REVIEW:2016 Topps Finest Baseball Mini Box+Auto Giveaway!

It has been a few years since I have personally busted a box of Finest. For the most part the product has remained the same with some new fun inclusions added in yearly.

Last year Finest introduced Finest Careers that celebrated Derek Jeter. This year it returns again and this time celebrates my main man, KGJr.

So to me looking at this box isn't a bad start to the product:

Just to point this out again, today's break isn't a full hobby box. This is a mini box. 2 mini boxes make up a hobby box. So this is basically half a hobby box.

In every mini box of 2016 Finest baseball, there are 6 packs with 5 cards per pack. There is one autograph per mini box and hobby boxes run about $120. I would assume a mini box will run you about $60-$70.

The base cards have a basic design with a colored line on the left or right with a team logo watermarked at the bottom of the line. There is also a full colored player in the forefront. The featured player's picture also seems to be "zoomed away" before coming to focus in the center of the card. Kind of a cool look.

The cards are printed on a chrome stock. I do miss the days of the peel-away stickers to help with scratching however.

The base set consists of 100 cards that are made up of rookies and MLB vets.

The rookie cards have the same design as the base except they have the rookie logo. I pulled a Maeda in my box.

The base cards also have Sp's. Those make up cards 101-110 (of players not in the first 100 and one of those is Kris Bryant) if you are trying to put together the master base set. Sp's fall 1:5 packs.

Now onto the parallels and inserts.

As with Finest or anything chromed, they come with refractor parallels. These two are the basic ones I pulled in my mini box.

 

There are also green refractors that fall 1:4 packs and are numbered /99. I found this guy....

You can also find these refractors,

• Prism Refractor
• Purple Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered.
• Blue Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered.
• Gold Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered.
• Orange Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered to 25.
• Red Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered to 5.
• SuperFractor Parallel: numbered. 1/1.
• Printing Plates: numbered 1/1.

Finest First inserts fall 1:2 packs. This insert commemorates each MLB Rookie's first appearance in Topps Finest.

 

There are also much tougher autograph and autograph refractor parallels to be found of Finest First as well.

Refractors to find include:

• Green Refractor: sequentially numbered.
• Gold Refractor: sequentially numbered.
• Orange Refractor: sequentially numbered to 25.
• Red Refractor: sequentially numbered to 5.
• SuperFractor: numbered 1/1.
• Printing Plates: numbered 1/1.

Franchise Finest is a new insert included this year. It Features each team's franchise player on a chrome refractor card.

1996 Finest Intimidators is by far my FAVORITE insert in Finest: Topps dug back in time and recreated the cool looking insert set of 1996 with today's most "intimidating" veterans and retired players.

These look even cooler in person. Would be an interesting set to put together and one I am not intimidated to try.

In case you wondered what a version of this looked like from 1996, here is a Piazza pic (not mine)

Like I stated earlier, Finest is celebrating Ken Griffey Jr.’s great accomplishments in the product and have included an die-cut insert called Finest Careers to do so. There are 10 unique cards to collect with just one of these cards found in every case. They are astronomical odds, but a fun chase for us Griffey collectors.

There are three parallels offered for this insert: 

• Orange Refractor (numbered to 25)
• Red Refractor (numbered to 5)
• Superfractor (1-of-1). 

Autograph versions of Finest Careers Ken Griffey Jr can be found and are numbered to just five copies each. 

Now onto the autographs and other offerings from Finest.

This was my pull from the mini box, not that great but it is on-card. Norris is still a young gun so he could do something big later on in his MLB career, right now he is currently playing for Toledo.

 

 Just like most of the product, the autographs have refractor parallels too. Here are those offerings:

• Blue Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered.
• Green Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered.
• Gold Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered.
• Orange Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered to 25.
• Red Refractor Parallel: sequentially numbered to 5.
• SuperFractor Parallel: numbered 1/1.
• Printing Plates: numbered 1/1.

 Some of the other things not found in my box are

• Finest Originals that feature on-card autographs on buybacks from the past 20-plus years.These have gotta be cool!
• Finest Greats Autograph set that showcases elite MLB retired players such as Cal Ripken Jr., Don Mattingly, Hank Aaron and Sandy Koufax.

Overall, it was a bit of a tough break I feel. I do like the designs and offerings but cost vs return comes into play here and it's a toughie to look at. Of course it may be because it was just a mini box. It's really hard to judge without seeing the full picture. Who knows, the other mini box could have had a Sandy Koufax autograph which would had made the overall break and my view of it much different. So what I recommend is when buying this, stick strictly to full hobby boxes and see how that goes. I have seen some good stuff already pulled from hobby boxes of the product so I know it is solid.

Now for the moment you have been waiting for,
CONTEST TIME!

Win this!

It's as easy as can be to enter to win the Daniel Norris autograph above. Just read and follow these rules:

1. Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to host this/these nice giveaways with. Follow them on all social media sites and visit their site, HERE, as well.
2. ***VERY IMPORTANT***MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT to enter or have a shipping address in the U.S. Shipping costs have gone haywire and I can't afford to ship everywhere.This is always hard to do as I appreciate all readers but I hope you all understand non-U.S. readers.
3. Random winner will be chosen after 7 randoms
4. Card may be shipped PWE. I like to forewarn on this.
5. LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW telling me your thoughts on this product
6. EARN AN EXTRA ENTRY FOR SHARING THIS CONTEST ON YOUR BLOG AND/OR ON TWITTER. Make sure to leave your link in comments too so I can count it. If not, I won't be able to give you the credit. Commenting with it is very important or you WILL LOSE OUT an extra entry!
7. Sport Card Collectors or it's owner (person who runs the blog), WILL NOT be held responsible for lost, stolen or damaged mail. Sorry had to add this in since someone tried to scam me once about this.
8. Contest starts today, ends on Saturday, May 28th 2016. Winner will be announced in a separate post on Sunday May 29th 2016. 
9. Don't forget to thank the above sponsor of this contest and I won't mind a thank you as well :)

Good luck to all that enter and thanks for reading!

UPDATE!!

IF WE CAN REACH 30 ENTRIES I WILL GIVEAWAY AWAY THE ICHIRO AS WELL!

GHOSTBUSTER CONTEST WINNERS!

Well, we didn't quite get to the 50 entry level to unlock a sketch card giveaway, but we still get to award three winners some inserts!

So let's get to it!

There were 29 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Justin S
2. Barry
3. Ben Wilson
4. RAZ
5. @JGfan24ever
6. Daniel Wilson
7. Miami Vice
8. Alan Riggs
9. Ozsportsfan
10. God's humble servant
11. Joseph Thomas
12. Unknown
13. hudsonfan15
14. Rob0822
15. krsp370
16. ericwilborn
17. defgav
18. Scott N.
19. Jupiterhill
20. JT Woodworth
21. Reds Card Collector
22. The Lost Collector
23. Matthew Chrisman
24. Jupiterhill
25. Scott N.
26. GRADY MALACHOWSKI
27. Glen Fernandez
28. Stephen Radford
29. Ross Caudill

IP: 72.169.81.108
Timestamp: 2016-05-22 10:32:15 UTC
You have randomized this list 7 times.

Congrats to Justin S, Barry and Ben Wilson! Email me at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com with the subject line, GB Winner. You will have 48 hours from today to claim or it will be re-given away. Please also post a thank you on your blog or on Twitter tagging both myself and Cryptozoic if you can.

Thanks to everyone who entered. Another giveaway coming up soon for 2016 Finest baseball and I have another one going on now for former or current military personnel or close family members of them.

Thanks for reading and have a happy Sunday!

Sunday's With Rodney:1995 Finest Booster Refractor

Just this past week I was posting about a trade I did with my buddy over at 90's Niche Football Card Blog and mentioned how I added some new Rodney Hamptons to the mix. Well, today's Sunday With Rodney is one of those.

1995 Finest included inserts called Boosters, which basically are a different photo of the base card. But they also included much tougher to pull Booster refractors. These fell 1:36 packs or 1:432 retail packs and shine beautifully against the design used in the product. I think Topps enjoyed this design so much that it was included apart of their insert throwback in 2015 Topps Finest.

Back in the 90's refractor parallels were much easier to differentiate. In the corner on the back they had a big R to tell us they were a refractor. Imagine how much easier today's refractors would be to figure out if they told us which refractor was what, especially when some look so similar and that there are so many of them.

Military Upper Deck e-pack Giveaway!!!

Earlier this year, Upper Deck released e-pack, the first ever digital card that you can actually get physical cards of. You can get daily FREE packs as well where it gives you a taste of what the program is about (free packs are all base cards) or you can buy packs, boxes and cases with at least one physical card you can claim per box.

If you need more info or how the program works, I laid it all out in detail on this LINK.

The greatest part of the e-pack experience is being able to bust packs, boxes and cases wherever you want. This is a great advantage for those who don't have LCS' or more importantly, those collectors who serve our great country overseas or right here at home. It's not always that easy for them to access cards and a hobby like this can be very therapeutic in their stressful life. 

I know if my grandfather who served in WW2 was alive, I would share this program with him if he was serving somewhere. To be honest, I am not sure if my grandfather was a collector nor did I ever meet him because PTSD took him before I was born, but I think something like this might have helped especially if it was something he may have had done with me.

Even my buddy Tim, whose brother served, had this to say about him, "My brother served in the military for 6 years. Fortunately, he never saw action in a war but he did serve his country with pride. I recently had the opportunity to show him the Upper Deck ePack platform. While he is not very tech savvy. He did like the idea of being able to open packs anytime, anywhere. He also liked the fact you can have cards mailed to you. Due to his present situation I was unable to take a picture with him. But he did say that if he collected sports cards it would be something that he would probably would interested in. Who knows, maybe a seed was planted and we'll be going to card shows or trading on the Upper Deck ePack site before long."

So what Tim and I would like to do, is share the e-pack experience with someone who is currently serving, did serve or a close family member of someone who is as we know that can be just as stressful.

There is 3 e-packs up for grabs to 3 different people. So each person will get one pack. It's not much, but we are hoping it helps. And you never know we may do this again especially if turnout is good so please spread the word. This is for a good cause.

For those that enter, all we ask for in return is for you to tell us your story (doesn't need to be long) of your military ties and whether or not you have used the e-pack platform (let us know your thoughts on it) in the comments below. It's as simple as it gets. 

We will random all entrants and announce winners. Please leave your email or Twitter @ in comments as well to make it easier for us to reach you if you miss winner announcements.

Right now there are a couple of hockey card offerings on the e-pack website, but later this year Goodwin Champions will release on the site as well and that product offers a ton of fun stuff across many sports, non-sports and this years edition even has military related items.

You will have til May 26th 2016 to enter. Winners will be announced on May 27th 2016.

Thank you to all who spread the word on this and especially to those who served.

WE ARE ALSO TRUSTING YOU ARE ENTERING THIS BECAUSE YOU CURRENTLY SERVING, DID SERVE OR ARE A CLOSE FAMILY MEMBER OF SOMEONE WHO IS. PLEASE DO NOT ENTER IF YOU ARE NOT. THAT IS DISRESPECTFUL TO THOSE WHO SERVE OUR GREAT COUNTRY TO TRY AND TAKE SOMETHING FROM THEM. THANK YOU. 

1997 Upper Deck UD3 Baseball Pack # 3

The fun of busting retro products. I think I enjoy busting these more now than I did before.

Time for Pack # 3. This one wasn't as strong as the last two, but it did provide a card for the Yankees PC and still no doubles yet. This also means I am 9 cards into the 60 card set I hope to put together after this box break.

 

The highlight player to me of this group is Mr. Belle and these Homerun Heroes continue to impress me with it's design.

 

Pack # 4 might be posted tomorrow or there may be a day off til Monday. I have a review/giveaway of 2016 Finest baseball coming up tomorrow that might take this posts spot. But, who knows, if I find the time, I may just post both. 

 

So that means come back and check it out tomorrow and leave your thoughts on today's pack in comments.

Mail Day Saturday:A Will, A Willis, A Williams Trade With Baseball Card Breakdown Blog

A week or so ago, I was contacted by Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown about starting up a trade in exchange for a card I got from my Bowman break. At first I was a bit hesitant about trading it since I am not one to trade rookie cards, but, he has always been a good guy to me so I figured I would make an exception.

Glad I did.

After a few back and forth emails, Gavin and I were able to agree upon a trade with both of us happy in the end. I mean, who agrees to a trade they are not happy with??

One of the cool centerpieces of this trade for me was this legit player contract between Topps and Jose Guzman giving Topps permission to use his picture on cards. Jose signed the contract and there is also a "stamped signature" from Sy Berger (UPDATED INFO FROM BREAKDOWN CARDS, it's "real Sy Berger signature, not one of the stamp/autopen signatures".

This is a such a cool piece to my card collection. I knew that he had some up for trade and I didn't care which player, I just wanted one to own.

Gavin also included these two cards so I can display them with the contract.

Topps Vault authenticity included too!

The next card in the trade is this cool 90's appeal insert from 2000 Finest.

Next up, my first Will Ferrell baseball card. I have wanted one of these well over a year and now have one. I am sure it wasn't too hard for Gavin to let go of a Dodgers card too.

I am not a huge fan of Will's when it comes to his movies, but there are definitely some good ones he has done that I do enjoy watching time and time again.

My first ever "make ready" parallel and it's of NY Giants JPP! Cool looking card and addition here for my Giants collection.

Up next, a new Andre Williams dual memorabilia card for that PC. The bottom swatch is a nice piece of patch.

And to finish up the trade, a Dontrelle Willis auto. There was just something about owning a Willis auto that I needed. You ever had one of those moments where you needed something without explanation???

Overall, a very solid trade. I filled in a couple of wantlist needs, added to a couple of PC's and helped another blogger out with their PC. Seems like a win-win all around in my opinion.

Thanks again Gavin for being such a great trade partner and I recommend anyone who hasn't traded with him yet to do so.

1997 Upper Deck UD3 Baseball Pack #2

Here are the results from Pack 2 I just busted. Another good pack with three name players included. 

Another thing I like about the cards are the  nice offset of the photos they used. Good balance.

Pack 3 will be busted tomorrow so stay tuned!

Reminiscing 90's SPECIAL EDITION:1989 Kenner Real Ghostbusters Winston Zeddmore Super Fright Feature Figure

Alright, I have some explaining to do. Yes, this segment is called, Reminiscing 90's. Yes, this is a toy from 1988. Yes, I do know the difference between 90's and 80's. However, I am making a case for this toy and keeping the segment still 90's because I watched the show mostly in the 90s and it ran from 1986-1991. So in order to make sure I do this right, I am keeping the toys as their real years, but I am coming up with random year of either 1990 or 1991 for the posts. That way it's as close to realistic as I can get and keeping tradition going with the posts.

I think my timing on this upcoming Ghostbusters mania is good due to the new movie releasing this year. I still don't know how I feel about that movie yet as I am one for originals of any movie, but we will see.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Key notes for May 20th 1990:
May 20th 1990 was a Sunday
George H.W.Bush was President
Most Popular Movie released in May of 1990 was Back to the Future Part III
Most Popular Book around this time was The Stand by Stephen King
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single on May 20th 1990 was Vogue by Madonna.
Most Popular TV Shows: Answers with Bayless Conley

FEATURED TOY:
This is a fun toy to play with, but to put it back together can be a pain. Winston is wearing a suit that you must snap on around him. There is a dome that goes over his head but I lost patience in putting it on so I left it alone. However, a red lever in the back when pushed down makes his head tuck in and the front where the Ghostbusters symbol is his "scared" face pops open!

Winston Zeddemore applied for the open position for the Ghostbusters in the first movie. He basically took the job without any paranormal experience but wanted a paycheck. He was a bit of a brain but was mostly the voice of reason for the Ghostbusters when they really needed it.

FEATURED CARDS:
At first I struggled trying to find a card(s) to match up with Winston, then I decided that looking at his suit that he looked like a space cadet or someone who would time travel. Then it hit me, time travel+90's=Bill and Ted. Yes, the two time traveling baboons.

So here we go, Pro Set Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Trading Cards.This was a 100 card set that Pro Set put out in 1991. I never completed the set and only saw the movie once, but I do have a few cards kicking around and did like the cartoon series however.

 

Any thoughts on today's day in history from the 90's, the Toy or the trading cards are welcomed!

1997 Upper Deck UD3 Baseball Pack # 1 (Solid Start)

Alright, so earlier this week I showed off a box of 1997 UD3 baseball I acquired in a trade with 90's Niche Football Card Blog and now comes the time for the big reveal of it.

Since this is the first pack to bust, I will show off a few extra images. Normally, how the rest will go will just be the picture of the cards per pack and a few words by me.

But, today is the kickoff so let's just show off that beautifully designed box again....

 

In every box of 1997 UD3 baseball, there should be 24 packs with 3 cards per pack. Each card in the pack is built unique and "super premium". Each box now-a-days will run you roughly $40 per. You should also expect at the very least a couple of inserts along with possible other surprises including autographs. 

 

If there is an autograph or insert, that card will take up one of the other usual three cards in the pack. So you will get 2 base and one hit. Odds are tough on most pulls in the product. Generation Next is the easiest at  1:11 packs, Marquee Attraction falls at 1:144 packs and finally Superb Signatures falls 1:1500 packs. That's the only offerings other than base in the product.

When you open the box up, you find out that each pack is a mini box.

 

And inside of each mini box is a silver foil pack with the words, UD3 printed all over the wrapper.

Now time for the cards in the pack. Like I said, each pack comes with three unique levels of 20 cards each making it a 60 card base set.

The first one is probably my favorite design of the three, Homerun Heroes which is numbers 1-20, features a holographic foil on wood-grain stock. It looks spectacular up close. I was lucky and pulled my main man Grif in the first pack. He is card #3 in the set.

 

The back of the card is just as nice as the front featuring the same technology.

 

Pro-Motion which makes up cards 21-40, features a Light F/X etched-foil technology similar to the Griffey Hot List Sp's that were included in the 1997 Upper Deck flagship product. I pulled Robin Ventura as my first one.

 

The back of the card doesn't have the foil technology.

 

And finally, Future Impact, cards 41-60, feature a Cel Chrome (plastic/metal stock) technology. It appears that the right side of the card is nothing....

 

til you hold the cel up to the light revealing an image.

 

That's also the same image you will see on the back of the card except backwards. I found my other favorite player in Derek Jeter in this pack.

Gotta admit can't start any better than pulling Griffey and Jeter in the same pack to open up the box. I will say it also got me to missing Upper Deck baseball cards again. They simply knew how to build a cool collectible all-around product. They also built their products around the base cards. How many base cards do we see as unique as these today? None is your answer. That's why base cards are becoming less important and collectible.

Stay tuned tomorrow as I will open Pack #2 and show off the cards from the pack. I will continue to show these off til all 24 packs have been busted. 

 

Wish me luck on trying to hopefully find an autograph and leave other thoughts on the product or cards pulled today below in comments.

90's Niche Football Card Blog Trade Countdown Card # 1

The final card from my trade with 90's Niche Football Card Blog,was no other than this beyond epic piece of cardboard sugar candy.....

 

Even if you're not a Giants fan like myself, you have gotta appreciate this piece of cardboard. Sick patch, on-card auto and a great design. 

I sometimes imagine how far the Giants would have gone if the career ending neck injury hadn't happened to  David. Dude was fun to watch when the ball was in his hands and I can only imagine what that offense would look like with him running the ball/ kick returns and having OBJ catching it. Double back flipping in the end zone for sure. Maybe I even would have attempted it to...well...maybe.

Thoughts on today's card is welcomed. Or if you can't type because you are too much in a trance, well, I will try to mind read them instead.

Thanks for checking it out!