised amounts of regular parallels too. I got one Orange Border; Adam Dunn and three blue borders; Josh Hamilton, Michael Spina and JA Happ. No Orioles but I'll take'em for trade bait. I also got one International Parallel of Jack Shuck. I'm happy to see these back after a 10+ year lay-off. I wish they were one per pack though in place of the gold bordered parallels

I feel that this year there are a couple too many inserts. I like the Topps 100 Prospects, Bowman's Best and Finest Futures but I think I could go with out the others. I don't even remember the names they are so forgettable. The one notable Bowman's Best card I got was Bryce Harper. Again, everyone has seen this card before. It is interesting to note that this was my only Harper I got out of the entire Jumbo box though. I'm a little disappointed.

Printing Plate: Bowman Prospects Nate Freiman. Well what can I say about Printing plates... I just don't see the point in Topps putting them in products. Yeah they are one of a kind but I don't even consider them "Hits". They are worthless pieces of junk to me.

Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph Matt Hague. According to the back of the card, Matt is not a bad Prospect. We'll see how he turns out in a few years. First Base Prospects haven't panned out well for Pittsburgh recently. Rico Washington, Brad Eldred, Walter Jones or Steve Pearce ring any bells?

Orange Refractor Autograph Sean Coyle 2/25. This is a pretty rare card I believe. Leave it to me to pull a BIG MOJO HIT of an AL East rival of the Orioles. It's either dumb luck on my part or that Topps is swayed towards the Red Sox and Yankees that I keep pulling these cards. I haven't decided whether or not to hang on to this card or not.

Here is my third promised autograph card of the box. I don't get really upset with pulling redemption cards. I understand their place in the hobby. I know that the players have lives and don't have all day to sit around autographing cards all day long and that Topps has printing deadlines that must be met. It's a minor inconvenience to type in the redemption code or mail the card in but I think it's worth it in the long run.

From doing a little bit of research, I have found out that the three possible rookie autographs I could possibly get are Freddie Freeman, Aroldis Chapman and Lars Anderson. I would really be thrilled to get Freddie, happy with Chapman and disappointed with Anderson. Since Anderson plays in the Red Sox Organization, I wouldn't be surprised if I got him!

Well there you have it. I'm pleased with what I got but not overwhelmed. I didn't get a Chrome or base Harper prospect so I'll have to buy some retail to hopefully get lucky. I've already started my retail binge of Rack Packs and I've already got some nice cards to show off from those packs at another time.... Until then I will leave you in suspense.

Thanks for reading!

Finally, My Last MCG Arrival!

Topps finally came through with my last card from my portfolio today. I requested my cards to be shipped on 11-15-10. I originally got 12 of my 13 cards and today the final one showed up in my mailbox! I'm pretty pleased with the card because it is in really good condition considering some of the other beat up junk I've seen shipped out from Topps HQ.

On another note, now that I have this card in my possession, I'm considering ending my boycott of the Diamond Giveaway... We'll see!!!