Didn't Expect to Find This

Over the last week, Stadium Club has temporarily(I hope) disappeared from retail shelves in my general vicinity so I have had to explore other options to satiate my card breaking appetite. Earlier this week, I grabbed another hockey repack(I'll post on that another day),but while at my local Target I found something quite exciting.

I had considered, on multiple occasions, grabbing one of these shortly after they released but I never ended up taking one home. I couldn't justify the purchase price for a sport that I don't regularly collect when my reasoning for the gamble was to see if I could pull the Connor McDavid Young Guns RC. However, I've become increasingly involved in the world of Upper Deck ePack(possibly more on that at a later date) and when I saw this discounted series one blaster I had to roll the dice. Here are a few of my favorite base cards from the break.

I'm not a Blackhawks fan, but the emotion and the Stanley Cup Finals patch on that Duncan Keith make for an awesome piece of cardboard! I like the post-check action on the Subban and I included Parise simply because he is a former Devil.

A few interesting horizontal cards. I especially like that the puck is in mid-air on the Steen. Skinner ended up being my only 'favorite teams(Canes or Devils) pull'.

I wasn't overjoyed with either of these insert pulls. They're up for grabs if anyone is interested. It definitely looks like this blaster was meant for a Chicago fan...

I really like these Canvas inserts, though I was underwhelmed by the Weber. The best part of it for me is the fact that the stream from his water bottle was caught on film. I was happy to find a Canvas Young Guns in there. That's all for the insert portion of the program. Last stop is the Young Guns territory. Did I hit the lottery and snag the McDavid?

In short, no I didn't. The Panarin was a pretty darn good pull though. It cartainly made the break a success! This was one of the most entertaining blasters I've busted in a while. Now that I know they can be found in the clearance section, I'll be keeping my eyes open for one or two more. Thanks for reading.

My Best Blaster of 2016(So Far)

For quite some time, I've been reading about folks finding discounted boasters of 2015 Stadium Club. I thought they were a myth because despite my best efforts, I hadn't seen one in person. Well, that all changed a few days ago. I happened to be in one of the local Toys R Us stores and even though the card prices are way more expensive there, I can't help but to check out what's sitting on the shelves. On this particular trip, I literally did a double take when I saw this staring back at me:

I searched behind every blaster hoping there would be one more, but alas there was only one. I got a little bit excited and started to rip the plastic open before taking this photo. Going into this break, I hoped to put a dent into my remaining set needs. Let's go pack by pack and see how I did.

Best card of pack one goes to the Ortiz, hands down.

Ummm...pack two blew me away! Greinke at the bat probably would have won the pack if it wasn't for that Javy Baez auto(more on that a little later).

Just a few days after Jackie Robinson Day, pack three provided a belated celebratory JR hot pack!

Cal interacting with all of those fans is definitely the best of the pack four bunch. The A-Rod is the first gold parallel of the blaster and will take up permanent residency in my collection as well.

The Abreu Triumvirate takes the cake in pack five. It'll be sent out to JediJeff soon, assuming he needs it.

As far as photography goes, pack six was pretty weak. That Xander is the black parallel and because of that, it easily is the winner of the pack.

Pack seven was the weakest of the blaster. Even hitting the Longoria insert didn't help it. There is not much about that insert set that I like. So, winner here goes to the DeGrom...by default.

A gold Elvis sighting wins the eighth and final pack. Here is the blaster break down:

- 8 packs, 5 cards each = 40 total cards

- 7 total inserts; 2 gold foil, 1 black foil, 1 Contact Sheet, 1 Legends, 1 Triumvirate, and 1 auto

- 13 of the 33 base cards were needed for my set build

The Baez auto was a huge surprise pull, let's take a closer look.

When I first flipped through the pack, I didn't realize it was the gold foil auto. Only 25 copies!!! I hope Baez can get himself healthy and figure out a way to cut down on his strikeout rate. All in all, I wish I pulled a higher percentage of base cards that I needed for the set build, but I certainly can't complain. Maybe I'll get lucky and find another discounted blaster or two to help me complete my set. Thanks for reading.