window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'UA-12381093-3'); A Cardboard Problem: 2011 Topps Series 2 baseball
Showing posts with label 2011 Topps Series 2 baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011 Topps Series 2 baseball. Show all posts

June 29, 2011

Hobby Box Break and Review: 2011 Topps Series 2

I know we already broke a case of the stuff and you have seen what is in the Jumbo boxes, but now you can take a look at what you can get inside a hobby box.

Each hobby box contains 36 packs per box, 10 cards per pack and is currently selling for around $50. I think $50 for this product is more than fair with the amount of cards in each box plus the Diamond Code cards and a hit.

Base cards: 280 total, zero doubles. Not bad if you are a set builder, not bad at all.

60th Anniversary cards

I get that there should be one card from each year commemorating 60 years, but seriously I think this would have been better left to just doing highlights from the years that are more scarce than doing it this way. I think I still have the Posey card on my desk somewhere not even put away yet.

1 original back 60th Anniversary card of Roy Halladay

9 Diamond Duos cards
6 Topps Town cards. Seriously, aren't we over these yet? I think this is one of those insert sets that Topps can kill next year. I almost don't even feel like they are inserts, almost like a promo card or checklist type of card that I just want to chuck in the pail. I know that sounds terrible but I just can't be bothered.

Topps 60, 9 cards. These are fun. I like them because they have players from all years on the same design. For me, this works much better than the 60 Years of Topps/Anniversary card set of re-prints. I have enough lame 1980's and 90's cards laying around. I like this set much better for the same purpose.

Before There Was Topps, 2 cards. Lame. Enough said.

4 gold cards
1 black card /60. This was nice to pull from a hobby box, most of the time it seems like you only see these in Jumbo boxes, or maybe that is just me.

Diamond Stars, 6 cards. Probably one of my favorite subsets of Series 2 just because it's something different and the background makes the player images really pop.

Diamond Anniversary Sparkle cards, 1o total. I think these were a fun parallel for this year being the anniversary but I wouldn't want to see them again unless they used this design for Chrome Xfractors.

Diamond Anniversary short print card of Jim Palmer

Kimball Champions mini cards. What else can I say about these cards? I love them, and I love mini cards. I think each year Topps flagship set should include a mini set, but each year make it different. Maybe some Turkey Red mini's next year? =) That would be AWESOME.

Ohhhh!!! Robbie Cano, don't ya know?! A-W-E-S-O-M-E.
Code cards


Report card.....

Design: A

I have to stick with my original opinion from Series 1 on the design aspect of the set. It's not like it changed or anything.

Value: A

The price point of roughly $50 per hobby box is on point for this product. You get a ton of base cards for set building or team collecting plus a great variety of inserts and parallels. You really can't go wrong for $50 give or take a few bucks.

Quality: A

There were no doubles, no damaged cards, and there were a ton of inserts in the box.

Overall: A

This is a great follow up set to Series 1 and includes some of the same sets that were inserts in series 1 and some new additions to the mix as well. I think Topps did a pretty good job with the 60th Anniversary stuff throughout series 1 and 2 this year.

P.S. Stay tuned to see what we are going to do with the cards from this break.

June 16, 2011

Topps Hobby Shop Promotion

Most of you have opened some 2011 Topps Series 2 by now, and seen that there are special anniversary cards floating around. If you haven't taken a minute to click over to eBay and see how many places are just trying to cash in on the HTA Diamond Anniversary cards rather than give them to kids, allow me to show you what they look like.

They are numbered HTA-# and there are 25 cards total in a set.

(Note: I have two
Jeter
cards, one for myself and one for Sooz.)

Unlike many hobby shops and or dealers, my local card shop actually hands them out to kids and customers who have the cards and they are FREE. This seems to be an issue with these give away cards each year, where dealers decide to sell them rather than give them away. Even when I worked in a sports memorabilia store, anything that came from Topps to give away, or box toppers all had to be sent back to corporate to be opened and priced to sell. Pretty lame.

The other big issue with the redemption cards like the Prime 9 seen in the 2011 Topps Series 2 packs promotion is that there are hardly any HTA hobby shops left to buy cards from and even if you find one, they might not "have" them a.k.a. they are on eBay. There is one card shop within 30 minutes of my house, everything else has closed over the years. My "local" card shop is a 30 minute ride from my house.

I did notice that on the back of the cards when you redeem the card you can enter a contest to win a trip to the World Series. Pretty awesome.

I think these kinds of promotions where you can get a harder to find/rare card of a player you collect are great for the hobby and great to draw people back to the shops where you pulled the redemption. I just wish there were more hobby shops for people to go to because the people that are stuck with retail only can't exactly walk into a Target and try and get the card of the week.

Maybe next year the back of the card can also be used both for a contest entry and to get your card mailed back to you if you don't live near an HTA shop.

Anyone get to redeem their card yet or were told that the shop doesn't have any left? Also, if you are wondering where to find a designated HTA shop you can go directly to Topps website to obtain a list of stores.

NOTE: This blog was edited after Stale Gum informed me that I had incorrect information on the post. The actual cards from the hobby shop are from something different that I am awaiting the correct information on. My apologies everyone.

June 11, 2011

Case Break Information

The cases have been sorted out and the blog case has every team ready to ship except that most of you neglected to put your mailing address in the payment. Please send me your mailing address AND the team name AND break you were in.

I mailed out half of the teams in the blog case break that had addresses and only teams in that case. I am going to try and mail the rest of the teams on Monday providing I get everyone's address.

Thanks all.

June 10, 2011

Facebook Case Break Results Part 3 - THE MOJO!

Drumroll please...



Thank you.

Here is the mojo.


Leather Name Plate




Black Leather Name Plate /99




Game Used cards




Autograph cards



That concludes the scans from each break. I am going to try and put together some thoughts on the set having seen enough of it later, but for now I am going to work on sorting all the cards. I am hoping to get them all out early next week.

Facebook Case Break Results Part 2

Next up we will take a look at the Diamond Anniversary, gold parallels, and Kimball Champion mini cards. I will save the "mojo" for last as always.


Diamond Anniversary











Gold parallels










Kimball Champions





The next post will be the hits from this case. I will not be scanning any of the other inserts to save time to sort the cards.