Christmas Edition: 2014 Topps Update Blaster Recap!

Hey guys, Drew back here, and miraculously I have a Christmas post for you all! First and foremost, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to each and every one of you reading this, I hope you don't read this until later today and you're currently enjoying your time with your families, but since my holiday is wrapping up I figured I'd show you all how I did with a 2014 Topps Update Series blaster box I was given by my grandma! Enjoy:

Pack 1:

- Drew Stubbs

- Chase Headley

- Cole Hamels World Series Heroes

- Yoenis Cespedes ASG Red Border

- Kurt Suzuki ASG Red Border

- Masahiro Tanaka Rookie Debut

- Kyle Seager ASG

- Glen Perkins ASG

Pack 2:

- Pat Neshek

- Rajai Davis

- Miguel Cabrera Power Players

- Dee Gordon ASG Red Border

- Jon Lester ASG Red Border

- Marcus Stroman RC

- Tony Sanchez RC

- Jon Singleton RC

Pack 3:

- Paul Maholm

- Asdrubal Cabrera

- Chase Anderson Gold Parallel 1237/2014

- Michael Wacha The Future is Now

- Mike Trout ASG Red Border

- Aroldis Chapman ASG Red Border

- Drew Pomeranz

- Vidal Nuno

Pack 4:

- Mike Dunn

- Bryan Holaday

- Boone Logan Red Parallel

- Robbie Ray Red Border RC

- Scott Hairston Red Border

- Jason Bartlett

- Robbie Ross Jr.

- Adrian Nieto RC

Pack 5:

- Joaquin Arias

- Logan Forsythe

- Cole Figueroa

- Robin Yount Fond Farewells

- CJ Cron Red Border RC

- Rougned Odor Red Border RC

- Starlin Castro ASG

- Tyson Ross ASG

Pack 6:

- Chris Colabello

- Daric Barton

- Tucker Barnhart RC

- Jose Abreu 1989 Topps Mini

- Clayton Kershaw ASG Red Border

- Tommy La Stella Red Border RC

- Jackie Bradley Jr.

- Kurt Suzuki ASG

Pack 7:

- Justin Turner

- Aaron Sanchez RC

- Mookie Betts The Future is Now

- Kyle Blanks Red Border

- Julio Teheran ASG Red Border

- Jon Singleton Rookie Debut

- Jon Lester ASG

- Yoenis Cespedes ASG

Pack 8:

- Roger Bernadina

- Ryan Wheeler

- Martin Prado

- Sergio Romo Power Players

- Chris Sale ASG Red Border

- Todd Frazier ASG Red Border

- Eddie Butler RC

- Dee Gordon ASG

Pack 9:

- Eric Chavez

- Delmon Young

- Manny Ramirez World Series Heroes

- Miguel Cabrera ASG Red Border

- Jose Abreu ASG Red Border

- Jake Peavy

- Allen Craig

- Aroldis Chapman ASG

Pack 10:

- Dustin Ackley

- Doug Fister

- Seth Smith

- Roenis Elias Red Border RC

- Erisbel Arruebarrena Red Border RC

- Brendan Ryan

- Scott Hairston

- Mike Trout ASG

Commemorative Patch: David Ortiz

Thoughts - 

Boy, it was a lot of fun to open some packs on Christmas Eve! I remember always asking for high end boxes to open every Christmas for a few year span, and while my priorities have since changed (be on the lookout for something soon!), the fun of box busting will never truly disappear. The Ortiz patch card appears to be on the move because it needs to get out of my house, but otherwise if anyone is interested in any specific cards I'll certainly be open to discussing a trade! My favorite pull of the box was either the Jose Abreu mini card or the Masahiro Tanaka Rookie Debut; both of which will remain in my PC. 

On that note, Merry Christmas everyone, have a great rest of your day and I'll talk to you all soon! Thank you to my Nonnie for the fun gift!

See Ya!

WalMart Stop: Series 2 Blaster + Value Box Break!

Hey guys, Drew back here. About a week or so ago, right before I left for New Hampshire, we stopped at Wal-Mart for some groceries and other stuff. I hit up the card aisle and walked home with a blaster of the new 2011 Topps Series 2 baseball, as well as the collector's recent hit, the Topps "Value Box". I haven't bought much of anything new card wise this year, but I definitely wanted to check out the new series as well as the recent rave over the actual "value" in the Value Boxes. Take a look at how I did:

I first tried out the series 2 blaster box, and here were just a few of the notable base cards. I didn't pull a single notable American League player, and if you may have noticed, this blaster was filled with stars of the NL East! My favorite base card I pulled was either the pumped up Huston Street or the Jose Reyes. The cards look pretty good as always, but there still was a lot of typical, boring pictures.

Also, a staple in the Wal-Mart Topps products is now the black back cards, where only the player is shown in color but the rest of the card, including the border, is black. I pulled some decent ones in the 2 packs that are like this, but none that I really want to hang on to. 

Next were some of Topps' inserts, many of them have already been extremely overdone. But, wait, is that shiny I see? Topps introduced the "Diamond Stars" insert in this series, and I pulled Ichiro and Ryan Howard. I actually really like the looks of these cards, but everything else is very boring and redundant. 

Hey look, more reprinted boring cards! Sigh. When will Topps learn that I really don't reprints of cards from the past 10 years. Next year, I will get on my knees and pray that us collectors won't be fooled again! 

Next is by far my favorite insert of the year, the new Kimball Champions set. While Series 1 was mostly devoted to current players minus a few legends, Series 2 is all former greats of the game. As you can see, I pulled some pretty good ones, in Ruth, Maris, and Robinson! 

Next are the parallels, which are pretty nice. The gold cards are getting very bland and unexciting now, and while Topps thinks its a great idea and a tradition, it's old, and boring, like that sandwich you'd find in your locker on the last day of school that's been rotting there for months. The diamond cards are new and very nice looking, but I sure hope after this year is over that they won't go back and make another "tradition" of them.

Finally, my commemorative patch pull was of Athletics pitcher Brett Anderson. I don't quite get these cards very well. If you're going to feature an old school logo, this being from the 1967 A's, why wouldn't you feature a player from that team? The patch looks cool, but throwing Anderson on there does not quite make sense to me. Oh well, I guess you win some and lose some, especially in this hobby. 

After a very "meh" blaster, we move on to the value box. In this box you get 5 packs of 2011 Topps Series 1, as well as two packs of this year's Topps Heritage, 2 diamond giveaway code cards loose in the container, and a Legend Chrome Refractor.

Also included is this MLB Collector's Guide, which brings collectors through every year of Topps' history, spanning a different star player for each year. It's a great way to teach the younger audience about the hobby, in case you were looking in getting a son or someone you know interested in the hobby. 

I know you are all sick of seeing these same Series 1 cards over and over again, but 1 thing I do want to tell you is if you need help with your Topps set, send me a wantlist and I can help you out, because, since I won the factory set, most, if not all of my base are for trade. 

My chrome refractor turned out to be of Jackie Robinson, rather than Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle. While I would have much preferred one of the Yankees, you can't not like a card of Jackie Robinson. The card looks beautiful under a light, with great reflection and shine to it. If anyone has a Mantle or Ruth I would trade this for it though.

Here are the same old inserts as always, with a Toppstown in each pack (didn't scan Mike Stanton), and some diamond inserts of Brandon Morrow and Billy Wagner. 

Minus the lower group of cards in this scan, here are the better looking inserts I pulled. I love the Mantle "The Lost Years" insert, and I wish that was a real card and not just a made up insert. The Rivera Kimball Champions is a favorite of mine as well, definitely staying in my collection for a while. The Diamond Giveaways were all accumulated through both boxes, and there were 4 total. I was hoping to pull a Diamond card but instead I pulled a few cards from 1973, Danny Cater and Alex Johnson. 

While the flagship product didn't treat me overly well, Topps Heritage certainly did. In the 2 packs, I pulled a Then and Now insert of Mantle and Fielder, as well as some star players and solid rookies. 

I got very lucky in one of the Heritage packs as well, pulling this bat card of Jacoby Ellsbury! Talk about some good value! Ellsbury has been excellent this year for Boston, and it's a pretty good pull if you ask me. It's for trade for any Yankee though, since you all should know how I feel about Boston!

All in all, the value box, which was $5 less than the blaster, certainly had more value than the blaster, so keep that in mind the next time you visit a retail store. Again, most every card that isn't of a Yankee is for trade, so please contact me at yanks1996wsc@gmail.com. For most of the base/inserts I'd be interested in trading for anything in my wantlist on the sidebar. Thanks everyone!

See Ya!

2008 UD SP Legendary Cuts Box Break Part 1

Hey guys, Drew back here, with the final box of my birthday breaks. My dad felt bad for me after the Sweet Spot Classic box so he bought me a box of 2009 Signature Stars. I didn't really want that, so we took it back and got this. Lucky us! Here's the product info...

PRODUCT CONTENT

12 Packs Per Box
4 Cards Per Pack
48 Cards Per Box
6 Yankee Stadium Legacy Cards Per Box
1 Numbered SP per Box
4 Game Used Memorabilia Cards Per Box
2 Autographs Per Case
1 Cut Autograph per Case

MY BOX BREAK:

Base Set: 41/100

The base design is classic for sure in this set, I love how the headshots accompany the black and white action shot. This is one of my favorite sets I must say, and I might try to build the set.

Yankee Stadium Legacy: 6/7,000

What a huge set, they're getting very boring. I must have at least 100-150 of these. I like the Gehrig and DiMaggio's though.

Base Short Print: 1/100 (Andrew Jackson /550)

Nice card of a cool old President, and it's for trade.

Destination Stardom Jersey: 1 (Russell Martin)

Already gone! Not a great first hit.

Destined for History Jersey: 1 (Adam Dunn w/pinstripe)

This is a pretty nice box, pulled 2 Adam Dunn hits in 4 boxes, I like the pinstripe though.

Generations Dual Memorabilia: 1 (Mattingly/Helton)

This is where this box starts getting good. First, a nice hit for my Yankees PC, a dual bat/jersey of Don Mattingly and also Todd Helton. A pretty good pull I must say. But it gets better...

Legendary Memorabilia: 1 (ROBERTO CLEMENTE /99!!!)

WOW!!! I'm still shocked I pulled this! I love this card, and it's one of the top jersey cards of my collection! This is an awesome card, pretty sure it books from $40-50! But wait... there's more...

Memorable Moments 1/1 Insert: 1 (Torii Hunter!)

What a great decision to take back Signature Stars! My first 1/1 ever pulled! The card has nothing spectacular but it's a 1/1 and it's a sweet pull. This card has to book for around $30, and again, I'm not a big fan of BV, just like to see how much they go for!

Wow... what an awesome box! Let me know what you think! Part 2 is coming up soon, and See Ya!

CONTEST!!! 2010 Tristar TNA The New Era Blaster

Hey guys, Drew back here. Today we have a very special blaster box break provided to me by Tristar. I've been talking with them for a while now about sponsoring and there is a good chance that I will soon sponsor the company full time. So, I was very excited to hear that they wanted to send me some of their new TNA The New Era cards.

Here are the pictures of all 24 cards in this blaster:

Now, since I agreed to review the product, here are the pros and cons of the product:

PROS-

1: Cool Photography, A few of the cards had some boring posed shots, but most of them had a lot of cool action and I enjoyed the break. I like the Abyss and Amazing Red cards the best, they have awesome pictures.

2: Design, Well, the design is ok. It could be a pro or con, because it does look a little dull but good enough. The foil on the autograph card adds a little more style so it looks pretty good overall.

CONS-

1: Sticker Autos, This is certainly an issue we have throughout the Blogosphere, so I figured I'd address it first and foremost. It doesn't look that bad but on card would be much cooler.

2: Too Much Packaging for Too Little Cards, Honestly, we don't need a huge blaster for one pack of 24 cards, maybe the size of one of those Topps cereal boxes would help.

Well, that's all I really have to say about the product, I'm not a big TNA guy by any means, but I did recognize some of the names. I'm planning on keeping 1 Hulk Hogan and 1 Ric Flair card, but I have 2 little mini contests for you all.

Contest 1: For all of the base cards in the blaster (other than the 2 I said I'm keeping), please give me a letter grade of this product (A, A+, B, C, you know).

Contest 2: For the Autograph of Star Wrestler/Fighter Dr. Stevie, explain what you like and don't like about the product. It doesn't have to be long, but maybe 2-3 sentences.

Ok, so PLEASE comment on this post if you want in, who doesn't like free cards? The contest ends next Friday at 10:00 PM!!! If I'm busy, I'll random it off Saturday morning. I know not many of you are here to see TNA cards, more towards baseball, but hey, maybe you'll like to have them!

Thanks Tristar so much for the blaster, and See Ya!

2010 Upper Deck Blaster Break

Hey guys, Drew back here. I have had so much work and other things going on in school lately that I haven't had much time to post. I had a project due yesterday, an essay, a quiz, and a test, not to mention the final day of the 3rd quarter. There is no way I could post through that mess. Anyway, I got this blaster for Easter from my parents, and we were hoping that we wouldn't have to deal with this again. Speaking of, no word from Upper Deck yet, but I understand why. Here is the break, check it out:

First, just a few base highlights. Only 1 Yankee was pulled in this entire box, and since it was Jonathan Albaledejo, that is pretty pathetic. Got Pence (who is sucking it up for my fantasy team so far), Braun, Halladay, Kung Fu Panda, Porcello, Han-Ram, and Aaron Hill. Not too bad, especially since most Upper Deck blasters have a ton of nobodies.

A few checklists and Ballparks. Got Wrigley and Fenway, 2 stadiums I want to visit at some point. Nothing much interesting else here.

Star rookies of Buster Posey, Drew Stubbs, and Tyler Colvin is a nice group. I am starting to like the Biographies, UD used good photos and they selected some cool things. The Randy Johnson one is awesome!

Wow, so far I think I've opened 20 retail packs and 2 hobby packs of this stuff, and the SAME Celebrity Predictors keep popping up. I now have 2 Chris Martin/Paltrow cards, and 2 Pattinson/Stewart junkies too. The Vintage cards are pretty nice though, Greinke and Kinsler aren't bad pulls by any means.

These inserts are pretty nice. Pure Heat is cool, the Beckett is most certainly for trade, but yeah, it's a pretty cool design. The Supremes are ok, I'm kinda so-so on these, kinda boring looking, even if it's shiny and scans horribly. And All World is really nice, I like these the best out of the 3. All 3 of these are for trade as well as almost everything in this break (not the hit). Speaking of hits......

THE BIG "MOJO" HIT IS....

Nice! King Felix jersey swatch! That's pretty cool, especially since he's a star on both of my fantasy teams. Even if it's gray, at least there is a relic this time, and he's an awesome pitcher.

Much better quality in this blaster, though not really many Yankees to add to the collection. See Ya!

2010 Upper Deck Blaster Box

Hey guys, Drew back here, I opened a blaster of Upper Deck on Valentines Day, but Upper Deck appeared to show me no love or affection, here is a recap, with a reason why:

4 Yankees

We'll start this recap with great and end it with ugly. I have 2 Swishers now which is cool, and the Jeter is awesome looking, one of my favorites of him I must say. The Phil Coke is ok, it doesn't say anything about him being traded to the Tigers though, but it's nice to see him where he belongs. Lastly, a great shot of Teixeira, he's gonna have another big year I hope!

4 "Star" Rookies

Well, since Upper Deck doesn't have a license, the new rookie card logo needed to be created, and it is REALLY ugly. And, if anyone knows who these "stars" are please let me know. Thanks

4 Checklists

This pictures are ok, but from what I assume, they're probably the same pictures as the profile mugshot on the bottom of their base card. Is that Tony Gwynn? Well, I guess Upper Deck wants to fool collectors by not putting the "Jr." at the end of it.

3 Ballparks

I actually am a fan of these cards, see post below this for more additional info. The Yankee Stadium card is a favorite here, and I think they did ok showcasing the ballparks.

5 Biography Inserts

Design: D, Highlights: B, Photography: B+. Kinda boring unless you pull an interesting one, similar to Topps' History of the Game inserts. The Sheffield is my favorite probably, I like the horizontal photo.

2 Portraits Inserts

Iwwww. These cards are just plain awful.

2 Celebrity Predictors Inserts

This subset has it's ups and downs, I like the concept and theme, but I hate the perforated thing in between the 2 pictures and how it doesn't show the name. Many will argue these shouldn't be in here period, but there are a few funny ones, so I don't mind.

1 All World

One of my favorites from this set again, just, the things on the top and bottom left corners are odd.

1 Gold Card

No idea why, but these cards sell for a high price on the secondary market. I have NO idea who Paul Janish is, nor do I care. But I know someone who might...

AND THE BIG OVERPRICED AMAZING HIT IS.......

HUH?

Take a look at this card for a second, let me zoom it in:



I DON'T SEE ANYTHING!!!!

This card really annoys me, and I contacted Upper Deck, I hope I can get something cool in return. And that concludes another installment of why Topps is better than Upper Deck. Good night everybody