Orioles Fan Pack

An Orioles fan pack arrived in the mail the other day. Everything arrived in a legal sized envelope which included an informational card about taking tours of their ball park, a pocket 2012 schedule, an Adam Jones player card, a large sticker sheet, a promotional schedule sheet, and a short generic letter thanking me for contacting them. Overall a pretty nice little fan pack!

Send an e-mail to fanfeedback@orioles.mlb.com for your own Orioles fan pack.

Bowman Platinum 2011 Redemption

I had previously opened a few packs of Bowman Platinum 2011 and discussed it here. In the box was a redemption for a Relic Auto card that I had contacted Topps about in early January. About 3 weeks later the redemption arrived in the mail. This was the first redemption I have ever had through Topps and I have to admit I am pretty happy with the process. Ideally you never want to find a redemption because they are time sensitive (can expire), can take months or longer to arrive in the mail, and because when you buy a box of cards you should expect all the cards promised on the package to be in the box and not contingent on you contacting the company. Redemptions can be an especially painful process because they are often auto or memorabilia cards, where it is that card that holds all the value in the box of cards you just bought. Thus far, the Topps redemption was painless much like my experiences with Uppder-Deck. Panini, however, is horrible. I have been waiting months for a redemption to be fulfilled and am annoyed that I see that some collectors had received their redemptions (for the same card I am requesting) months ago! Furthermore, my e-mails about the redemption have never been asnwered by Panini. Boo Panini! Yay Topps!

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OK, so back to the Bowman Platinum 2011 redemption. The card I received was an autographed memorabilia card from Angels' pitcher, Trevor Bell. The card features a sticker auto signed in blue with a moderate sized memorabilia swatch. The fabric is all white, but that's common for baseball jersey swatches. The card has a great gloss /shiny design that matches with the rest of the base cards. The card is serial numbered out of 1166, which is really high for a card of this sort. 

Overall, the card looks fantastic but the drawbacks are in that it has a sticker auto and the print run is exceptionally high. I greatly appreciated how quickly the card was shipped and that it was nicely /securely packaged. Any concerns I had over Topps' redemptions are now gone, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to be over the moon when I find one because I'd rather have the card inserted in the pack rather than contacting the company for it.

Toronto Blue Jays Fan Pack Arrived!

Received another fan pack in the mail today, this time from the MLB Toronto Blue Jays! The envelope didn't include much, just a 7.5x11 print out of the 2012 schedule and another schedule printed on a thicker paper stock. Still a very quick response and something I may use as I would like to fly to Toronto next year to catch a game. Now I have to make the decision of which team I'd like to see them play against!

To contact the Toronto Blue Jays, you can write to them at: Rogers Centre One Blue Jays Way, Suite 3200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5V 1J1, or send them a message through this link

Originally posted on Nov 29th, 2011

Toronto Blue Jays' Fan Pack (with their new logo!)

Topps Chrome 2010 Baseball: 1 Box Break

This is it! The last of what I broke open from my boxing day bonanza at my local card shop! Lots of success from these breaks that left me yearning for more. This is easily the weakest of the products I busted, but it still had a few gems. In respect to the 2011 Topps Chrome product, this 2010 box pails in comparison for the quality of the cards and the number of hits I received. Click here to see my review of the 2011 Topps Chrome product.

This is the first box of Topps Chrome 2010 I have bought and is only the second Topps Chrome product I have ever purchased. What this box showed me is that the 2011 product is far superior to the 2010 product and that I am better off spending my future pennies on the 2011 product. In the end I should count myself lucky I received a few good cards from this product and leave it at that!

The biggest problem with the 2010 Topps Chrome cards is that the cards were poorly made. The chrome makes the cards severely bend to the point it becomes difficult to stack them. The images on the front are also not nearly as clear as the 2011 product. The players on the 2010 product have an almost double image around them from the application of chrome that makes the whole image blurry. Additionally, the chrome is not always evenly covering the cards, leaving globby bits on some places on the card's front. 

Another problem is that the cards were often poorly packaged. Often the back card would have an impression left from the wrapper's seal. The worst was in one of the autographs I received had a scratch down the middle of the auto from the wrapper's seal. Another card (the Derek Jeter shown here) had a line running down the back of it, presumably created from when the pack was mechanically sealed. There were also a number of packs at the bottom of the box that only contained 2 cards, both of which were base. I have never seen a trading card product with this many problems and TOPPS should have RECALLED their product.

Despite the numerous manufacturing problems, the 2010 Topps Chrome set does have some attractive features. The base cards feature a similar design to the 2011 product and have some satisfying action shots. The backs of the base set also have a healthy amount of text and stats. The rookie cards follow the same format as the 2011 product in that they are the high numbered cards in the base set. These cards are distinguished by a RC on the front.

The common base card parallel is the refractor. These parallels look identical to the regular cards except they have a silvery tint and extra gloss to the fronts. On the back of the card, the word refractor is printed around the card's number on the back. These cards look nice, but not nice enough to build an entire set of. They are also not serial numbered, unlike the blue parallel that I found 1 of. This blue parallel is identified by its blue border and is serial numbered on the back to out of 199. 

I pulled 3 subset cards out of this box. I feel that this is a really low number of subset cards as I pulled about twice that in the 2011 box. The fronts of the cards are especially glossy and reflective, with each card featuring a particular outstanding player of that season. The backs of the cards have a retro look with cardboard backs and a classic text font. Each of the cards are serial numbered out of 1961, 999, and 499. If it wasn't for how much the chrome makes these cards bend, I'd be much more inclined to collect these.

I pulled two autographed rookies, neither of which were serial numbered. One of these was Jenrry Mejia and the other was Jon Jay. The autos were signed in blue ink and look pretty nice except for the bending. I feel that any card that is autographed should be serial numbered, but there are a lot of products out there that refuse to do this. The biggest problem with the autos is that the Jay auto has multiple scratches down the center, along with a smudge just below. This is all from the packaging process as the auto cards were put face up towards the package's seal. I have no idea how Topps thought this would be a good idea.

The Cardinals are my favourite team, so I am over the moon with a Jon Jay rookie auto. However, the numerous damages and card bending left me deflated over this product. There is a chance that I pulled a bad box, but I have read elsewhere that the 2010 product had severe bending. I would not recomend this product unless I can buy it on sale, which is perhaps why the box I bought was on sale. I give the 2010 Topps Chrome product a half eaten soggy pickle!

Bowman Platinum 2011 Baseball: 4 Packs

I picked up 4 packs of Bowman Platinum 2011 baseball during my boxing day shopping spree. I had never purchased this product before and had not bought Bowman baseball cards since the early 90's. The packs were on sale but were regularly priced at $10 each. This is the same price point as the NHL Artifacts cards and I figured the Platinum product should produce some good results because of this. I was only somewhat right.

In all I pulled 6 hits, consisting of 2 parallel cards, 3 prospects and one auto redemption card. I also pulled 3 rookie cards, none of which were serial numbered and are part of the base set.

The base cards are printed on a slightly thicker than average paper stock that is roughly half the thickness of the Ultimate NHL cards. The backs have a clear design with a hefty amount of text that doesn't read like a book. The number on the back is placed within a red bubble on regular cards and green ones for rookies, which is helpful since the only other difference between base and rookie is that there is a small RC printed on the front. The front of the base and rookie cards is slightly glossy with a silvery sheen that makes the photos pop! The backgrounds are blurred to allow the player to stand out, and each player is featured in an action shot. The front graphics are isolated to the bottom 1/5 of the card and are very clear and the palyer's name is printed in a reflective silver over top a dark and non-reflective background. Overall these are excellent looking base cards and would make an outstanding looking set.

I pulled three prospects subset cards, all of which where printed with chrome fronts. The design is almost identical to the base cards except that there is more text and no stats on the backs. I also pulled two parallel cards, one of which is a prospects parallel. This parallel is of Yasmani Grandal and is dubbed a X-Fractor, which fall 1 in 4 packs. The second parallel is a gold base card, which is identical to the base cards except that the front has a gold tint. Gold variation cards fall 1 in 5 packs. None of the parallels or prospects I pulled were serial numbered.

The final hit of the 4 packs is a Trevor Bell auto relic card base; I believe this will be a signed jersey card. This came as a redemption card, so hopefully I won't have to wait too long for the card to arrive in the mail. This is also the first redemption I've pulled from a Topps product (Bowman is produced by Topps).

Compared to the 4 packs of Artifacts that I opened, the Bowman product was much weaker. However, I still came out with 3 rookies and an auto. I'll be trying my hand at this product again if not just for grabbing a few more of the excellent looking base cards.

Topps Chrome 2011 Baseball: 1 Box

As I previously wrote, I have re-started collecting baseball cards. I really love baseball because it was the first sport I was engaged by. I was born just outside St. Louis and of course was infected by the feverish passion of baseball at an early age. Some of my earliest memories are of attending Cardinals games, but as a young teenager I moved to Canada and my ability to connect to the sport was greatly diminished, especially in continuing to collect baseball cards. As of the past few years I have picked up the odd pack of baseball cards and for one reason or another I decided to try a full box the other day. I decided on Topps Chrome 2011 because it is a very affordable product that promises 2 autographs per box, and Topps is synonymous with baseball like O-Pee-Chee is with hockey.

Here's what I got from the one box:

Base: In all I picked up 58 base cards from the box. The base cards have a clean design with pretty standard action shot photographs of the players. The text and graphics are simple and leave lots of room for the photo to shine, which the chrome covering definitely helps with! The chrome is very nice and makes each card sparkle! The backs of the cards have again a clean appearance with easy to read text and a glossy instead of chrome covering.

Rookies: The last 50 cards of the base set feature rookies. These have the same design of the rest of the base set except for a small RC placed near the bottom. The backs of the cards have a healthy blurb about each player to fill-in the lack of stats. The rookies are not serial numbered and I doubt that they have a high collectibility because of this.

Refractor Parallel: The easiest to pull parallel set are the refractor cards. I pulled 8 of these, with three being rookies. The cards are not numbered but have a super reflective and somewhat silver sheen to their fronts. The cards look really nice but I didn't realize they were parallel cards until a second look through the cards. One of the refractors, pictured here, was of Mickey Mantle. It was nice to see a HOF player being featured in the set but it also seemed out of place as he is the only (?) HOF player included in the set.

Sepia Parallel: I pulled only two of these parallel cards that are the same as the regular set except for the sepia tone of the fronts and an inclusion of a serial number (out of 99) on the back. The cards have a really nice look with the sepia tone and I can understand why someone would try to build this parallel set. The sepia cards fall 1:43, so I did very well finding two in this box.

Blue Parallel: I pulled one blue parallel from the box, which fall 1:57 packs. This parallel set has a blue border and are serial numbered on the back to out of 99. This parallel card does not look quite as sharp as the sepia ones and I am somewhat confused why they don't have a different production run -most parallel sets have different production runs as is found in the multiple parallel sets included in Artifacts hockey.

Heritage Chrome Subset: This subset is obvious when found because they feature a great throw-back design from the 1962 Topps set but stars current players and of course has a chrome front. The backs of the cards are serial numbered out of 1962, which is a nice nod to what the set is honoring. There were 4 of these cards found in the box, plus an additional black refractor heritage chrome. This black card has a slightly more shiny front and numbered out of 562. These fall 1:148 packs. There are 100 cards in this subset, so completing the set is likely incredibly hard considering the few I pulled in this box.

Vintage Chrome: This subset is more similar to the base set and I am at a loss as to what it contributes to the product. The Vintage set features 50 of the biggest stars in current baseball, and again I pulled only 4 of these cards. The fronts have a very similar design to the base cards and includes the player's stats and short bio on the back but with a different layout. The cards are not serial numbered and seem to be repetitive from the base set.

Autographs: There are roughly 2 autographs per box of Topps Chrome. These autographs can be either a rookie card variation, which is a card with an identical design to the base set rookies but with a concave blank area at the bottom where the hard-signed autograph (in blue ink) is located. The second autograph set is of members from the USA baseball team; I did not find any of these. I pulled three autograph cards, which makes this a very strong box that I broke considering all the parallels I had also pulled. Of the autographs, I pulled an Andrew Cashner rookie auto and a Mark Trumbo rookie auto. Both autos look really great and don't appear like they were rushed. Trumbo's autograph is so nice you can actually recognize almost every letter, which is a real rarity in autographed cards. The only negative comment about these cards is that they are not serial numbered. Personally, I feel that every memorabilia or auto card should be numbered. The third auto card was numbered. This was a blue parallel auto, numbered out of 199. I was happy to see one of the autos numbered but I am confused why this card was out of 199 when the non-autographed blue parallel I pulled was numbered out of 99.

This was an extremely fun box to break because all the cards look really nice. I received a bunch of parallels and it was a lot of fun to find something a little special in the pack, not to mention I was above average on the number of autographs I found. I will definitely return to this product and hope I do just as well again! This product is a teeth rattling, chrome encrusted pickle that deserves to be placed in pride on your shelf! Good product!

Topps Marquee 2011 Baseball: 1 Pack Break

This is a fun product to break for it guarantees you a hit and offered at a reasonable price, despite it only taking a minute to open because there are only 5 cards including the lone hit. I haven't been collecting too much baseball over the past few years even though I do watch it and root for a few teams quite heavily. Recently I decided to pick up some baseball cards and I decided on Topps Marquee 2011.

Here's what I got:

Base: In all there were three base cards, each featuring a HOF player of great vintage. The players were Honus Wagner, Johnny Mize, and Whitey Ford, each a memorable name from baseball's illustrious past. It was very interesting popping these cards out as it would be more expected to see a player from the 60's to 90's be highlighted as is the case in hockey, but then again hockey does not share baseball's depth of time. As for the card's design, it is quite appealing with an image of the player that includes the background and an interesting story along with the player's career stats presented on the back. My only criticism is that the name 'Topps Marquee' should have been written over top a dark background as the silver etched lettering is not too visible on cards with light coloured photos.

Base Parallel (Copper): One base parallel was pulled from the pack, which features Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies. I'm not a fan of the Rockies, but the card still looks pretty nice. The design is exactly the same as the regular base except for the front foil is copper coloured and it is serial numbered out of 199.

Hit: The single hit from the pack was an autographed rookie card of Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners. I quite like the Mariners, so this was a decent card to pull even if it wasn't a case break card. The autograph is nice and large, written over a completely white background with a silhouette image of the player above; which is why I scanned this card with a dark piece of paper behind it. The card is also hard-signed which is very refreshing from the all too common sticker autos that Upper-Deck relies upon. The card is also serial numbered out of 570, which seems like a random number but I won't complain as it is all too often that signed cards are not numbered at all, much like what's found in Upper-Deck's Ultimate product.

Overall this is a really sharp product that delivers a nice hit for an affordable price. The base parallel are nothing special, but nonetheless adds a small measure of depth and excitement. The base themselves are clean in design with the players brought to the forefront; plus the choice of HOF players adds a further measure of interest.

TOPPS Heritage 2011 (Baseball): 8 Pack Break

I love baseball but do not collect baseball cards to the same volume as I do hockey cards. When I was a kid I collected nothing but baseball cards and for some reason that is not the case anymore. This week I picked up 8 packs of Topps Heritage 2011 Baseball cards. I did the same for the 2010 Heritage product and was fairly satisfied with the product and thought I'd do the same again this year -try out a few packs.

The 2011 Heritage product has a design that mimics the 1962 Topps card series. It is a nice looking set with faux wood borders and a staged, often portrait shot of a baseball player. The bottom right corner of the photos are slightly rolled so that the player's name and team name can be shown. The color and sharpness of the photos are also skewed so that they are reminiscent of older photographs. The skewing is nice because it makes an otherwise boring portrait shot instead dynamic and interesting. The back of the cards are also nice because they include a tasty paragraph of trivia on each player, their combined career stats, and a bit of trivia that is associated with a comic-style drawing of the player in action. Overall, this set is really nice looking and worth picking up!

Each pack contains 9 cards with the chance of subset, memorabilia, and autograph cards. From the base cards I picked up 5 rookies and two high-numbered cards. The high-numbered cards are base cards numbered between 461 and 500 (I believe), and they are short printed. High-numbered cards fall 1 in every 3 packs. In addition, I picked up one News Flash Backs and Baseball Flash Backs cards. I like the baseball flash backs as it highlights the major events of the year this product pays homage to, but the News cards can be weak. I picked up the 'Dodger Stadium opens its doors' card, which is fine, but I've seen some of these cards feature news stories about the Mona Lisa and American politicians. I'm sorry, but I'm buying baseball cards and not random stuff cards. These two cards represent part of the product's subset and are perhaps the weakest part of the product. They are not numbered nor do they stand out from the base cards. I think they could have just done without these. Next, I pulled a check list. There are six checklists in this series and they are not part of the base set. I prefer checklists to be part of the base sets and there is nothing interesting about this card other than the card stock and colors are different from the base set. I don't get this as a checklist should go with the base set cards, and why does this card stand out from the base cards more than the subset cards do? Weird.

Pulls from the 8 packs: 5 rookies, 2 chrome, and 2 relic /memorabilia cards.

OK, I saved the best for last here. From the eight packs I broke, I found two chrome and two memorabilia cards. The chrome cards are the same as the 2010 series, but still look really nice. The chrome cards are numbered out of 1962 (makes sense) and there are multiple versions of them with different numbering schemes. For instance, there are green chrome cards that are numbered out of 100 something and fall 1 per case. Next, I pulled two memorabilia cards or what Topps calls clubhouse relic cards. The first was of Justin Morneau (Twins), and the other was Albert Pujols (Cardinals). The relic cards look nice with clear portrait photos of the players and a decent sized jersey, although some relic cards also feature wood instead of jerseys.

I had heard that relic (and autos) fall one per box so obviously I had lady luck on my side with these eight packs. Even if I had pulled only one relic card in these eight packs I think I would've still been happy. The base set looks good and the chrome cards and relics add a nice additional value. There are two drawbacks to this product. One is that the subset cards don't make sense and blend in with the rest of the set. Second is that I don't like there being too many parallels to a product. From what I've gathered, there is the regular chrome, green chrome, blue chrome, black border, and red something or the other parallels. I think a product should stick to one or two parallel editions. Anymore than that and it waters down the value and interest of the parallels. That being said, I still love the look of the chrome cards.


This product is pickled.