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!

Purple Rhys!

I wanted to make sure I got the Hoskins rookie purple from Toys R Us, since Toys R Us is no more. Not to happy in general about it being no more. Hedge funds suck at running businesses. I will never forgive Cerberus for destroying Chrysler but that's a story for another day.

Rhys has had quite a nice run after the All Star Break. Seven home runs in 8 games! He's batting like the way he should and can. I hope he emerges as the next big Phillies star along with Nola. It would be great if the Phillies made it to the playoffs and built up to a World Series in the next year or two.

Pretty nice parallels in general. I wasn't able to find any packs before the whole bankruptcy thing so I had to buy it secondary. I still have quite a few purple parallels from 2013 Topps. That year the Wife and I hit up several Toys R Us's over a weekend and opened like 70 blister packs or so. It was fun. Sold a few but still have a ton of parallels left. (including 2 Trout's!) Last one sold for 50 bucks on ebay not bad!

Thanks for reading! Go Phillies!

A little bit of Action!

I picked these up on blowout from 2 different sellers. I like to peruse the buy/sell/trade and occasionally come across some cards I want. Haven't had any problems buying there. I've sold 2 cards there and had no issues there and have made 2 trades as well without issue. (One of them netted a Ryan Howard superfractor) All in all a good experience in that regard. The Nola was in a lot for 15 dollars that included an auto and most dealers at the show I was just at was pricing this 1 card at 15 so I think it was a really good deal. The Hoskins was 28 delivered. I've yet to see it priced below that on ebay or anywhere else for that matter. Very happy with the purchase.

Hoskins has started off nicely after the All Star break. I was happy to see he did well in the Home Run Derby even if he lost in the 2nd round. Hitting 20 Home Runs in 4 minutes is still impressive. Nola was the starting pitcher for the 16 inning marathon the Phillies had last night. I actually went to bed in the beginning of the 15th inning so I didn't see the end when it happened. Go figure, either way I'm glad they won cause they had such a quick turn around to play again at 12:35. It's gotta be demoralizing to lose like that after such a long game. Carried that momentum into the next game and won the series against the Dodgers. I hope the Phillies make some positive moves at the trade deadline. It would be real  nice to see some playoff baseball. The division is wide open with the way that Nationals are playing and the Braves are a young team.

Thanks for reading and Go Phils!