November's Loot

Another month in the books, another box from @thelootlocker to unpack. 

The Loot Locker is an online store/monthly service that sells a box of hobby packs and card supplies for just the cost of a blaster box. I've purchased their baseball box quite a few times this year, and I feel like I've had pretty considerable luck. This month's box includes packs of 2016 Bowman Platinum (x2), 2016 Bowman Chrome and 2016 Panini Diamond Kings.

Bowman Platinum is supposedly a Walmart-exclusive, but the packs definitely have the "Hobby Edition" logo on them. I think that means that Walmart actually sells the "hobby" boxes. I don't even know what hobby means anymore! What I do know is that I managed to pull a signed card of a young Twins star with lots of the proverbial upside. The autograph is on a piece of tape, but not everything in life can be an on card signature.

Out of the Chrome pack came this purple Cespedes refractor. Yoenis, pictured here in an '86 throwback jersey, just re-upped with the Mets.

Behind door number three was the pack of Diamond Kings, a product I've already seen my fair share of. what I hadn't seen before was a mini card fall out of one of these packs, which is what happened here. I also don't believe I've ever pulled a Dom DiMaggio card before. There's a first time for everything!

Put Tim Raines in the Hall, people. Sheesh. I can't believe the self-appointed faux commissioner Bud Selig gets elected before this guy.

April's Loot

My latest trip to @thelootlocker nets a card as thick as a brick. 

The end of the month means the rent is due and I have debts to pay. It also means a box of hobby packs and supplies from The Loot Locker. Let's check out what I got this time around.

2015 Bowman's Best

Normally these packs have 5 cards in them, but mine only had this one in it. That means I was treated to a thicky-thick card of young Astros star shortstop Carlos Correa. Hopefully there are a few Astros fans left on the bandwagon after their rough start this season so I can find someone to send this to.

2015 Bowman Chrome

I'm sure some people love these pretzel mustard colored Brewers jerseys, but I am not one of those people. I don't love much that the Brewers do, however.

Here's a SS prospect out of the Dominican to make Rangers fans forget about Elvis Andrus.

 We've seen him here in a different Loot Locker. It might be my first Loot Locker double?

Nothing but base cards in my Bowman Chrome pack, but at least I snagged a Rosenthal for my team binders. I still need a ton of Cardinals from this set if anyone has any.

2016 Topps Heritage (2)

I'll spare you the details of my Heritage packs and just direct you to my want lists if you have any junky doubles cluttering up your area. Cespedes will join Big Papi in my Heritage trade pile (basically just the Chrome inserts until I accumulate some doubles myself). This was numbered 678 (of 999) for all the numerologists out there.

No inserts, but it's nice to pull an SP out of a pack that you don't already have. I think I have about 70 left to collect. I will be done with this set by 2030, I assure you.

February's Loot

My @thelootlocker box from February. It had stuff.

It seems like it was only a few days ago that I was posting about my first box from The Loot Locker. I had fun with that first one, so I decided to snag one again after seeing which packs were selected this time around. Once again, there were four hobby style packs of baseball cards along with some extra supplies from Ultra Pro and some sugary treats.

2015 Bowman's Best

This was the biggest draw for me, having enjoyed my pack last month. You can see the entirety of this pack over at APTBNL. I thought the Whitley card was the most interesting (and shiniest). I could just go out and buy a box of these, but they're going for around $95 (or roughly $8 a pack). Too rich for my blood, although I can afford The Loot Locker's price point where you get all this stuff for the price of a blaster.

2015 Topps Chrome

89 - Javier Baez - I've already opened more than a few 2015 Topps Chrome packs. This product is only ever going to be as good as the flagship design can take it, which is why it's so disappointing that the 2016 design flat out sucks. I'm not going to enjoy the Chrome version either.

94 - Ryan Howard - With Howard's contract most likely coming to an end after this season, he's passed the torch of Worst Contract In MLB to Albert Pujols. That's a shame, because Pujols was always the much superior player.

131 - Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez Refractor - The Cuban import Gonzalez has rather famously been a complete bust, but hey, at least he has three names.

121 - Anthony Rizzo - This pack was half Cubs. Not good.

2015 Bowman Chrome (Pack 1)

153 - Ichiro - I keep forgetting that Ichiro is still around. That's sad.

PP-24 - Henry Owens Prospect Profiles Mini - This is kind of the size of a normal card with the sides cut off. I wonder what Topps did with the end pieces.

BCP229 - Luis Ortiz Prospects

38 - Stephen Strasburg

2015 Bowman Chrome (Pack 2)

128 - Yoenis Cespedes Gold Refractor (41/50) - This was the big hit of the box, with Gold Refractors being a decently difficult pull at 1 in 204 packs. It's too bad Cespedes has changed teams so many times recently as I bet this isn't a very interesting card for a Tigers fan.

BCP208 - Alex Jackson Prospects - Jackson is not legally allowed to drink. Sometimes facts like these creep me out.

BCP180 - Brandon Nimmo Prospects - I got one of his cards last time around, only it was Bowman's Best.

118 - Addison Reed - And we finish it up with a former closer.

Bargain Blaster

Featuring the familiar One Exclusive Patch Card Inside!

I had a $5 off coupon burning a hole in my pocket and finally put it to good use last weekend. Along with my first dip into 2014 Allen & Ginter territory, I also snagged a 2014 Topps Series 2 blaster at a more affordable price. By this time of year, I usually stay far away from the base set because I am usually running out of Cardinals to collect. That's not the case this year. I have a feeling I will still be working on the team set proper by the time the calendar flips to 2015.

The manupatch card could've been worse, I suppose, but I have never successfully traded with an A's fan. When you couple that with the fact that Cespedes was recently traded and probably isn't all that exciting to an A's fan these days (a theoretical fan at that), I am probably not going to be able to get rid of this any time soon.

This was a big pull for me. Craig got traded just as I was starting my vacation a few weeks ago, and his past contributions to the team will be missed. Unfortunately, it seems like he's broken now, so it's quite understandable that he was dealt. Joe Kelly, on the other hand... don't get me started. I will break things.

These don't really do it for me, but they're not terribly easy to find. If anyone is sitting on any of these flashy red Cardinals, you know who to get in touch with.

I could have saved this for a future Airbrushed Friday, but this is a pretty boring card. I would have liked to have seen more of Bourjos this year than what we've gotten, but Jon Jay has been on fire lately.

I think I have 8 of these. Does Bundy even exist anymore?

Red hot blue jay.

These are really boring. Have I mentioned that?

Nomar had one of the stranger careers in recent years. He succeeded at crossing over into pop culture mainstream consciousness (I remember the SNL sketches), but wasn't able to play at a high level long enough to be a serious Hall of Fame candidate.

R.I.P.

Gold bordered cards are pretty ugly and unmemorable this year. I bet that's going to change in 2015.

This is the second short printed variation that I've pulled from Series 2. After making some money back on my Evan Gattis bedazzled Photoshop thing, I ended up with a Futures jersey variation of broken Jose Fernandez. Any takers?

McGwire looks awkward here.

The only thing Matt Harvey is SaberStarring in this year is SaberRehab.

Pujols looks more and more like a comic book villain/tough guy with each passing day. I ended up with something like 20 of these Target parallels, but I didn't feel like scanning them all.

I entered my code online and nothing happened.

Zimmerman looks to be the latest of a series of star players that I wasn't familiar with at all when I returned to collecting to be on the last legs of his career. Is that fair? Maybe not, but I remember Topps introducing me to players like Nick Markakis, Grady Sizemore, Brian Roberts and Zimmerman way back when. Now their days of appearing on insert cards seem to mostly be behind them, though Markakis is still a solid regular and plus defender.

As always, send me an email if you're interesting in anything here aside from the Cardinals cards.