With the basketball season just around the corner, it's time for another basketball post. This time, I attempt to finish my goal of completing the 1996-97 Collector's Choice set. It's a simple, colorful set.
I picked up two boxes on eBay (even though I needed only 1), as the price per box was cheaper than what else was available. So, as a side note, if you're looking for a box of this product, I'm your man. After flipping a coin, I settled on a box to open. I'm sure you're all tired of seeing these cards so there's a good chance you won't have to hear about this set again!
Much like the last time, I'll provide a statistical breakdown to see if I beat the odds. There were 36 packs with 12 cards per pack, for a whopping 432 cards.
Cards Needed for Series 2
109
100%
Completed
103
94%
Outstanding
6
6%
Six cards might not seem like much but for all the base cards that are included, this is not a good collation of cards. Fortunately, Sportlots makes it easy to pick up base cards at $0.18 a pop, which is what I did to finish off the set.
Bryant rookie card / Mutombo being Mutombo
Insert Card
Odds
Found
Beat the Odds?
Mini-Cards
1:1
36
Tie
Super Action Stick-Ums
1:3
11
No
Gold Mini-Cards
1:35
1
Tie
Silver Crash the Game
1:5
8
Yes
Gold Crash the Game
1:49
1
Yes
NBA Draft Trade Update Card
1:71
1
Yes
Super Action Stick-Ums Base
1:4
9
Tie
Other than missing one stick-ums card, this box treated me well. Pulling the trade update card was a nice plus. Too bad I can't redeem it as the update cards are hard to find on the secondary market.
Nash and Iverson rookie cards
Even though I didn't complete the base set for series 2, I managed to finish the base mini-cards. Going into the box I only needed 13 cards so I'm glad I didn't get burdened with too many duplicates.
Camby rookie
It's nice to finally close the book on this set. I'll chase down the remaining insert cards I need, as well as the update cards. So this wraps it up for Collector's Choice!
I think I've done 1 or 2 blaster breaks for the blog, either explicitly or not. And I'll probably keep buying them As such, I've decided to turn blaster breaks into a specific feature. Every good blog needs named features, right?
Even though not everyone has a local card shop they can visit, they surely have a Target or a Wal-Mart nearby. Hence, anyone can get one of these blaster boxes, making these breaks "for the people." I wanted to create a catchier title rather than a simple title like "blaster break."
Today's box break is an EXTREME VALUE! Seriously, that's what the sticker said on the box. This just isn't any box, it's a blaster of 2014 Topps Update. I was drawn to this box for a few reasons. The price (discounted to only $13), the inclusion of a World Series patch card, the availability of All-Star Game cards, and that I haven't opened any 2014 Topps packs.
With 10 packs and 1 patch card, let's see what the blaster holds:
Pack 1
I picked this card because the image is unique and well timed. Figueroa himself has bounced around the league since his debut in 2014. I think this image might be from the May 23, 2014 game against the Red Sox when he batted in the winning (and only) run. He didn't really do much else of note in 2014.
Wainwright had a solid year in 2014 going 20-9 with a 2.38 ERA.
The All-Star Game cards, which were just what I was hoping to get.
Pack 2
Normally Seth Smith would be a card I would quickly pass over but he's a Mariner now. As such, I was give him is proper due and acknowledge him on the blog. He's a decent hitter who can provide some pop and get on base.
I liked that some of the rookie cards also included the debut date.
Pack 3
Having previously lived in New England, I still root for Boston teams although they don't take precedence over Seattle teams. The Ortiz mini replicates a 1989 design. However, I'm bothered by the fact that this card uses a stat line from 2006. That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.
It's a Trout card so I have to give my obligatory "Fuck Mike Trout." Notwithstanding Trout, I still like the card.
Pack 4
A pink card, huh? Oh it's serial numbered to 50? Sweet pull! And I've heard of Morneau before! These pink parallels run one every 253 packs. I'm not ready to call this box a success but I'm getting there.
This card made me wonder how many cards out there haven't been pulled? This box is 2 years old and there are only 50 of these cards in existence. I image there has to be rarer cards that have never seen the light of day. Of course the catch 22 is that we won't know what cards haven't been pulled.
Sadly, Taveras died in a car accident after the season ended in 2014.
Pack 5
Ellsbury got a lot of heat from Beantown after he left the Red Sox and signed with the Yankees. Dude got paid though so good for him.
Springer is certainly impressing so far in his young career.
Your 2016 Home Run Derby champion.
Pack 6
Pack 7
One of the few Cal Ripken Jr. cards I have in my collection. That's not acceptable.
2014 was Seager's only year as an all-star so this is a great card to pull.
Pack 8
It's a numbered parallel, which I'm a sucker for, so I have to include it. That makes 2 serial numbered cards out of this box.
I would not normally highlight a Yankee but pulling this card was fortuitous as you'll soon see below.
I highlight this card because look at that kick! I am not that flexible.
Pack 9
I picked this red foil insert because....
Pack 10
..I pulled the base card in the same pack. What are the odds?
I still wish there was a Topps Now for the Odor/Bautista punch.
Won the Rookie of the Year award in 2014.
Patch
The included patch is none other than Mariano Rivera. I thought it was interesting that I pulled the Rivera World Series Heroes insert and patch card in the same box.
This was a great break overall considering the cost. Two numbered parallels, one manufactured memorabilia, two current Mariners, and several All-Star Game cards.
Welcome back for the conclusion of the 2015 Topps Baseball Series 2 retail break. If you missed my first post highlighting some of the cards, you can check it out here.
I don't have as many cards as the first post to discuss but here we go.
Base
I don't like Mike Trout. He's too good and he plays in the AL West, where my team the Mariners also play. It's hard to believe that he is only 24 but has already won an MVP and ROTY award. He's been an all-star every full year he's been in the league. He already has a WAR above 4.0 and it's not even the all-star break.
The only reason I included this card is because I thought it was a very cool image. It's easy to get fatigued with the typical baseball card picture but this one is different. I'm surprised Topps didn't put this is a short print since they are keen on doing that these days.
Highlight of the Year insert
The Babe. What a legend. I'm always a fan of baseball history cards.
Free Agent 40 insert
As far as free agent signings go, Cano was likely one of the biggest for the Mariners. Consistent all-star, gold glove award winner, and positive clubhouse personality. This signing, and the money to go along with it, showed that the Mariners' front office was serious about contending. In 2014, his first year with the Mariners, Cano played like a the multi-million dollar man he was. Unfortunately, the Mariners missed the playoffs by 1 game. In 2015, Cano struggled mightily at the beginning of the year and the Mariners finished below .500.
This year he has been playing close to his 2014 level but the Mariners have tanked in the month of June and Cano's flaccid bat this month is partly to blame. I still think he is an all-star this year but he will have to turn it up in the 2nd half if the Mariners have ANY chance of making the playoffs.
First Pitch insert
Local product Macklemore loves Seattle and all it's sports teams. He's a good ambassador for Seattle sports. His music is good too.
Baseball History insert
Any card with Casey Kasem is alright with me. His voice is legendary.
Base
I'm sure I've talked about Pineda before so I won't talk much about him. Former Mariners prospect that has not seemed to play up to his potential yet. This year his ERA is a whopping 5.51. He had a rough start to the year but in June he has been pitching better.
Future Stars - Base - Gold Parallel
The Future Stars tag on DeGrom has been pretty accurate. In 2015, the year this set came out, DeGrom was an all-star and pitched his way to a 14-8 record with a 2.54 ERA. He also pitched pretty well in the playoffs last year with the exception of his lone World Series start where he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings. This year is ERA is a little higher, WHIP is up and his strikeouts are down. I don't follow the Mets/NL so I can't say for sure how he is doing but the numbers suggest that he's not pitching the same.
Initially I was going to correct the rotation on Fernando Rodney but on second thought I decided to keep it. Rodney was Mariners closer for a few years and watching him pitch was like riding a roller coaster. One game he could go 1-2-3 no problem to get the save. The next game he could walk every batter to load the bases and then get three easy outs. There was no consistency. An upside down picture seemed appropriate. I still like the dude though. He's been pitching very well this year so congrats to the Padres.
Last, and kinda least, Rick Porcello with the gold parallel, serial numbered to 2015. I have no affinity for Porcello as I'm not familiar with him. I just wanted to include the other serial numbered card. He seems to be doing alright with the Red Sox this year so he's got that going for him.
36 packs and 432 cards later, the box has finally been broken, sorted, and cataloged.
Rather than make this post a card review (which I will likely do at a later date), I'm going to make it a statistical breakdown. I bought this box for a specific reason: to backfill my collection. I needed specific cards to complete Series 1. To see whether this box was a success, the best way is to crunch the numbers.
Total Cards
432
100%
Base
365
84.5%
Inserts
67
15.5%
Some packs ran only 1 insert per pack (a mini-card) so to end up averaging 2 per pack worked out well.
Cards Needed for Series 1
42
100%
Completed
41
98%
Outstanding
1
2%
Considering how many cards I needed, the fact that I didn't finish off the base set is somewhat of a disappointment. Even more so, it wasn't an all-star card like a Michael Jordan (which I didn't get) but rather Chuck Person of the San Antonio Spurs (#141). On the bright side, this card should be cheap and easy to find.
A few highlights of the cards I received. The current league lacks a good short man.
Nowadays this would be a special insert that's tough to get but this look at the Bulls' record setting regular season is a sleek 5 card base-run.
Duplicate Cards
Base
324
89%
Inserts
38
57%
# of packs containing duplicate cards
6
17%
The number of duplicate cards is not surprising. I had a small number of base cards remaining so by default I was bound to end up with many leftover base cards. The number of duplicate inserts is also not a shocking amount. The majority of insert cards were the mini-cards. I had most of the mini-cards for Series 1 so duplicates were to be expected. At least I finished off the minis.
What was upsetting was the fact that 6 packs contained duplicates of cards that were in that very pack. For instance, a pack would contain two of the same team checklists. I wonder if this issue has plagued other sets. I certainly hope it doesn't happen now.
Inserts
Found
New
Mini-cards
36
2
Super Action Stick-Ums
9
8
Gold Mini-Cards
1
1
Silver Crash the Game
7
6
Gold Crash the Game
1
1
Meet the Stars Instant Win
1
1
NBA Draft Trade Card
0
0
Meet the Stars Trivia
12
10
The main impetus for buying a box was to find inserts and specifically Meet the Stars inserts. These are throwaway contest cards, featuring trivia questions. No players (well I guess Jordan is faintly in the back), no teams. I'm sure these cards were inserted into all Upper Deck products that year but I've rarely seen them in the wild. There wasn't even a checklist on TCDB until I added one a few months back. I didn't acquire any low number trivia cards so I also question whether they exist in Collector's Choice. Anyway. Inserts. Yeah I got some. I hope to collect them all one day.
Karl Malone seems like the obvious choice here
Silver insert
Gold Parallel
Future Supersonics player
Mini-cards. Just tempting little kids to break them apart
Insert Card
Odds
Found
Beat the Odds?
Mini-Cards
1:1
36
Tie
Super Action Stick-Ums
1:4
9
Tie
Gold Mini-Cards
1:35
1
Tie
Silver Crash the Game
1:5
7
Tie
Gold Crash the Game
1:49
1
Yes
Meet the Stars Instant Win
1:79
1
Yes
NBA Draft Trade Card
1:144
0
No
Meet the Stars Trivia
1:3
12
Tie
I'm always curious as to how true the odds are for finding inserts. Based on my box, I'd say the odds are pretty accurate. I was lucky with the Instant Win and Gold Crash the Game cards. The others were break even. I didn't count on the Trade Card.
The only card I didn't find were the Stick-Ums base cards. The wrappers didn't say anything about the bases so I don't know where they come from.
In the end, this was a successful box. The base set is a reasonable 400 cards so I think I can complete it one day. The inserts will be a harder challenge. Unlike modern day sets though, the number of inserts isn't outrageous and there are no base parallels.
I have been working on opening packs for the 1996-97 Collector's Choice set and in one pack I found an instant winner card. These cards were listed with pull odds of 1:72. Having only 32 packs to open this was a decent find.
However, I was immediately faced with a dilemma? Do I scratch the card? Or leave it intact for preservation? I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't scratch it so I decided to deface my card. First, I made sure to scan the card intact, for archival purposes and to add to the Database.
Did I win the all expenses paid trip to see Michael Jordan?
Prize - Michael Jordan 5" x 7" Commemorative Card
Sadly, no. Actually, I'm glad I didn't win the grand prize because I would be soooo mad. I did win a Jordan commemorative card, a $5 value. This was the most common prize. I'm curious as to what this card looks like because I haven't been able to find a scan.
Can I still claim my prize? I've reached out to Upper Deck for comment.
Topps had a Memorial Day sale so if course I had to see what they were offering. The only thing that caught my eye was a retail box of 2015 Series 1 baseball cards -- 24 packs for $20. Since I wasn't actively collecting in 2015 I figured now would be a good chance to get some baseball and catch up on a prior set.
After an excruciating two-week wait, the package finally arrived on a Friday. I knew my weekend plans. As I opened up the packs on Friday night (okay I couldn't wait until the weekend to get started) I actually started to feel a bit stressed. "There are a lot of cards here. How am I going to blog about all these cards? There is going to be so much scanning to do." *deep breath*
At first I thought I might scan a pack a day and do an individual post on each pack. That seemed like overkill though as 24 packs would take a while and this is last year's set so people have probably seen these cards enough. Then I narrowed down my options to maybe 3 cards per pack to highlight but that still ended up being a significant number of cards. Finally, I settled on going through the 3 cards I originally picked out per pack and winnowed that number down even further to cards I could actually write about.
With my plan settled, I started scanning the noteworthy cards. I still scanned a decent amount of cards and I'm going to turn it into a two-part series. Otherwise, I think the posts would be too long to enjoy, especially since these are not the latest and greatest Topps.
I want to make a quick note that cards are not in any order from packs pulled.
Now that the behind-the-scenes look into my psyche is out of the way, on to the cards!
Future Stars - Base Card - First Pitch Insert
The benefit of opening last year's Topps cards is that I can look at whether or not a Future Stars card turned out to be true. In the case of Xander Bogaerts, he is absolutely a future star. He is currently 1st in All-Star voting for shortstop. All-star voting is not always an indication of a player's actual all-star worthiness (I'm looking at you Royals fans) but for Bogaerts, he fits the bill. In 2015, his 2nd full year in the majors, Bogaerts hit .320 with 81 RBI. He also earned himself a Silver Slugger award. This year he is hitting even better with .359 batting average and already 44 RBI. He is a solid defensive player as well.
On the flip side we have Alcides Escobar. 2015 was actually a good year for him. He won a World Series Ring, an ALCS MVP award, a Gold Glove award, and he was an All-Star. While this year he is 2nd in All-Star voting for shortstop (behind Bogaerts), he has particularly played like an all-star. His batting average is down, fielding percentage is down, and his OPS is down. I admit I don't track the Royals but I'm sure the team is expecting more out of him this year if they want to defend their title.
Jack White is a not a shortstop but I'll still talk about him anyway. I like the First Pitch inserts as it's always fun to see some celebrities mixed in with the baseball players. I have never been a listener of The White Stripes but I can appreciate the band for what it is/was. In addition, White is pretty dedicated to the independent music scene and runs a great label called Third Man Records. One day I would like to go to their record store in Nashville.
Base card
I actively dislike the Yankees, which par for the course for most non-Yankees fans. However, Jeter is a quality baseball players and I like that the photo on this card captures a special moment. I saw Jeter on his farewell tour last year when the Yankees made a stop in Seattle. I thought I had a picture from the game but can't seem to find it.
Gold parallel - SN 1941/2015
These high serial numbered parallels aren't the flashiest of cards but for a retail pack I can't complain about getting a serial numbered card. I like the gold border, too. Zimmermann had an okay year with the Nationals in 2015, going 13-10 with a 3.66 ERA. This year he's on an improved pace with an 8-3 record so far.
Robbed insert - Baseball History insert - Future Stars
The Robbed insert is presumably a feature of a team's best outfielders. The fact that Dustin Ackley was considered Seattle's best outfielder is laughable and sad. It's laughable because Ackley was converted to an outfielder (first center then left) late in his career after he didn't pan out as a 2B. His story is unfortunate because he was a drafted second overall in 2009 and was considered an absolute lock for success as a power hitter. However, he never lived up to the hype and was eventually shipped off to the Yankees where he has achieved even lesser success. I won't even get worked up about the fact that Mike Trout was drafted later in the 1st round. Oh well, the Mariners would have found a way to screw him up anyway. But I digress.
Based on the aforementioned let down in Ackley's career, it's sad that he was at one time considered Seattle's best outfielder. He did have some nice plays and this one comes to mind:
Luckily, the Mariners have an improved outfield with Leonys Martin, Nori Aoki, and even Nelson Cruz.
The baseball history card is a little confusing since Dick Clark has nothing to do with baseball but I like him on a card nonetheless.
Masahiro Tanaka was a pitcher I was hoping the Mariners didn't have to face regularly when he joined the MLB back in 2014. Unfortunately, he went to the Yankees, which meant we would have to seem him a few times a year. He's had the Mariners' number so far this year going 1-0. Tanaka has had some stuggles, including an injury last year and the fact that he has struggled on 4 days' rest versus 5 days. Overall though I would say the Future Stars label was not inaccurate.
Inspired Play insert
I'm not totally on board with the comparison here. Cano has only been with the Mariners for a few years and joined them in his prime so their rise to fame is a little different. Yet they are both dominant players at their respective positions. Either way, I like both of these players.
Base cards
Mike Zunino is another disappointing Mariners prospect. He was supposed to be the Mariners' catcher of the future but has been beset by Seattle's poor farm system and an inept general manager who rushed him up to the majors waaay too soon. As a result, Zunino struggled mightly offensively. His defensive and pitch framing abilities were there but he struggled at the plate. Thankfully, with Jerry DiPoto now in charge, Zunino is given time to develop in AAA.
I don't have much to say about Paul Konerko as I didn't really follow him as a player. I just liked this photo as a nice tribute to him. It's always a breath of fresh air when a photo is other than the typical action shot.
Base - Baseball History insert
I can't stand Kendrys Morales. He had a nice season with the Mariners in 2013. In the off season when Mariners tried to re-sign him he didn't take their offer. He then proceeded to sit out part of the 2014 season until he signed with the Twins. Towards the end of the trade deadline, the Mariners brought him back as they were trying to make a playoff push. Morales was very disappointing and was nowhere near repeating his 2013 performance. The Mariners missed the playoffs by 1 game and their decade long playoff drought continued. The following year Morales went to the Royals, returned to his old form, and won a World Series ring. So yeah, can't say I have fond feelings of Morales.
Rounding out this post is another non-Baseball History insert. This time it's the start of CNN. Once a reputable news source, CNN has degraded into tabloid-journalism and click-bait worthy news stories.
Phew! This post was long despite all my best efforts to pare down the cards I talked about. This wraps up the first half of Topps 2015 and stay tuned for the next one!
