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Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Smallest Group Break Ever

Note: All full up!

I went to Target today to buy soup. I can buy soup pretty much anywhere but I went to Target. If you're reading this blog you know exactly why I went to Target for soup. Delicious, delicious Target soup. After filling my basket with soup, the weight of all the cans made me list to starboard and I unexpectedly ended up right in front of the card aisle. Shocking, I know! As long as I was there I decided to browse around and see what (if anything) was new.

I finally saw a blaster of retail Bowman Sterling at a Target. I looked for one last week (and would have bought it too) but didn't find one then. There were a few sitting there waiting for me to buy them and bring them home so I could rip them open and tear their little guts out, but by that time my Sterling urge had passed. Not even J-Hey on the box could entice me to buy a mutant Bowman's Best with horrible retail refractor odds at 1:ninety-something packs. Crummy autos land 1:26 though, woo-hooo! No thanks.

I haven't paid attention to Hockey cards at all since the Trashers (h omitted on purpose) traded Braydon Coburn for a first round playoff sweep. I did notice that Score is now doing hockey again. I really liked Score cards back in the day, but Donini's 7 cards for a buck offering doesn't do it for me any more. Besides, apparently they based the design on 1990 Score. I hate to break this to the folks in Arlington, but 1990 score is fugly. Just like 1952 Topps is fugly, 1960 Fleer is fugly, 1981 Donruss is fugly, most first efforts not by Upper Deck are just plain fugly. 1991 Score Hockey, now that's a nice design. About as overproduced as 88 Donruss, but still a nice looking set. Besides, I'm still mourning the death of O-Pee-Chee so no hockey for me.

There is a bunch of new Topps football stuff like Prime and some new crap called Unrivaled but the only  football I'm interested in at all is the Panini Album stickers. Even the Topps base set doesn't interest me at the moment. I must admit I've thought about getting one of the big cardboard blister packs with 10 packs, a couple of Chrome exclusive cards and some Code cards though. The packaging is ridiculous, but if you've opened one of Topps' new no-value blasters with 33% less cards, useless parallel packs and a manu-patch gimmick, seeing a blaster-like object with actual freaking packs in them is a welcome sight. I saw one of those football packages and right next to it was this:


CHROME SUPA VALUE NIGHTMARE BOX

WITH FRIGGIN J-HEY SHINY

MUST HAVE J-HEY SHINY

Thirty bucks? I hate Chrome! I don't want to pay thirty bucks for a box of cards I hate just for the Shiny! I can't be the only other person who feels like this can I?

WHO'S UP FOR A (tiny) GROUP BREAK???

Here's teh deal: I want that J-Hey shiny. I wouldn't mind all the Braves out of the box too. Let's do the smallest group break ever. One box of Topps Chrome-A-Thon or whatever the hell it's called. Here's the deal:


  • I get J-Hey Shiny and all the Braves in the box.


  • There are 5 possible slots available in the break.


  • 6 bucks a slot: Payable in cash through the mail (no effin' PayPal)


  • Each slot gets one of the 4 remaining Shinyfractor cards (Mantle, Strasburg, Castro or Robinson) or the two code cards


  • Each slot gets all the cards out of the box of the Team associated with the Shinyfractor (Yankees, Cubs, Nationals, Dodgers) while the person who wants the code cards can choose their team from the remaining 25.


  • Each slot also gets the cards from 4 additional teams, you can choose 'em or do 'em randomly, I don't care. Claim your slot and we'll figure that out later.



If you want in, leave a comment stating which card you want and then immediately send me an e-mail to confirm. First come, first serve, no whining. Here's a list of all the slots that have been claimed so far:

Dayf: Braves/J-Hey


Night Owl: Dodgers/Jackie Robinson


Jeremy: Yankees/Mickey Mantle


Things are Funner Here: Nationals/Stephen Stasburg


Justin: Cubs/Starlin Castro 


BA Benny: Mets/Two Code Cards

If there is overwhelming demand for this kind of thing, I'll do a second box with 6 more slots. Get it? Got it? Good. Claim your slot.

14 comments:

Scott Crawford said...

I saw these in Target today too, while I was feeding the Obak monkey.

(What are we all gonna do when the Obaks are gone?)

Really wish the Chrome sets weren't such a trainwreck this year.

dayf said...

When Topps has to resort to Wrapper Redemptions and selling entire boxes at Wal-Mart you know something went horribly wrong.

Scott Crawford said...

It's going to be very interesting to see how these cards hold up conditionwise, as the years go on. I wasn't around for previous Chrome Pringling catastrophes (and I don't know if there was ever one this bad). How are the cards from the older screwups holding up?

Jeremy said...

I'd like the Yankees/Mantle slot if it's still open!

dayf said...

Jeremy's in.

Streisband, Castro and the Codes are left.

Funner Here said...

Nats/Strasburg for me please!

I had to go to Target today for "soup" too. Actually for cat food, because surely there is no place else in town that has cat food. I bought a ten pack baseball value thing, and cat food.

Funner Here said...

Oh, and if we don't do random, Phillies, please.

I think you're on to something with the small, inexpensive group-break...hmmm.

BA Benny said...

I will go with the 2 code cards and choose the Mets. I believe you said we can choose the other 4 teams too. If so I will pick the Tigers, Rays, Cardinals, and Marlins if that's ok. Please send me your address so I can send you the cash.

dayf said...

BA's in. Cubs are the only team left. I know there are Cubs fans out there!

Justin McLeod said...

Fine. I'll take the Cubs.

dayf said...

Allrighty, we're full!

I'll get the box tomorrow and try to video rip it tomorrow or Monday.

E-mails will go out tonight. (late)

Derek Hill said...

I'd be interested in getting in on the next one! overwhelming interest!

dayf said...

If people come out of the woodwork demanding it, I'll do another one.

Anyone who wants to appropriate this idea as their own are welcome to it.

deal said...

Team Phungo is in for the Phils for a second break if it comes around.

Great Idea - and I think I am going to have to pick up one of these boxes.