Nacho Break.

       I did something last month I hadn't done in a long while, I took part in a group break.  The recent maestro of such activities, Nachos Grande, had one that was all product I didn't plan to buy by the box, so I saw a good opportunity to score some Mets cards and maybe luck out and nab an Amazin' hit.  $35 was my entry fee into this little lottery, so let's see how I made out. 

The first thing busted open was Opening Day. 

There seemed to be a copious amount of Mets because if I didn't get the whole team, I came damn close.  So far so good. I also scored a couple of the shiny blue parallels. 

The next box was Gypsy Queen.  I have never enjoyed busting packs of this stuff, but I kind of liked this years dark borders and not-so-overfancy design, so having the Mets cards was optimal.  Once again, the card gods shined a little light on me, and while they didn't see fit to grant me any of the major hits, I did get most of the team set and a couple inserts, including a mini Tom Seaver.

Okay guys, gimme the leg-up pitcher pose!

After years of pedantic sameness, Bowman has an eye catching design this year, with half bleed pictures and a nifty way to tell prospect cards from regular cards (simply reverse the design).  I didn't get much in the way of unknown rookie players (I got the same guy twice) but at least I got my first Steven Matz and Kevin Plawecki cards. 

Alas at this point, the card gods stopped smiling on me and scowled tremendously for the last three components of the break.  I got one card only from Topps Museum Collection, though it was Jacob deGrom, and just a single base card from the Diamond King box, but at least it was the right player - Gary Carter.  There was a bonus blaster involved as well and I did score a single Tom Seaver card from it.  Something is better than nothing, I suppose, but my dreams of a low number white whale hit were dashed with extreme prejudice.  Oh well, such is the nature of the beast. 

Nacho took a little pity on me and was nice enough to include some bonus Mets cards. 

I didn't have one of those Dwight Gooden rookie all star cards for his player collection, so that was a very nice bonus indeed.

And while I am sure I have multiple copies of all these cards, I never get tired of 1987 Topps cards.  I am in a very small minority in that feeling, I know. 

Nacho also packaged this cards impeccably and included a nice note.  I always appreciate such courtesies.

Oh, and there was one last little surprise, a pack of 2012 Triple Play.  I really enjoyed that initial Triple Play offering from Panini, so I tore into that pack with gusto.

Those cartoon caricatures are great and I scored a David Wright sticker.  Sweet.

I'd like to thank Nacho for doing this break and since you do so many, I am sure it won't be my last.  You should go check out his page and keep an eye out for one you'll like.  He obviously likes to make sure everyone gets an autographed card, so he included his own:

"This is not a Topps product" the back gloriously trumpets and you're right, it's a whole lot better.  I now own four or five personalized cards of bloggers as well as a few custom cards.  These never cease to tickle me, hell, I should make a page of them.

Happy Johan-niversary.

     While I have not been posting like I had hoped and promised, I would be remiss if I did not mention the one-year anniversary of one of my favorite memories as a Mets fan:

Yeah, sure, Beltran's hit down the line kicked up chalk and the ump missed it, and yeah, sure, the game may or may not have contributed to Johan needed a second surgery on his shoulder, but the excitement and overwhelming joy of the first Met no-hitter ever: Totally Worth It!!!!

Above you see the first of two cards I have bought this year (so far) that commemorate this glorious event.  The other is this one, sadly still sitting in my COMC waiting to be sent queue but I will post it when I break down and spring the pile from Seattle.  I will keep a look out for others and if you come across one, please let me know.  I already bought this gem last year and I never get tired of smiling every time I see it when I go through my Mets box. Considering I think I already saw the highlight of the 2013 Mets season this week with the sweep of the Yankees, it looks like it's gonna be a long summer.

Right On, Target.

       It was my birthday a few weeks ago and one of the presents I got from a lazy family member who will not be mentioned was a $100 Target gift card.  Now, I am never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but most people who know me know that I never want money or impersonal gifts; my mandate when it comes to giving stuff to me is "entertain me" and you can use that phrase to mean anything you want it to.  But I made the most of my gift card and decided instead of buying something practical or regifting the thing (something I do with gift cards nine times out of ten) I would go and break all my rules of buying new product and blow it all in the card section of the local Target store.

So what did I come up with?  Well, let's see the big pile before I tore it all to hell:

I bought some blasters and some loose packs and some rack packs (just to relive my childhood a little).  I also picked up some pages but I forgot that the retail store pages are pretty cheapo, oh well.  I will find a use for them no matter what.  That shiny piece of plastic on top is the aforementioned gift card.

I grabbed a series 2 Topps blaster, pretty much because it was the newest thing they had.  I got a couple cool things in it, one of which you will see in a second, the other was this:

I got not one but two whole packs of red Target parallels.  Is this normal?  I bought a Target blaster of series one and got exactly zero parallels.  Is this a new thing?  A new thing for series two?  Just a lucky snag?  Anyway, I made a page out of them.  As usual with colored borders, the similar teams look awesome, illustrated here by the Red Sox, the Angels, and, unexpectedly, the Twins.  Even the contrasting ones don't look too bad.  This is a good color red all around. 

I had read various things about the new Topps Archives.  Since I am a sucker for faux vintage, I decided to dive in head first.  I grabbed a blaster and then saw some rack packs, so I grabbed three of those too.

I made this page with the vintage stars from packs.  Well, I only got eight of them to be honest, but Brian from 30-year old cardboard had been nice enough to send me that sweet 1980 Strawberry, so it found its way onto this page as well.  The highlight in my opinion is that 1984 style Clemente; it uses a picture we haven't seen 1000 times before (coughcoughtheTyCobbcoughcough) and it really captures both the player and the card set very well.  The Schmidt, Rice, and Berra also look great, though the 1984 Rice seems a little redundant since he had an actual Topps card in 1984.

Since in my three rack packs and blaster I got 7 doubles, I decided to make a contemporary page as well:

I see how people think of this more as Fan Favorites than Archives.  I would also throw Heritage into that mix as well.  This effort from Topps was either half assed or not thought all the way through.  Typical Topps no matter what you may think of this stuff.  They have a pretty good idea but then cannibalize their own brands by not committing completely and following through. Plus they have all these extra rules about players past and present to abide by that makes these retro products extra difficult to pull off properly.  All that criticism aside, I kinda like the cards anyway.

Plus, I did pull a nifty Frank Howard autograph from one of those rack packs, a pretty cool pull from a retail pack:

Also shown here are my awesome obligatory manufactured patch from the Series Two blaster, and it was a great one - my favorite player Gary Carter.  I can live with the fact that it is an Expo, what I cannot fathom is why they used a rookie year photo of him wearing #57 when the patch is his more familiar #8.  Just more sloppiness from Topps.  That Mantle is from the Gypsy Queen rack packs I got, I believe it is the short print.  It will join my other nouveau Mantles regardless.

In a fit of madness, I broke down and grabbed some Gypsy Queen rack packs. 

These cards are just as ugly in person as they are on screen.  I got some cool minis out of the packs, but the rest were very underwhelming.  I will not be making a page out of any of them.  This was not the best use of my gift card dollar.

I suppose if I had waited until mid July, I could have gotten this year's Allen and Ginter, but since I didn't break a single pack of last years, I decided on a blaster of 2011 A&G.

Once again, rather underwhelming.  I am glad I was not spending my own money on this stuff.

To fill out my electronic C-note, I grabbed a discounted blaster of last year's Panini Americana, since I didn't even know they made this set, I figured I would make a page out of them:

And there it is.  Usually, it is the women in these sets that are the highlight - heck, I don't even know who Noureen DeWolf is, though I do know she is easy on the eyes - but for a Star Wars nerd like me, the Kenny Baker card is primo.  Having an astronaut and a Monkee is also a plus.  Good non-sport page all around.

In a bout of patriotic blindness, I also snagged five packs of the Topps USA Olympic team.  At a buck a pop, I figured these would be fun and possibly even educational. 

I suppose you get what you pay for...in those five packs (10 cards each) I got twelve doubles. Obviously, collation is not high on Topps priority list for low end packs.  I know I have been bashing the hell out of Topps in this post, but come on, what the hell?  Twelve doubles in five 10-card packs?!?  Anyway, this made my choices for the page pretty easy.  If anyone is putting this set together, email me and I will gladly send any or all that I have that you need...in fact, that goes for the other stuff in this post too.

So there were plenty of highs and lows in my reintroduction to retail pack ripping.  In the long run, I have made a wise choice by not taking part in this low grade lottery anymore, but honestly, this was a pretty fun way to spend my Sunday night, especially on someone else's dime.

Queening.

      I am not a big fan of the Gypsy Queen set.  My biggest gripe is that it is redundant.  Topps already made a perfect faux-vintage tobacco set in Allen and Ginter, why do another?  Topps often falls into the "more is more" trap and this one has it by the short hairs...just another Topps example of going to the well way too many times.  My other issue is the one most other people have with it, that the base design is just way too busy, and frankly, down right ugly.  Gypsy Queen looks like a set that stoned Upper Deck executives would have rejected and the computer generated old-timey look just doesn't work.  I am proud that I have bought exactly zero packs of this product.  That said, I have seen many write ups on the Gypsy Queen and I did find a couple of insert sets that I did like.  Thanks to eBay, I didn't have to slog through pack after pack to get the cards I wanted, I just found a lot of the cards I liked and skipped the ugly base card middle man.

This year features a subset called Moonshots:

I like the term Moonshot.  I like the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" which features the term.  I like Wally Moon, who is the impetus of the term.  I like the Apollo space program.  I like the color purple (I am indifferent to the film, though).  So, even if I am not big on Gypsy Queen, I like this particular insert set fine.

Last year's set had a few cool inserts, but the one I adore most by far is the Wall Climbers:

Look at that, outfielders making catches at the wall, which is one of my favorite photos for a baseball card.  There are 10 total in this set, so I broke down and bought the whole thing on eBay.  Poor Rajai Davis lost out on this 9-card page, his green on green picture just didn't do it for me.  But in the end, this page is ten kinds of awesome and this insert set might be one of my favorites of all time.  So what is the moral of this story?  Even if you hate a particular release, there might be something redeeming about it hiding in the inserts.

***

Post script.  One other thing the mention of this set does is get this song stuck in my head, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the last thing I need is more going on in my subconscious.  Plus, if you know the movie, then you have Tina Turner dancing about going on as well.  My head is a strange place.