Pack Break: 2010 Topps Baseball Series 1 Hobby *HIT*

This is 1 of 3 hobby packs I picked up Friday hoping for a hit. Really I was hoping for a code card though.. which have been avoiding me over my last 7 packs.

And here’s my hit. Nice card, but from a player I hardly follow. These are only running $1-2 on eBay right now. I plan on buying hobby as often as I can until I pull my first Hat Logo, Silk, or 1/1. Looking forward to a hobby box.

Future pack breaks:

• 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack Baseball
• 2008 Upper Deck SP Baseball x3

Barter: Care of Night Owl Cards

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about my first packs of Goodwin and pulled a nice Cory Wade auto. It quickly caught the eye of Night Owl at Night Owl Cards and we worked out a quick trade. I ended up sending him a few more Dodgers on his needs list, and he knocked off a bunch of cards off my ’09 Topps and ’69 Topps needs lists. Thanks night owl! I’ll just highlight a few of my favorites or cards of recent playoff significance. The first one here shows Brian Fuentes in his Rockies uni. He played for the Angels this year and did a pretty good job, racking up a career high 48 saves. He’s got a pretty important role for the halos right about now.

Lincecum put on another outstanding show this year. This guy maintained a 2.48 ERA and struck out 261. About the same as last year with a 2.62 ERA and 265 K’s. One stat that stuck out were the walks.. only 68 this year as opposed to 84 in ’08. That’s experience and even more control starting to show. It’s just too bad he couldn’t get some post season experience under his belt this year. Maybe his Giants can pull it together next year.

We’ll probably be seeing a lot of this guy in the next few weeks. Let’s see if he’s got what it takes to be a Yankee in the post season.

Lou’s Cubbies finished 7.5 games behind the Cardinals this year. Tough competition.

Adam had an incredible year posting a 19-8 record with only a 2.63 ERA. Adam, Chris and Albert might just be unstoppable this year.

Ryan only had a .241 AVG this year, pushing him down the Rockies depth chart to the bench.

Juan had a better year this time, staying healthy and consistent.

No playoffs for Rios again, but did you know he was acquired by the White Sox a couple of months ago?

No post season for these guys either. I honestly thought they were a sure thing before their slide into disappointment.

He also sent me 10 1969 Topps cards I needed for my set. Only 9 would fit on my scanner.

Goodwin Hobby Pack Times 3

Last weekend I found myself with a rare opportunity to not only get into the nearest hobby shop, but also have enough after stocking up on supplies to actually buy some cards! This is great because I strongly believe in hobby packs over retail, and yet I’m stuck at buying 95% retail because it’s too damn convenient and money in this budget does not get budgeted, only spent until broke.

So anyways I picked up a few of my first Goodwins and a few Topps Series 2 along with a few singles out of the dollar trays that caught my eye. Oh, and a 1992-93 Upper Deck Trail Blazers team set. I already covered the Bill Walton singles I picked up, and I also came up with a $2 EX condition ’84 Topps Darryl Strawberry and a $1 1969 Topps “Ted Williams Shows How” card which I’ll probably scan for my ’69 Topps blog eventually. I did well with the Series 2 Topps and pulled my first ever redemption card, Red Hot Rookie #5. But Series 2 Topps is so last month right? So onto Goodwin Champions!

Pack 1. Nice looking card. I find myself rooting for the Giants to catch Colorado and.. it looks like Atlanta too now. They’ve got some great young stars. Fun to watch, but inconsistent.

Sweet! My first MMA or UFC card ever! I tell you, I was really excited for Topps UFC Round 1 earlier this year but it sold out before it barely, if at all, hit the shelves. So here comes Round 2 and I’m stuck without a pre-order (never pre-ordered anything before) and will probably be left out again with my only option being a single pack off of eBay for 15 bucks!

The minis look great. End of pack 1. Also pulled #3 Jon Lester and # 29 Carlos Quentin.

Pack 2. Hit! Cory Wade. Heard his name before but not too familiar with him. Cheers to Upper Deck for the on card autos in this set. Stickers just look bad, especially on vintage style sets!

Oh yes, I love retired player cards! Fisk is a big plus, cool old-style Red Sox logo, big plus, and it’s a mini! Plus. This might be my favorite card from all 3 packs.

Despite my best efforts to collect all things trading cards, I am lost on Hockey cards. Don’t get me wrong, I like hockey, but I don’t follow it enough to know more than 5% of the names in a small hockey card set. I do keep any names I know (Gordie I know), but I’ll eventually trade off any other hockey I’ve accumulated.

3 packs is pretty good odds to pull one of these dreaded Anniversary cards. I think they’re 1:4 packs. I actually enjoy them when they’re sports related but I do not need cards on gas prices and Dick Cheney taking up space in my packs! Upper deck really messed up a golden opportunity to do something right with great success with this insert set. If they simply went with sports events, I would have been a happy collector. Even some trading card history and a few Olympic highlights would have been nice. Olympic cards probably require another license though. End pack 2. Also pulled #188 Fausto Carmona which is available for trade.

Pack 3. Fukudome with a vintage Cubbies logo. Very nice.

Pettitte. Eh. This might be the Yankees year.

Curtis Granderson mini. Very cool. Glad I saw the Tigers play this year in Seattle. Might be their year too if they can beat the Yankees. End of pack 3. Also pulled #59 Evan Longoria and #113 Jose Reyes.

To sum it up after my first Goodwin packs, I love this set! But, after mulling over wether or not to try and complete the whole set, I don’t think I will. It would take a LOT of packs to complete this set with only 2 to 4 base cards per pack. I will definitely sample some more though whenever I see them.