Box Break: 2010 Topps Update

This box break started off about as well as it could go, and then slowly went downhill.







The pulls:

Base Set
184 out of 330 (55.7%)
66 Doubles
7 Triples
1 Quintuple (Jason Bay)
8 Gold Cards #'d to 2010
1 Stephen Strasburg Rookie (Card 661)

Inserts:
36 Topps Attax Code Cards
13 Cards Yo Momma Threw Out (2 doubles)
8 Turkey Reds
9 Stupid Vintage Legends (1 double)
5 Tales of the Game
2 Legendary Lineage
4 Peak Performance
10 MCG Code Cards

Hits:
Box Loader Rookie Chrome Refractor - Stephen Strasburg
Big Mojo Hit!!!!!1!!!1 - Robinson Cano All Star Game Jersey *groan*

Stephen Strasburg Cards Pulled - 7

Review:
You can't say Topps Updates is a terrible product. You can get an excellent selection of rookie cards in the set, some of whom will pan out and be worth a decent amount of money. Yes, this was the Stephen Strasburg hot box, right out of the gate even with the boxloader. The checklist for the boxloaders is pretty good, and there are decent odds you'll find something good. The regular checklist is the usual for Updates: rookies, traded players, and All Stars, nothing new or different here. The inserts are mostly all the same from Series 1 and 2, also nothing new here. For what you can and do get, it is what it is.

All that being said, the originality of Updates, quite frankly, sucks. I was kind of hoping for something different and original for an insert out of Updates, like with the propaganda posters in last year's set. Instead, it was just more Tales of the Game cards (I'm so happy with that). I'm not great with original ideas, and clearly neither is Topps, but some type of insert needed to be interesting. And can we all agree that the Vintage Legends need to go away? I think so. On another note, the "stamping" of the serial numbers on the gold cards looks even cheaper and worse than it did before in Series 1 and 2. It's still printed on, but the font looks even cheaper than before and looks sloppy, for lack of a better word.

Finally, and Topps you better be reading and fixing this, your quality control sucks. I'm going to be blunt with that. This is your flagship brand, make it a quality product, not this $48 worth of fail I just opened. Ok, so I pulled 7 Stephen Strasburg cards of various types and got my Ryan Kalish Rookie, so it wasn't all fail. But I for one want something more than Stephen Strasburg's galore in a box. I pulled 66 doubles, 7 triples, and 1 quintuple out of this box. 66 DOUBLES FOR GOD'S SAKE! This is just purely inexcusable; I got short-changed 20% of the base set. And, yes I did like Jason Bay during his time in Boston, but I do not want 5 of his cards in one box, and neither does anyone else. And, it wasn't just the base set, I pulled doubles of a few inserts. And it doesn't stop there, I got short changed out of a pack and instead of pulling 10 cards, I pulled 7.

Topps, do you actually give a crap that your quality control sucks this much? Diamond cutting T-206 cards, not following through on the promised hits, poor (and that's an understatement) coalition, not putting the right amount of cards in a pack, does that not mean anything? Are you realizing that people are getting fed up and pissed off about this? Have you just rolled over and given up? Is it just me, or did Upper Deck, who doesn't even have a baseball license, make the best product this year in terms of quality? Does that mean that you really deserve that exclusive license? I'm starting to question that. So, Topps, do what's best for you and start cleaning up your act and giving a crap about your product and the work that goes into making it, and that includes not putting 66 doubles in a box.

In any matter, this is Topps Updates. While this box was a fail, that does not that every box is a fail. I would still say this product is Hench Approved; it should be somewhat unusual to find 66 doubles in a box. This box, on the other hand, is Not Hench Approved, Stras-Jo, Ryan Kalish, and all.

Another thing, the hit was Yankee, Robinson Cano All Star Game Jersey Card, there-by making this box break much worse. As you know, it is for trade, preferably for a Red Sox relic or auto.

Boycotting Retail

One can be exposed to many informative and interesting things while at a liberal arts college. After watching a documentary on evil practices of Wal-Mart titled, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, I am declaring that I will be boycotting Wal-Mart, and that includes cardboard. This boycott is not effective immediately however, as I do want to get my hands on a blaster/rack pack of Topps Chrome (I would prefer to purchase it somewhere else, but the bastard corporation is unfortunately the closest place). Why a blaster/rack pack? I don't really want to pay for a hobby box of that stuff right now. This doesn't mean I will stop buying retail wax, just only the wax from Wal-Mart.

So, to sum this up post up nicely, fuck Wal-Mart. There, I said it.

Blaster Break - 2010 Topps Series 2

I loves me some college!



I'm sorry, but there is: a. No purpose for the 2 packs of black-bordered cards, and b. No purpose for the stupid one-per-blaster manufactured patch card. NOTE TO TOPPS: I'd rather have 2 more packs of base cards than two packs of black-bordered bullshit.

USA Soccer: Awful Start, Excellent Comeback, Crappy Officiating

Nope, I'm not heartbroken over the Celtics losing. I don't care enough about basketball in general to be heartbroken. I could go on a rant about what I think is wrong with the NBA right now, but I won't. Instead, why not talk about that awesome comeback/should've-been-victory for USA Soccer. I was quite underwhelmed with the start of the game. How does the defense give so much freakin space to Slovenia Midfielder Valter Birsa?! I know, it's easy to say that watching it on the tube. But, he easily could have read the paper, made dinner, and saved 15% on his car insurance by switching to Geico, and still would have made the shot! The game did make for some excellent entertainment, though. The USA made a 2 goal comeback courtesy of Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley, as you all should know by now. And, it should have been a 3 goal comeback. Figures that the ref would call a phantom foul against...well, I still don't know who. I'm also trying to understand how a ball off the shoulder is a handball. Last time I checked, the shoulder attaches the arm to the body, but is not part of the arm. Just sayin...
In the end, it was a very thrilling and entertaining game. But, we all know, it should have been a very thrilling and entertaining win.