One of the Most Underrated Pitchers in Baseball...

Hey guys, Drew back here. The reason for this mid-day post is due to the fact that I'm home sick from school, with an awful cold. I guess playing baseball in 40 degree weather really isn't all that smart now isn't it? Anyways, I have a bunch of cards to catch you all up on, with this being one of them. 

Out of 2010 Topps 206, this here is a framed autographed card of Nationals starter Jordan Zimmerman! Zimmerman is off to a tremendous start for my fantasy team this season, going 1-1 in 4 starts with a spectacular 1.33 ERA! Somehow this guy, even though he hasn't allowed more than one earned run in any of his starts, flies completely under the radar as one of the top young pitchers in all of baseball. Perhaps it's because of the mega-star prospects the Nationals have in Harper and Strasburg? Or by their recent big additions in Jayson Werth and Gio Gonzalez within the past two seasons? All I can say is, this Nats rotation is going to be pretty darn solid with all the young talent they possess. If you can have a guy of this caliber as a number three starter, that's saying something. With a 14-5 record to sit them in 1st place of the NL East to start the season off, watch out Phillies and Braves fans. There is certainly more competition than you may have thought. 

I was able to add this card for only a few bucks, but it will go absolutely great with the Strasburg autograph Dad pulled out of our 2010 Topps 206 box break! Hopefully the tandem can be worth an awful lot one day. 

See Ya!

The Redemption Has Arrived! Strasburg?

Hey guys, Drew back here! I'm in a really good mood today, considering I finished my winter track season off yesterday at the sectional meets where I did fairly well, and have gotten a TON of awesome mail in lately! However, nothing topped this one. Last Saturday, I got a paper in the mail saying that a package from TriStar was missed, and I needed to sign for it. I assumed that maybe TriStar sent me a box to review, so I got a little excited, but on Tuesday, I realized that this wasn't the TriStar I thought it was. It was actually one of those tiny little Topps redemption envelopes, and I immediately knew what it was. I could not wait and I ripped the envelope open to reveal this beauty...

Woah. If you don't remember my box break of 2010 Topps 206, Dad and I pulled a redemption for an autograph of Stephen Strasburg. While I really wanted to sell it because of all the hype, I decided to keep it to remember one of the greatest pulls my Dad and I have ever had. My grandma bought me the box of 2010 Topps 206 from our local hobby shop as a gift for my 1st quarter grades, and here in February the card is finally mine!

Topps couldn't have done a better job with the design of this card, and it truly looks incredible! The redemption called for an American Caramels autograph of him, which would have been a sticker autograph, however, I think Topps decided that an on card auto would be more fitting for one of the biggest prospects of all time.

Now that I own an autograph of Mr. Strasburg, I hope for all the best for his career, not just for the sake of the value of this pull but for baseball as well. Thanks Topps!

See Ya!

2010 Topps Update Jumbo Box Break Recap

Hey guys, Drew back here. One of my bigger Christmas gifts was a box of 2010 Topps Update Jumbo Baseball. The reason I asked to get this box was simple, to finish off the complete 990 card Topps base set. I also would love to collect the inserts like I did in Series 1, but that would be very difficult especially considering the small amount of time I do have in the hobby right now. So for now the base set was the main focus, and if time comes around maybe in the future I'll try the inserts more, specifically Vintage Legends and Turkey Reds. So, lets see how I did, but first the product information!

PRODUCT CONTENT
- 10 Packs Per Box
- 50 Cards Per Pack
- 500 Cards Per Box
- 1 Rookie Chrome Refractor Box Topper Pack Box
- 1 Million Card Giveaway Redemption Per Pack
- 1 Gold Parallel Card Numbered to 2010 Per Pack
- 1 Tales of the Game Insert per Pack
- 1 Vintage Legends Insert per Pack
- 1 Topps Attax Insert per Pack
- 1 Cards Your Mom Threw Out Insert per Pack
- 1 Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Back Insert per Box
- 1 All Star Game Used Card Per Jumbo Box
- 1 Autographed Card per Jumbo Box
- 1 Manufactured Bat Barrel Card Numbered to 99 or less Per Jumbo Box

Well, there's an awful lot of stuff to see, so we better get started. Here we go!

MY BOX BREAK REVIEW:

Base Set: 203/330

Well, I did awful. 203 cards out of 330, which means I'm missing 127 cards! What the heck? So the cards look nice as they did in the past 2 series, and the All Star cards are fairly nice too. There are a lot of nice photos in this set, especially seen on the Matsui, Halladay, and Carlos Santana cards in the scans above.

Doubles: 202

WHAT!?! I got one less double than base card, and that is absolutely ridiculous! When you buy a box for a high price that gives you enough cards to complete the base set, then you should complete the base set and not have to sift through countless doubles! Wow am I disappointed.

Stephen Strasburg: 9

- 1 Base RC
- 3 Rookie Debuts
- 2 Merry Strasmas' (really?)
- 1 Turkey Red
- 1 Peak Performance
- 1 Topps Attax (not pictured)

Ok Topps, Operation Strasburg Overload is OVER. This guy was a big hit in the hobby, and all his cards were valuable, up until the injury. 9 out of 10 collectors knew that, if we gave it a little time, Topps was gonna ruin all of the fun, and guess what, they did. I really like his base rookie and Turkey Red, but when you go out of your way to make a "Merry Strasmas" card then you are most certainly over doing it.

Gold Parallel: 10/330

- Scott Hairston
- Ian Kennedy
- Austin Jackson (Rookie Debut)
- Conor Jackson
- Brad Penny
- Jon Garland
- Brian Wilson (All Star)
- Corey Hart (All Star)
- Brian Stokes (not pictured)
- Don Kelly (not pictured)

Yawn, these are starting to get really boring, all of them are for trade.

Topps Attax Inserts: 10/50 (20%)

Again, really, they had to extend this series again? ToppsTown and Topps Attax are getting really annoying, and they have no value or use in this hobby other than attracting kids. I like the idea of attracting a young audience to the hobby, but can you leave that in their own respective products? Nobody else wants these.

Legendary Lineage: 8/30 (26%)

These inserts have been one of my favorites throughout the series, and this time, a lot of the cards feature rookies compared to legends of the past. Of course the stat comparison really throws you off but I think they did a fairly good job at matching the players this time around. Unfortunately, this screwed up box produced 2 doubles out of these 10 cards, meanwhile, 22 other cards were out there still. Wow. At least I got the Cano/Carew card!

More Tales of the Game: 8/15 (53%)

Ugh, even Topps sounded disappointed with the return of this set. MORE Tales of the Game, oh man, could they just come up with new ideas? Out of these cards, the only one I cared about was the Ruth, but thats not even all that exciting. This was a great set in Series 1, but please, Topps, GIVE IT UP! Oh, and guess what, 2 more doubles!

Cards Your Mom Threw Out: 10/58 (17%)

You don't know how SICK of this set I am now! I'm sure I'm speaking for a lot of you at this point. First of all, reprints are lame. Second of all, we don't need 3 reprints for EVERY TOPPS SET PRODUCED! Do I really need 3 2009 Topps reprints? In Series 1, I built this set because 1) I'm insane, and 2) I liked the idea of having a card for each Topps year in order in binder pages, that way I could get to learn the sets better. But this set should've ended after Series 1. Unfortunately, next year, we have to see 60 more reprints on Topps' 60th anniversary, and that won't be fun either.

Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Back: 1 (Derek Jeter)

I actually have never seen this card before! Call me crazy, but I've never really gotten a whole lot of mid-90's Topps cards, and I never knew this card existed. Wow, I feel embarrassed now. None the less, its still a stupid reprint but at least it taught me something.

Vintage Legends: 6/25 (24%)

I actually kinda like this insert set. Maybe it's because it's somewhat fresh since it started in Series 2, or maybe because it's actually a pretty nice set. Of course, Topps has done this idea countless amounts of times, but this looks pretty nice I must say. I really like the Honus Wagner and Campanella cards out of this group, and I wouldn't mind trying to get both Series 2 and this set.

Peak Performance: 4/25 (16%)

The Strasburg card is under his own respective category, but any ways, only 4? Wow, something seems wrong there. This set has gotten extremely boring, and honestly, I'm kind of glad I only got 4 in the box. I like the Stanton and Strasburg cards though.

Turkey Red: 8/50 (16%)

Ah, finally, my favorite insert set, and remarkably, still my favorite insert set. You would think after all this Topps Mumbo Jumbo they've been doing this year, I'd be sick of this set. But of course not, it's Turkey Red! Again, the Strasburg card is above, and it's my favorite one I pulled, over Walter Johnson and Duke Snider by just a little. I also received 2 more doubles (Stanton, W. Johnson). If I had the time, I would love to build this set, and I'll try to pick some singles up eventually, and maybe that could be a possibility.

Million Card Giveaway: 10

Well, I redeemed all of these, but they got lost in my collection of 33 cards online, so I forget which ones I unlocked from this box. All I remember is that the newest card of the 10 was a 1983 Lou Piniella Yankees card, and a lot of the cards were late 70's. I did really well though!

Chrome Rookie Refractor: 1 (Felix Doubrant)

First off, never heard of the guy, and he's a Red Sox, so it's for trade. Second of all, I opened the pack and took out the card, and it was covered in dust! Has anyone else had this problem yet? It was really weird.

Legend Shortprint: 1 (Reggie Jackson)

Now we're talking! This card was one of my favorite cards in the box, Yankee uniform or not, I collect him! These SP's are done really well and I've always liked them, it's like a bunch of Vintage Legends cards based off the 2010 design. It has his full career stats on the back and it looks very nice in person! Sweet!

All Star Relic Card: 1 (Jonathan Broxton)

Not too bad, but certainly could've done better. I had Broxton on my fantasy team for all of last year, and while he struggled towards the end, he is a pretty solid closer. But, come on Topps, a workout jersey? What the heck?

Peak Performance Autograph: 1 (Johnny Venters)

WHO?!?!?!? For trade.

Manufactured Bat Barrel: 1 (Yadier Molina Black Bat /25)

Before I upset myself more, I wanna say that this card is absolutely amazing looking. Sure it's manufactured, but it looks sweet! But.. it's Yadier Molina. Sure, he's not awful, but I mean there are so many big names in the checklist and I get him? Oh man, it was one of those boxes.

I'm just gonna do a quick little overall grading, because this post is really dragging on now haha.

Overall: Well, I'm pretty upset about this box, not because of the poor hits as much as the insert doubles and pulling as many doubles as base cards. Topps really needs to control that, because I may have decided to buy more of this product to collect the inserts had they not jipped me in this box. I really wanna call and complain but I'm sure that won't get me anywhere. Well, I've gotten some more cards from this set, and once I knock them off my checklist, hopefully I'll be closer to freedom! 2010 Topps is a hit or miss product, it's got a nice design, and some very nice cards are in the set, but the dragging on of certain subsets, and damaged cards, does not provide for the top product of the year. Good job Topps, I guess, but certainly not good enough. Overall Grade: C+

Strasburg Auto- What Should I Do?

Hey guys, Drew back here. I spent much of last week thinking about what I should do with my recent crown jewel of my collection, a redemption for an autograph of pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg, a card that typically sells for between $200-300 as of right now. I ended up redeeming the card a few days ago, and now I'm starting to think twice.

I explained on the post in which I revealed the pull that since I got the box for free, I would feel like I would be taking advantage of my grandma to sell the card and make a profit for my own good. I also said that it's for my own good that I don't sell it because most likely I'd end up buying things that maybe I wanted more, but nothing that could touch the value of this card right now.

But now, my thoughts have kind of shifted. I'm a big fan of Stephen Strasburg's. I think the hype that he has/had been getting over the past year or so is fantastic for collectors. We now have that element of which we could be happy just pulling a standard rookie card of a guy like Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Jason Heyward, those kinds of star rookies. Before the mania began, we hoped for the ever so boring white and gray jersey swatches and sticker autographs of no name middle infielders for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and when we didn't get enough of that, we would complain and complain to Topps and Upper Deck in disappointment.

This has also been a bad thing for our hobby. Prices have soared on boxes, and the value of the dollar has steadily decreased in our hobby. People are unloading hundreds, even thousands of dollars, or waiting in an enormous line, just to get their hands on a card of this big name pitching prospect. This is almost as crazy as Beatlemania!

But now- this kid is injured. This kid undergoes a major operation on his shoulder, just because of a minor mechanics problem that has put him in danger for the rest of his career. Perhaps throwing 100 mph is harder than it looks! 1 Tommy John Surgery later, and now those same very collectors that dropped thousands of dollars on his Bowman rookie autographs and superfractor, are looking like the bad investors. Now people will be more afraid when the next big prospect comes up, perhaps when Bryce Harper has his first Bowman autograph as early as next year.

Getting back to the card, I've been having nightmares, of me keeping this card, and even though I didn't blow hundreds of dollars on it, seeing it in the bargain bin and then regretting my decision to hang on to it. But I already redeemed the card, so no matter what I can't sell the card right now, just the used redemption, which wouldn't sell for a buck on eBay most likely. I would never just let this card leave my collection if there wasn't a purpose for that, which is why I have a substitution that maybe I could get in an "exchange" for the Strasburg autograph. And that would of course be, an autograph of Albert Pujols.

This guy's scribble is much more valuable to a baseball fan like me, then an autograph of a pitching prospect that you'd have to gamble on. People are telling me that Strasburg's autographs will never go for a higher amount then right now. Now is the time to sell, all that stuff. The collector in me wants to keep the Strasburg, the fan in me wants a Pujols instead. This is my golden opportunity to get an autograph for no cost most likely, of the player with the best chance at breaking Hank Aaron's true home run record. (Barry Bonds will never be #1 on my list)

No matter what, I have no choice now but to wait for the autograph to arrive. It's not like I don't want the Strasburg, it's just that I might be able to do something better, invest in someone more worth it, with the amount of $ Mr. $trasburg is selling for. If I was to do this, I would have to wait for the right time to sell the autograph, which most likely would be weeks before his next pitching appearance, which could even be in 2012.

So, do any of you have advice for me in this situation? I really need advice on this, because I seem to be the only one that is agreeing with myself about this other than Grandpa Roy. Thanks for the help in advance, because I know I'll get some advice here from you guys. You're the best!

See Ya!

2010 Topps 206 Box Break- HUGE PULL!

Hey guys, Drew back here. I know, I know. Back on August 31st, I threw up a rant post on this set, because I didn't like the looks of it. The creepy mug shots scared me and the back variations were dumb. But, yesterday, my grandma took me to the card shop just for the heck of it, and she bought me a box. I got to pick what I wanted as long as it was relatively cheap, and I saw this, and decided on it over the new Topps Chrome. I had a great experience with the first 2 packs, the first card being a Strasburg and a cycle mini was found too. I kinda just got it just because I need to get back in the hobby, and maybe this could do it. Let's see how this box went...

PRODUCT CONTENT
20 Packs Per Box
9 Cards Per Pack
180 Cards Per Box
1 Mini and 1 Bronze Parallel Card Per Pack!
1 Autograph Per Box
1 Relic Per Box
Look for Printing Plates, Mini Booklets, Silk Cards, and original buybacks!

Base Set: 156/300 (52%)

Stars


Yankees


Rookies (Heyward!)


Legends

I am starting to really like some of these. There are many boring cards in the set, but the Yankees cards look good, and the legends/star players are awesome looking too. I love the Yogi Berra, Lou Gehrig, and Reggie Jackson cards! Also pulled a Heyward rookie, which was cool too!

Base SP's: 3/50 (6%)

These are the hat variations, pretty lame idea, but it is helpful to recognize it easier. The Musial is beautiful while I could care less about the Braun and Bays, kinda boring looking.

Bronze Variations: 20/300 (6%)

These look better this year, but again, they are so pointless! The Burnett is going to the Yankees collection (..unfortunately), and I'm keeping the Longoria too because it's just a really nice card. The other bronzes were: Jake Peavy, Aaron Hill, Chris Iannetta, Denard Span, Aramis Ramirez, Allen Craig (RC), Raul Ibanez, Marco Scutaro, Scott Rolen, and Jason Bartlett, which are all for trade.

Historical Events Minis: 5/20 (25%)

These are so boring, and I absolutely can't stand why Topps has to use dumb gimmicks for EVERY set! Tribute, Ginter, 206, what else? Really? I did kinda get a kick out of the guy jumping out of the burning balloon into the Hudson River, since the river is close to me. I might keep that but the rest are certainly for trade or headin to the campfire.

Minis:
Piedmont- 5 (Howie Kendrick, Barry Zito, Josh Hamilton, Clayton Kershaw, James Shields)
Caramels- 5 (Ryan Doumit, Roy Oswalt, Lou Gehrig, Akinori Iwamura, John Maine)
Polar Bear- 2 (Manny Ramirez, Michael Bourn)
Old Mill- 1 (Joba Chamberlain)

Fronts


Backs

I really like the look of the minis, when they aren't offcenter/miscut. Many of these have at least a little of that. Some of my favorites are of course the Gehrig, which is absolutely gorgeous, the Joba Chamberlain, and the Josh Hamilton. The rest are for trade!

Topps Personalities Minis: 1 (Chris Holmes- Topps Brand Manager) /206
Gold Chrome Mini /50: 1 (Wee Willie Keeler)

One is these is completely awesome, and the other is a complete waste of time. Great guess! Yeah, I love that gold chrome mini, and the other one, well, it has a picture of A-Rod on it at least. For now unless you have a Yankee, the Keeler is not for trade, but the other one again most certainly is.

Jersey: 1 (Kevin Slowey)

Ehhhhh, I honestly don't think he should have a relic card in this set, as he is just a decent pitcher, but hey, whatever, it's got a nice design and the pinstripe is always nice. If anyone wants it and has a Yankee relic for trade, I'll certainly take you up on it (no Nick Johnson, Javier Vazquez, Carl Pavano PLEASE??)

and our autograph............................................................

OMG!!!!! THIS IS AMAZING!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I PULLED THIS THING! That was certainly only a small portion of my reaction when my dad pulled this thing out of the pack. We always record on video for the heck of it, so when we saw a redemption in the pack, I immediately thought Strasburg. I was right! My reaction would've been crazier if it wasn't a redemption and I actually held it in hand, but still, unreal!

In terms of selling/trading, I won't sell for sure. I feel like it wouldn't be right to sell a card for $200-300 dollars when I got the box for free. If I sold it, most likely I would've blown the $ on something not as good. Trading wise, 99.9% chance you won't get this card in the mail from me anytime soon. Unless you offer me a Pujols and A-Rod auto or something crazy like that, I will pretty much say no. I really hope this kid pans out, because it would be a great thing for this hobby, and if he didn't pan out, it would be a tragedy for all the people who paid a lot of money for his cards.

A few things I want to mention before I give my final grade, first, I gave a set I didn't like at all a chance and cashed in for sure. So, you never know what you're gonna get out of something you may not even like. And also, I want you guys to think of me as a true collector, and I hope you realized that as I blabbed on about how amazing it was to pull a Strasburg auto redemption. I don't like selling, as a kid, I love making money, but I know that if I sell stuff I even kind of want, I still end up getting stuff I don't want as much in the long run.

So, I'll give Topps 206 a strong B+. Again this is not based on MY box, because people have gotten junk in their boxes too. I got VERY lucky in this box, so please, do not think that you can go buy a pack of this stuff and get what I got. It's possible, but not very. I see a lot of flaws in this product, aka, miscut minis, dumb hat variations, historical junk, and some bad relic inclusions. The cards are nice, and you always have a good time opening something like this.

Here's proof that it's mine in case you couldn't believe it too.

What do you think of my pull? See Ya!

Trip to the Card Shop - Strasburg!

Hey guys, Drew back here, and yes, I'm desperate enough to put Stephen Strasburg's name in the title just to get more views. Ok, don't click out of my blog just yet, there is Strasburg in this post. So crazy Strasburg collectors, please read on. ANYWAY, I went to the card shop over the weekend to blow $40, because I wanted to and I can for some reason. I actually had a $40 gift certificate to the shop so I just goofed off and wasted some cash, like most collectors do at the shop. Got some supplies, the new Beckett with Jeter on the cover (yes, Halladay is on the flip side of the cover but in New York they do show Jeter off), and then some packs and 1 relic. Yeah, kinda pathetic for $40. But whatever, this is what I got:

First off was two packs of 2010 Topps football. This was my first experience with it, and I must say it was pretty nice. In the first pack I pulled 2 Jets, the 2 I would take over anybody right now, Mark Sanchez, and my very first card of future Pro Bowl fullback John "The Terminator" Conner! I had no clue he was even in the set, you should've seen my face when I pulled that bad boy. Then my cool inserts were the Moss/Dez Bryant Gridiron Lineage, and a original back Cards Your Mom Threw Out of Joe Montana. Awesome.

The second pack didn't yield much of anything, just a Demaryius Thomas RC and a Favre "Classic Matchups" card. The design looks better on football than baseball in my opinion. The lone "good" insert (notice how Attax doesn't count) is an AP Draft Anniversary card. Very nice insert I must say.

Then I got 2 packs of 2010 Topps 206. Yeah. I did. Me of all people, tried some of this garbage. But now, I kind of like it a little. Me you ask? Yes. I kinda enjoyed it. Even with some creepy mugs of people with odd hairstyles. I like the Prince Fielder bronze, that's pretty awesome, and I pulled a Cano! Can't go wrong with Robby Cano "Don't Ya Know!", especially for my Cano collection. Also got a Will Venable "Polar Bear Back" (what the heck kind of name is that anyway, authentic or not?) and a Matt Kemp SP.

Pack 2 was schweeet! Haha. Are we missing two cards after all that junk? Yeah, we are.

Not anymore!!! Here are your left is a cycle back mini of Angels pitcher Jered Weaver numbered to 99, and to your right is the infamous RC of STEPHEN STRASBURG (see, told ya that name would come up again)! Wow, I'm so keeping that thing! The Weaver is for trade though. It's such a nice card, I'm even thinking of getting some of his Bowman rookies just for cheap investments, because as you know Tommy John Surgery does not equal the end of a career. He'll only be 23 right? That's plenty of time to win 300 games!

And the final card, is of a Hall of Famer, numbered to 99, my 8th card from the 100 card set so far, Ferguson Jenkins baby blue jersey! Pretty nice, and for a good price at that!

I didn't spend anything, but it always seems that I feel like I got ripped off, even with a Strasburg, which seems impossible. Well, nonetheless, got some nice cards, and a Beckett to read, so I guess I'll be back tomorrow with more! See Ya!