Actually, before I get into that, let me tell you about something I saw at Target. At Target, in teh card aisle,
just yesterday, was a long neglected gravity feed box of 2008 Timelines that had been left forlorn and passed on by. Attached to the box was a sticker. The sticker read:
Find Steven Strasburg autographs!That my friends, is chutzpah. I might have even bought a pack if I wasn't able to get a hobby box for like, 30 bucks.
Ok, now for Wally World. I had to get the milk and the veggies and the whatnot so I went there last night. The "heard" part of the tale is amusing. Some dude stocking the shelves was totally rocking out to War Pigs by Black Sabbath. It was so loud through his headphones you could hear it in the next aisle over. Awesome.
Ok, card related stuff. Topps Magic Blasters are live, and I aaaaalmost got one. Not quite, but almost. There will be a pack rip of that stuff tonight, by the way. I was also tempted by Heritage and O-Pee-Chee blasters but I passed on the blasters. Upper Deck Icons is out in both baseball and football in blaster form. Baseball had a gravity feed of single packs, football did not. Matt Ryan is the cover boy for football icons and had there been a single pack available, I would have bought it.
I still have not seen a black border or retro UPC in either Target or Wal-Mart. I am not sure if they've abandoned the concept or if they are biding their time to spring them on us. I wish I knew what was going on, because I have been holding off buying any Topps blasters because of it even though there are Chipper patches in there. I've been getting a jumbo pack of series two Topps here and thee, mainly because the Heritage jumbos have dried up and the other rack packs are boring. Yawn.
One last thing in abundance are half off old cheapo blasters. Most of them are crappy '07 Upper Deck and '08 Topps stuff, but I found something today that intrigued me... 2007 Tri-Star minor league blasters. 10 bucks for 7 packs I think? I really had to think about these because while I have the whole set (and a pile of doubles) in my experience about two out of three blaster had not one but two guarantees autographs. Is that worth the ten bucks? Two minor league autos? Ok, maybe you can get a Jason Heyward auto, but that's not likely, and besides there might only be the one auto in the box. I don't know what to do about this one, if I was rich like last year I'd be buying 'em all, but now... not sure about it. Luckily there was this to steer me from temptation:
Tri-Star's minor league set in a pack with all three series. I have liked what I've seen from this set so I gave it a try. Here are the results:
83 Madison Bumgarner
Everyone's favorite "O" face thanks to Mario. Madison is actually a pretty highly rated pitching prospect for teh pitching loaded Giants. We'll have to watch this guy carefully.
77 Adys Portillo
This dude is only 17! I guess the reason thee is not a "Pro Debut" logo on this card is that when the first series came out he hadn't made his debut yet.
144 Miguel Moctezuma
You know what bugs me? When I do a
Google Search for some minor leaguer I've never heard of before and I get their Facebook and Linked In profiles in the results. I want to see his stats, not what items he's looking for in Mafia Wars!
264 Brandon Braboy
Right about now is when I remember why I don't bother with minor league cards. i jsut don't know who these guys are.
255 David Welch
David was on the Aussie team in
this year's WBC. After that, I got nothin.
So... nice looking cards, in 6 years we might know if any of these guys are good. I guess I can wait.
These were special Affiliate packs put together by Tristar. One pack of Prospects Plus, a card of a Braves draft pick and a special instant win game card inserted inside a very shiny deck loader sleeve. I don't understand why baseball card manufacturers (or the guys who repack them more likely) don't understand that baseball card collectors don't like protective sleeves where one side is opaque. Great for Magic: the Gathering decks, teh suck for reading stats.
Here's the braves dude I got nestled inside the deck protector. When I first did a search on Tyler Stovall I found this. what?? How can he be a Reds draft pick and still have a Tristar card with Braves plastered all over it? Apparently there were two Tyler Stovalls picked in the 2008 draft. One by the Bravos in the 2nd round, the other by the Reds in the 20th. Our Tyler had a decent year in Danville in '09 but needs a lot more seasoning. Maybe I'll see him in Rome next year.
I'm not showing the whole pack of cards, I don't do that anymore. I will show the best card and the reason why I don't have to but any more of these things. Gordon Beckham, the pride of Georgia, looking surly while wearing an angry Kannapolis Intimidators cap. The face fits the cap. Grrrrrr! Gordon has been called up to The Show! and is having a nice rookie year with 10 dingers so far. Has Gordon got any real rookie cards yet? He'll look good in Heritage High Series.
