3 Box Birthday Break....

Today is my brother Greg's birthday, and Friday was mine. So we decided to open a couple of random boxes in between our case schedule. We decided on Finest '12, Topps Chrome '10, and Prime Cuts '11.

We'll lead off with the Topps Chrome 10'. Not the greatest, but a fun break. The Ellsbury looks really cool in person, and it was nice to get another Strasburg base.

Next was the box of 12' Finest. We really did well with this one. The Moore looks great in person, and we'll hold onto the Bauer at least until he is a consistent big leaguer next year.

Finally was a box of '11 Prime Cuts. This box was tailor made for us. Frank Thomas was our favorite player growing up, and Enos "Country" Slaughter is from our hometown. We had the pleasure of meeting/speaking with him multiple times. No one on earth was more familar with his stats than he was, and he had stories for days about his playing career including the famous "mad dash". 

Overall we were very pleased, as always thanks for the look.

We'll be breaking a case of update and most likely finest in a couple of weeks.

3 Boxes 2011 Prime Cuts....

Really like this product, we'll be getting more if it stays at its current price point. The Yankees quad auto and Kershaw #/5 look awesome in person!

2008 Upperdeck Masterpieces Case...

Picked up this case from Blowout Cards, this was an extremely fun break! Got a lot of #'d parallels that we'll be keeping in our binders, I really love the design and look of these cards. Unfortunately we hit a Youk patch auto #/25 redemption, hopefully UD comes through for us. Really like the look of the patch cards. Look for some of these on eBay, ask about any that you like!

2012 Topps Chrome Case Break

Broke this case a little later than I wanted since I was off on vacation. Hit the following cards, along with a refractor hot box. We got a TON of refractors for our binders, and we'll be posting the ones we didn't want tonight on Ebay, 150+ refractors.

The Gio is an atomic/10, nice addition to the Nats PC. The Moore was the only variation we got, not sure of its rarity. The two red refractors, Cueto, and Moore will be on Ebay tonight. All autos below other than the Moore, Cozart, and Mauer will be on Ebay tonight. The Mauer is #/10.

Overall we were happy with the break. We got a lot of nice refractors for our binders, and we hit 3 really nice cards. It's a good looking product, but 1 case is probably enough for us. We got all the base cards we'll want, and there's a few other products on the horizon that we'll be in line for.

Box Breaks from '12 National...

Decided to break some '12 Topps Mini boxes, as well as 3 boxes of Tier 1.

The Mini Boxes were a fun break. I wasn't expecting much out of $50 boxes, and we were happy we got 3 printing plates, even if they weren't of the best players. Our #/61 parallels we also not the greatest players, but they come at 5 per box. (A little eBay plug: http://www.ebay.com/itm/170891829946?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_2406wt_131). We got 1 Harper mini, and also got 2 promotional sets. Although I know the odds weren't with me to get an auto, we were disappointed we didn't get one. This is something we may purchase in the future depending on the price point.

All of the cards are on eBay with the exception of the Harper, my eBay name is raines27.

Tier 1 treated us well earlier this year with our May RC Reprint Auto hit, however, these 3 boxes were a different story. The best card was probably the Heisey patch auto, so that shows you how brutal these boxes were. The only card we're keeping is the Zimmermann auto, the rest are on eBay.

As we've documented we like to keep our big hits, and the hometown guys. So out of the last case('12 A&G) and 7 boxes we've kept 3 Harper's (not including promo sets), 1 Zimmermann, 1 Mike Morse relic, and a Roger Federer relic. We've been running on a definite cold streak.

I did have one more goal in mind at the National, and I found a good deal for it. Pardon the scratch on the case, it's a beautiful card. I went to the BGS booth on Sunday, but they wouldn't rush grading it. 

Our next break will be '12 Topps Chrome case, and a case of a favorite product of ours from the '08 year, any guesses? I'll be sure to let everyone know before in case they need something for a set.

How we collect-What's your story?

I feel like we're the minority in the industry, we keep some base cards. The more I interact with people within the industry, it seems the process of keeping base cards in binders is becoming extinct. So I'm wondering, what is everyone's process of collecting cards?

Our process is relatively simple:

We buy only cases or singles (more the former than the latter). The reason for this is simple, the general thought when buying a case is you're guaranteeing yourself a nice hit out of that product. Obviously the price point of the case generally dictates the size of the hit.

We mainly buy set based cases (Topps, Gypsy Queen, Archives, A&G, Topps Chrome, etc). If we buy a case that doesn't have a base set (Tier One, Five Star, etc), we'll open with a set based product so the break isn't so short.

From the case breaks we'll automatically keep the following: One base card or any player we collect in our binders. We generally keep HOF players, star players we think have a chance at that level, and some local guys. We'll also keep any parallels of that player, unless we deem the value too much to turn down. We keep any autographs and jerseys of said players in which we collect, only exception being if the value is just too much (ie: A 1/1 auto, would probably sell and buy a base auto of same brand).

After we keep these items we'll put together sets, parallels, GU, and autograph's to sell on eBay to recoup some $ for the next purchase.

Everyone who opens wax is in the hobby for different reasons. I'm curious to hear other people's processes. See everyone at National on Sunday!

2012 Bowman Platinum Review....

Well, 2012 Bowman Platinum was legit. Notice I used the word "was". If you were not lucky enough to get on this product at pre-sale pricing, I would hold off. The product looks great, and they've done a wonderful job with the patches. I really wish we would have gotten a case at pre-sale pricing in hindsight.

However, a lot of the big time hits in this product have already popped up on Ebay and other places. This leads me to believe that Topps was aware that most collectors had the same thought about the product that I did.

Case prices have soared over $1,300 for a 12 box case. Given that a lot of the chase cards have already been pulled, I'm not sure that you'll be able to get full value back from the product at this point.

Congratulations to all that had faith in Topps and got on this product early. For everyone else, it's on the the next one! We'll preview Topps Finest '12 soon, and review shortly thereafter. We don't plan on getting finest this year, but we're already locked into '12 Topps Chrome.

If you're interested in checking out '12 Bowman Platinum click on the Sports Card Radio link to the right of the page. If you're interested in buying the product, click on the Blowout Cards link. See everyone at the National!