Group Break: Final Tally

Well, my goal to get everything done before Thanksgiving didn't really work out.  But, things are wrapping up and I am starting to pack your cards.

First, I need to reveal who got the multiteam cards:

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 193 Black
(Nolan Ryan/Greg Maddux/Randy Johnson)
Rangers

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 193 Black
(Nolan Ryan/Greg Maddux/Randy Johnson)
Diamondbacks

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 193
(Nolan Ryan/Greg Maddux/Randy Johnson)
Diamondbacks

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 199 Black
(Griffey/Clemente/Guerrero/DiMaggio)
Reds

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 179 Black
(Reyes/Jeter)
Mets

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 192 Black
(Mauer/Ramirez/Tulowitzki)
Rockies

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 189 Black
(Jones/Braun/Cabrera)
Braves

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 200
(Pujols/Jeter/Fielder/Ortiz)
Brewers

2008 Upper Deck Heroes 184
(Gibson/Peavy)
Padres

2011 Topps Opening Day PFP-2 Presidential First Pitch Harry Truman
(Yankees/Twins)
Twins

2011 Topps Stickers 141/304
(Padres/Cubs)
Padres

2011 Topps 109
(Hamilton/Cabrera/Mauer)
Twins

2011 Topps 202 Platinum Diamond Anniversary
(Bautista/Konerko/Cabrera)
White Sox

2011 Topps Diamond Duos DD-27
(Johnson/Verlander)
Tigers

2011 Topps Heritage Babe Ruth Special 143
(Red Sox/Yankees)
Yankees

2009 Upper Deck Goudey 4-in-1 35-99
(Fowler/Snider/Bowden/Antonelli)
Rockies

2009 Upper Deck Goudey 4-in-1 35-16
(Sandberg/Uggla/Kinsler/Utley)
Marlins

1999 Topps Finest Split Screen SS7
(Galarraga/Thomas)
White Sox

2011 Tristar Obak 31 Germany Schaefer
(Cubs/Tigers/Senators/Yankees/Indians)
Tigers

2011 Tristar Obak 13 Hugh Duffy
(White Sox/Brewers/Red Sox/Phillies)
White Sox

2011 Tristar Obak 96 Al Simmons "Bucketfoot"
(Athletics/White Sox/Tigers/Senators/Braves/Reds/Red Sox)
Reds

2006 Topps Update UH213 Stolen Bases League Leaders
(Reyes/Pierre/Ramirez)
Mets

2007 Topps Update UH281 Classic Combo
(Hamels/Martin)
Dodgers


Now that we got that out of the way, here are the draft results for the non-team cards:

1. Eric L - 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 70 Chuck Liddell (MMA)
2. Derek - 2008 Upper Deck Presidential Predictors PP-11 John McCain vs. Barack Obama "Taxes"
3. Justin - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 161 "D-Day Invasion"
4. Derek - 2010 Upper Deck CP-3/CP-4 Celebrity Predictors Timberlake/Diaz
5. Derek - 2008 Upper Deck Team USA USA-20 Ryan Flaherty
6. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 68 Matt Ryan (QB, Boston College) Mini
7. Matt Pederson - 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 187 Joe Alexander (Bareback Rider)
8. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 16 Abraham Lincoln (US President) Mini
9. Robert - 2011 Topps Allen and Ginter WMF7 World's Most Mysterious Figures "The Man in the Iron Mask" Mini
10. Jason Cline - 2011 Topps Allen and Ginter AOM10 Ascent of Man Sarcopterygii
11. Derek - 2009 Bowman Chrome World Baseball Classic BCW16 Cheng-Min Peng (Chinese Taipei)
12. Robert - 2011 Topps HOT-4 History of Topps "1957 - Topps Sets the Card Size Standard"
13. Dayf - 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 36 Lyndon Johnson (US President)
14. Josh D - 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Gypsy Queens GQ10 Levitia, Kars
15. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 128 Bill Rodgers (Marathon Runner)
16. Madding - 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 128 Bill Rodgers (Marathon Runner)
17. Play at the Plate - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 161 "D-Day Invasion"
18. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 184 "Brooklyn Bridge Completed"
19. Daily Dimwit - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 184 "Brooklyn Bridge Completed"
20. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 197 "Republican Party Founded"
21. Jeff Laws - 1992 Confex Fun Stuff Baseball Enquirer Mystery Interview 16 Unknown
22. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 176 "Elevator Invented"
23. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 179 "Eiffel Tower Erected"
24. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 199 "Euro Currency Introduced"
25. Josh D - 2011 Tristar Obak 13 Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Commissioner Mini
26. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 163 "Earth Day"
27. Dawgbones - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 197 "Republican Party Founded"
28. Cheap Card Collecting - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 156 "18th Amendment Adopted"
29. Rod - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 185 "X-Ray Invented"
30. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 177 "Microwave Oven Invented"
31. Derek - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 172 "US Constitution Signed"
32. Daily Dimwit - 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History 176 "Elevator Invented"

So, that brings us to the final team tally:

Now, don't despair, those that didn't get a hit.  Chances are, your package will have a hit in it from your team, or at least a few nice cards that I have added as a bonus.  Now, let's dig ridiculously deeper into the group break results:

Essentially, if you assume a 10-card pack, we saw 8 base cards, 1 parallel, and 1insert per pack.  Hits came at roughly 1:10 packs, replacing the parallel.   Specifically, relics would come at a rate of 1:12 packs, whereas autos would fall at a rate of 1:55 packs.  I'd say those are reasonable numbers given that the majority of this stuff was retail.  The analysis breaks down a little given the fact that I am counting manu-patches as relics, but I think the trend is still pretty good. 

The two most hated teams in the card world are the Yankees and the Red Sox because of their perceived preferential treatment.  Well, all evidence here suggest that they are, in fact, the two most overproduced teams.  Since there are 30 teams, an even distribution would say the Yanks/Sox would make up 6.67% of the cards.  In this break, the Yanks/Sox combo made up 12% of all cards, including 16% of the parallels and a whopping 22% of the inserts.  So, I would conclude that the hate is warranted. 

As far as the MLB divisions go, the base card distribution is much closer to average, with each division getting 3-4% per team:

 When you look at inserts and parallels, the AL bias comes into play:

The NL (specifically the NL West) got their money back on the hits, though:

Now, let's look at what all was ripped for the break:

(1) 1991 Donruss Wax Pack
(1) 1992 Confex Baseball Enquirer Mystery Interview Pack
(1) 1998 Stadium Club Hobby Pack
(6) 1999 Topps Finest Hobby Pack
(3) 2000 Just Minors Justifiable Pack
(1) 2000 Topps Gold Label Hobby Pack
(1) 2000 Vanguard Hobby Pack
(1) 2002 Donruss Super Estrellas Pack
(1) 2002 Upper Deck Hobby Pack
(2) 2004 Bowman Hobby Pack
(10) 2004 Donruss Studio Pack
(2) 2005 Topps Hobby Pack
(6) 2006 Fleer Tradition Retail Pack
(1) 2006 Topps Retail Pack
(1) 2006 Topps Update Hobby Pack
(1) 2006 Upper Deck Series 1 and 2 Rack Pack
(1) 2007 Fleer Retail Pack
(1) 2007 Topps Chrome Retail Pack
(1) 2007 Topps Update Retail Pack
(4) 2007 Upper Deck Retail Pack
(1) 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Hobby Tin
(36) 2008 UD Heroes Blaster Pack
(3) 2008 UD Heroes Retail Pack
(10) 2008 UD X Blaster Pack
(18) 2008 UD X Retail Pack
(8) 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces Blaster Pack
(10) 2008 Upper Deck Series 2 Blaster Pack
(7) 2008 Upper Deck Timeline Pack
(4) 2009 Bowman Retail Pack
(1) 2009 Topps Chrome Retail Pack
(2) 2009 Topps Series 2 Cereal Box
(2) 2009 Topps Series 2 Hobby Pack
(4) 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom Retail Pack
(24) 2009 Topps Update Blaster Pack
(14) 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History Blaster Pack
(10) 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Retail Pack
(8) 2009 Upper Deck Goudey Blaster Pack
(2) 2009 Upper Deck Goudey Retail Pack (5)
(5) 2009 Upper Deck Goudey Retail Pack (9)
(3) 2009 Upper Deck Icons Pack
(2) 2009 Upper Deck Retail Pack
(10) 2009 Upper Deck Series 2 Blaster Pack
(2) 2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic Pack
(12) 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum Blaster Pack
(1) 2010 Pro Debut Series 1 Hobby Pack
(1) 2010 Topps 206 Retail Pack
(8) 2010 Topps Chrome Blaster Pack
(3) 2010 Topps Update Blaster Patch Pack
(10) 2010 Upper Deck Blaster Pack
(2) 2010 Upper Deck Retail Pack
(2) 2011 Bowman Blister Pack
(2) 2011 Bowman Chrome Hobby Pack
(3) 2011 Bowman Platinum Retail Pack
(5) 2011 Bowman Rack Pack
(3) 2011 Bowman Retail Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter Retail Pack
(2) 2011 Topps Attax Retail Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Retail Pack
(2) 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Value Pack
(3) 2011 Topps Heritage Hobby Pack
(2) 2011 Topps Heritage Retail Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Lineage Rack Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Opening Day Rack Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Series 1 Rack Pack
(7) 2011 Topps Series 1 Retail Pack
(2) 2011 Topps Series 2 Dollar Tree Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Series 2 Hobby Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Series 2 Rack Pack
(4) 2011 Topps Series 2 Retail Pack
(6) 2011 Topps Stickers Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Update Jumbo Pack
(2) 2011 Topps Update Rack Pack
(3) 2011 Topps Update Retail Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Update Value Pack Refractor
(5) 2011 Topps Update Value Pack Retail Pack
(1) 2011 Topps Value Pack Refractor
(2) 2011 Tristar Obak Retail Pack
(1) Bonus Jersey Pack
(2) Dollar Tree Jumbo Pack

That's almost 350 packs from 14 different years.  The breakdown:

2008 and 2009 made up about half of all cards, likely due to the availability of discounted blasters.  More than a quarter of the cards came from 2011, which was more than I thought.  Hopefully that means a lot of you scored newer cards you wanted. 

Since this break was inspired by Moneyball, I must make some mention of the price-ranking.  The Yankees and Red Sox were two of the top priced teams, and they didn't disappoint by racking up crazy stacks of inserts and parallels.  The Phillies, the #2 team, came through in the clutch with a couple of late relics for Dawgbones.  The Tigers did well with 3 relics, and the Cardinals were the third-highest card total.  They were both just above-average in price.  As for the lower end of the spectrum, the Diamondbacks and Astros over-acheived by pulling in relics of future HOFers Randy Johnson and Craig Biggio, respectively. 

Now, to the awards portion of the show:

Best Base Card: 1998 Stadium Club John Smoltz - Smoltz making a grab at the wall? Awesome. 

Best Parallel Card: 2011 Topps Update Babe Ruth Liquorfractor - This was pulled before the break officially started, but you can't beat the Babe on a Liquorfractor in a Red Sox jersey.

Best Insert Card: 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Preview Joe DiMaggio - I'm a little biased towards Joe, this year.  It's a great looking card, though. 

Best Relic: 2009 Topps Update Mickey Mantle Commemorative Patch - Sure it's out of fashion to pick a manu-patch here, but it's the best card, plain and simple.

Best Auto: 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Signatures Adrian Gonzalez - No doubt about this one. 

MVP (Most Valuable Participant): Rod (Padrographs) - He killed this break.  He paid $9 for the Padres only to rack up nearly 100 cards, a Maddux relic, and the Gonzalez auto from above. 

I will be packing up the cards this week and will hopefully have them out by early next week.  If you are feeling the holiday spirit, you could even wait until Christmas Day to open them. 

And so ends my first ever group break.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I sure did.  Then, I hated it.  Then, I enjoyed it a little more; then, I hated it a little.  Then I really hated it at the end.  Now I'm enjoying it again.

Thanks for participating, hopefully you enjoy your cards once my slow ass gets them sent out!


-----Epic final group break post complete-----


 

New Cards from the Dimwit

Sam sent me some cards for our most recent trade, and man, are they sweet.  He loaded me up with a ton of 2008 UD X cards that I needed, including 5 Die Cut Golds, which are hard to come by these days. He sent a bunch of Xponentials, but I only scanned a couple.  He also sent other set needs.

Of course, he also hit my PCs with some Justin Uptons and some fresh Chromies:

He then topped it off with a pair of sweet Ryan Zimmerman relics.  Between this trade and his last group break, my Zim collection has really taken off.

I love the glorious color-clashing on those two cards.

Thanks, Sam, as always!

Some New Hokies for a Thursday Night Game

In honor of VT's game against UNC tonight, I want to show of some recent Hokie pickups.  The first two came from eBay:

Thanks to Ryan Williams' preseason injury, his cards are going relatively cheap.  This Topps Prime jumbo jersey is numbered to 318.

Next to Bryan Randall and Eddie Royal, Jeff King is probably my third-favorite Hokie of all-time.  He was a first down machine for us before moving on to the NFL.  I love on-card autos, epecially of Hokies in their VT attire. 

The next two additions came courtesy of Dennis from Too Many Verlandersons...or whatever he is calling it these days.  I sent him an Austin Jackson Mini-Relic from Lineage, and he sent me these:

2005 Topps Finest Lee Suggs Blue Xfractor #093/150

2008 Playoff National Treasures Xavier Adibi Autograph #26/99

Xavier has a pretty nice auto, and I've been looking to pick one up for a while now.  My Hokie auto collection is looking pretty good now.  Thanks, Dennis!

Group Break: The Unclaimed Hits

After 2700+ cards, we were left with one relic and one auto that didn't go to teams:

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Evelyn Ng Autograph (Poker Player)

and

2009 Upper Deck USA National Team Matt Den Dekker Jersey

These two cards will be randomed among the 15 teams that did not get a hit in the break:

Atlanta Braves

Baltimore Orioles
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies
Kansas City Royals
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins
Oakland Athletics
Pittsburgh Pirates
Seattle Mariners
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Washington Nationals

Since Matt Den Dekker was drafted in the 5th round, random team #5 will get the jersey.
Since Evelyn Ng has 10 money finishes in the WSOP, random team #10 will get the auto.

I put them into my own coded randomizer (I'm sick of Random.org screenshots):

>> MLBrand;

Randomized List:
1 Cincinnati Reds
2 Pittsburgh Pirates
3 Milwaukee Brewers
4 Baltimore Orioles
5 Seattle Mariners
6 Colorado Rockies
7 Atlanta Braves
8 Chicago Cubs
9 Oakland Athletics
10 Kansas City Royals
11 Toronto Blue Jays
12 Washington Nationals
13 Cleveland Indians
14 Tampa Bay Rays
15 Minnesota Twins

So, Derek's Mariners pick up the Dekker jersey, and Josh's Royals pick up the Ng auto.  Congrats, guys!

I'll hopefully be back soon with the remaining cards for random/draft.

Group Break: 2007 Sweet Spot Hobby Tin

Here it is, folks. It's time to bust open the big Sweet Spot bonus.

 

He wears 28 for the Red Sox, so at least is a partial eBay 1/1.  Congrats on the Sweet Spot Auto, Rod!

I will be back soon with the plan for Randomizing/Drafting the non-team cards.

For now, here's the updated spreadsheet. Though not much has changed since we only added 6 cards, I'm sure rod will enjoy seeing the scissors and pen next to the Padres.

Group Break: Bonus Time!!!

Picked up some good stuff for a little bonus action:



Going solely on book value, the Zobrist and DiMaggio are the two best cards in the box ($12 each) compared to the Dekker Jersey ($8).  In my opinion, that makes this a pretty darn good blaster.



Here's the updated spreadsheet:

The Dodgers and Tigers reach the 100-card mark, as the break reaches 200 parallels (that's kind of insane, really).  The Cubs are oh-so-close to 100.

Group Break: Random Pack Blowout!

Time for a ton of random packs, all shown through crappy video with some accompanying scans.

Hopefully you made it all the way through that.  Here is the updated spreadsheet:



And so the Cardinals reach the 100-card club, while the break hits 2500 cards.

Group Break: 2009 Topps Update

Ok, so we are in the home stretch.  I have all of the cards unpacked and sorted.  With the exception of this post, we'll mostly be finishing up with crappy videos.  You're welcome.  I'll hopefully have the rest of the cards posted in the next couple of days.  After that, I have to random the multi-team cards and non-team hits.  After that, I will be (likely) drafting out the remaining non-team cards.  Then, I can pack and ship.

Up now we have a big part of the break in 3 blasters of 2009 Topps Update.  These sat at the local K-Mart for a long time before I picked them up with a nice discount.  We'll be looking at roughly 240 cards, as well as three Commemorative Patches.

As usual, some base cards:

including several All-Stars and Homerun Derbyists.



There were three keepers for me:

I'm really not sure how I never came across these three Wrights before.  It's rare that I am missing base Topps cards these days.

Of course, there was a ToppsTown card in each pack:

The collation on these sucked.  There were a ton of dupes and a few trupes (?). Anyway, some of them were of the Gold persuasion:

There were two Gold Martins, but I didn't feel the need to add an extra row to the scanner.

Next up, the Turkey Reds:

followed by my favorite inserts, the Propaganda Posters:



We beat the odds and got 7 Gold base parallels #/2009:

Each box had one Legends of the Game (Updates) card:

Wade Boggs always looks so weird as a Devil Ray.

Now for the big draw: the Patches.  I will show these in the order of awesome.

It's a good sign when #3 is Bob Gibson.  The reason this is #3 is because the colors are hard to distinguish. This was the rare occasion where the scan is easier to read than in person.



  The colors on this one, however, explode off the patch.  Very nice.  This would have been a good #1, but there's no denying the top dog:

The Mick and the Yanks win again. 

The updated spreadsheet:

And the Nats finally hit 50!!!