2008 Topps Updates & Highlights - Hobby vs., Retail part 3

Ok, I finally found some Target packs to finish up the Updates and Highlights posts. I was hoping to find a $10 blaster, but I haven't seen any of them at all. I'm worried they may have discontinued them for some reason. The $20 ones have a jersey card in every box, but I want the three card bonus pack of T205s instead. Oh well. I'm just not emotionally invested enough in this set to drop $20 on it right now, especially since I'm likely to get a ton of it in Heritage High Numbers anyway. $10? Yeah, I'll drop a Hamilton on some Topps, no problem. Here we gooooo:

THE RETAIL PACKS:

5 packs purchased from a display at Target on 11/03/08.

First Pack:

UH158 Chad Durbin
UH200 Luke Scott
UH45 Eric Hurley RC
UH297 Cory Wade RC
UH100 Jay Bruce Right Side Up RC
UH107 Jason Varitek All Star
UH68 Jonathan Papelbon All Star
UH35 Hanley Ramirez All Star
UH311 Oscar Salazar
YR140 Bobby Jenks Year in Review
RH-WF Whitey Ford Ring of Honor
UH298 Dan Haren All Star Gold parallel #0582/2008
ToppsTown

Well this was an ass kickin' pack! Jay Bruce, a buncha rookies and All Stars and three inserts. I like the Ring of Honor cards, even if they decided to honor the '86 Mets this year. According to the '09 images released yesterday, it looks like they are back next year. Howzabout a '95 Braves Ring of Honor, eh? Throw us chumps outside New York a crumb, maybe? Bobby Jenks throws his 41st save in a Year in Review set that I just don't care about anymore. The gold parallel is nice, I like the way these cards look and it's a nice continuity thing with Topps. They've been doing them since 2001 now if I'm not mistaken, and they're nice and familiar in a world full of gimmicks.

Second Pack:

UH103 Chris Burke
UH277 John Rheinecker
UH31 Marco Scutaro
UH30 Brendan Harris
UH10 Evan Longoria Right Side Up RC
UH179 Johnny Damon Highlights
UH227 Carlos Quentin All Star
UH275 Rich Harden
UH11 Matt Holliday All Star
UH237 Manny Ramirez
FC-21 Grover & Frances Cleveland
TCP43 Russell Martin T205
ToppsTown

Well I've got all three of the 'Big' rookies now. All of them are right side up too! No faulty cards for me, nosireebob! I'm generally bored by the First Lady cards, but this one is a pretty good one. Francis Folsom was a rock star back in the day as she was the first (and so far only) woman to marry the President in the White House. She was hugely popular and is famous for her pronouncement to the staff of the White House after her husband was defeated by Benjamin Harrison to take care of the place because they woud be back in four years. This isn't her rookie card by a longshot though, as she was featured on many cabinet and tobacco cards, including the N26 Allen & Ginter's World's Beauties set. I nabbed a T205 card of Russell Martin too, I wish I could find a checklist of these suckers. I need to know if there's a T205 Chipper.

Third Pack:

UH242 Raul Chavez
UH14 Bartolo Colon
UH2 Sean Casey
UH212 Guillermo Mota
UH159 Mike Aviles RC
UH280 Max Scherzer RC
UH9 Shawn Riggans
UH216 Jason Bay
UH72 Pete Orr
UH132 Jorge De La Rosa
WBC17 Frank Catalanotto WBC
UH213 German Duran Gold Parallel #181/2008
Checklist 1 of 3

This can't possibly be my first checklist card, can it? Weird. I freaking love the WBC cards. that and the Ring of Honor cards I will be collecting from this set. Pete Orr is the closest thing to a Braves I've gotten from my Target packs so far. It's weird seeing Bartolo Colon, Sean Casey and Jason Bay in Red Sox uniforms. Did they just go ahead and trade for everyone last year? I've been seeing Max Scherzer hype all over the place and I just don't see it with his 0-4 record. I must be missing something.

Fourth Pack:

UH73 Jonathan Albaladejo
UH157 Mark Hendrickson
UH145 Kip Wells
UH142 Classic Combos Adrian Gonzalez & Matt Holliday
UH143 Chipper jones 400th Home Run Highlight
UH304 Brad Lidge All Star
UH131 Manny Ramirez 500th Home Run
UH89 Joakim Soria All Star
UH59 Cliff Lee All Star
UH263 Eric Patterson
YR147 Jayson Werth Year in Review
MRH-DS Darryl Strawberry
ToppsTown

CHIPPER!!!! Aaaaand... other stuff. But, CHIPPER!!!!

Fifth Pack:

UH242 Raul Chavez
UH14 Bartolo Colon
UH2 Sean Casey
UH21 Darrell Rasner
UH117 Jed Lowrie RC
UH159 Mike Aviles RC
UH280 Max Scherzer RC
UH288 Evan Longoria All Star
UH216 Jason Bay
UH72 Pete Orr
FC-20 Chester A. and Ellen Arthur
TCP34 Evan Longoria
ToppsTown

Uhhhhh... Haven't I seen this pack somewhere before? I'm getting deja vu here. Target was good for an Evan Longoria fix as I got his RC, All Star and T205 cards. The T205 is pretty slick too. Best card in the pack though is Chester A. Arthur and His Amazing Mutton Chops. Upper Deck isn't the only one who needs a fact checker though, as Topps completely buggered the back.

"Ten months before winning election to the White House, President Arthur lost his beloved wife of 20-plus years. "

Actually Garfield won election to the White House, Arthur won election to the Naval Observatory or the shed out back of the White House or wherever the Vice president lived back then. Arthur assumed the presidency when a nut looking for a job shot Garfield. And I don't want to hear anyone bad mouthing Chet either, he was a damn good president for his time. It takes balls to completely reform the same corrupt government institution that created your success in the first place.

The gory details:

49 base cards
9 RCs
2 Gold border parallels
2 T205
2 Year in Review
1 WBC
2 Ring of Honor
2 First Lady
4 ToppsTown
1 checklist

Well, I did a hell of a lot better at Target than Wal Mart. I still am hesitant to spend a Jackson on a blaster of the stuff though. I'd really like to know if there's a T205 Chipper. If there isn't I'll probably only get this stuff at Wally World since there's a Dick Perez Chipper to chase. I'll have a review of this junk up sooner or later now that I got a nice little pile of inserts.