Gallery Break

Brian from HSCA had been holding onto this box of Gallery since New Years since I was being a slow poke making my decision. Nice restraint Brian! The good thing is he helped us get right back on pace by busting immediately after my chosen box of Chronicles.

This time around I got the AL East and NL Central.  Kevin from The Card Papoy says he feels guilty always getting the East since his chosen team is the Blue Jays.  I jumped at the chance to get some Yankee trade bait. 

This break turned out fruitful in that I got most of the big rookies.  While this guy seems to be a punching bag on the blogs I'm very happy to get his cards.  

I need as many Yankees, Cubs and Dodgers I can get my hands on.

Phillips looks to be blocked for extended playing time in Milwaukee after the signings of Yelich and Cain. In a perfect world I'm sure the Brewers would have loved to trade him for pitching, but he doesn't seem to have the value to be a centerpiece. Most recent prospect rankings have him in the upper areas of the top 100.  I'm sure Braun will miss some time this year so at bats shouldn't be that hard to find.

Benintendi was the favorite for rookie of the year, but the emergence of Judge ended that pretty quickly.

Told you I got a lot of rookies! Brinson was the centerpiece in the Yelich deal.  Reyes is coming off Tommy John surgery so I'm sure the Cardinals have their fingers crossed.

My lone numbered card was a pretty good one.

A sampling of some of my star cards.

The inserts are nothing too special.  The cards kind of look like a cross between other high end Topps base offerings like Triple Threads and Tier One.

Now for my Buccos

I thought this was a pretty cool Cutch card.

Any day adding a new Clemente is a good day.

Rounding out the rookie extravaganza is Josh Bell.

Overall our break didn't produce anything of high value, but it was very well rounded.  This would have probably been the type of box you would want if you planned on building the set.  Pretty much all the big rookies and stars are accounted for.

Thanks for the break Brian.  I'll showoff the trade portion soon.

Thanks for reading.

2002 Leaf Break

Time for a box break.  This time around international playboy and Upper Deck enthusiast Kevin of Card Papoy fame chose 2002 Leaf. 

Our box breaks have been a little more sparse here lately.  Big rookie years from Judge and Bellinger have made shopping for boxes a tad difficult. Normally I would default to standbys like Diamond Kings but even that is about $10-15 more expensive than normal.  Anyone seen any good deals lately?  I'm up to bat for a box, but have not been swayed by daily deals on the well known sites. 

Let's get to the cards.

From what Kevin told Brian and I the box didn't yield much in the way of high end, but still offered a nice glimpse of the period (freaking 16 years ago...yikes).  

While this was the time period companies started to shift focus towards autos/relics , you could still find a decent insert here and there. I like the Heading For the Hall inserts. Overall a nice looking card of the Wizard.

Some variation of "Gold Leaf" has been around a long time.

This was my only Pirate card from the break which pretty much sums up what it was like to collect the Pirates in the late 90's/early 2000's. It was pretty much Kendall and Giles with a sprinkling of Aramis Ramirez. 

Crime Dog!

I could imagine Gary Sheffield the agent would be kind of intimidating just like Gary Sheffield the player.

Some big names here.  Often the complaint with Leaf was poor photos. They all seem too bright and kind of blurry. The inserts have a much better look. Just compare the Lineage cards to the base. 

Some blog favorite players.

Overall the box was sort of a bust in terms of cards that can stay in my collection, but it was fun to see a set that I haven't paid attention to in years. Thanks for the break Kevin! I'll show off the trade portion tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Stadium Club Break Yields a First

Brian, Kevin and I seem to be getting back into a nice trading/box breaking rhythm.  I slowed us up a bit when I has having trouble accumulating trade bait.  Thankfully the drought ended and we are once again a well oiled machine.  For this installment Brian chose the consistently wonderful Stadium Club.

I had the NL Central and NL East which proved to be a good choice.

Brian pulled me 5 of the Buccos which is nice.

 Throwback uniforms!

 This is one of my favorite Pirate releases of 2017.  When this set initially dropped I really wanted to try and accumulate some of the parallels, but the pricing was prohibitive.  I think several Pirate collectors had the same idea.

 I was a little disappointed with the choices for the Pirate outfielders, especially Cutch. While the card is nice it is just not great. For whatever reason Cutch hasn't had great TSC cards. 

Here is a sampling of some of my favorite non Buccos.

 You don't see many cards of a pitcher letting his infielders know the location of a pop up. 

Catcher cards are always great and get taken to the next level with Stadium Club.  Love the unique Bench shot.

 If I was the guy in the Batman shirt you better believe I would own 20,000 copies of that Rizzo card.

 A little odd that Stadium Club chose to make a card of Derrek Lee for the 2017 set.  Either way it is still an awesome looking card. 

Now for the rare card we hit.

First Day Issues are not serial numbered, but are listed as  /10.  Obviously this is one of the bigger names you can hit so I'm extremely grateful that Brian pulled this and it ended up in my hands. We haven't hit much in the way of higher end cards this year so hopefully this will be the start of a hot streak.

Thanks so much Brian for the break.  I'll show off the trade portion of the package in the next day or two.

Thanks for reading.

Celebrating Our Heritage (Walk, Papoy, HSCA Collaboration #22)

Brian's choice for our collaboration box break this time around was 2006 Heritage  I was excited for this one as the Pirates had a lot of obscure players in this set. Some big hits were also possible, but we struck out in terms of high end cards.  That was ok though, as plenty cool cards were still had.

 Do you remember Jody Gerut as a Pirate?  He played 4 games!

Humberto Cota served as a backup catcher for the Bucco's in the mid 2000's.  I remember actually seeing one of his career 12 homeruns in person.

This was my favorite card of the bunch.

 Mark Redman had a 10 year career, but played on 8 teams. Another fun fact is that he was once an All Star when he played for the Royals.  I didn't remember that.  Those mid 2000's Royals teams were just as bad as the Pirates.

 Sean Casey is from the Pittsburgh area.  He only played half a season for the Buccos as he was dealt to the Tigers.

 Brad Eldred had Aaron Judge power, but the plate discipline of my toddler.

 Here are three numbered cards that Brian pulled from me. Brian Roberts is probably the most well known of the bunch as he played at an All Star level in the mid 2000's.

Hello, Do you know us? We are a Major League baseball team.

Thanks for the break Brian. While it was tough to watch this team back in 2006 as a collector you grow fond of the obscure and short stay players.  Seeing a Jody Gerut and Sean Casey Pirates card always brings a smile to my face.

The trade portion of this break was amazing.  I'll be showing those in the coming days.

Thanks for reading!

Walk, Papoy, HSCA Collaboration #20 and #21

Kevin sent two installments of our box breaks in one envelope as he has been a busy bee getting settled into his new place. This is actually a blessing in disguise as I've been a little slower accumulating trade bait lately.  This portion includes a box of 2011 Ginter and 2016 Diamond Kings. 

Cutch has been showing a little more life the past couple weeks.  I'm sure the Pirates are hoping he can carry this into the summer so they move him to another team.  That makes me sad saying that, but baseball can be a cruel bitch sometimes. 

A West Virginia card! I'm actually closer to Pittsburgh than Parkersburg, but it is nice seeing a card featuring a small WV town.

You truly do get a little bit of everything when you buy Ginter.

Is the cornhole guy wearing eye black?

I've been on the Queen Mary boat as it is docked in Long Beach California. Supposedly it is haunted, but I did not see a ghost. They don't have a money back guarantee.

 Anybody super collecting Rasputin?

Here is a reminder that Manny Ramirez played for the Rays.

Kershaw is one of my favorite non Pirates to watch.

Some random Buccos including a cool Hometown Heroes of Neil Walker. Gibsonia is a suburb of Pittsburgh.

Diamond Kings.....

I'm always fascinated on the fanfare players get when they retire.  You could not escape Ortiz last season if you collect cards.  Topps created about 10,000 different cards featuring the Red Sox slugger. Red Sox sell!  

Diamond Kings is probably our most frequent box break.  It is the perfect mix of high end possibility and price point.  

It was cool that Kevin pulled a rookie autograph.

Peter O'Brien has been struggling to find a home in recent days. He has been balancing around a ton lately.  He is an extreme power hitter but lacks anything resembling plate discipline.

This is numbered to /25!

Socrates Brito is one of the best names ever.

Legend cards!

A nice looking Cutch card.  Love the canvas look.

A 3 time gold medalist soccer player relic!

Thanks for the break Kevin.  This may be the most diverse group of cards I've received in a long time. From Cutch to Mitts to Rasputin......and everything in between.

I'll show all the cool extras Kevin sent sometime this weekend.  

Thanks for reading.