Donruss Blaster X 2

A few weeks back I took a day off to get some things done around the house. While procrastinating to do those things I went to Target and purchased baseball cards.  It is as close to Ferris Bueller as I can get these days. I even took myself out to lunch.  It's a crazy life I tell you!

I decided on Donruss because I like to imagine people rolling their eyes when they read my blog. Also, my Target was picked through.  I was kind of hoping to find discounted blasters that I see people post all the time, but it only seems to be Nascar and NBA my way.  Oh well....here are the cards of note.

 Out of two blasters I got two Diamond Kings.

 I think these are a Target exclusive.

 I like Jake Arrieta. For some reason the Orioles have trouble recognizing pitching talent. I'm sure Orioles fans wish they could have that one back.

David Oritz is going to be a Hall of Famer. I don't really have a problem with that, but if he does go they need to get Edgar Martinez in. Free Edgar!

 Poor twins....I'll eventually send this to Brian.

 I have a feeling Schwarber will never catch again.

 Another parallel...this time a stat line version.

The blaster each promise a relic or auto.  I thought I did pretty well.

Can't go wrong pulling a Moncada.  This will probably head to Mr. Hoyle at some point. 

I pulled an auto! Dilson Herrera is a former Pirate prospect. He was traded to the Mets for Marlon Byrd during the 2013 playoff push.  In the short term it was a great move by the Buccos as Byrd played a huge getting the Pirates into the wild card game and even hit a homerun during the game itself.

Herrera blossomed in the Mets system and is extremely close to being mlb ready.  Funny thing is he got blocked again by a Pirate when the Mets got Neil Walker in a trade.

Overall it was a pretty good break. Worthy enough to troll everyone again with another if the opportunity presents itself.

Thanks for reading!

Group Breaking

I follow a seller on eBay (rkcollectibles) that often hosts group breaks on newer products. He sells by team and runs many of them via traditional auction.  He has a big following so you are not usually going to find outrageous deals, but sometimes you can run into a deal if he is trying to round out a break last minute.

For me I've gotten away from doing group breaks for the most part. Most of the time I can add the cards I want from a set cheaper than what a slot cost in a break. I justified in previous years when I could chase expensive rookies like Gerrit Cole and Gregory Polanco, but the last couple of years have been light on impact Pirates in major releases.

Well, since I'm writing about group breaks you probably know where this is heading. Late last week I happened to be on eBay at about the same time as a slot for all the Pirates came up for a half case break of 2016 Donruss. I put in a bid and won.  The cards were shipped very securely and if you got a nicer card they were shipped in toploaders.

If you can get past the licensing issue Donruss is one of the better group break choices you can make. It is stocked full of short prints, parallels and the auto list has improved a good bit over the 2014 and 15 releases. While I didn't get anything of note in the break for the Buccos the 8 boxes yielded some nice cards. Several Trout parallels and 11 autos in 8 boxes were pulled. Off the top of my head I remember a Jake Arrieta, Pedro Martinez and a Yasmany Tomas /5.  It was a very nice mix of rookies, established stars and retired guys.

Here is the Pirates team set and a few inserts I pulled.

 This was the best card. The Diamond Kings are short prints.

Like I said nothing too exciting, but I'll take the gamble if the price is right.  Plus I can send a few teams sets to some friends that like the Pirates as well.

Thanks for reading!