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!

Couple packs from Target

Hey guys, finishing yesterday's stuff with a couple packs I got from Target before the movie. So, I got a pack of Updates & Highlights, SP Authentic, Ticket to Stardom & O-Pee-Chee, here's the results:

2009 O-Pee-Chee:
- Randy Winn
- Jhonny Peralta
- Jacoby Ellsbury
- Josh Willingham Black Border
- 2008 NL Home Run Leaders (Howard/Dunn/Delgado)
- Miguel Cabrera
- Josh Bard

Thoughts: Now I have the black border and regular stinkin Josh Bard mugshot card. Want it? All for trade, no intentions of building the set.

2009 Topps Updates & Highlights:
- Guillermo Quiroz
- Ivan Rodriguez
- Lance Broadway
- Ichiro All Star
- Ted Lilly All Star
- Matt Cain All Star
- Michael Young All Star
- Daisuke Matsuzaka Turkey Red
- Zach Greinke Topps Town
- Ken Griffey Jr. Season Highlights
- Ryan Hanigan
- Javier Vazquez

Thoughts: Not bad, I hate Dice-K after drafting him as my ace in fantasy last year, and he sucked, man, if I didn't have Cliff Lee & Justin Verlander. The Greinke is decent but the insert is not, the Ivan Rodriguez is nice, the Ichiro & Griffeys are cool too.

2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom:
- Hunter Pence
- Carlos Delgado
- Alex Gordon
- Andy Sonnanstine Perforated
- Alex Rodriguez Seasoned Veterans
- Jorge Posada
- Hanley Ramirez
- Felix Hernandez

Thoughts: Awesome pack, likin Ticket to Stardom so far. The funny thing is before I left to go to the movies, I was working on my wantlist, and I just put on the Posada & A-Rod seasoned veterans when I left. The A-Rod is nice, cool insert, but the only flaw in this is the stupid perforated cards. If this is a ticket brand then every card should have a ticket feel, not just one card per pack. I like the perforated's a little more because of that, but every card should be like that. Nice pack though

2009 SP Authentic:
- Matt Holliday
- Ryan Zimmerman
- Kevin Slowey SP Authentic Signatures Autograph!!! :)
- Tim Lincecum
- Alex Rodriguez

Thoughts: This was some steroid usin/free agent/pot smokin/horrible team good player pack! And an autograph! The A-Rod is cool to have, and the Slowey is an awesome pull, although it probably only sells from 5-10 bucks. It doesn't say the odds on autographs on the Upper Deck packs, so that stinks, but it isn't too easy to pull an autograph in retail!

Overall a pretty good purchase, happy with the results, I opened them in the movie theater. For $10 or so it was a steal. I beat the packsearcher!

Drew: 1
Packsearcher: 0

Lastly, you know the Topps complete sets they sell at Target with the Mickey Mantle memorabilia card staring at you in front of very thin plastic? Well, some idiots stole them all at my Target! I don't buy full sets but you must be kinda desperate if you're stealing baseball cards. Arg! See Ya!

*click to enlarge, sorry for bad pic*

All For trade except Yanks