2010 Tristar OBAK Box Review CONTEST!!

Hey guys, Drew back here, with my box break review of 2010 TriStar OBAK. The great folks over at TriStar sent me this box for not even a dime, absolutely free, so first off I just want to thank them so much for the opportunity to break and review their newest product. So, this is going to be a long post, so let's get started.

PRODUCT CONTENT
20 Packs Per Box
6 Cards Per Pack
120 Cards Per Box
11 "Hits" Per Box, Including:
- 4 Autographs (2 Prospects/2 Retired)
- 2 Parallel Cards
- 1 Mini Parallel
- 3 Short Print Cards
- 1 Cabinet Card

So, there's certainly a lot to look for in this box. The cool thing about 2010 OBAK is that only 3000 boxes were made, and there's a serial number on the front of every box. I just pulled a picture of the box off Blowout Cards, but my box was actually 0007/3000, lucky number 7! Will it be a lucky box? Let's find out shall we?

MY BOX BREAK:

T4 Cabinet Card: 1 (Roy Hofheintz- Created the Astrodome)

Interesting box topper. Hofheintz was the first franchise owner of the Astros and created the Astrodome. It's smaller than a A&G cabinet card and Masterpieces, and yet, still a pain to lug around the house.

Base Set: 90/117 (76%)

All of the following cards, plus 3 more base for a friend, and 2 minis, will go into my collection. That's it. Everything else is yours if you win the contests. The base set is cool, many exciting backgrounds, loving the one with Jackson/Heyward, and the Heywards with fireworks look outstanding. A lot of cool stories behind some of these cards. In this box we found cards of: Ray Chapman, one of the only men ever killed during a game, Ed Kurpiel, who supposedly hit a ball over 700 feet, even Doc Adams, the man who invented the shortstop position! For you history buffs out there, this is certainly a really cool box for you!

Here's just some of the 72 base cards I'm giving away, and as you can see, this is a set for not only history buffs but prospectors as well, with cards of future stars Starlin Castro, Drew Storen, Donovan Tate, Dustin Ackley, Kyle Drabek, Desmond Jennings, Jason Heyward, Austin Jackson, Austin Romine, and many, many more. I guess I'm starting to know my prospects because I just did that without glancing at the cards! Yay!

Minis: 15/45 (33%)

That is all the base minis we pulled, about 1/3rd of the mini set. They look almost nicer than the base in a way, since this is based off a vintage "mini" sized design. I'm planning on keeping the Strawberry and the Ripken is going to a good cause, again, everything else is being given away.

Inserts:

- Jason Heyward Circle Back Base SP
- Hank Greenberg Square Back Base SP
- Jose Canseco Circle Back Base SP
- Jeff Burroughs Black Back Parallel /50
- Eddie Cicotte Black Back Parallel /50
- Col. John Stevens T4 Insert
- Chick Gandil Mini Insert
- Smead Jolley Mini Parallel /25
- Jason Heyward Mini (forgot to post earlier)
- Hank Greenberg Mini Circle Back SP
- Jason Heyward Mini Circle Back SP
- Jason Heyward Mini Triangle Back SP

I'll tell you what, this is one heck of a confusing set. With Circle Backs, Squares, and Triangles too, plus the vintage looking Gandil, plus numbered back parallels make this hard to record on video, and you have to really take your time with these breaks. While very nice cards indeed, it's very hard to spot out the parallels.

Autos: 4

Reymond Fuentes /75
Jason Kipnis /75

Ok, I really don't know these guys, but from the back it says Fuentes is the cousin of Carlos Beltran, currently the 7th ranked prospect in the Red Sox organization. As soon as I saw Red Sox, I knew that was part of the giveaway hahaha. As far as Kipnis goes, he's the 10th best prospect in the Indians organization, which I thought was a bit of a push to be included in the set with these stars. Nice looking autos and low numbered which is nice, and you can win both of them.

Robert Nelson /125
Tim Raines /125

The retired autos were pretty good, first the weaker one in Nelson, who was a co-inventor of Big League Chew. Yay. The other is of former All Star Tim Raines, which is a pretty nice card and I was very tempted to keep it, but all 4 autos are being given away, so one of you will get this card!

Overall Rating: out of 5 Stars (Letter: B+)

Quick Review: While I haven't broke any 2009 OBAK before, this was my first test with the product, and I must say I was impressed. I enjoyed all the oddities in the base set, and all the prospects, in a very nice not overpopulated way. All of the different little subsets in the base set are spread out evenly, so it's not like 100 prospects and 17 retired players, which is cool. I learned a lot from this box, about certain players that failed to succeed in the majors but had strong careers in the minors. The only reasons why this product didn't rate 5 stars was because first, the different parallel backs just don't flow with me. It's very hard to open a box and notice the parallels that are only recognizable from the back side. Another reason is the weak autograph inclusions, seriously, we should have some higher ranked prospects than #10 in the Indians farm system and #7 in Boston. A small checklist should mean a strong autograph checklist, and finding an auto of the co-inventor of Big League Chew didn't help things. If we didn't get the Tim Raines, I probably would have made this a 3 1/2 star box. Not a stand out product, but not a horrible product either. It was a really fun break for me as a semi-history buff.

Now on to how you guys can win. There will be 4 lots from this break, each containing a similar amount of cards. Group A, B, C, and D, will be the 4 regions, and you will have to do 4 different things in order to win these groups. You can only win 1 group, but it will be randomized so you never know what you could end up winning.

CONTEST!!!!

GROUP A: 18 Base Cards, 3 Base Minis, Smead Jolley Mini Insert /25, Canseco Circle Back Base, Jason Heyward Circle Back RC Mini, Greenberg Square Back Base, Robert Nelson Auto /125

To win Group A: Please leave a comment telling me if you have subscribed to this blog. If you haven't subscribed, and you want to win this lot, please do so and say "Yes I subscribed" or something like that in the comments.

GROUP B: 18 Base Cards, 3 Base Minis, Jason Heyward Regular Mini, Eddie Cicotte Base Parallel /50, Jason Kipnis Prospect Auto /75

To win Group B: Please post a plug to this contest and leave a link to your post in the comments below! Just tell everyone to check this contest out, because they could be missing out on something they may want!

GROUP C: 18 Base Cards, 3 Base Minis, Chick Gandil Mini Parallel, Jason Heyward Circle Back Base Parallel, Col. John Stevens III Insert, Reymond Fuentes Prospect Auto /75

To Win Group C: Please leave a rating of 2010 TriStar OBAK in the comments below, 5 at the highest, 0 being the lowest!

GROUP D: 18 Base Cards, 3 Minis, Hank Greenberg Circle Back Mini, Jeff Burroughs Black Back /50, Jason Heyward Triangle Back RC Mini, Tim Raines Autograph /125

To win Group D: Please in the comments below, write up a little review of 2010 TriStar OBAK, with your opinions on how to change the set and make it better, and what you like about the product, if you've opened it yet or not.

Now that perfectly divided all the cards out, and we're left with one more. The Cabinet Card of Hofheintz, and what I'll do for you is whoever at least enters one of these 4 Group contests, will be in the random for the cabinet card. If you enter for each group, you get 4 entries to win the cabinet.

For a quick review, Group A requires a subscription to this blog, Group B requires a plug post for this contest, Group C requires a box rating of 1 to 5 stars, and Group D requires a little review of what you think of the product, the pros and cons. If you do it all, it will be your best chance to at least win one of the groups!

THE CONTEST WILL END EXACTLY 1 WEEK FROM TODAY, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH, AT 1:00 PM (EASTERN TIME)! I WILL RANDOMIZE AND ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS THAT NIGHT!

Now go out there and enter the contest! Thanks again so much to TriStar for the free box, I really appreciate the opportunity! See Ya!

For Ginters sake

Here is the link you want Card Cache,thanks for the contest! I'll explain how I did this when I get back!

http://cardcache.blogspot.com/2009/08/2009-allen-ginter-giveaway-complete.html

Huge Contest Mailday!

That will take 2 and 1/2 minutes to recap! Watch the video, if you dare!

Don't worry Mr. 30 Year Old Cardboard! You showed me what I'm looking for! (You'll know what I mean while you watch the video!) Thanks, See Ya!

Contest (not mine)

http://cheapseatsaints.blogspot.com/2009/08/time-for-cy-to-say-goodbye.html

Saints of the Cheap Seats is having a contest! Just post a comment on that link and write what great things you've done to help your community for a chance to win this...

A old card of Cy (not Young) Seymour!

You have to advertise contests that you want to win!

Well, I didn't want to do this but to win free stuff I guess I have to:

Check out Voice of the Collector's National contest, some good stuff he's giving away. Thanks for the Contest and I hope I win this thing!

http://www.voiceofthecollector.com/2009/08/contest-national-nscc-plunder.html

6 Entries for me!!!

Check out this contest!

http://tradercracks.blogspot.com/2009/07/contest-time-win-whats-in-this-packbox.html

A chance to win a free cut autograph!!!!

I'm gonna say MOJO a lot in this post

MOJO MOJO MOJO MOJO MOJO MOJO MOJO MOJO MOJO

There, that feels good but won't be the last time I say it in this post. First, I want to say that the new Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince", was awesome, and if you're a fan of that stuff, go see it. It had a sad ending but the rest of the movie was really good. I have seen all the movies so far, and the only one I read was the 2nd book. In case you didn't know, there are 7 books in the series, and will be 7 movies. This movie was the 6th and the final one should be coming out maybe late next year. So yeah, just wanted to tell you guys that and let's move on.

Next, I want to thank Jay from the Mojo Hand so much for hooking me up with 150 cards from the 2008 UD Goudey set. I won his contest and received the cards today! Everything was packaged well and was in great condition. I also won the bonus contest for this and received this card:

2008 UD Goudey Hunter Pence Jersey Card!

Some other great cards included were:


3 Hit Parade of Champions Minis


10 Sport Royalty Inserts


2 Base Card Short Prints


5 President Inserts


2 President Minis


7 Mini Cards (6 red backs including Sport Royalty, Victorino Blue Back)


And A TON of base!

So thanks Mojo for sending Drew Collector some stuff! I greatly appreciate it, and you guys, if you haven't checked out his blog, please do. In a couple days I will post a wantlist for 2008 Goudey, because since I have quite a bit now, I want to finish it off. So, wish me luck with my packs, I need it!

Lastly, let's go AL! We have won since 1996 if you have been living under a rock and didn't know, and my Yanks did pretty well. Jeter got hit by pitch and seems to be OK, and scored 2 runs, and Teixeira got on base. Mariano Rivera picked up his 4th All Star Game save, the most all time in the All Star Game. What a catch by Crawford also! I watched until the bottom of the 8th, and it wasn't all that interesting of a game, but that play helped things out. 4-3 American League Wins, Crawford is MVP.

And Pedro. The newest member of the 15 Day DL! and the phillies

Un-important Mail, BoxBuster Raffle, & Another One!

Hey guys, quite a few things to say right now. I just got home from another game, and I'm pretty proud looking at my stats this year:

AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB/HBP K BA OBP
33 14 1 2 0 5 3 2 .424 .515

My team isn't doing so well, but I'm having fun and I'm very proud of what I've accomplished!

Also, I want to wish BoxBusters a 2 day late birthday shoutout, and I am saying this not only because he's one of the best bloggers out there, but he had a nice birthday contest! All you needed to do was guess his birthday, and by saying quote in the contest rules blog entry, "Deadline to enter is May 20th", I guessed May 20th, got it right, and got into the drawing. Well, because us stupid Americans we are, barely anybody noticed this clue and not many people got it right. He threw in everyone, and did a random video. I happened to win the grand prize and got a free slot into his BoxBusters 2008 Playoff Prime Cuts IV Raffle, for a chance to win the box! For only $15, you can get a free slot to win a $200 + box for less than a blaster! Think about it, would you prefer a Hank Aaron autographed jersey card or a Kevin Millwood Game Used Pants? He only has 3 guys entered right now, and he needs guys to get in there. So, with my small fan attendence I've slowly rounded up, go sign up today!

Wax Heaven, hobby god as you may know him as, is reaching 1,000,000 visitors, and he actually recently did and currently he has 1,008,838 fans! He just finished a 5 part contest with a grand prize of a $50 DA Card World gift certificate! The 1st Contest was to win a 1/1 Ryan Howard Sketch Card from 2009 Topps, The 2nd Contest was to win a box of 08 Razor Letterman, The 3rd Contest was to win a 07 Bowman's Best Lincecum Auto, the 4th contest was to win either the Name That Ballplayer: The Ultimate “Whodunnit?” Quiz book or the 2009 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards 18th Edition DVD, and the 5th contest prize was to win a 2002 Bowman Chrome X fractor #/150! So, congrats Wax Heaven, and thanks for the contests! (I hope I win!!!)

I got some mail in today, just an 8 x 10 unsigned picture of Nick Swisher pitching to send out through the mail to him with, and it looks really nice, even better when Nick Swisher signs his name on it!

Lastly, I want to thank Waxaholic, another fantastic blogger, for subscribing to my blog. I hope you enjoy it and I really appreciate it. If you haven't already checked out his blog here is the link to Mr. Waxaholic's blog: http://waxaholic.blogspot.com/. It will be on the sidebar, and I will also subscribe to him!

Before I leave, I want all you Youtubers to check out my buddy's youtube account! He is always ready for more subscribers, and he has some pretty good videos on there. I will leave this link on the sidebar as well, so, check it out, and see ya! http://www.youtube.com/user/mattman2096