2008 Finest Mini Box Experiment Part 2

I've already discussed my reasonings for not buying a mini box of Finest this year. In short, the Rip Girl autos caused me to pause and think about what I was gettign into, and the $50 price tag killed any chance of me buying one. So now I'm angry, disillusioned and have unspent Finest money in my pocket. So what else is there to do but go on a buying binge? The good dealer was at the flea market so It was time to buy some cards. I was actually kind of embarrassed by spending everything at once, but I saw Chris Harris had a bad wax binge of his own for A Pack A Day, so I don't feel so bad anymore. Here's what I got for the money that would have been spent on Finest.

Four for $10 case: 2007 Heritage Ken Griffey Jr. short print

I've got my '07 set in pages finally, and due to the weird skip numbered short prints they all end up in the middle row. My set kind of bows in the middle when you lay the binder down, so it's nice to be able to make this:


turn into this:
That's much better, don't you think?

Four for $10 case: 2007 Topps Shawn Chacon Autograph

Dang, my hit for the box is a journeyman pitcher. Oh wait, I didn't buy a box, nevermind. Yeah, it's a crummy hit, but Chacon is interesting enough to get a good blog post out of the card so it's worth it. You'll see all these autographs on Auto-Matic this week.

Four for $10 case: 2007 Topps Dice-K Japanese No Sig Variation

I concider my Topps series 2 set complete without the handful of fake no signature variations but I did want a Japanese variation card just for the coolness factor. I'll wait to get the regular no sig and the Japanese signature variation when they end up in the common boxes along with Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu, Jose Contraras, Orlando Hernandez and all the other overhyped foreign phenom pitchers in about five years.

Four for $10 case: 2007 Topps Chrome Glen Perkins Autograph

Woooo another rookie pitcher! This one's a Chrome autograph though, and the kids go nuts for those. Glen had a bunch of rookie cards in 2005 as well.

There are the 4 for 10 cards. Some would say I should have stuck to the Finest, but I've already doubled the autograph haul from a mini box. You know as well as I do that the hit from a box wouldn't have been much better.

Three for $10 case: 2007 Heritage Jim Bunning Seat Relic

Didn't know that there was a 3 for 10 case didja? I snagged the Senator's insert from '07 Heritage since I didn't have a Flashback relic from that set yet. The seat chip is from Detroit's Briggs Stadium. Kind of strange since the photo shows Yankee Stadium in the background and the no hitter the card commemorates was pitched in Fenway.

Three for $10 case: 2007 Topps Dan Uggla Autograph

Gotta love an all-star slugging second baseman's autograph for $3.33. I have a soft spot for out of nowhere fantasy studs.

Three for $10 case: 2006 Fleer Tradition Greg Maddux Goudey Greats

I'm a total sucker for Retro crap, and I didn't have one of these inserts from the death gasp of Fleer Tradition. This card was marked $20.00 before it found it's way into the bargain bin. Kind of an insult to two Hall of Famers on the card actually... I think I'm going to have to make this the Card of the Week tomorrow, there's too much to write about it for a little blurb like this.

So far I've spent twenty bucks and I've got 7 cards I'll match up to the hits in any Mini Box. The rest of my cards aren't all commons though.

Half off case: 2007 Topps Bill Richardson

Bill finishes off my Democrat set for seventy five cents. I could have gotten a Fred Thompson I needed but I couldn't remember if I needed him or Giuliani. Turns out I need both, the Rudy I have is a stupid Gold card.

Half off case: 2006 Ovation Chipper Jones Gold 232/499

Ok, now we're into the good stuff. The next five cards are better than a dumb 'ol box of Finest any day. Ovation's 3D texture got squeezed out of the market by the new limited number of sets rule. I'm not a big fan, but I couldn't resist a Chipper parallel for $2.25.

Half off case: 2005 Origins Andruw Jones Jersey

Andruw's hitting .105 so far and panic has set in in LA, but Ken Rosenthal saying that Juan Pierre is better is just crazy talk. It's frickin' April, people. I'm trying to figure out what that ribbon on his helmet and star on his bat is supposed to mean. It's a great looking card of an all-time great Brave, so five bucks for this card was a no brainer.

Half off case: 2007 UD Elements Scott Thorman Autograph

This card is designed as badly as Scott's signature. It was four bucks though and I don't have a signature of Thor, so I had to get it. He might be our starting first baseman next year ya know, although I don't really want to think about it too much.

Half off case: 2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Brian Jordan & Ryan Klesko Team Tandems Patch #42/85

Yeah a patch hit! How many patch cards can you get out of Finest, eh? That's right, NONE. I think Playoff Memorabilia was the "oh bugger we lost our license, let's clear out the jersey stock" product if I'm not mistaken. This is one of the reddest cards I've ever seen. Even the patch cards are red. Normally I'd prefer a dual color patch or a stitch or something, but these swatches are so small a stitch might not fit in there. Still, a patch card of two favorites for three bucks? Can't beat it. That's two cards worth of Finest out of the box, by the way.

Half off case: 2007 Turkey Red Chipper Jones Jersey

The last card out of the bunch is a Turkey Red Chipper Jersey for five bucks. For as much as I've ripped on the set, it's still nicer than 90% of the other junk out there. I'm just bitter that completing a set is such a pain in the keister. Finding a Chipper Jones (sporting the goatee!) jersey card for five bucks is just plain awesome.

So that's all the cards, thirteen cards for forty bucks. The dedicated wax rippers out there are probably not impressed. Sure I got a bunch of 'hit' cards and I got to pick them out myself, but where's the joy of ripping wax? Of tearing open packs and seeing what great cards come out of them? Well, I had a little cash left out of my Finest fund so I splurged on this:

A box of 1988 Score for seven bucks, baby. That's the price of a pack of Finest if you can find them sold by the pack. Six hundred and twelve cards of late '80's goodness plus a pile of magic motion trivia cards! We got Don Mattingly on the top,


George Brett on the left side,


Joe Magrane for some unknown reason on the right,

And a box bottom featuring George Bell, Mike Schmidt, Mike Scott and a Trivia card on the bottom. Schmidt's a little scuffed, but he's tough, he can take it. So there's a box of my favorite 80's set to open on a rainy day. I went over the $45 I had earmarked for a mini box, but since they were selling for $50, I still have enough left over to get a pack of something now.

So, for the price of 22 base cards, 4 refractors, 3 inserts and 1 autograph I got:

612 base cards,
36 magic motion cards
1 short print,
1 parallel,
1 variation,
2 inserts,
3 relics,
1 dual patch,
and 4 autographs.

I dare someone to pull that from a Finest mini box. Don't get caught up in the hype folks! Buy cards you like instead of the next hot product!