Retail Therapy: 2 Rack Pack Break 2017 Topps Series 1 Baseball &2017 Score Football

Yesterday my mother-in-law made a Walmart run which usually means good things for me. She knows I have had a tough time recently with my health so a couple pack cheer up was in order.

I wasn't sure what she had picked up for me until she dropped them off. Not a bad choice of packs with a rip of 2017 Topps Series 1 baseball and my first rip of 2017 Score football.

 

 

Let's see how it went.

 

Not a lot of big names here. I know someone who may want the Evans.

 

Not bad with the rookie inserts with names like McCaffrey and Williams and Davis.

 

Some of my other inserts. I like the insert themes.

 

Probably my best card from the pack, a Reflections red parallel of Emmitt and Zeke.

 

So for $5, not a terrible pack of Score. Let's see how Topps went for the same dollar amount

5 rookies and a Trout.

 

Inserts. Miggy (that I know will have a new home), Bryant, Brett and a MLB Network card I needed. So pretty solid here.

 

Despite no hits, I don't think I did too shabby. What do you think?

Retail Break 'Em: 2014 Topps Chrome Baseball Rack Pack Part 3

Every year since 1996, I have chased down Topps Chrome. I don't know what it is about the product, but I just love it.

This year I was a big more intrigued by the baseball version than most years due to Jose Abreu. You will catch onto this with my many breaks of it. For the third time I broke a rack pack. Each rack, or what Topps now calls "value pack", comes with 3 Topps Chrome packs and one bonus pack that has 3 Orange refractor parallels. These packs run you about $10.

My rookies:

Refractors and X-Factors. I always wonder what pitchers are saying behind their gloves. "Hey, sup. So you wanna come over Friday and play some PS3?"

 The orange refractors.

And a little boom. Despite his failure in the playoffs, he is still the leagues top pitcher. This is a tough Sepia Refractor pull coming in at 1:105.

Overall, I can't argue with Chrome. Value is found here once again. I definitely feel like I got my money back. If not in card value, at least in the cards themselves.  Topps Chrome once again proves to be the hobby's bright spot in retail.

Retail Break 'Em: 2014 Topps Chrome Baseball Rack Pack Part 2

Every year since 1996, I have chased down Topps Chrome. I don't know what it is about the product, but I just love it.

This year I was a big more intrigued by the baseball version than most years due to Jose Abreu. You will catch onto this with my many breaks of it. This time I broke a rack pack. Each rack, or what Topps now calls "value pack", comes with 3 Topps Chrome packs and one bonus pack that has 3 Orange refractor parallels. These packs run you about $10.

Rookie cards. I like the Beckham.

The X-Factors...

Orange refractors. A nice one in Kershaw.

Overall, I can't argue with Chrome. This was probably the weakest break of the three so far, one blaster two rack packs,but I still felt great about the break. Topps Chrome once again proves to be the hobby's bright spot in retail.

Retail Break Em: 2013 Bowman Chrome Baseball Blaster Box

In this edition of Retail Break 'Em, I busted a blaster box of 2013 Bowman Chrome baseball. I found this box discounted and with the chance at autographs one in every few boxes, it being chrome and Yasiel Puig possibilities, you didn't have to tell me more than once to pick this up.

Best base card player from the blaster...this wasn't a good sign to me..

Rookies from the box. No Puig. Nobody.

Anything with a refractor appeal is great to me!

My other refractors in the blaster. Not bad Felix find.

X-Factor pack in the box. Not really any big stars.

Overall, I felt like I got what I paid for. There wasn't a bunch of big finds and was probably one of the poorer breaks that I have done of Chrome. However, refractors are refractors and they all will find a place in my PC in the end.

Retail Break 'Em: Baseball Trading Card Box Break Memorabilia Edition (10 pcks, 2 Jersey Cards)

In this edition of Retail Break 'Em, I am breaking a baseball card box thanks to AuthenticSportsCards
(won a contest and this was the prize), that contains 10 assorted packs from different years. It also includes two over-sized stand-up baseball card displays with a swatch of jersey.

The outside of the box:

The ten packs within:

Best of the best base cards:

Rookie Cards, best one of Ian Kennedy:

Inserts:

More inserts including a numbered gold parallel of Miguel Cairo:

Jersey Card #1 great HOFer.....

Second Jersey Card...HOFer soon! Boom! Derek Jeter!!!!

Overall, this was really fun to open. The packs I thought were of a great variety including years from 1989 all the way to 2009 so it covers 20 years. The two jersey cards were of top notch players, though you do have to question the authentic part of these, but they are a pretty cool piece and being a Yankees fan I really was stoked to found the Jeter.

Thanks again to AuthenticSportsCards for the contest and prize. If you are not following them yet on Twitter, please do so! They do contests and hobby discussions.

Retail Break 'Em: 2014 Bowman Football Rack Pack

I have stated this many times, after a down year of collecting football cards due to the weak 2013 rookie class, I am all over this years exciting class and trying to get rookies early on of many key players. But, I think there will be a few other key players not drafted at the top that will surprise as this is a deep class so collecting anyone early on could be key.

Today's Retail Break 'Em is a 2014 Bowman Rack (Jumbo) pack. Each pack comes with only 16 cards for $5.98 per pack so it's a bit of a gamble. Now onto the break:

Veteran base cards look like this:

Rookies look like this. Can't say I am much of a fan of the design. The non logos on the helmet against the weird time portal background, ugh. I won't ramble on about this right now. I will be saving this topic for another time.

Best rookie of the group:

Cool looking gold rainbow foil parallel pulled at 1:17 packs and it's #'d to 399

The bigger pull, a veteran Gold Parallel #'d to 75 at 1:93 packs. Not to mention, it's Andrew Luck

Overall, not a bad break, not a great one. The rookies I pulled were not great other than Evans but the gold parallels saved this break.

Let me hear your thoughts on this break.

Retail Break 'Em: 2014 Score Football Blaster Break

In this edition of Retail Break 'Em, I went Score football again. I know, I know, I haven't had much luck with the product in my two previous breaks, but with the hype surrounding the blaster boxes I had to give them a try.

Now onto the results. Score football blasters have 12 packs per blaster and 132 cards per box. Each pack has 3 rookie cards and seem to one insert per. Each blaster also guarantees one game used veteran card or one rookie relic for $20. Seems like a deal to me especially after opening the 24 pk box.

Best rookies in my box...like I stated in an article yesterday..no Manziels...

 Inserts:

Really cool! Didn't know about these inclusions:

Once again, love this design:

Nice pull right here /99

And my first HIT from Score football and not a bad one as I am a Manuel fan:

Overall, much more impressive. I pulled a numbered card and a relic. There are also shots at autographs in these as well. The pulls from this blaster are something I didn't even hit out of 33 packs previous packs from a 24 pk box and 9 bonus from another 24 pk box. It seems the configuration for Score is a little backwards this year as I would definitely stick to blaster boxes which you actually get something in.

Retail Break Em: 2011-2012 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey

Sometimes you come across a great person in the hobby you just have to give a shout out to and this one goes out to UDNation (a Twitter page dedicated to showing that Upper Deck is the GOAT of the hobby)on Twitter. Not just because of this contest win, but because of his overall hobby niceness praising others for their Upper Deck pulls, card showoffs, and RTing (retweeting) all tweets that relate to Upper Deck. Not to mention being one of the friendliest, politest people I have ever met.

So yes, today's Retail Break Em is brought to you by UDNation from a contest I won a couple of weeks ago. The prize was a $50 gift of anything Upper Deck from SCC Trading cards. I chose today's break item and a 2012 Goodwin Champions hobby box being posted tomorrow.

First onto this break! My main want from this blaster was of course Young Guns for my rookie PC as the rest of the cards would just be a bonus! Here we go!

Each blaster comes with 12 packs:

Upper Deck rocking the photography again:

My two Young Guns that fall 1:6 packs or two-per-blaster:

Victory update rookies falling 1:9 packs, Hockey Heroes 1:24 packs, MVP updates 1:16 packs:

O-Pee-Chee update rookie 1:27

And finally one of my favorite cards from the box was a UD Canvas that falls 1:12 or one per blaster

Overall, a pretty good break for the price of the blaster. I had a lot of fun busting it and owe a huge thanks to UDNation for this break. Tomorrow will be the second half of my prize from them so stay tuned for that break!

Retail Break 'Em: 2014 Sage Hit High Series Blaster

In my search of multiple cards of many of the 2014 rookie class, my search could only afford retail and one of the better buys that I had with 2014 retail football was Sage Hit. If you ever wondered the difference between the Low and High series it's all about the players. Different players, especially in the autograph department, are offered for each series and you may find some of the same for the base cards.

In a Sage Hit High Series 2014 blaster, for $20 you get THREE AUTOGRAPHS, 18 packs and you get a ton of cards. That's a steal in my mind. I busted a Low Series blaster not long ago that came with a punch....a Clowney auto! Will the high series be as exciting? Let's see!

Base cards:

 Subset:

I really like the design of this subset. Jumps out at you and catches your attention!

Now onto the autographs:

159 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars pick:

And a rookie Free Agent auto rumored to have tried out with Washington:

And in the sixth round the Bears drafted this guy..also must note it's a hand numbered gold parallel and hopefully the next Tom Brady...

Overall, not a bad break and still provided okay value, just not as much as the first blaster. I think it's definitely something I would go back and buy again because come on, what other retail product for $20 offers THREE AUTOGRAPHS and you just never know which autograph could come from within.