This is a well overdue blaster-break post that I've had queued up since, oh I don't know, June.
Look at this card. I mean, REALLY look at it. I'm sure your eye is first drawn to the halo encircled yellow triangle of lightening. Right? But then you make your way over to Nick Swisher. And he's doing what? Slapping 'five' with all his adoring fans? What is taking such a high level of concentration that he needs to have his tongue protruding from his mouth? This is easily my favorite card I've seen in the Topps set this year. Right down to the guy wearing a Bears hat at Yankee Stadium (I've since been corrected that this was not in fact Yankee Stadium, but instead Legends Field - my next comment still stands however!). You know, I've never been there, but I sure as heck wouldn't be caught dead wearing a football hat to Yankee Stadium. Couldn't his buddies have chipped in to get him a Yankees cap or something from the pro shop?
Okay, while I could spend an entire post reflecting on this card, I won't.
Let me get this off my chest though. I was totally duped when buying this blaster. The Series 2 blasters come with some sort of commemorative patch. But the 8 packs were only 8 cards per pack, and one of those was a Topps Town card.
You might be asking yourself, so what? Well, here's what. Topps Series 2 packs are $1.99 for 12 cards. This blaster was $19.99 for eight 8 card packs. Total of 64 cards plus this patch that comes inside. That breaks down to $0.31 per card. If you bought 8 packs of Series 2 Topps off the shelf at $1.99 a crack, you'd get 96 cards for $15.92. That breaks down to $0.17 per card.
Now, I admit I didn't see it was 8 card packs inside the blaster, but I had no reason to suspect that was the case. So if you think about it, I got what is basically $10 worth of Series 2 cards (17 cents times 64 cards) plus a patch for $20. I paid $10 for a lame patch card. Are you kidding me Topps? I had buyers remorse after I cracked open the first pack.
Now if I had landed a Jim Palmer, Robin Yount, or Paul Molitor patch I'd have been fine. But I didn't, so I'll complain. Here are the other cards I liked from the blaster:
Pujols Legends of the Game
Maddux Legends of the Game in the sweet throwback unis
Career Best Rogers Hornsby
Jimmy Rollins Turkey Red. To note, I'm not collecting these inserts, and this one along with my series 1 TRs are up for trade.
Who started the whole "OH MY GOD THEY MIGHT BE READING MY LIPS" trend? I find it to be, by far, the most annoying 'I do it because everyone else does' trend in all of baseball.
Lookin' good forty-nine! Lookin' good! I may need to start a Yo! (c)(tm)(r) collection soon.
One more OSM card for the road. Jered Weaver. The hair, the look on his face, the "pose". Everything about this card challenges Swisher's card for the top spot in the 2009 Series 2 checklist. If you can beat either of these, let me know.
I'm getting to the point where I look at blasters like the devil.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't answer the question, but it may help:
http://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2009/08/when-did-this-start.html
I bought a couple of blasters and I felt the same way, but I still wanted to see what the patches were like. I think it's probably better to just go to a hobby store and pick up random packs. I've always had good luck with that.
ReplyDeletenight owl, thanks for the link, I followed it all the way through to my boy Will Clark hitting an HR off Maddux. Some of my favorite things. Cubs blowing games, and The Thrill's sweet swing. I miss it.
ReplyDeleteJeremy - I agree on the patches, I was okay with it when it was a throw-in, but not a $10 deal. I think the patch I got was Walter Johnson, who did you get?
I think that when I opened a blaster back in June that I had the same issue. I love the set and I love the cards, but those blasters a rip. I know some people collect the patches and thats cool, but if you are trying to build the set, its a slow go with a blaster. Blasters are the devil, but sometimes because they seem like a good deal. I read that Ginter retail was going to be really limited. I don't know how many times I went to Target and bought all 3 blasters that they had. They just keep putting more out. They are 8 packs for 20 bucks though. A better deal than 3 bucks for one pack with the same quantity. Every time I go to the store-which is like 4 times a week, I would pick up two packs of Topps for 4 bucks. The cards look great and the set is awesome. Just be glad you didn't buy a bunch of blasters without realizing. The Swisher card is awesome. Its stuff like that which makes so many people collect him. I can think of Drew, but I know there are more. Good post. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe patches I got were Frank Robinson and Tom Seaver. I really like the Seaver, but I'm not too overly excited about the patches. I'm actually trying to finish the turkey reds so I found that going to a hobby store is better even at like 10 cards for 1.99 is better for finding the inserts I want instead of Walmart which is 12 cards for 1.97. I'm soured on the blasters especially with the 2 retro or black packs per blaster. I don't really need those.
ReplyDeleteThat Swisher card is great, but it is at Legends Field (spring training site), not Yankee Stadium.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the correction Bo :)
ReplyDeleteJeremy, do you have a list of the Turkey Reds you need? I'm guessing I have somewhere around 10 that I don't need.
CT - I agree. I've also noticed every Target near me has about 3 retail boxes full of packs that no one is buying . . .
I have my want/trade list over here:
ReplyDeletehttp://jeremythephotoguycardtradelist.blogspot.com/
I thought I was pretty close to finishing that, but actually I'm only about halfway done. I have a huge stack of ginter and topps that might be helpful to you. I could dig up something else if I knew what you were looking for.
I shot you an email Jeremy, with some trade ideas.
ReplyDeleteAlso to note, the Maddux LotG card alone makes me want to collect the entire insert set. Anyone have any extras?