Friday, March 6, 2015

Revisiting Some Old Box Breaks


I've been laid up in bed with the stomach flu.  But with our 11 box 90's break coming up, I wanted to revisit some previous box breaks I've been a part of with my gang of team collectors.

Much like blogging, part of the fun for me in the breaks is seeing all the cool cards from other teams.  It often gives me an idea of what non-Pirate cards I want to keep an eye out for at shows, whether it's due to awesome base card photos or just a really nice design.

This break was from Halloween night last year.  Once all the candy was passed out and millions of kids across America were gorging on chocolate bars and Skittles packets, we got together on Google Hangout and had a small break.

2013 Topps Mini
2014 Stadium Club
2014 Topps Update Jumbo X2

Mini has quickly become one of my favorite products, but that's largely because the price dropped from $50 to $25-30 a box.

It's great for team collectors, with lots of low numbered cards per box.  Sure, your odds of hitting a big name are slim, but I'm just as happy with Travis Snider as I am with McCutchen or Neil Walker.  Unfortunately the Cutch didn't end up with me, since we go by the player to the left on the LL cards.

Stadium Club had to be the biggest disappointment of the year.  The product was loaded with junk autos, and many of the players in the product had already seen their big league career come and go by the time the product went live.  What a joke.

We broke 2 boxes.  The first we paid $100 for at release, and pulled a Hank Aaron auto redemption.  I think boxes were down to about $70 at this point, and would continue falling.  The 2 boxes I ripped myself during Black Friday sales made me think this product would have been better at a $40 price point...
You win some, you lose some.  And thanks, Topps.  We definitely lost.

But with a break, salvation is always around the corner.  At this point I was feeling pretty shitty.  It looked like I had thrown away $15 or so on a stack of some base cards.  With any break you win some, you lose some.
Update was yielding some nice hits.  Just not for me.  Through Box 1 and most of Box 2, I hadn't hit so much as a gold or red foil.  

We did hit this guy though.
But like I said, a break saver is always just a pack away.  In the next to last pack,  we hit a Clemente.
Not just any Clemente.  Some 00's nostalgia throwback awesome goodness.  2000 Gold Label was the set that was always just out of reach - a great looking, high end product that was way too expensive for my 12 year old budget at the time.  I still absolutely love the design, and I'm really happy to pull such an awesome card.








3 comments:

  1. That Darvish is impressive. Sorry you couldn't keep the LL Cutch. I guess without rules it is chaos in group breaks.

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    1. The multi-player cards are always a little frustrating in breaks, because inevitable somebody misses out on a card. But I was still thrilled with my haul from this break, to the point where the Cutch was an afterthought.

      I've seen some real high dollar cards, like a Jeter/Chipper Co-Signers auto get pulled and be decided by a coin flip. Being on the wrong side of that...that would sting.

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  2. I remember this was the break I had to miss, but thanks to Bill, the Yankees still wound up in my collection. I love our gang of team collectors, looking out for each other. We are like a family and I hope this group stays together for a long time.

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