Topps 206: Retail vs. Hobby

I bought nine packs of retail 206 and eight packs of hobby at The Back Stop (the home of Dr. Wax). After looking through the packs, there are some notable differences.

Retail: six cards at $2.99/pack (.498 cents/card) with one mini and one bronze card
Hobby: nine cards at $5/pack (.555 cents/card) with one mini and one bronze card

There are two autograph or relic cards per hobby box. There are similar odds for retail, but I am not entirely sure what the odds are. The 1/1 Carolina Brights, cut signature books and printing plate are exclusive to hobby. You cannot pull these out of retail.

Everything else is up for grabs.

Here was my break down.
Base cards
Hobby: 54 cards, 2 Mantle checklists. No doubles.
Retail: 35 cards, 1 Mantle checklist. Four doubles.

Bronze
Hobby: 7 cards (Mantle, Bruce, Wang, Burrell, Reimold, Cordero, Perez from TB)
Retail: 8 cards (Munson, Crede, Varitek, Hardy, Bedard, Wang, Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez)




Mini
Hobby: 7 cards all Piedmont (Perez from TB, Ramiro Pena, Foxx, Stewert, Renteria, Uehara, Whitesell)

Retail: 9 cards. 1 Polar Bear (Papelbon), 2 Cycle /99 (Matt Kemp, Victor Martinez), Piedmont (Papelbon, Schafer, Scales, Perry, Cobb, Marquis)

No number variation
Hobby: Alex Rodriguez
Retail: Honus Wagner


Hits
Hobby: Ryan Braun auto
Retail: Elvis Andrus auto redemption

And not one single Derek Jeter card.

Who takes the worst photos?

We've probably all agreed that Russ Martin has the best baseball cards. It just seems that the guy can't take a bad photo. However, there's a guy out there who seemingly just can't get a good card.

Maybe it's awkward lighting or just bad photographers. Maybe he just has a weird face, but poor Ryan Braun can't win when it comes to baseball cards.

Here's a look at some of his more recent cards. I know there are crazier ones.

First up:
This is one isn't really his fault. You can't even see his face on this Bowman card. The only way you really know it's him is because of the name on the jersey. But how do we know this isn't JJ Hardy pulling a prank?

Up Next:


This one isn't bad. It's a season highlight card showing him running after a pop up. It's not the worst card, but it doesn't show any creativity at all.

Maybe on insert will help:

Oh ... um ... he just looks scary there. That could be an image from an old black and white horror film.

Perhaps more updated cards will work:

Again, this isn't bad, but boring. You really see his face, and I guess that really isn't a bad thing. But his leg looks really weird. It has a weird bend in his calf.

How about this one:

Well, apparently, the photographers don't want to show his face. It's probably because of that crazy-eyes card.

It's almost like they pulled Braun out of bed for this head shot.

They took it just after this one:

Or maybe after this one:

Poor Ryan looks half asleep in half his cards.

Good thing you play baseball because life as a model probably wouldn't have worked out.

Is it a problem when...

you are folding your clean laundry and notice that you had washed the following items:

(All Yankees team shirts)
- #51 Williams
- #25 Teixeira
- #62 Chamberlain
- #2 Jeter
- #46 Pettitte

- Card Bandits t-shirt
- Gym shorts

I also forgot Ryan Braun who is in the hamper, I'm wearing an Albert Pujols t-shirt, and that's not even all of 'em.

Maybe I like baseball too much... or maybe I just collect t-shirts...