The Best Kind of Group Break

May all your group breaks be affordable yet bountiful. 

Back in September, Cardboard Collections hosted another Affordable Group Break. Stop me if you've heard this before, but since the Cardinals were available I jumped all over it. Colbey was breaking 2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition and 2005 Fleer Showcase. While I didn't strike it rich (ha!) with any jersey cards from said Jersey Edition or anything like that, I came away with a number of nice things for my collection.

I am a sucker for most Fleer sets before Upper Deck picked up their charred remains and stomped them out. This design is a little busy, though, and the photos (complete with super soft focus backgrounds) actually remind me a lot of what I hate about the last two seasons of the Topps flagship set. That being said, you can't find stuff like this on the shelves any more and I surely needed some of these for my team collection.

Tino Martinez wasn't the most popular Cardinals player, but he had a tough job trying replace Big Mac.

Fortunately, Mr. Pujols eventually was able to slide right in at 1B, and then some! I'm not sure what to say about the 2005 Fleer Showcase design, one of the last sets before the Upper Deck takeover, but at least we get multiple photos of the subject.

The Orioles were my secondary, randomized team selection in the break. Colbey tossed in some extra packs from the current season, which netted me this Pink Prizm parallel of Manny Machado. This is currently earmarked for Gavin unless he doesn't need it.

Finally, I also snagged a couple of golden Cardinals rookie future aces from the 2017 Topps set.

Luke Weaver was impressive with his work down the stretch last season. It's anyone's guess as far as how the 2018 Cardinals rotation will shake out, but the smart money is on Weaver getting a spot at the backend of the rotation with Alex Reyes having a natural innings restriction by working out of the bullpen as he attempts to come back from Tommy John surgery.