Box Break - - 2010-11 Panini Zenith Blaster Box

The cards you find in retail are generally focused around what most would consider the low-mid range products.  During the 2010-11 hockey season, Panini revived the Zenith brand but decided to market a "retail" version of their product in addition to the normal hobby boxes.  What a great idea....

That was until you saw the price tag.  $29.99 for 3 packs of 5 cards!!  That's 15 cards for about $30, making it $2 per card.  Quite the steep price tag for anyone interested in busting retail, including myself.  I wasn't even interested in the hobby product at the time.  Not even the "Dare to Tear" promotional gimmick suckered me in either.  My LCS at the time had a Mark Messier Box Topper and they obliged the masses by mutilating the card only to find an EPIX Duncan Keith insert.  Good for a Chicago-land card shop but definitely a downer.

Fast forward a little more than 2 years and we now have these boxes still sitting on some retail shelves.  But our friends at Target are not about to have them sit much longer.  They have slapped everyones favorite round clearance sticker on these and have them market at $9.99.  So at about $.66/card, it might be easier to swallow.

Lets see what comes out of a blaster box of 2010-11 Panini Zenith.

First, here are some samples of the base cards.  There are both current stars (#1-115) and "short-printed" legends that are high numbers (#116-140).

I also pulled a GU card....

This card comes from the Winter Warriors insert set, not to be confused with the Donruss version of these called Boys of Winter.  Here we have Jared Boll of the Columbus Blue Jackets.  At least he still plays for the same team.  It's a plain blue swatch, if you can't already tell.

Finally, I pulled one Rookie Roll Call insert (not a jersey version but still)...


wait for it....

Taylor Hall.  In 2010-11 Hall and Seguin were the two big draws for the rookie class.  Getting a Hall out of this box was pretty cool considering how much 10-11 hockey I opened without as much as a peak of Mr. Hall.  I did pull a few Seguin's back then but alas, no Halls.  I have picked up a few since then but it's not the same when you unwrap one of the bigger draws of a set.

Now that the price has dropped, I would say pick up a box or two if you can find them.  You can even get a hobby box under $70 (I even saw one for $62).  They are nicely designed base cards, will probably yield a few nice hits, and are probably an easy set to put together for all you set chasers out there.

Box Break - - 2009 Artifacts (A Piece Of History) Baseball Blaster Box

I don't usually open baseball product.  But when I do, it's usually something that either I haven't seen before or it's something unusual.  This box break falls under the haven't seen before category.

First, I'm shocked Kmart is still in business.  Second, I'm surprised they have any semblance of a card selection.  Third, I don't have any clue why I was in a Kmart.  Regardless, I saw this and couldn't recall ever seeing one before so I figured why not.

What caught my attention was the fact that this said it contained "One Memorabila Card In Every Box" and was marked with those nifty round red stickers signifying that this was indeed a clearance item and they were more than willing to let it go for $5.99.  How someone else didn't swipe this up at that price, even if it was probably going to be a crappy jersey card, I'll never know.  Oh, wait.  This was Kmart.

As you can see, there are 7 packs in a box with 5 cards in each pack...35 cards for about $6 comes out to about $.17/card.  I don't know if that is good or not but if this is anything like Artifacts in hockey, I will probably like it.

First, here is a sampling of the base cards and rookies...

A couple comments here if I may.  I really like this design.  The marbleized grey and white borders look sharp.  It almost looks like smoke (much like the smoky/ice backgrounds on the hockey).  It's hard to see on the scan I think but along the inner border corners, there are flower-like design patterns too.  The overall feel of these is almost of a higher end product I think and even though much of the available space on the card is spent on the design, I don't think that really retracts from the images used for the players.  The "Rookie Card" logo seems kind of big considering the size of the photo but I think that is the required size by the MLB.   And is it just me or does Frank Thomas as an Oakland A just look wrong?

There is a subset of sorts in Artifacts called Historical Moments.  The borders are clearly a little darker than the regular base cards but they are numbered as part of the main set.  They are also all horizontally printed (from what I pulled at least). Here is what was in here...

Finally, there were the "other" cards including my guaranteed (on average) GU card.

I had to look these up to see what the deal was.  Apparently these are red, not pink and they are not serial numbered.  I assume that means that they are the basic parallel.  There are also Blue, Gold, and Green versions of these cards for all you rainbow seekers.  Something else I learned when looking this up...most publications have this listed, not as Artifacts, but as Upper Deck A Piece Of History.  I did not know that.

This is from the Stadium Scenes insert set.  This particular card features the Orioles, Nick Markakis and a scene from beautiful Camden Yards.  This one is the "Turquois" version numbered out of /99.  There are also Black, Blue, & Red, as well as jersey/auto variations of these.  The back features a write up on the park as well as mentioning that Nick  "lit up Texas pitching with 7 hits and 6 RBI in a three-game home series in July" 2008. 

And the card I was waiting for...the dual patch/jock auto numbered /2 of Nolan Ryan!!  And as I opened my eyes, I was instead greeted with this little ball of fire.  If what I said before about the base card design not intruding on the photo was true, it's completely opposite here.  There is too much happening on the front of these cards, plus the swatch, rendering the photo as almost unimportant to the card.  I had to look twice to even figure out who it was...the player name is an afterthought.  Even Justin had to crouch down to fit into that oval.  There are all sorts of color parallel and serial numbered versions of this with and without the jersey swatch.  At least this has a piece of the pin-striping to make it not as boring. 

If I was a baseball collector, I'd definitely build this set.  It looks very nice in a binder and there are all sorts of interesting inserts and parallels.  As it stands now, I'll keep the one lonely Pirate card.  The rest, who knows. 

Box Break - - 2008-09 Be A Player Blaster

You know when you are in your local {enter retailer name here} and you happen to walk by the "card aisle", or "wall", or "4' Gondola" and you get the feeling of adrenaline rushing through your veins?  I haven't had the feeling in quite a while because I have made it a point to not go over to those areas.  They have been a bane to my collecting existence for a long time and caused much heartache (walletache).

Well the other day, I happened to find myself face to face with the trading card aisle and really had no idea how I got there.  But when in Rome, right?  I proceeded to look over the wares, to which I found very little that peaked much interest.  That was until I found the shelf-o-blasters that lurked at the end of the aisle.  These were no ordinary blasters with the traditional $19.99 price tag.  No these were the "discounted" ones with the $5.99-$11.99 tags...my personal favorite.

Strangely enough (that was sarcasm), there wasn't much by way of hockey.  A couple of last years Score, a box of 2009-10 Upper Deck Series I, and a 2007-08 OPC box that looked as if it had been returned by a Pit Bull.  But on the bottom shelf, behind some weird Pete Rose cards, there was this...

 

It's not often that you find BAP cards in a retail store so for $10 I figured why not.  You can see there are 2 packs, 5 cards per pack with 1 guaranteed autograph (that comes out to $1 per card for the math challenged).  Since there are only 10 cards here.  I figured I'd show them all since I'm sure there are many of you out there that have never seen this set before.

Here is the pack...looks just like the box except it is commanding me to "Grab Autograph Cards!"  Ok, I will.

Here are the base cards that were pulled.  I figured I would scan all of them since there really aren't that many.  Nothing really fancy here in the design other than the team color coordinated, rasterized photo of the player in the background and the matching name stripe down the side.  Simple and clean.

Drum roll please......ddddddddddddddddddd...My "guaranteed" autograph card...

 

Which is technically two autographs, I guess.  We have Matthew Lombardi and Dustin Boyd, both from the Calgary Flames at the time.  Lombardi is now in his second stint with the Coyotes and Boyd has since played for the Predators, Canadiens, and now is in the KHL (last I looked).  I'm not sure I understand how you get either of these two's names out of that chicken scratch mess but I suppose there are much worse examples out there.  

Worth $10?  Probably not, but getting an auto in a blaster is always fun and dual auto cards are even better.  There are also triple autos available out there too if anyone was interested.  The best deal on these is if you can get to a show where some dealers usually have these available for about $7-$8. 

Box Break - - 2012 Topps Archives Baseball Blaster

(This is one of my lost posts that I started a few/couple months ago.  I have since over indulged on Archives and would be glad to help anyone else out on base set completion.  I even have them sorted in order if you can believe that.  This was my first exposure to the product back when it was "new".)


I don't buy a ton of baseball product.  Usually the base Topps series and maybe a few Heritage or a couple retro sets if they are out there (A&G or Gypsy Queen).  I am not really even a big fan of baseball as a whole and I've discussed that on here numerous times.  I still hold the Pirates near and dear to my heart but lets face it, they haven't really been the most fun to watch for, oh....the last 20 years or so.  Plus, I have a hard enough time not having a heart attack every time the Pens or Steelers are on.  I couldn't take another sport that makes me crazy.  So I generally sit idly by in the proverbial baseball corner and just watch the festivities of others.

But this year, Topps put out the Archives set which was supposed to be kind of a throwback to the Fan Favorites sets of old.  Instead, it has amassed what may very well be, as many haters as it has fans.  I will throw myself out here and join the masses of fans.  I really like this product.  So here is yet another in a long, and I mean very long, line of card blogger Archives posts.

First off, I am a sucker for retro sets.  I don't know why.  Maybe it's because I know I probably won't be able to afford the real thing so getting something that looks old but isn't must satisfy some intrinsic need.  Generally when a retro themed set is released in hockey, I will dump hundreds or more in it trying to complete the set as they usually look quite good in binders (see Champs Hockey, Parkhurst Champions, UD Retro).

Second, there are quite a few designs that are thrown into this product making it as manically frustrating for design enthusiasts as it is wonderfully unique to set collectors.  The first 50 cards (1-50) feature the 1954 Topps base card design.  The player selection is also smattered with old school guys like Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, and Cal Ripken Jr.  The second 50 (51-100) are from the 1971 set, you know the all black border cards that are extremely condition sensitive?  These have guys like Lou Gehrig, Phil Rizzuto, and Ty Cobb mixed with Chipper Jones.  The third group of 50 (101-150) are from the 1980 set.  I can't say that I am a big fan of the 1980 design by any means but it is definitely an iconic 1980s set.  The original 1980 Topps set featured the Rickey Henderson Rookie, the Jesse Orosco/Mike Scott Rookie, and I think the Rick Sutcliffe rookie card.  The Archives version has the rookie card of Yu Darvish.  The next 50 (151-200) use the 1984 design.  That's the set with Darryl Strawberry and Don Mattingly rookies as well as a host of others.  I think I like this design the best because of it looks very similar to the hockey set from the same year only with squares for the players heads instead of circles.  It's a neatly positioned and uniform design pattern.

Thirdly, Topps still brought out what they are calling Fan Favorites and these are cards 201-240 and feature short printed cards of various players through history from various years, almost like a reprint.  Card 241 is also short printed but that's the Bryce Harper rookie.  Some of the players included here are Don Mattingly, Andy Van Slyke on his 1988 card, Wally Joyner on his 1987 card, and Will Clark on a pseudo-1986 card.  Somehow on these (inserted about 1:4 packs) I ended up with 2 Cecil Cooper #219s.  Weird.  There are also autograph versions of all of these which look awesome and they fall about 1:12 in the hobby boxes.  For some reason, Topps paid tribute to the ultimate utility man Jose Oquendo by giving him nine different auto versions, one in each position.

Fourth, I love the autographed framed mini set.  These are a tough pull at only 25 of each player but they look great.  Just like the mini GU or Auto framed cards in A&G, these too have the card encapsulated in a larger, see through frame.  I have seen the Nolan Ryan and the Ryne Sandberg ones in person and they are awesome.  I also saw a picture of someone who pulled a Reggie Jackson.  That one was sweet as well.

Finally, there are two different kinds of stickers and a 3D card insert.  The first stickers are the 1977 Cloth stickers.  There are 25 of these that fall about 1:6 hobby packs.  They feature a mix of current and former stars.  They are just what you think.  Cloth.  Just like the logo and trophy stickers from the Topps Sticker Albums (or even the Panini ones too).  The other stickers are the 1967 "floating head" stickers.  These also have a mix of current and formers stars but are less frequent at 1:8 packs.  The 3D cards are just awesome.  I used to have a bunch of these when I first started collecting but they have since gone AWOL.  I wish I knew where.  These look pretty close to the real thing and feature current players along with Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, and Al Kaline.

Oh, and for good measure...they even threw in a GU card.  Not bad for a blaster.

Box Break - - 2007-08 Fleer Hot Prospects Blaster Box

Retail is a crap shoot when looking for "hits".  You luck out once in a while but almost always walk away feeling like you missed something.  That can also be reinforced by a poorly collated pack out for a product or simply a 1:3000 chance at hitting anything.

(sorry for the blurry picture.  you get the idea though)

Such was life back in 2007-08 when Upper Deck released the Fleer Hot Prospects set.  These came 4 cards per pack with 11 packs in a blaster box (44 cards).  Sure a hobby box would net you a couple game used cards but good luck finding one of these anywhere now.  And good luck finding them priced at the $7.49 that this blaster was.  Yes, that's $7 and $.49 American.

I completed this base set long ago but have always tried to get my hands on some of the Hot Commodities cards, both the Red Hot (#/100) and White Hot (#/10).  There are also regular issue Hot Commodities (#/999), as well as Rookie Auto Patches both regular and SP and Hot Materials cards.  I have never pulled a GU, Patch, Rookie, or White Hot card from a pack.  In fact, of all of this that I opened in my lifetime (and trust me when I say it was a lot!!!) I have only pulled 3 Hot Commodities cards and 1 Red Hot Commodities.  That's how tough these parallels and inserts were.

As I mentioned, the packs contain 4 cards in the retail version.  Most packs had a "decoy" in them back when they were released but you tend to find these in those "discounted" re-pack boxes now, mostly without the "decoy" cards.  As you can see by the photo to the left, the packs look just like the boxes.  They also tell you to "Find Autographed Rookie Patch Cards".  Oh yeah?  How about you find one and give it to me?  As far as I'm concerned, there were never any in here.

When I checked my box break list, I didn't see this one on here so I figured I'd at least add it to my archive and share with everyone.  So here is what I was able to manage pulling from this $.17/card box.

Base Cards:  42 (with 2 doubles)

Here is a sampling of what the base cards look like.  Nothing real fancy here.  Just an ice themed border with coloring to match the team.  I can't believe I pulled two doubles out of the same box but then I remembered how poorly collated this product was back then.

I don't usually scan card backs but figured why not this time.  The backs repeat the photo from the front only washed out in the predominant team color.  There is a quick blurb about the player and, from what I can tell, a maximum of 5 years of career statistics.  It cuts short 11 years for the two gentlemen featured here.  The players number is also sort of watermarked behind the stats.

Inserts:  0

Well technically that's because there aren't any.  The rookie cards and Hot Commodities are all high numbers in the base set.  I didn't pull any of those, nor did I figure I would.

Game Used:  1

A Game Used card in a retail blaster pack of Hot Prospects???  I'm just as shocked as all of you.  But there it is in all it's glory.  These are numbered #/100 and interestingly enough, this one is number #1 (hey, I could sell this as an "Ebay 1/1"!!!  I know, I know.  I shouldn't even joke about that.)  Unfortunately it's Mr. Tuomo Ruutu and it is a plain black swatch.  You would think that serial numbered #1 cards would have some kind of multi-color or something nice in there for being first.  They would if I was in charge.

Autos:  0

No shock there.

Rookies:  0

Again, no shock.

So overall, I beat the odds on this one for sure.  I just wish I would have pulled a better GU.  I can't knock the fact that it was out of #/100 though.  The base cards I pulled are all doubles/triples/quadruples or more in some cases so if you know you might need any, by all means let me know and I can try to help you out.

Blaster Box Break - - 2010-11 Donruss Hockey

I already have a ton of these and am down to three cards for a complete base set.  As for the Rated Rookies, well that's another story.  But the point is, I need more Donruss like I need a hole in the head.

Well I'm starting to think I have a hole in my head.  I just couldn't help myself.  I have already hit my Du-Point on Upper Deck and O-Pee-Chee and since the only other hockey on the shelf at the store was Certified, Donruss won out on the "calling my name" war.  In case you were wondering what's Du-Point...that's the temperature where water vapor condenses into water or in my case, the point in time when every box/pack/blaster etc. that I open is filled with nothing but duplicates and crap.  I don't know if I invented the term but I like the way it sounds.

So again, to recap.  I have a load of these now so if anyone else is collecting the base, let me know what you need and I may have it.  But hindsight is always 20/20 and I am glad I picked this one up.  The first reason is that I generally use the box logos to "decorate" the plain cardboard boxes that the larger sets are housed in.  It mixes it up from the standard sharpie writing that is usually found on these.  Since everything I had obtained up to this point was from rack packs, I had nothing to adhere to the box.  Second reason...this:

In case you may not be able to see the scan, this is a Die-Cut Gems Autograph redemption.  Why is this exciting?  These are supposed to be case hits.  Case hits in hobby boxes.  1 per case.  Did I mention this is a case hit?  I didn't know cases also included retail blasters.  I'm not complaining though.  Off to the interwebs to find out who exactly is Card #1 in this set is.

I already knew who it was in the regular base set but wasn't sure on the autos.  The Die Cut Gems Auto's are supposed to be numbered /25 and according to Panini's website (which I have been on way too much lately) there are 140 (maybe 141 if I miscounted) autos available. So my thoughts were confirmed.  This was a redemption for the true Great 8, the future Hall of Famer (in my opinion), The Finnish Flash...Teemu Selanne.

I haven't decided what I want to do with this one yet.  I checked Ebay for sales on the Die-Cut autos and it is a mixed bag on the finished auctions.  They have some that have gone for as little as $.99 and others that have pulled upward of $27 (Mike Modano) to $33 (Jonathan Toews).  My other option would be to scratch it and redeem it.  A Selanne autograph would be a very cool addition to the collection.  Although, I could use a few bucks in the PP account.  What to do, what to do?

At this point, it would be a little anti-climactic to talk about anything else that might have been in the box but since I committed to the break, I'll finish.  We have all already seen our fair share of the base cards.  Here are some now:

The rest of the box was typical of a normal retail blaster.  There are only 8 packs per box with 10 cards per pack (80 cards for the numerically declined).  The non-base cards come in about 1:2 packs.  I pulled 1 Rated Rookie and 3 inserts.  Here they are:

 Jay Miller - Tough Times

This is a 10 card set that features players known for their "extra grit" on the ice.  Also available in autographed version.  Most collector's seem to want this set so traders should be hard to come by.  I think I have only 3 or 4 so far.

 Pamela Anderson - Fans Of The Game

Another subset that I really see no need for.  I can't complain about this one but the purpose and idea of the set is kind of lame.  It's only 5 cards and can also be found in the autograph form.  Apparently Pam is a Canucks fan but that's to be expected since she is from B.C.  I have Willa Ford too from another pile I obtained at some point.  I don't know if she counts as a fan since she's married to a hockey player.  I'm still happy I have not obtained a Bieber.  Very happy.  If I get one, it gets burned.

 Jamie McBain - Rated Rookie

The "other" Hurricane rookie.  I'm not doing to well with any of the top 10-12 guys in this year's rookie class.  Maybe my luck will change soon.  There are 50 of these and unless you plan on picking up hobby boxes, good luck finding them from busting wax.  At one per blaster, you will need another mortgage on your house to afford them.  I'll get them eventually.

Braydon Coburn - The Ultimate Draft

Everyone hates these cards but I kind of like them.  It is sort of a rip-off of Upper Deck's Draft Day Gem set from last year but the design of these with the stats on the front and the color combination just seem to work for me.  I know, that's amazing considering my hate/hate relationship with Panini.

Again, if anyone needs some base for a set or two, let me know and I can check my piles.