2011 TriStar OBAK Football Box Break! Future Contest Coming Soon?

Hey guys, Drew back here! So, just recently I got an email from my good old friends at TriStar asking if I was interested in reviewing their newest football product, Obak! I gladly accepted the offer and Dad and I broke open a fresh box of the product two weeks ago or so. As promised, here is my review:

Base Cards: 103 (7 Doubles)

Well, in case any of you didn't realize, this Obak product offers a ton of variety. You can find cards of people involved in any way with football. First off are the players. Going back as far as Sammy Baugh and going as modern as the all time NFL points leader Morten Anderson, it offers a vast timeline of football history. But not only that, but the set also features a card of Vince Lombardi in his playing days, and even cards of the people who invented certain plays and equipment, as well as famous team owners and Hall of Famers. One thing I also love about the set is the inclusion of former US Presidents, majority of them even in their football uniforms back before their presidencies. Pretty cool!

The design is simple, but I like how the photo is cut out and put on a random design in the background. It offers a neat look back at some of footballs greatest memories. By the way, I also pulled 3 cards with a gray back variation: Jack Chevigny, Johnny Poe, and Eddie Lebaron. I'm not sure what the distinction of those are, but I guess they're kind of cool. 

Box Topper: Emlen Tunnell/Charles Follis /25

The connection between these 2 players is that Tunnell was the 1st African American inducted into Canton, while Follis was the 1st African American to ever play football. I'm not sure how much of a fan I am of this design, as it is kind of boring to be honest, but it still serves as a cool part of the set. Plus, it's very limited, numbered only out of 25!

 
Minis: 23

I feel like minis have came a long way the past years. They started off as a cool concept, and at this point they serve as a "ughhhh another pointless parallel". Some people love them. I don't love them but I don't hate them either. I really think it would be cool if they did an Obak set in just mini form, like the original Obak cards. I feel like a product should be either all standard sized or all mini sized, because it just adds a lot to chase after. 

One thing I do like about the minis here is that the mini set is much smaller than the base set. At only 25 cards, I'm only 2 cards away from the entire set already! When you buy multiple boxes, it gives you plenty of duplicates, but if you're doing a one box break it's nice to knock off a lot of the cards without having to chase them around.

Green Base Parallel: 2 (Tunnell/Anderson)

TriStar did a much better job with the overwhelming amounts of parallels in this product. Last time I reviewed a box for them, it was a box of Obak baseball, there are an extreme amount of parallels in the box. This time around, I pulled about 6 in total, 2 being these green cards numbered out of 25 each! Not too bad at all. 

The last parallel was again a green parallel, this being a mini numbered to 25 of Earl Campbell! Not bad to have a card of one of the top running backs of all time with a low serial number and a nice design. 

On to the autographs! The first of the four promised autos was one of Charlie Ward, numbered 22 out of 50. Ward was a very skilled athlete, and was drafted by the Brewers in the 1993 MLB draft, followed by the Yankees in 1994. Also, he was a great tennis player, having played in the Arthur Ashe Amateur Tournament in 1994. But, his two sports he'll be remembered for most were basketball and football. While he went on to have a decent NBA career with the Knicks, Spurs, and Rockets, he shined in college football, winning the 1993 Heisman trophy. Definitely a neat autograph to own of a very good athlete!

Autographer number 2 was of another former Heisman Trophy winner, Andre Ware. Ware, along with Ward, is in the College Football Hall of Fame after his successful college career with Houston. He had a very rough NFL career, but will be widely remembered for his successful college career. He currently works for the Houston Texans radio broadcast team. 

The third ottograph just happened to be of the legendary number "00", Hall of Famer Jim Otto! Otto was one of the best centers of all time, making 9 AFL All Star selections and 3 Pro Bowls! He played his entire career with Oakland, and he was one of only 20 players to play every season the AFL league existed. The Sporting News ranked him as the 78th greatest football player of all time! 

And well, the last autograph was a bit of a surprise!

It was a 1/1 cut autograph of former Chiefs head coach and Hall of Famer Hank Stram! Stram led Kansas City (which was also the Dallas Texans at one point during the period) to 3 AFL Championship wins, as well as a Super Bowl victory in Super Bowl IV! His career coaching record put him at a 57.5% percentage, and he is considered one of the best coaches in football history!

This is my 1st cut autograph in my collection, and while I know I'm going to give away a majority of the content from the box in a contest coming very soon, this one very well may stay here with me. All in all, I'm a big fan of this product! I think it has a very neat checklist and perception, and for that I give TriStar a strong A on this product!

Thank you so much to my good friends that work with TriStar and allowed me this opportunity! Stay tuned for a chance to win many of the cards from this box!

See Ya!

August 20th White Plains Card Show Box Break! A&G?

Hey everyone, Drew back here. So, we're not quite done reviewing the card show. When we all got into the car on the way back, dad pulled out this box from his bag, saying we have a box to break soon! It was a box of the new 2011 Allen & Ginter! He got a very good deal on the box, and while I hadn't been overly impressed with the product so far, I definitely was excited to open the box. Before I get into the results, here is a little bit of product information, although most of you already know what to expect:

Part 6:

2011 Allen & Ginter Box Break

PRODUCT CONTENT

24 Packs Per Box

8 Cards Per Pack

192 Cards Per Box

1 Box Topper Per Box (Cabinet/N43)

1 Mini Per Pack

3 Relic/Autograph/Printing Plate/Booklet/Rip Card Combo Per Box

Look for a lot of Variations and Inserts

Alright, let's get into my box!

MY BOX BREAK:

Cabinet Card: Baseball Highlights- A-Rod's 600th HR

I definitely prefer these box toppers rather than the smaller versions, the N43 cards. As a Yankee fan, I couldn't have gotten much luckier than I was pulling one highlighting a Yankee's accomplishment. Never been a big A-Rod fan but it's definitely better than any of the others, for me at least. 

Base Set: 127/350 (36%)

Most of you have seen one too many Allen & Ginter cards highlighted throughout the blogs, considering it's maybe Topps' most popular release every year, after the flagship product of course. I'm glad that Topps put a little more into this year's design, as it definitely has a bit different feel to it. They look pretty nice in my opinion, my favorite card being the Derek Jeter card. 

Crack the Code Cards: 3 (Jeter/Reyes/Hoffman)

Topps used the weird borders for the Crack the Code contest this year, with each card having a different border design. Does anybody know if the code has been cracked yet? Just curious.

Hometown Heroes: 18/100 (18%)

Here's Topps' annual insert that dedicates a country, state, continent, etc, where someone grew up. I have to say that this insert set has been way over done and it's gotten old. I barely even look at them anymore, and just throw them into a pile. 

Minds That Made: 3/40 (7.5%)

Floating Fortresses: 3/20 (15%)

Ascent of Man: 4/26 (15%)

In 2011, Topps really went out of there way to make this product way more than just a baseball set. With all these random subsets, considering smart people, boats, and the history of man, it really kills the purpose of Allen & Ginter. The first couple years I did a lot of Ginter breaking, I didn't mind this stuff, but after year after year of random inserts finding their way out in trades, I'm getting sick of them. 

Baseball Highlight Sketches: 4/25 (16%)

I really liked these the first year they brought them out, 2 years ago, but since then they've really gotten sort of boring. The paintings, to be honest, haven't been all that great, and the design is a bit redundant. I pulled the Mark Teixeira card and then 3 trade bait cards out of this box.

Minis: 

Base- 6

A&G Back- 5

Black Border- 3

Here are most of the minis. The top row is made up of the Allen & Ginter back variation minis, and the bottom row is made up of the regular minis.  While the minis are the most realistic cards compared to the original set of Allen & Ginter, I almost feel like they are just more variations and versions to chase after. I guess some people like the chase, but with the ridiculous amount of variations and parallels of every card made over the past few years, it seems close to impossible to get every card you need to finish a player/set/team collection.

However, I was lucky enough to pull the base and black border minis of Nick Swisher for my Swisher collection! I like the looks of the black border minis this year over any of the new changes, because I was sick of the regular black border that had no style or anything to it. Pulling these cards of Swisher was one of my favorite parts of the box, because I guess it means a little less eBay shopping for me!

Mini Inserts:
Animals in Peril- 2 (DHole, Ethiopian Wolf)
Uninvited Guests- 2 (RMS Queen Mary, Waverly Hills Sanatorium)
World's Most Mysterious Figures- 2 (Kasper Hauser, Captain Charles Johnson)
Portraits of Penultimacy- 2 (Watson, Igor)
Step Right Up- 1 (Fire Eating)

Again, way overdone on the non sports stuff this year. Does Topps really think we care a whole lot about these cards? What need do I have for a card of a DHole or Fire Eating? I can even tell you that 9 of every 10 kids probably wouldn't care all too much about a card having to do with these subjects. Yawwwn.

Bazooka Back Mini: 1 (Yovani Gallardo)

This card was definitely a surprise, and without it I may have been a little disappointed with the break. It's a hand numbered to 25 card of Yovani Gallardo. Gallardo is having a pretty good year, with a 15-8 record and a 3.37 ERA. He's definitely one of the more underrated pitchers in baseball, and had he been more well known this could've been a better pull. That being said, if anyone has a Yankee Bazooka back (especially Swisher/Cano/Granderson) and is interested in this, please let me know.

Relics: 3

I guess we'll start from the worst to the best. Here's a jersey card of former Yankee prospect Austin Jackson. Jackson was supposed to be everything the Yankees were hoping for in a future center fielder, until they decided to ship him out to Detroit in the deal that landed Curtis Granderson. So far, he's shown a lot of promise, but he's becoming known as a bit of a strikeout machine. Then again, so is Granderson. But who would I rather have based off of this so far? Granderson. 

Next is a bat card of perhaps one of the hottest hitters in baseball, none other than Dan Uggla! I never had the idea, even through his terrible start to the season, that Uggla couldn't do it anymore. A lot of hitters this year, for some reason, can't even bat .200. I'm not quite sure what the reason was, but guys like Adam Dunn and Uggla, guys who were some of the better sluggers in the game, suddenly are averaging 2 hits per every 10 at bats! Anyways, lately Uggla has pushed the average up quite a bit, and still has quite a few home runs, with 30. 

Lastly, the biggest pull of the box was this Albert Pujols bat card! You can't hit much better than King Albert, as he's by far the best all around hitter in baseball. Even battling a lot of injuries this season, Pujols still leads the National League in home runs and is well on his way for another 35 home run season, and maybe 40 as well. I sure hope Pujols is doing what he's doing in a fair way, as it would really be a devastation to baseball if he was caught using performance enhancers. I doubt it, but hey, you never know.

Overall Thoughts: All in all, 2011 Allen & Ginter is pretty much the same as always, with a ridiculous amount of oddball cards mixed in along the way. I would say better things about the product had the inserts been a little less redundant and if they used some actual baseball creativity rather than some cemeteries and near extinct animals. Make a seperate set for that stuff if you really think its THAT necessary to include in your product line.  The design this year was great, the price is better than ever, the hits are decent enough, but there's just something missing from this product, or that it's just getting old fast. Overall Grade: B

Well, that'll just about do it for the entire Card Show report! I want to thank everyone as always for sticking through it and checking the blog out, I can't even tell you how much it means to me. And also I would like to thank my dad once again for all of the great things he's done and given to me over the past few years, and I know you'll probably read this sooner or later, so well, thanks Dad. You're the best! 

See Ya!

2 Quick Boxes of 1998 Donruss Preferred

Hey guys, Drew back here. I'm about ready to grind out another week with terrible weather, snow everywhere, tons of schoolwork, and the typical everyday boredom that goes hand in hand with being a teenager. The things that keep my hope up for a good week is that 1) March is starting and that's 1 more month closer to the end of school, 2) Baseball is coming, and 3) I have a TON of TTMs out! Anyway, a post I've forgotten to post for a little while, are these 2 "boxes" (or tins, whatever you want to call them) of 1998 Donruss Preferred that my Dad gave me along with the 2011 Topps box a few weeks ago. They have a bunch of these for sale at my LCS, and I was a little interested to see what was in it, considering I've never opened a box from the insane insert era.

Each box has a combination of star players on the front of them, with 12 possible combinations. The 2 I got had Hideo Nomo and Roger Clemens, and Greg Maddux and Mike Piazza on the other. The box promises 5 cards per tin, and a search for "precious metals". Wonder what those could be. Well, let's see what the 2 boxes (combined) revealed:

- Ruben Rivera (shown running the bases on the back, hahahaha)
- Jimmy Key (former Yankee!)
- Jay Buhner
- Tony Womack (former Yankee- cool)
- Lance Johnson
- Fred McGriff
- Mark Grace (Mezzanine Parallel)

The first seven cards are the standard base cards, minus the Mark Grace which is probably a parallel to the base of some sort. They have an interesting design, mostly made up with foil, like any other late 90's product. All 7 are for trade if you want them.

Preferred Power Inserts:
- Andy Pettitte
- Ivan Rodriguez
- Scott Rolen

These are pretty nice, very Finest-esque, and I like them over the rest of the cards. They aren't numbered, but they seem to be the main inserts. I definitely am a fan of the Pettitte card, and I'm keeping that one, but the others are for trade.

What do you think of the product? I give it a C, because it's just ok, and another one of those boring 90's products that don't provide the flair needed to be remembered. Thanks Dad for buying the boxes though!

See Ya!

2011 Topps Hobby Box Break Review!

Hey guys, Drew back here! So about a week ago, Dad bought me a box of 2011 Topps to break, and I got really excited! A week previous to that, we went to the card shop to see if any Topps was in, but the snow had delayed it. Nothing could top a fresh box though! Well, I know this is gonna be a long post, so let's get it started with the product information:

PRODUCT CONTENT
36 Packs Per Box
10 Cards Per Pack
360 Cards Per Box
1 ToppsTown Insert Per Pack
12 60 Years of Topps Inserts Per Box
6 Diamond Giveaway Redemptions Per Box
9 Diamond Anniversary Parallels Per Box
9 Kimball Champions Mini Inserts Per Box
9 Diamond Duos Inserts Per Box
9 Topps 60 Inserts Per Box
4 Reproduction Inserts Per Box
3 60 Years of Topps "The Lost Cards" Per Box
2 History of Topps Inserts Per Box
Look for Gold Parallels /2011 As Well
1 Autograph or Relic Card Per Box

Topps continues to have an addiction to plenty of inserts, especially to recycle the wonderful past designs of Topps history. That was supposed to be sarcastic. More on that later. Also, for the first time in a few years, we didn't have Turkey Red, which may have been a good idea to rest it a little. We've got a lot to break, so let's rip!

MY BOX BREAK:

Base Set: 251/330 (76%)

The base cards this year are ridiculously nice! A lot of bright action photos, many unique from one another, prove that Topps has obviously stepped their game up over the last 3 years or so. I love the Swisher card, probably my favorite of any of the cards I pulled, and only a little because of my bias towards him. I also really like the Brian Wilson base, mainly due to his amazing beard and intimidation he brought to the hitters in the postseason last year.

Gold Parallels: 5/330 (1.5%)

- Edgar Renteria
- Andre Ethier
- R.A. Dickey
- Ike Davis
- Andrew Cashner

A staple of Topps' flagship brands throughout the years, the gold parallels are always pretty cool. This time I pulled a few Mets, iww. I think these cards are more rare this year than they have been in the past, so they may be trying to increase the value of them.

Diamond Anniversary Parallels: 9/330 (2.7%)

- Mark Ellis
- Jonathan Papelbon
- Ryan Raburn
- Jorge Cantu
- Brian Matusz
- Mike Napoli
- Mark Buehrle
- Wade LeBlanc
- Rafael Soriano

These cards have created some of the biggest buzz of all of the cards released in this product, and there's good reason why. These are really cool looking, and while an occasional blogger hates on them, I feel that they are the nicest cards in the product. I didn't pull the strongest group of players, but I didn't mind Mark Buehrle and Rafael Soriano.

Black Parallel: 1 (Andrew Bailey)

Oh man, that's nice. Not too bad of a pull, numbered 11/60 of one of my favorite closers in baseball. The card is off center but I love the black border concept, so this probably will be a keeper for me.

ToppsTown: 36/50 (72%)

Topps, I know you really want to get kids involved in this, but coming from a kid (me), this insert set sucks. It's improved this year, I will say, but the concept, design, and boringness (if that's a word) is extremely stupid. I will beg and beg that these are gone next year.

60 Years of Topps: 12/59 (20%)

- Roy Campanella
- Frank Robinson
- Reggie Jackson
- Mike Schmidt
- Robin Yount
- Dennis Eckersley
- Greg Maddux
- Barry Larkin
- Mariano Rivera
- Alex Rodriguez
- Vladimir Guerrero
- Troy Tulowitzki

Ok, so what exactly are we supposed to do with these? Can't we just, you know, GET THESE CARDS? Instead of having to get some stupid "insert", either take this garbage out or put some buybacks in! I do like the Campanella one though.

60 Years of Topps Original Back: 1 (Frank Robinson/Brooks Robinson)

The actual card is nice, but the reprint. Yawwwwwnnnnnn.

60 Years of Topps "The Lost Cards": 3/10 (30%)

- Bob Feller
- Stan Musial
- Duke Snider

The difference between this set and the set I just showed is that these cards never existed. Topps maybe didn't have a contract with the players at the time or the set got cut off or due to some certain circumstances, these players didn't have cards in the sets they are shown in. The 3 I got I'm definitely keeping, I have autos of Feller and Snider and boy I wish I had Musial. I love the looks of the Feller card, I bet that would be a famous card if it existed.

Reproduction Set: 4/30 (13%)

- Babe Ruth (BOS)
- Babe Ruth (NYY)
- Honus Wagner
- Johnny Mize/Enos Slaughter

Apparently since Topps is the "Exclusive Trading Card of Major League Baseball", they won't have to worry about getting sued by other companies. Here they use a couple of the oddball sets from before their time, to show off some of the cooler vintage pre-1952 Topps. 1916 Sporting News was Babe Ruth's official rookie card, and it's extremely valuable due to how rare it is. We also see 1921 National Caramel, 1910 Tip Top Bread, and 1941 Double Play of these 4 cards. Interesting concept, but still, not really needed.

Kimball Champions Minis: 9/50 (18%)

- Ryan Braun
- Ty Cobb
- Roy Halladay
- Mike Stanton
- Joey Votto
- Jon Lester
- Stephen Strasburg
- Hunter Pence
- David Ortiz

Now here is a cool insert set. I'm pretty sick of retro designs outside of Allen & Ginter, but these are a hit in my mind. These are modeled after the 1888 N184 Kimball Champions cards, and boy did Topps do a great job bringing these cards back to life. If I'm going to want to complete any insert set from this series, this would be the one. The backs are really pointless though, and they only show the checklist and card #. I'll probably be sick of these by the end of the year because we all know how great of a job Topps does at making us throw up by the sights of a legendary product gone haywire.

Diamond Duos: 9/30 (30%)

- Ryan Howard/Jason Heyward
- Evan Longoria/Ryan Zimmerman
- Tom Seaver/Aroldis Chapman
- Jason Heyward/Freddie Freeman
- Ian Kinsler/Elvis Andrus
- Hanley Ramirez/Mike Stanton
- Carlos Gonzalez/Troy Tulowitzki
- Tommy Hanson/Mike Minor
- Joe Mauer/Buster Posey

Our wonderful insert overkill continues with a set that looks EXACTLY like a pointless set from last year, but even worse! I liked the Legendary Lineage series from last year but it got worse as it went on, especially in the stat comparison they give for these combinations. Ryan Howard: 253 HR, 748 RBI, .279 average, Jason Heyward: 18 HR, 72 RBI, .277 average. What kind of comparison is that? Really Topps? Tom Seaver: 311 Wins, 3640 Strikeouts, 2.86 ERA, Aroldis Chapman: 2 Wins, 19 Strikeouts, 2.03 ERA. Wow...

Topps 60: 9/50 (18%)

- Mickey Mantle
- Ian Kinsler
- Alex Rodriguez
- Carl Crawford
- Keith Hernandez
- Josh Johnson
- Adam Dunn
- Shin-Soo Choo
- Hanley Ramirez

Alright, these don't look too bad. Not needed, but better than half of the other inserts we have here. I think a good idea would be to cut down the amount of inserts per insert set, because when they bring these sets through 3 products as a continuation, 150 cards is a RIDICULOUS amount of cards for an insert set. I like the Mantle and A-Rod but could really care less about the rest of them.

History of Topps: 2/10 (20%)

By far the WORST insert set I've ever seen. I NEED these out of my house.

Diamond Giveaway Code Cards: 6

The concept of this is simple. Million Card Giveaway + Other Prizes= Diamond Giveaway. The cards you unlock with these could be 1/1 base parallels that you can order to receive in person. After you get your card, you get to dig up certain parts of a baseball field, and the parts typically give you a virtual ring, but you have chances to win more.

Of the cards, this 1967 Ron Herbel was the only card worth noting. But I did pull a sweet prize in the Diamond Dig...

Yeah, its a bad photo, but I dug up the 2011 Topps factory set! That means, for the cost of shipping, when this set comes out, I can get it for pretty much nothing! Wooooot! I may still build the set though, because, what else will I build for those months? I'm really pumped about winning this though.

Topps 60 Relics: 1 (Manny Ramirez)

Manny is almost never a bad pull. Having played a lot of his career with the Red Sox and now joining the Rays, I have no clue why I still don't really hate him. I guess I've always liked his personality, and while he certainly doesn't look like he's exerting a lot of effort in games, he has fun and plays the game the right way- outside of steroids of course. This isn't the worst pull, but the value of this compared to the box retail value is just not there. This is for trade of an equal Yankee relic from the new product, but may be negotiable for something else.

Overall Thoughts: I'm a big fan of the new base design this year, but after that, there's not a whole lot more that I'm excited about. The Diamond Parallels and Diamond Giveaways are fun though, and I hope to win some more cool prizes in the future. I think the vintage reprints and stuff really need to be cut down on before they wreck the love we have for some of the greatest cards ever produced. I wouldn't be saying that if they hadn't done it also for the "59th Anniversary of Topps". Also, the duo cards should go, because if you include them as a set based off another design, out of what I pulled, there were 6 insert sets on old designs or concepts. That is sad. Be creative Topps! Even though there's no competition between companies, there's competition between good and bad in collector's minds, and if it's good, you make money, if it's bad, you make less money. Make it good. Grade: B-

Do you agree with me? And what did you think of the box? See Ya!