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I'd call that a bargain


Before I get to the good stuff, a couple of things to address:

1. Bud Selig, my man, where ya been? Please, please, never let anybody play owner again.

2. I am imploring everyone to stop posting that video of Brian Wilson, Cody Ross and the kid. I know it's for a good cause. But Wilson is toolish, the Black Eyed Peas and their evil spawns are a crime against music, and the Giants, well, you know how I feel about them.

OK, on to happier topics.

I bought one of those Baseball Value Boxes that have popped up at Walmart lately. I did it because I had seen a few good things and figured it couldn't possibly be worse than the marked down blaster of Timeline that I bought that yielded THREE cards that I needed. THREE CARDS. THREE CARDS, and one of them was stupid Yankee Legacy cardboard CRAAAAAAAAPP!

(excuse me, I think I'm hyperventilating. Just a second)

I am in an all-out war against blasters. After a year of waffling on them, it's finally clicked. They suck. I will not buy them unless they're marked down or less than 10 bucks. They're just not worth it, and many times they're absolutely infuriating.

So my only retail alternative, if I'm looking for cards packaged in the shape of a box, are one of these bargain box thingies. I like what they say on the front. Five packs of 2011 Topps base, two packs of 2011 Heritage hobby, two code cards, a special refractor, and a booklet with blurbs on famed Topps cards from each of the last 60 years.


The best  part of the booklet is there are season schedules for every team in the back. (There are also coupons for vitamins and lawn fertilizer, which is ... um, weird).

The base packs didn't yield anything special. Two diamond parallels, one of which is headed to Nachos Grande. I'm not going to show the exclusive refractor either, because it's Mickey Mantle and I can't bear to show another Mantle card on my blog.

I liked the Heritage packs better. There is nothing more satisfying than getting hobby packs and not having to go into my hobby shop to get them. Notice I said MY hobby shop, not YOUR hobby shop. I have nothing against your hobby shop.

The first pack yielded a short-print and nothing else you haven't seen before.

I'll show the second pack.


Your hobby wrapper with an unnamed baseball player on the front. Let's call him Rusty.


#111 - Brad Lidge. I find myself rooting against the Phillies more often these days.


#356 - Jose Bautista. Here's hoping he has a 3-home run game in him tonight.


#24 - Detroit Tigers. Notice how the guys in the middle of the top row are lacking legs. Topps, please fix this.


#246 - Andrew Bailey. I mentioned how I liked this card way back. So Topps has given me three more of them. I don't like it that much.


#50 - Albert Pujols. I don't know what it is about Dodger Stadium that reminds top players that they should start hitting, but it's getting a wee bit tiring.


#144 - Jackie Robinson Short Print, inserted 1/50 hobby packs.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

They even applied the appropriate accent marks on "resume" (sorry, I don't know how to do it here).

This is the last card in the 10-card Robinson series. Down to nine that I won't get. But one is so worth it.


#58 - N.L. Win Leaders: Roy Halladay's tweet after he suffered his first loss last night: "I'm SO sorry."

Take it easy, bro, it's not like you ran over someone's dog.


#28 - Vernon Wells. Hitting .180 with .230 slugging. Wow, couldn't see that coming.


#304 - Brett Myers. I really thought we had evolved from showing bald people on baseball cards. But I guess I was wrong.

That left the code cards to redeem, which I always save for last.

The first card I redeemed was:


This is the second pre-1971 Orioles card that I've redeemed on the Diamond Giveaway, which should be helpful.

The second code card, which happened to feature a Derek Jeter diamond die-cut card on the front, redeemed this:


A diamond die-cut Babe Ruth card.

Since I'm not an industry junkie, I had to do a little research on this. Apparently, they're exclusive to the Diamond Giveaway and they're a little bit rare. I looked on ebay and they're selling for prices all over the board (If you pull a Koufax apparently you can charge a fortune).

I didn't see a Ruth card, so I have no idea what I can get for it, but I'm hoping to sucker ... er, entice some Yankee fan.

So, not bad for 15 bucks.

I can see those blasters collecting a lot more dust now.

(EDIT: First 4 offers on the giveaway site for my Ruth card: Billy Wagner diamond diecut card, 1974 Brooks Robinson, Marlon Byrd diamond diecut card, 1958 Dick Donovan)

Comments

LongFlyBall said…
WOW, that Ruth card was a great capper to the purchase.
I am trying to find out the print run on the die-cut cards as well. I picked up my Ricky Romero off of eBay for $17. Can't wait to see it in-hand.
Derek Hill said…
It seems that there are two variations on the die cut a black version numbered to 60, but I don't see a print run on the others.

Also, anyone who roots against the phils more is great with me!
longlivethewho said…
Hey, if you want to send that Mantle refractor somewhere, my mailbox would be a lovely place.

Otherwise, some good stuff. Also heard about MLB taking over the Dodgers... hopefully it works out.
Funner Here said…
LOL, the Halladay Twitter account is fake. I bought one of those value boxes, but mine was from Target. My exclusive card was a Mantle refractor too!!! Make. It. Stop. PS-Look at Derek hatin' on the Phils...haha
night owl said…
Well fake Halladay needs to take it easy, too.

(PS: I wouldn't root against the Phillies if they were playing the Braves).
zman40 said…
Thanks to this post, I went out of my way to pick one of these up. While I was there, I bought a rack pack thingy of Bowman Platinum and I got a Mike Trout auto. So, thanks for getting me out of the house. I didn't get anything special out of the box, but one of my code cards landed me a Diamond die cut Danny Valencia card. I promptely swapped that card for nine cards from 1965-1987. While not a great haul, it did triple my diamond giveaway booty.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Also, I did get a couple of cards in the mail for you today.
night owl said…
I think Topps owes me a discount for the referral.
Feather Chucker said…
That box is perfect for people experiencing blaster burnout. After seeing our review. I might have to look into these. I wonder how the football ones are.
Don said…
I thought about picking up one of those boxes, but I have yet to see one. You should get some good offers for the diamond cut Ruth, people are going crazy for the diamond cuts.
GCA said…
é = (hold Alt key and type 130 on the number pad keys)

Go here and print out the second page for all the different characters.
http://www.cdrummond.qc.ca/cegep/informat/Professeurs/Alain/files/ascii.htm


word verification: butsmut LOL
Don said…
I forgot to add, I did see that there is a Jackie Robinson diamond cut card. Maybe you could offer the Ruth for Jackie straight up.