2008 Topps Box Break - Packs 29-32 - Big Hit Edition

So far we've had the ordinary run of the mill inserts out of the packs, now we get to the good stuff. All these packs were second to the bottom in the box so dig deep for your packs.

Pack 29:
213 Michael Barrett
74 Garrett Atkins
330 Curtis Granderson
164 Nate Schierholtz
238 Shane Victorino
54 Black Parallel Victor Martinez #38/57
120 Gold Foil Andruw Jones
Checklist 2
21 Edwin Encarnacion
38 Preston Wilson
121 Mike Cameron
All right. Black parallel. For some reason I seem to be getting all Indians for my low-numbered parallels lately. Maybe I need to engineer a blockbuster with David over at Indians Cards. This is a pretty decent pack other than the Black. Curtis Granderson's card looks great. Nate Schierholtz looks photoshopped even though it probably isn't. Andruw is photoshopped as we all know but that isn't why I'm mentioning it. Several of the gold cards I've pulled have flaking foil on them and Andruw is no exception, it looks like his name is fading into oblivion.I don't really care about the gold parallels, but I'd like it if they weren't defective. Garrett Atkins smells something funny coming from Duryea, PA.


Pack 30:
3 Jeff Suppan
59 Grady Sizemore Postseason Highlights
143 Willie Harris
139 Johnny Estrada
50 Jake Peavy
GW5 Presidential Stamp Collection - George Washington #78/90
TCH14 Hunter Pence Trading Card History -1922 W523
39 Yovani Gallardo
325 Jim Leyland
78 Radhames Liz RC

Hit of the box, right here. I was hoping to get one of these cards, but I thought I would have to find it on eBay. Odds on stamps are 1:1950 or one in 50 boxes or so. This 1/2 cent stamp (1/2 cent?) has a young looking George Washington on it and appears to be from 1932 if the date is correct. I'll have to do some research on this thing and post my findings. This is the kind of card that would drive most card collectors insane, but I love it. There's also a Trading Card History card in here of Hunter Pence. The card is from the 1922 W523 set, but I doubt most people know what the hell that is. Topps shouldn't have called this Trading Card History if they're just going to talk about Hunter's compact swing on the back of the card. The Willie Harris card is cool. Even though he's no longer on the team, I'll never forget that homer-stealing catch against the Mets. There are also a large amount of Braves cards with the Alternate Sunday uniforms in this set. Since we've already seen a Todd Helton card with a red Braves uni in the background, I'm going to say that Topps sent one photographer to this game to get their Braves photos for the year. Victory for the Braves, Hooray!


Pack 31:
17 Cristian Guzman
254 David Murphy
131 Norris Hopper
149 Luke Hochevar RC
195 Todd Helton
FS1 Sidd Finch-san Future Star
130 peeling Gold Foil Justin Upton
David Wright TotC ad
102 Ross Ohlendorf
132 Ramon Vazquez
320 Ichiro

Well I finally got the Uzi card. From the looks of my fellow box-breakers out there it sure ain't rare, because everyone seems to have one. There is still no story on this kid online which is ridiculous in this day and age. There's an entire industry dedicated to tracking High School Football prospects and various Universities' pursuit of same, but we can't get one Google hit for someone who throws 104 miles per hour? Bullshit. This is an advertisement card for Topps' new make your own card product period. Don't pay 50 bucks for this card. In fact, I bet the whole thing came about when Michael Eisner lost a bet to some Japanese billionaire venture capitalist and he was forced to put the guy's son in the 2008 set. At least I got a real Japanese superstar in the pack. It's funny to see a Hochevar RC, when he was actually on the box of last year's Bowman set. There's also the Helton card I just talked about, a cool looking Norris Hopper card and a Justin Upton Golf Foil card with the worst flaky foil yet. Dammit Topps, get your act together. If you're going to screw up the foil, at least forget to put it on altogether so I can sell the damn thing on eBay.



Pack 32:
113 Kevin Frandsen
73 Mike Napoli
326 NL Batting Average Leaders - Matt Holliday, Chipper Jones & Hanley Ramirez
305 Carlos Delgado
47 Orlando Cabrera
AR2 Gary Sheffield All-Star Rookie Team
TCH11 Jose Reyes Trading Card History - 1954 Topps
Rookie Cup ad
248 Jose Contreras
278 Xavier Nady
57 Wladimir Balentien RC


Oh, how I wish Chipper was in the left most spot on this card. At least they made his photo a little wider to make up for the logo divot. Why the hell are they using action shots on leader cards anyway? There has to be some close up pictures in the Topps Vault somewhere. This is another pack with two inserts in it, likely the last one with a History and All Star Rookie card in the same pack. A couple of nice ones here, a Sheff with the old school Brewers uni and Reyes on a '54 Topps design. I wish the Twins hadn't overplayed their hand on Santana and been able to get Reyes off the Mets. I'd love to get his 15 homers and 75 steals out of the Braves' division. Lots of interesting photos in this pack. I like cards with baseballs floating in mid air and this pack had three of them. Xavier Nady has a ball on his fingertips in mid-throw during warmups, Orlando Cabrera is about to catch a ball and Carlos Delgado just knocked the crap out of a third ball. Not great is Wladimir Balentien's photo. He's one of the more highly touted prospects of 2008 and Topps has him posing in front of the firing squad wall. Weak.

The box so far:

Base cards - 266
Checklists - 8
Dupes - 0

Parallels:
Gold Foil - 16
Gold #/2008 - 4
Black #/57 - 1 - 54 Victor Martinez 38/57

Inserts:
Own The Game - 6 - Howard, Webb, Penny, Berkman, Pena & Carmona
Mantle Home Runs - 2 - 531, 533
Mantle History - 2 - 48, 49
Trading Card History - 6 - Santana, Mauer, Okajima, Votto, Reyes & Pence
All Rookie Team - 7 - Anderson, Willis, Zimmerman, Powell, Ellis, Francoeur & Sheffield
Year in review - 4 - Everett, Reyes, Kazmir & Monroe
Campaign 2008 - 4 - Obama, Kucinich, Paul & McCain
Presidential Stamp Collection - 1 - GW5 George Washington
Future Stars - 1 - Kazuo Uzuki