2016 Topps Jumbo Box Busting - part 2

Yesterday, I shared the first half of my Hobby Jumbo box of the first new cards of the year. To this point, I am a but disappointed in the box both in collation of base and inserts(bunches of dupes so far) and in the quality/selection of the two relics. I've got five packs left, one of which should include my promised auto and I'm hoping to pull at least one of the as yet elusive Schwarber RCs and maybe even an SP. Let's jump right in!

My first scan, and the second half of the box is already better than the first! There is the single Schwarber I pulled. He's one of the guys I wouldn't have minded pulling more than one of if the collation was going to be terrible. I also finally got a Refsnyder RC. The Russell Martin is one of the regular SPs. If you look really close, that's the camo jersey he's wearing which seems to be the prevailing theme of the easier to pull SPs(apparently this year there are SSPs they are approximately 10x more difficult to pull than standard SPs).

I'm really enjoying the Pressed Into Service insert, especially ones like the top row that show the player actually pitching. I think they should have shown Canseco blowing out his elbow which is exactly what happened during this stint on the mound. I'm digging that they included Singleton in the First Pitch set. To most, he's better known as 'T-Dog' from The Walking Dead. Very cool that the back says he threw out his first pitch for the Marlins' Zombie Night. I'm not sure what's up with that buyback, it has a red foil stamp instead of silver. Are they doing parallels of buybacks now? I guess I'll have to check into that.

Thankfully, the second half of the box yielded a bunch of Wrigley inserts that weren't dupes. He shot of the stadium is by far my favorite of the ones I've seen.

Here are three more Perspectives. I'm definitely going to put this set together and I wish my box didn't give me two dupes already. I'm just glad that there will probably be a lot of folks in the cardsphere that will be trying to complete this one too so at least there's the potential I can use the dupes to help finish my set, especially if everyone else's collation is as bad as mine was. The second half of the box was way better than the first, but I was still disappointed in the hits. Perhaps I'll feel a bit better about the collation issue once I sort everything. If I've got a complete set out of the box, I'll admit I overreacted. Flipping through the second to last pack I opened, I uncovered the auto, which I was still hoping would save the box.

It did! I couldn't believe my eyes! I was fully expecting to get an auto of someone like JT Realmuto. It's not numbered and it's a sticker-graph, but man! Hall of Famer and class act Cal Ripken Jr was staring right back at me. For the time being, I think I'll hold onto this, but I may be able to be convinced to let it go for the right deal.

I've got to give a huge shout out to Jimmy from Big D's Sports Cards for picking this box to deliver to me from the cases he ordered. Thanks for reading and good luck to all of you who will be ripping packs/boxes of your own! Thanks for reading. Please tune in tomorrow for a special Super Bowl themed post that's not directly related to the 'Big Game'.

First Completed Set of 2015

Okay, okay, the title's a bit misleading. A recent trade with JayBee who runs the Sports Card Blogroll did allow me to complete my first insert set of the year though. A few weeks back, JayBee posted some cards he pulled from a few jumbo packs of Archives. I saw that he listed the Bryce Harper from the Topps Game insert which I needed for my set build. Despite his repeatedly stating that he doesn't trade very much, I figured I'd take a stab at acquiring it from him. I briefly checked his want list and unfortunately didn't have anything from it to offer. However, I've seen his multiple posts talking about his affinity for the Topps retail team sets. This interest was reiterated in the same post in which I read about the Harper. Since I routinely visit many local Target locations, I figured I'd offer to send one of the team sets that I have access to, hoping that he didn't already order whatever he couldn't get his hands on. Fortunately, there was a set I had access to that he needed and our trade was born. JayBee also sent me a bunch of other set needs to go with the Harper.

Here's the one that started it all. Another of the bigger stars checked off my list, this one puts me at 17 out of 33 cards in-hand(I have three more that are in transit, putting me at 20/33).

I normally wouldn't highlight another Topps base card, but this puts me three cards shy of completing Series One. I'm almost as excited as these guys are!

Next up, I'm three more cards closer to finishing the first series of the 1st Home Run set. I am not picky as to which variation of a player makes it into my set, so long as I have at least one of all 40 players.

There we have them! Those two First Pitch cards finally let me close the door on that set. I finished in time to ramp up my search for the next 10 in the set that were just released in series two! Lastly, He sent me that awesome Puig Robbed insert. It leaves me three shy of finishing that set as well.

Thanks for a great trade JayBee. I'm blown away by your generosity and hope that we can trade again sometime in the future.