2018 Topps Chrome Blaster Break (from the wife!)

My wife stated a day or two ago that she got me a present so she could get free shipping on an Amazon item. She did not give a hint as to what it was. I know we did the obligatory walmart/target search for a blaster or 2 but came up empty. I never really expect to hit anything much for 20 dollars but like to see the cards and hopefully get a Phillies player or two.

I didn't scan the base cards. The blasters come with an extra pack with 4 sepia refractors. The best of those is a Jose Ramirez.

Hit 2 insert Hoskins! Was already pretty happy with the blaster after that and had one pack left.

Boom! Blue wave auto of Austin Hays! For blasters the blue wave come 1 in 1,525 packs. 16 blaster boxes per case, 7 packs per box, roughly 13-14 cases per blue wave auto! Pretty fun to hit such a long odds card.

Thanks Wife! and Thanks for reading!

2014 Topps Chrome Plate!

I've been fairly active on ebay picking up some odds and ends and some rare cards when they pop up. One such purchase is this one of one (four?) printing plate from 2014 Topps Chrome. For those of you that follow the blog and for those of you just stopping by I collect Ryan Howard and have a couple of rainbows including the 2014 Topps Chrome one. (including the Superfractor) I've yet to complete all of the plates but one day!

Pretty nice Yellow printing plate. I've only personally pulled 2 plates myself in all my years of ripping packs. A Adam Dunn from 2011 Topps Chrome and a McCutchen mini plate from Ginter (since traded) (still have the Dunn if anyone out there is a supercollector).

I suppose this is my 13th plate. Never really kept track cause I don't always actively seek them. On my way to becoming a Ryan Howard print shop one day!

Thanks for reading!

A rare relic -- 2017 Topps Opening Day

I opened a bunch of blister packs for the purples Opening day a while back from 2017. I actually hit a pretty rare card. These relics fall 1 in 525 packs and there is only 10 in the checklist.

 Verlander is having another great season. Seems like he really turned it on after being traded to the Astros. I wonder if he'll make the Hall of Fame if he adds to his MVP resume.

Here are some of the other pulls from the packs. Always enjoy the mascot cards and some of the rookie cards from yesteryear.

The original plan was to sell a few of these. So far I've sold exactly 1 card from the bunch. The purples do look nice though. Not sure what's going to happen to that parallel without Toys R Us anymore.

Thanks for reading!

A little bit of Heritage

I didn't break much heritage this year due to the price point (roughly 130 a box). I didn't feel the risk out weighed the reward. I don't mind losing money on a box because that's life but it does bother me a little bit if I spend well over 100 dollars for a product and get maybe 20 dollars in value out of it. I don't sell very many cards so most of my gains are unrealized gains for you accounting and finance people but I like having a collection that's fun to look at and holds a little bit of value. (In fact I have sold exactly 3 cards in the last 3 years) (I should probably sell a little more just to clear some stuff, nothing huge dollar) Anyway fun side factoid about me. My wife always jokes after I get big hit I tell her how much the card is worth and the very next sentence is that its PC so it doesn't matter. I think nostalgia usually wins out when I pull something big.

I didn't pull anything too big in this break..

This Stanton card is actually really tiny. It's the retail exclusive insert.

Three short prints and some inserts. It's a shame Judge broke his wrist. I am not a Yankees fan but I think he's good for baseball. He brings people to the seats to watch.

Excuse my scanner for chopping the card off but this was the hit of the break! A chrome (numbered out of 999) Corey Kluber. He's having a real solid season again for the Indians.

Also picked this up for cheap so I didn't have to chase the cards down..

The Phillies team set! Including the base Hoskins rookie of course. I have the Heritage Action (got that for 28 shipped) which so far I've yet to see it go cheaper so very pleased with the price. If Heritage wasn't so expensive because of Ohtani I would've been a buyer of a few boxes. It really is a fun break in my opinion and the cards are quality.

Thanks for reading!

Phillies Gold!

A while back a seller was unloading their collection of gold cards from various Topps releases through the 2000s. The prices were reasonable (a quarter a piece if I remember correctly). I requested all the Phillies and got all the Phillies! Life lesson kids, if you want something say something, no one can read minds. Although that would be a cool super power to have. Read minds selectively, invisibility on and off and maybe super strength with flying. Just spit balling here.

Here's some gold

Pretty nice cross section of players. I do like the gold cards they pop out nicely and usually aren't very expensive. I still need to pick up the Hoskins from this year. I'll get around to it at some point.

Thanks for reading!