Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Contest Prize: Men Without Hats

As you may recall, mmosley of Stats on the Back won the little football contest recently and chose the blaster as one of the prizes. (I'm still working on those prizes, guys, but you should definitely start checking your mailboxes next week. I promise!) In an interesting little twist that I probably should have seen coming from a collector who went to great lengths to minimize his collection, he chose to not only have me select the blaster, but he only wants to choose five cards from it. Here is said blaster, in all of its glory. I was hoping to find a blaster from another set that was released last year, but it looks like it has disappeared from the big box stores. I ended up choosing Topps 206 instead. It's not great, but I thought it was a better option than something Chromey with the contest winner in mind.

Here are the results:

Pack 1:
19 - Carlos Ruiz

- Evan Longoria Variation (Yes, this is the set where the players don't wear the caps. How can you tell which ones are the short printed variations? Caps. Also, the backs are unnumbered.)
292 - Josh Johnson Piedmont Mini (One mini per pack. Piedmonts are the most common.)

96 - Evan Longoria Bronze (Also a one per pack insert is the thick "bronze" parallel.)
4 - David Ortiz
15 - Mordecai Brown (Yes... another reason I chose this product is the presence of retired players. Like... uh... Mordecai Brown?)

Pack 2:
116 - B.J. Upton

HE17 - Alice Stebbins Wells Historical Events Mini (What is this, Allen & Ginter? I didn't know this set had mini inserts in addition to mini parallels.)
23 - Matt Cain Bronze
57 - Aaron Harang
75 - Jeff Francis
180 - Gil Meche (The recently retired. I guess I can stop calling him Gil Ga Meche.)

Pack 3:
157 - Edinson Volquez

193 - Buster Posey

44 - Bryan Anderson Piedmont Mini (For some reason it completely escaped me that Bryan Anderson is in this set. That also means that I need this card. We shall see if I actually get to keep it, though...)

TA-CT - Clete Thomas Piedmont Auto (Speaking of keepers! Not bad for a blaster, eh? Clete Thomas may not be Bryce Harper or anything, but pulling autographs is always fun. This might fit nicely into the Stats on the Back collection. I think the color scheme works really well for Tigers fans, in any case. As a side note, I only recently learned that the framed mini auto concept did not start with Allen & Ginter.)
106 - Kazuo Matsui

221 - Albert Pujols

Pack 4:

211 - Jered Weaver (Wow... is that Lyle Lovett?)
5 - Will Venable American Caramel Mini (Slightly harder to pull than the Piedmont minis at 1:4 packs.)
209 - Torii Hunter Bronze
135 - Delmon Young
233 - Frank Chance
228 - Francisco Liriano

Pack 5:
236 - Johnny Bench

- Brian McCann Variation (Ahh, I'm glad someone put a hat on this guy.)
295 - Tommy Manzella Piedmont Mini
77 - Grady Sizemore Bronze
166 - Austin Jackson
299 - Dexter Fowler

Pack 6:
133 - Edwin Jackson

HE6 - 1st Pro Baseball Game Played Under Lights Historical Events Mini
258 - Scott Rolen Bronze
141 - Ivan Rodriguez
119 - Matt Garza
90 - Jon Lester

Pack 7:
92 - Andre Ethier
261 - Daniel McCutchen Old Mill Mini (A more rare 1:20 pack pull)
234 - Dan Uggla Bronze
111 - Mark Teixeira

69 - Honus Wagner (Almost as valuable as his real T-206 card!)
65 - Aaron Hill

Pack 8:
296 - Brandon Phillips (Ughhhh.)

44 - Bryan Anderson (Okay, that's a little better.)

71 - Paul Maholm American Caramel Mini
276 - Jason Bartlett Bronze (What box would be complete without Jason Bartlett?)
162 - Derek Jeter

41 - Brian McCann (AHHH! Put a hat on!)

So there you have it. Most of these cards will be available for trade once mmosley claims the cards he wants. Even though he asked for just 5, I'm not going to stand in the way of anything here.

1 comment :

  1. CLETE! Nice pull. I agree with you, the framed autos look great for Tigers fans. I've got the full five card "set" of those and think that they're among the nicest framed autos I have (although not as nice as the 2009 T-206 version, with the blue frames).

    ReplyDelete

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