Craving

As you saw the other day, I received a bunch of various boxes. Nothing of value to be expected from any of them, except for a ton of pack busting fun (yay, semi-junk wax !). There was some 2010 Topps (because it was cheap and came in a small cereal box), some 2013 Topps opening day jumbo pack (nothing to show from it. 2013 Topps was boring), a box of 2009 UD series 2, a 2016 SC blaster, a box of 1995 SC series 2, some 2007 Upper deck blasters (nothing to show here either, 2007 is one of my least favorite UD sets of all time), a box of 91 Upper Deck (one of my collecting goals is to get as many 90s flagship UD as possible. I could just go for the factory sets, that are as cheap as buying a box, but where's the fun in that ?). I also added some 93 hockey and football (all Upper Deck) to remind me of a time when I'd also somewhat collect those sports, but also because they were $10 each. I'll show those in a later post.

Though I wasn't expecting much in terms of sheer value, there were a few interesting things in there that will find their way into binders and trade packages :

When you buy a 7 pack retail box of Stadium Club, you expect a few cool cards, some parallels and the usual inserts, but don't hold your breath too much on pulling an auto. And even less a 1st day issue AND an auto (the Hunter Pence is a 1st day). And $3 a pack is in my range. It's the top of my range, but still my range. Matt pointed out to me that Nola was having a great year despite playing for the Phillies, so I'm kinda happy I pulled that on card auto. Jose Altuve is another guy having an ok year...

yay, holograms ! We all have tons of those, but I was surprised to see that in my box of 91 UD, there were only 4 different ones : Twins, Yankees, AL and NL. Go figure...

There were 6 Aaron header cards. 6 ! Not exactly SP

I've always been a fan of the Baseball Heroes insert set (and basketball heroes, for the matter. Maybe I should try getting those from other sports). It was quite easy and inexpensive to chase, and it looked good frames or in binders. Getting an almost complete set from a box is pretty cool also, even though I already had them in my collection. I'm glad I pulled an SP (the Ryan/Henderson), though I would've preferred the Michael Jordan one.

I did the mistake of taking a high numbers box. And I know it's not a good idea, as you get way, way too many duplicates from numbers 700-800 (as they put 3 times more of those in a pack compared to the other lower numbers), and too few cards from other numbers. I would've liked to pull the Griffey (I have one, of course, even several, but have never gotten one fresh from a pack), but at least I got the 2 major rookies.

There are some interesting photos in 2010 Topps. I wasn't around then, so I don't have much of them, but I can't say I hate the design either. There was one Chrome legends card per cereal box, and I'm quite happy with a Mantle.
The Pedroia is a little silly from my perspective, as it's from the 'cards your mom threw out' insert. Would throwing out a 2007 Pedroia card be such a bad thing ? (nothing against Pedroia, of course, it just makes me chuckle to think that anyone could believe that card has any value)

yay, 1995 Stadium Club ! I busted a box of series one not so long ago, but I still wanted more from that set. The inserts are great, as often (Ring leaders are awesome), and seeded only 1 per box.

But of course, as always, the photos steal the show :

One of the best Gwynns out there !

Next : the 2009 UD box. It was cheap enough (around $25) and I only have a handful series 2 in my collection. Not my favorite design, but the photos are still nice, and there were a ton of cards in that box ( they looked more like jumbo packs) and no duplicates. hich is good when each series counts 500 cards.

The Goodwin Champions are preview cards, and i'ts always nice to pull an MJ.

The box didn't promise any auto or relic so I really did not know what to expect (the joys of retail). Those are uneventful, but I was still happy to pull a Pirates card for my friend Matt.

I didn't spot that card at first, as I thought it was a subset (I already had the base card and knew that wasn't it). After turning it over and seeing 1995 stats AND the same card number as the base card, I looked it up. Turns out it's quite rare. UD issued 20 different base cards to commemorate their 20 years making Griffey cards. It would've been more logical to give it #1, but then it would've screwed everything up as they gave out card numbers depending on teams. Here, it's #855. There are some on COMC at $40 (ha !) but they usually sell for $10 to $25. Not bad ! It is headed over to our favorite Junior Junkie's, of course.

Finally, some Starquests, and I'm showing them according to their scarcity. The first is a black one (super duper ultra rare), then Emarald, (super duper rare), then Gold (just rare), then blue uncommon (what on earth is an uncommon ?) and silver common. Nothing too exciting about Starquest, especially since I really hate it when they make different levels of rarity for the same card. One parallel should be largely enough in my book.

Well, I busted over 200 packs in just a couple of days, which should take care of my craving.
For now