The Legend

The Legend

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Box Break: 2013 Hometown Heroes

I've been sitting on this box since Christmas, but just got around to opening it today. This showed better restraint than normal when unopened boxes are within my grasp, but I promised myself to get caught back up with my trade posts and some organization before I took the plunge.

This is my first hobby box of 2013 Hometown Heroes, but opened a little retail over the course of the past year. The hobby version guarantees 3 autos (I pulled 4!). The overall experience was as good as you can expect a non licensed product to be. You have a nice checklist of some guys that don't get a lot of love so that is a positive. The Hometown Signatures are all on card as well!

Take a look..

 I can feel the Dodgers fans groan seeing that this is a "Chicago" card.


 Love the Nicknames insert! I pulled 4 and think the Cey and Griffey are my favorites.
 Pulling Jeter is always nice.


 The zip and state parallels.
 My inserts were very Yankee heavy.
3 big names from the Defining Moments insert. I know Tulo is hurt all the time, but he and Giancarlo Stanton are my two favorite non Pirates. If healthy Tulo might be the only player capable of beating Mike Trout and the season WAR crown, but that never happens....






As you can see the autos were a nice mix of guys who were fixtures on their teams, but never superstars. If the opportunity presents itself I would probably take another stab at a box of Hometown Heroes. It has become a nice value purchase.

Thanks for reading!

22 comments:

  1. Great pulls-loving the Stewart.

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  2. Did you pull any Tinos in the base? I have #183 but need #65.

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  3. Nice box! I like the player selection and you did pretty well with your autos.

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    1. Nothing huge, but a solid box overall. Really couldn't beat the price.

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  4. I love getting the autos of guys who have not had cards in ages. In my case it was Mike Krukow - in your case Tom Browning. Since I already grabbed the Franco (there's someone else who is really under-represented in the autograph world), my favourite in this bunch is the Andres Galarraga insert.

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    1. Have you seen the nickname autos from this years National Treasures? I think the Big Cat has one in that.

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  5. I must say, I'm not a fan of the set, but I do like the design of the Homegrown Heroes cards. I will admit they have gotten better at covering the team names on the jerseys so they aren't blank. You got some great pulls though.

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  6. Nice franco about time you start pulling mets

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    1. I have all kinds of Mets. You are just too damn picky. They all can't be low numbered Matt Harvey's.

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  7. I love this set and I'd love to find something to swap that Galarraga state parallel for. I do have to disagree with one thing you said though. In 1989, two of the biggest superstars in all of baseball were Kevin Mitchell and Dave Stewart. Definitely Mitchell. He was a very big name for several years.

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    1. I'll be happy to trade you that Big Cat.

      1989 was a huge year for Stewart and Mitchell for sure. I was only 7 years old at the time so my statement was more on their careers as a whole. Both were good players that at their peaks had superstar seasons, but as a whole not considered superstar careers.

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  8. Nice break.

    That bit about Tulo potentially beating Trout for the WAR crown reminded me of how Mike Trout won the triple crown back in 2012. As he was the MLB leader in WAR on fangraphs, baseball reference and baseball prospectus.

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    1. Mike Trout is some kind of baseball robot. I love the guy. I feel bad that he was robbed of some MVP's.

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  9. You know how I feel about Panini, but this looks like a fun box to break, and the autos are great. Plus, a product that includes a card with a penguin at bat can't be totally bad.

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    1. It's a value buy with the guarantee of some on card autos. Plus I didn't pay for it! I did really like the nickname cards.

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  10. Very nice break. I'm digging those Jeter's. I may need to hunt for a box myself.

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    1. It was a gift so I'm not sure where the box was purchased. I'm guessing DA or Steel City.

      I was happy with my box since it yielded the extra auto. The only bad thing was that it was light on Pirates.

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  11. Such a fun set. I'm betting you have a bunch of my needs (and that Biggio disc!, so it looks like I need to start putting a stack together for you.

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    1. Let me know what you are looking for. We can get a trade going!

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