Two Signa Cuts: Bronx Edition box breaks from the NSCC

After visiting the TriStar booth, I saw a display for Signa Cuts: Bronx Edition. I just had to try this product out.

Apparently, this was a pretty popular item because I had to a couple of dealers until I found the product. I got two boxes at $40 a piece.

You get one card of a cut auto of New York BRONX player (that's what it says on the box).

Here are my two hits:

Gil McDougald

Manny Banuelos

2005 Donruss Champions Box Break (or the Roger Cedeno fan pack)

I'm slowly getting around to opening hobby boxes that I have laying around the house. The sad thing us, I have several: 2009 Sweet Spot, 2009 Topps 206, 2007 Sweet Spot, 2008 UD Heroes and 2002 Fleer Triple Crown.

I opted for the 2005 Donruss Champions that I bought on Black Friday from Blowout Cards.

I am not putting up much text. I am going to let the pictures do all the talking.

Here are a few Impressions parallel cards.







The game-used cards



Yes, these are two different Cedeno bat cards










The big hit! It's numbered to /126 or something like that.

2008 Masterpieces retail box break (Black Friday deal from Blowout)

Sometimes boxes sit in my home and fester until I can't hold back any longer. This is completely different from the way I normally act when it comes to baseball cards. If the box comes in the mail, I could actually sit on it.

If I buy packs or boxes at Target of the local shop, I immediately have to open. And, by immediately, I mean, right in the car in the parking lot before I get home.

Yet, my boxes from Blowout, I let them sit until I decided to open.

Here's the first of two I will highlight.

2008 Masterpieces is a 120-card set with all the cards above 89 being short print. Of the 89 base set, I am missing just four cards from the set after opening the retail box, and just one double.

I received four short prints:

94 - Ryne Sandberg
99 - Ken Griffey Jr.
108 - Joe DiMaggio
110 - Yogi Berrra



Six Yankee Stadium Legacy cards, which are all going to Marie (and it happens to be a trend for this box).

Two framed cards

David Ortiz framed black (another Red Sox insert)



Ken Griffey Jr. #52 framed green 18/75



And, one game-used jersey card, which is also going to Marie. It's like her birthday never ends.



Review: For the $11 or so this cost, this was a great break. I got a jersey card of a star, two variations of stars, including one numbered to 75. I nearly completed the base set and got two Yankee SP. Good times.

2009 Goodwin Champions Packs 13-20 & Review

I told you guys that this would probably be the slowest box break ever considering I won't be buying another hobby box for quite some time (maybe). I finished the rest of the box last night on commercial breaks of Grey's Anatomy (which was awesome). Overall I am extremely happy with the box vs. money spent.

I scanned everything in the last few packs, the Hamilton 20th anniversary card is reserved for Tricia over at the Hamiltonian if she needs it. Otherwise all 20th anniversary cards will be sent to VOTC in exchange for Cano and Pujols goodness. Here are the scans, and the breakdown of the box will be after the pics.

So there you have it. My entire box was scanned for your viewing pleasure, and for mine because I really love the design of these cards. I don't really see the card stock being that big of an issue here. I would rather have a nicely designed card on average card stock than a crappy design on a thicker one.

Here is the breakdown:

- 57 base cards (no doubles)

- 21 mini (2 doubles, Iwamura and Uehara)

- 5 gypsy back

- 1 silver mini (Miguel Cabrera)

- 2 relics (Victor Martinez and Ryan Braun)

- 1 auto (Troy Tulowitzki)

- 1 case hit (Entomology redemption)

- 10 UD 20th anniversary cards

If I had to give this product a letter grade it would get a B+. I wouldn't give it an A simply because of the 20th anniversary card insert ratio. You only get 5 cards per pack to begin with and when the stick you with one of those goofy inserts you lose out on a base card, rather than getting that as a bonus.

As far I'm concerned this was a sweet hobby box for me considering I like Ryan Braun and Troy Tulowitzki. It sucked because Pujols is not a short print and I still didn't get one. As far as Yankees base cards, I ended up with Pettitte, Joe D., and Bucky Dent. No Jeter or Cano in the box either which kinda sucks, oh and no Russ Martin or Adam Lind. I didn't expect the Lind though because I believe he is a super SP for some unknown reason.

Luckily Target has packs here and blasters. I was able to pick up some packs and get a few Yankees, still no Jeter or Pujols though.

Anyone pull a Pujols foil or gypsy back? I am still looking for those, as well as Lind, Cano, and Martin. Holla if you have them.

2009 Goodwin Champions Packs 9-12 *Case Hit

So here is the moment you have all been waiting for, at least maybe like 4 of you have been. As I mentioned before there was some talk about the hits being within the last two packs, however my packs were all jumbled up in the box so I just put 10 per half and started. In these packs I got a box hit, as well as a surprise case hit. The case hit came first, then the box hit so it was a more than happy time opening the middle of this box.

Here are the scans:




OK, so it was not the most exciting case hit on Earth but I can use it to make this box cost half as much as it did, and to me that is super exciting.

So when I first opened the auto pack, I barely even looked at the card because I was like wow, a double in consecutive packs is a little odd. Then I scanned it and noticed oh hi, he signed this one. Duh. Even though I am over collecting Tulo, I will probably hold onto this one since it is a hard signed copy and add it to my other Tulo autos.

There were also (surprise!) 2 20th anniversary cards in the packs, but one was Mark Messier and the other was Eli Manning and my brother got those before I scanned. I'm sure you are all heartbroken that they were not pictured.

I will probably break the rest of the box later today once I finish my homework and stuff. Anyone get a Pujols, Cano, Lind, or Russ gypsy back? I got a Cano mini, but need the rest as of now. Perhaps Albert is lurking in the bottom of the box...

2009 Goodwin Champions Packs 5-8

OK, so these packs were cool.... The best though is yet to come. I have to scan the next group of packs while I watch the Yankees (not) win. Believe me, you want to stop back in the am to check out my loot.






Also, for those of you scouring Targets looking for some retail, one of my local Targets had them today. Packs were $1.99 for 4 cards, rack packs $4.99 for 12 cards, and blasters for $19.99 (12 packs).

2009 Goodwin Champions Hobby Box

My immediate defense: It was the bargain of the century, and it was scraping what little was left of my money out of our closed eBay store and putting it to good use. Now, everything is officially empty- wallet included.

I included a picture of the bottom of the box in case some of you were unfamiliar with the stated odds. The odds are not printed on the hobby packs, which I noticed the other day.

This is going to be a slow box break with a review of the total contents at the end. I know you're all shaking your head going, "how long is she going to drag this on for?" The answer is probably the end of the night in all honesty. I have been hell bent on getting my mitts on these cards since I saw the preview cards months ago. I know many of you have already opened these, and some of you were not pleased. I don't understand how anyone could be disappointed in the design of these cards by any means. You all drooled over A&G and they were on white backgrounds with halfway decent drawings, yet some of those same people are crying that they got ripped off or whatever. I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, clearly I love these. There are a few things that I do not like but they aren't enough to make me grumpy, which is good for you guys so you don't have to listen to me bitch. I will tell you the one thing that is annoying right off the bat to me. I don't like how if you get one of these cheesy 20th anniversary inserts you get one less card per pack. I have no interest in these inserts and I don't know many people that do, so why wouldn't they make it an extra card every so many packs? The only reason I am not going to burn them is because VOTC is trying to complete the set.

Here are the first 4 packs, in scan form rather than words. Words are boring, and these cards are too cool to not scan all of them.



The A-Rod card was a Gypsy Queen back, which I can't complain about. I could have ended up with Garrett Atkins... (If he is lurking in this box as a gypsy queen, I promise I will kick my own ass for even saying it.)

Victor Martinez Game Used (white) jersey (Indians...) card. Now, I know some of you had mentioned to me that they had noticed alot of people pulled the "hits" from within the last 2 packs on each side. When I opened the box up the packs had shifted and there were an uneven number on each side, not to mention a pack smack in the middle. So I really had no idea what was where to start. Normally when I go into a store and buy packs, I ALWAYS buy the bottom ones and that's something I have done for years so if I come across a box of these somewhere I will test the theory (for the sake of reporting, of course).

As far as trading these, I am undecided what I am doing with them. I will probably try to flip some of them for Pujols, Cano, Lind or Russ Martin.

More packs to come later....

Loot from Upper Deck

As most of you know I have been writing articles for Upper Deck's blog over the last couple of weeks. In exchange for writing they are offering cards, which is what they money would be spent on anyway so it's a win win for me cutting out the middle man.

In light of only needing 36 cards to finish my 2009 O-Pee-Chee base set, I requested a box of them thinking it would get me to completion or very close to it at least. I'll start by making it clear that I did not get a "loaded" box by any means, so don't get too excited.

Out of however many base cards are in a box, I needed SEVEN of them. Which left me with roughly 200 doubles and 100 triples, frickin sweet. I logged my SEVEN cards in, and went through Sooz's want list and she needed 36, and Flash over at Dropped Third Strike needed 63 of them. They each got more out of this than I did, even with the inserts. I got 4 inserts I really liked and the rest were blah. I have yet to go through the black borders to see how many I needed, but rest assured I will let you all know if that turns out to be disastrous as well.

Here are the highlights, no game used card in the whole box....

I have SO many doubles so if you are trying to put this set together and can help me get those last 29 cards I would be more than happy to send you plenty in return. I probably even have a couple of black border doubles floating around as I try to complete that next.

2009 Finest Box Break

Before I get on with the box break, I apologize for the pictures. They were taken with my phone. I have no desire to scan the cards because my desk is a mess with other stuff than baseball cards. It requires lots of work to get it clean. So, here is the box of cards I picked up this morning at a card show.

I'll put up my review of the cards some time tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the cards and let me know if anyone is looking for a trade. I'll break some of the suspense and let you know that I didn't get any Jeter cards. So I'll need one.

Box 1
Pack 1

Joba Chamberlain
Josh Beckett (God, I hate him. He's ruining my fantasy baseball team
Miguel Cabrera
Rich Harden, blue refractor /399
AJ Burnett

Pack 2


Andre Ethier
CC Sabathia (He's batting ... as a Yankee. Hmmm.)
Paul Konerko
Rookie Redemption #9
Ichiro, green refractor /99
Geovany Soto

Pack 3
Rich Rundles RC
Ryan Ludwick
Freddy Sandoval
John Jaso, refractor RC
Carlos Quentin

Pack 4
Eric Chavez
Wade LeBlanc RC
Kevin Youklis
Alfonso Soriano, refractor
Brad Nelson RC

Pack 5
Roy Halladay
Alex Rios, blue refractor /399
Cliff Lee
Joe Saunders
Mark Buehrle

Pack 6


John Jaso
Jacoby Ellsbury
Chien-Ming Wang
Greg Golson auto patch 'O' /218
Alcides Escobar RC

Box 2
Pack 1



Jamie Moyer
Francisco Rodriguez
Scott Kazmir
Prince Fielder, gold refractor /50
Jason Motte RC

Pack 2
Ryan Braun
Jimmy Rollins
Brandon Webb
Josh "Jerkface" Beckett, blue refractor /399
Grady Sizemore

Pack 3


Yunel Escobar
Adrian Gonzalez
John Lackey
Nick Markakis, refractor
Miguel Tejada

Pack 4
Jake Peavy
Mark Teixeira
Chris Young
Jacoby Ellsbury, refractor
Ryan Howard

Pack 5
Jim Thome, blue refractor /399
Jose Reyes
Aubrey Huff
Jon Lester
Andrew Carpenter RC

Pack 6
Vernon Wells
Jason Bay
Rafael Furcal
Chris Lambert
David Price auto rookie patch 'E' /285

2009 Topps Heritage Blaster Break

After watching Card Junkie's video break on his Heritage blaster, I had to open mine. I also waited until I knew Target would be closed before I could get there to buy anything else. I was surprised that there were no Mayo cards in the blaster, but I guess because they distribute the same blasters to all stores and only send Target retail boxes with their exclusive cards.

In the blaster there were 2 SP's, Zach Duke and Kevin Millar (I hate him). I also got a refractor of Ivan Rodriguez which was cool to pull, but not someone I have any interest in.




Here are the Flashback inserts that I got:





I'm not disappointed in the blaster because I don't expect much out of them, but I am probably not going to buy another one of these and just take my chances on a retail pack here and there if I want something this way I can try and get some more of the Mayo cards. I am growing quite fond of those, and last check the Pujols one that was up for auction was $10.50. That is very surprising to me for some reason, I feel like it's the first one on there and people are just scrambling to get it not really knowing much about it.