Series 2 Pack Break

I bought the Blaster Box equivalent of packs yesterday at Kenmore Collectibles for 16 bucks (good place, by the way; check 'em out). A blaster box costs about 20 bucks. Would you say the manufactured patch card is worth the 4 extra bucks? Yeah, didn't think so. I was going to do an on location pack break, but the rain is holding me in since, well, photos on a day like today are shit. So, I proceeded to rip them here.

Whats I gots:

55 Base Cards (I know, yawn)
1 Gold Parallel #'d to 2010 (Evan Longoria)
4 Legendary Lineage Cards (I don't know how that happened, you're guaranteed 2 in 8 packs and I got 4)
1 Card Yo Momma Threw Out (Al Kaline '54, also guaranteed 2 or 3 and I somehow got 1)
1 Original Back (Duke Snider '57)
2 History of the World Series ('26 Babe Ruth, '61 Yogi Berra)
1 Peak Performance (Aaron Hill)
1 Turkey Red (Adam Dunn)
2 Vintage Legends (Babe Ruth, Ozzie Smith)
2 Team 2020 (Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, Dodger-JO)
2 MCG Redemption Cards
8 Topps Attax Cards

Not bad for 16 bucks worth of wax (actually 20, since I bought a pack of '09 Heritage High Numbers and '08 Updates and Highlights). I'm still trying to figure out how I pulled 4 Legendary Lineage Cards, but I guess it makes up for the stuff I got technically screwed out of. I like the product, but I feel as a lot of people feel, WAY TOO MANY INSERTS. As I've said before, I don't like inserts very much. Some of them I don't mind, like the Cards Yo Momma Threw Out and Team 2020 (really loving those cards). But, the Vintage Legends can go away. I didn't really mind the Ozzie Smith of 1989 in the 1969 style because it didn't look that out of place. However, 1919 Babe Ruth on the 1999 template is completely out of place. I don't mind cards if they look halfway decent, but seriously, 1919 Babe Ruth on a card made 80 years later? Where's Charles Barkley when you need him? And, can we please go back to ToppsTown Cards instead of ToppsAttaxTown Cards? I know Topps trying to market the shit out of this product, but I don't want cards from a game that sounds like it takes you about 5 minutes to play. All in all though, it's still a pretty good product.

Sold

Remember that Strasburg Red Parallel that I was tracking? Well, it finally sold yesterday for $4,850. Maybe not as expensive as the Super Refractor, but it would get me a third of the way through my first year of college tuition payments. Just sayin...

For Once, MBTA Buying New Locomotives

Who knew the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was smart enough to invest in new locomotives. Last time they bought new units they weren't exactly "new", just old, beat up, rebuilt, 30 year old freight locomotives. Yes, I'm talking about those god awful GP40MCs. I've read on the Railroad.net Forums that the MBTA is buying 2, count em, 2 new MP36PH-3C units. Now, that's not everything fortunately. They are also leasing 7 of the same units from the Utah Transit Authority's FrontRunner Service. FrontRunner doesn't need these units right now, as they have trainsets than tracks to run them on. So, why not have get beaten up a little on the East Coast. The leasers are to be held captive on the North Side Service, as they aren't equiped with ASCES. Users are also reporting that the estimated delivery date for these locomotives are in September. Figures that I'll be off at college by then.

Box Ownage: 2002 Topps Series 1

So, I decided not to go railfanning and sleep in, because sleeping is always good. That nice package that came in the mail yesterday was that box of 2002 Topps Series 1 Baseball, and it didn't take long to get here. So, in celebration of graduating from high school later on today, I ripped it to pieces. I'll get to what I got first then I'll give an opinion of some sort.

What I got:

Base Set - 341 of 364 cards (93.7%), 2 doubles

Parallels: Gold Parallel of Livan Hernandez numbered to 2002

Inserts:
36 (1 per pack) Logo Race Baseabll Cap Cards (Each Division)
4 Ticket to History Promotion Cards: Games 1, 2, 6, & 7
4 Logo Sticker Cards: A's, Tigers, Marlins, and Astros
4 Own the Game: Mike Sweeney, Rich Aurilia, Curt Schilling, and Roger Clemens
2 Ring Masters: Roberto Alomar and Paul O'Neill
1 Hobby Master: Barry Bonds
1 East Meets West: Hideki Irabu and Masanori Murakami
2 1952 World Series Highlights: Game 1 and Game 3
2 1952 Reprints: Allie Reynolds and Roy Campanella

The Big Hit: Team Topps Mickey Lolich On Card Autograph of 1964 Buyback card

All in all, a very good day with the pulls. I got one more than the guranteed Own the Game Card, plus two Ring Masters and two '52 reprints (one more than the guaranteed). Plus, I pulled that big hit. I wanted another parallel, but I'll live with it (1 in 19 packs). Now, unfortuantely, the cards stuck together in the packs. So, I had to sometimes pull them apart causing either 1 or both cards to become damaged. I have no plans to sell these cards, so I can deal with it.

Breaking these packs maybe wasn't exactly the same as 8 years ago, but I feel like I appreciate it a lot more than I did back then. The base set is very easy to collect, since there aren't many inserts (same can't be said of 2010 Topps). Plus, I don't like a lot of inserts. I am also very close to collecting the base set, which was pretty easy to do seeing as I pulled 93 percent of the base set. Alright, I got to go get ready to get the hell out of high school forever. I'm out.

Pack Shredage

I went into Boston today to buy some packs that I figured I'd rip while railfanning tomorrow. Instead, I received a nice package in the mail today that I will bust tomorrow. So, it will a nice railfan-box break combo post on the morrow. Yeehah!

So, I decided to rip the packs today. Here's what I bought:
4 packs of 2009 O-Pee-Chee Baseball (6 cards/pack, 99 cents a pack so I stocked up)
1 hobby pack of 2010 Upper Deck (20 cards/pack)
1 pack of 2010 Topps Series 1 (10 cards/pack)
2 packs of 2010 Topps Series 2 (same as S1)
1 pack of 2010 Topps Heritage (8 cards/pack
1 pack of 2009 Allen & Ginter (8 cards/pack)
So, 90 cards for 27 bucks. So, here went the rippage.

The Pulls:

'09 OPC:
19 Base Cards
4 Black Parallels (one per pack)
1 2008 Highlights and Milestones Insert (Kelly Shoppach)

'10 UD Baseball
16 Base Cards
2 Bio Cards (Andres Torres, Kenshin Kawakami)
1 Celebrity Predictor Card (which is stupid, may I add)
Gold Parallel Card numbered to 99 of Jose Bautista (yeah for AL Leader in homers!)

'10 Topps S1
6 Base Cards
1 Turkey Red (Ryan Braun)
1 Card Yo Momma Threw Out (Roger Maris '61)
1 Toppstown Card (Vlad)

'10 Topps Heritage
7 Base Cards
1 Then & Now Insert (Whitey Ford and King Felix)

'10 Topps S2
11 Base Cards
2 Cards Yo Momma Threw Out (Brooks Robinson '61, Ryan Zimmerman '08)
1 Peak Performance (Hunter Pence)
1 Turkey Red (Raul Ibanez)
1 Redemption Card for a Peak Performance Relic of Pablo Sandoval (Some damn good mojo for a 1 in 49 pack pull)

'09 A&G
6 Base Cards
1 Mini (Mark Teixeira)
1 Nat'l Pride Insert (Erik Bedard)
1 Crack the Code Insert (...yay?)

When you pull a parallel numbered to 99 and a 1 in 49 pack hit in the same day, you're having a good day. The Mojo Gods were on my side today, for once it seems like. So, thumbs up for 27 bucks worth of wax!

Following Up Last Night's Strasburg Post...

Damn thing is at $4,150 right now with only 5 days and 10 hours left on eBay. Think it can make up about $12,000 in 5 days, I'd bet so.

For the Love of Expensive Materials...

Is it just me, or are you stupid for buying a baseball card of player that you don't know will pan out for 16 grand? Orsillo and Remy were talking about the Stephen Strasburg Bowman Chrome Super Refractor auction on eBay (slow game, huh?), to which Remy said something to extent of I would never pay 16,000 bucks for a baseball card, to which I couldn't agree more. Hell, you could buy a damn car with that money, but this guy chose a baseball card (think of all the shit wax you could buy with 16 grand!). Well, whoever the sucker was better hope Strasburg pans out, otherwise it's money well wasted.