August Card Show Pickups : 2007 Masterpieces Break

I'll highlight one of the two boxes I picked up from the show here. I picked up this box for $40 but they usually go for $60, and as most of you know, these are probably the most beautiful base cards you'll ever see. Each card is printed on a canvas stock and is an artist's representation. Instead of a set based on players, each card is based on a moment in baseball history (even though the card names on the back are often players). The most beautiful and important cards in the set are the historical ones of players like Ripken, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Yogi Berra, and many others. Even though I'm a newer collector and have always preferred football, each card draws me in and makes me want to research the event on the card.

First of all, here is the box topper:

Simply unbelievable. The card is ridiculously beautiful. If you're an Indians fan, even though Victor Martinez now plays for the Tigers, please contact me about a trade because you have to have this card in your collection.

My two numbered inserts were the Walter Johnson (#15/50) and Lou Gehrig Day (#37/75) cards. The Ichiro is an example of the non-numbered framed cards.

Here's some horizontal goodness. I was extremely excited to pull the amazing Lincecum rookie.

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Here are some other rookies and framed cards.

These are types of base cards this set is really about though. These paintings really tell stories. I shamefully stole these scans below by the way...

This image is from Shoebox Legends.

In what seems like an afterthought, the box contains three memorabilia cards and one autograph. The memorabilia cards are pretty terrible with boring designs and small swatches. The autographs are on-card but look kind of strange on the canvas. They don't really retain any value either.

This Glavine is already in the mail.

For Trade.

Now this is a nice jersey card! I always like pulling an old game-used!

This Cliff Lee auto is of a great player, but I wish the design could have been better. While the rest of the set requires few words, the masterpieces logo and the stroke of genius letters distract from the card. I really don't get why they would use pictures for the hits when the whole point of the set is the paintings. These Stroke of Genius autos have pretty low value for on-card autos, and if you pull one you don't want to keep, you won't get much money back for selling the card.

All in all, this is an unbelievably beautiful product and one of my favorites. I'm not really sure if it meets the Best Boxes criteria for this blog because the usual price is pretty high for a product with such terrible hits. I'd recommend trading for the base cards or buying some blasters online instead. In terms of "value," I don't think that buying a box is the best way to experience this product. Just go for base cards instead.

Two Boxes of 2008 Certified, Two Blasters of 2009 Certified

The boxes of 2008 Certified have been pretty cheap for a while, going for $55 while most other Certified products go for $100. The rookie class isn't that bad and I prefer the base design to the 2010 boxes, so I picked up two boxes. I also picked up two of the 2009 blasters which guarantee a hit. This is a pretty quick post.

Here are the inserts, let me know if you're interested in any of them. I prefer the 2008 inserts since the later ones leave large empty spots for the jersey and autographed versions. I've always thought that Certified's rookie set is just too large. The numbered cards and autographs are almost always of no-name players.

I pulled an auto out of the blaster, but Hunter Cantwell is a third stringer.

The jersey cards were small swatches, but good players. My luck was pretty poor, for I pulled only one auto in the first box and and only three jersey hits in the second box (when there should be four hits total).

The Ray Rice was by far the best pull, but I felt completely shafted after the terrible second box.

Get Ready for Some Mail and a lot of Card Show Posts!

Thanks to Ryan G over at This Card is Cool for helping notify me about the GT sports marketing card show this weekend. I didn't think I would get to go, but at the last minute, my friend asked me to go. I was shocked because most of my friends don't understand our hobby at all.

Anways: here's everything I bought, which you'll see divided into many upcoming posts:

Personally I'm proud of the 1991 Archives box that I picked up for $20. I really should have picked up the two others since I'm sure that many bloggers love the product. Most of the hits in toploaders will be sent out immediately as parts of trades.

Here are packages that will all be going out in the mail this week. That huge stack of cards is Morgan's grand prize! I sold the Blake Griffin on eBay for $66. Even though the Blake saved the box, I really shouldn't have bought Totally Certified....

Topps Super Bowl Giveaway is Up!

Over at football.toppscards.com, you can now unlock your super bowl legends giveaway codes.

Each code will unlock a card, ring, or jersey.

As you can see here, each level requires unlocking a certain amount of each item, not just entering the amount of codes.

I entered my two codes and only got two coins. 11 Diamond Giveaway codes and two Super Bowl Legends Giveaway codes and still no die-cut cards...

Group Break Cards from Thorzul

During the past few weeks, Thorzul at Thorzul Will Rule has been detailing the top 100 finds from a lot he purchased on eBay. He purchased an additional lot and hosted a "break" with the cards the lot contained. I picked up the Giants and had little idea what to expect. Thorzul highlighted a Lincecum Refractor and a Buster Posey Obak Mini, but I wondered how many other quality cards would arrive in the package. I also claimed a Daequan Cook jersey card.

I sorted out most of the junk wax: here's the rest of the cards.

Here are some newer cards, Topps, Bowman, and Icons. I love the ballpark shot.

The Lincecum refractor is in the middle of this page. The Allen & Ginter is really nice.

Here are some older cards, I especially like the Kevin Mitchell mini.

I was quite surprised to see two of the Posey minis. I didn't think I would get my hands on a Belt chrome anytime soon since they are way overpriced around here. The Belt was a great surprise. 

Thanks for the break Thorzul!

Random Retail Break

I picked up one of those guaranteed hits repack boxes for $9.99 and then five packs of Topps Series 2 hoping to get closer to 15 diamond giveaway codes and a skinit.

The repack boxes with the guaranteed hit aren't too bad to me since normally you need to pay $20 to guarantee a hit. Also, I've seen jerseys from good players coming out of the repacks.

I'm a fan of the Johnny Bench insert. I also got some decent cards from a Fleer pack.

The Seaver is an original back. Although I didn't pull any giveaway codes, at least I pulled one diamond parallel. 

There was also one pack of Upper Deck X and the hit was also from X. Troy Tulowitzki is a good player so I wasn't too disappointed with the hit.

I got two really nice Giants inserts. The Vizquel is from 2007 Topps Series 2.

Mailday: My First Booklet!

I've had success selling some old stuff on eBay, so I decided to treat myself to a couple of purchases.

Here's a Chris Johnson patch, for some reason it looked like a 3 color patch in the eBay scan even though I should know that the ones numbered to 50 are 2 color. This card doesn't come close to my SJAX three color patch,.

And Here's the real beauty, my first booklet. They were listed for around $55, but I watched all of the listings. Eventually, one seller put the card for sale for $29 and I immediately picked up a copy. I've always been fascinated with booklets and have never seen one. They are definitely everything I expected and more. I'm a fan of Gerhart because of his play at Stanford, so this card was perfect for my collection. Unfortunately, I have no skill with tools so I'll have to find a step by step guide to make a case... There's only one for the horizontal booklets up on bustingpacks, but maybe there are vertical booklet cases for sale. Right now, I can't display the booklet though.