OMG! Box Break

A week or two ago, I purchased a "hobby box" of 2008 Topps Series 1 from the good 'ol eBay for about $13. I actually ended up paying nearly as much for the shipping as I did the box itself. I'm not really excited about this year's Topps cards all that much, but the price was right, and opening a large quantity of recently issued packs is pretty grabbing for me. I got a bunch of the "gold foil" cards, which are basically just the regular base cards printed with a gold Topps logo and player name instead of the usual silver. I hadn't seen these in the "retail" packs I had previously opened and so I imagine they are just a "hobby" occurence. I can see why they are not very popular. I did, however, manage to get the Ankiel card above, which is nice.


The 50th Anniversary All-Star Rookie Team cards are possibly the only insert set that really interests me from this product. I like the original photos I have seen, particularly when the player is shown on a former team. Aaron Miles has a card in this insert set, which is fairly amazing. I pulled one from this box. He doesn't even have a regular issue Topps card this year so far. He does produce the occasional clutch hit, however.


Big Papi was my big "keeper" in one of my fantasy leagues. He's also one of the least hate-able players on the Red Sox as far as I'm concerned. I doubt that there's another Red Sox player that I would have scanned a card for.


Poor Tulo. It's hard to even know what to say. Hopefully his extremely promising career path still lies ahead of him and he can do some damage, maybe even beginning later this year.


I guess this was "The Hit" (tm). I think this means I need to find a Lofton "fan for life" or hardcore Indians collector to trade this with.


Well, the "retail packs" I usually buy clearly don't contain the Trading Card History cards like the packs in the box did. This looks nice. A lot of the TCH cards I got in this box don't look so nice. Joey Votto strikes me as someone who is going to have a 20-season major league career, and I'm okay with that as long as the Reds remain the Reds... and not a serious threat.

The Box Breakdown:

Cardinals: Ankiel Gold Foil, Chris Duncan, Scott Rolen, Anthony Reyes, Jim Edmonds, Ankiel, So Taguchi, YOUR FACE IS SO TAGUCHI, Preston Wilson, Jason Isringhausen, Tony LaRussa, Pujols 50th Anniversary Topps All-Star Rookie

Gold Foil: (in addition to Ankiel...) no one worth mentioning: 12, 19, 73, 77, 94, 103, 107, 108, 112, 113, 130, 206, 208, 209, 225, 251, 261

Campaign 2008 (1:9): Obama, Kucinich, Paul, McCain
50th Anniversary Topps All-Star Rookies (1:5): Pujols, Jeter, Mauer, Julio Franco, Ron Swoboda, Andruw Jones, Alfonso Soriano

Own The Game (1:6): Ortiz, Carlos Pena, Penny, Berkman, Alex Rodriguez, Howard

Year In Review (1:6): Matt Belisle YR28, Jake Peavy YR25, Troy Tulowitzki YR29, Shawn Hill YR26, Daisuke Matsuzaka YR27, Travis Hafner YR24

Trading Card History (1:12): Hunter Pence TCH14, Jose Reyes TCH11, Hideki Okajima TCH15, Joey Votto TCH12, Johan Santana TCH13, Joe Mauer TCH10

Gold Parallel (1:9): Shawn Hill 307 (590/2008), Ronny Paulino 31 (368/2008), Carlos Ruiz 281 (438/2008), John Maine 171 (553/2008)

Black Parallel (1:95): Kenny Lofton ALCS 128 (49/57)

Mantle Story (1:18): MMS51, MMS50

Mantle HR History (1:9): MHR532, MHR530, MHR533, MHR531

Stupid Gimmick Cards: "Kazuo Uzuki" FS1

Gold Foil: Other than Ankiel, nothing interesting for me... 12, 19, 73, 77, 94, 103, 107, 108, 112, 113, 130, 206, 208, 209, 225, 251, 261