Sportlots PWE

There are some things about my collection I can't explain. One of them is orange cards. They really don't work with the Rockies purple, but for some reason I am drawn to them. After some price checking, I found this 2013 Topps Chrome Orange Nolan Arenado on sportlots for the cheapest price. I haven't dedicated myself to collecting one player since Chris Iannetta was traded, but Nolan Arenado is coming close to being that guy.

Chavez Ra-Trading

Nothing like trading some hated Dodgers cards away for some Rockies. A recent trade with Chavez Ravining did just that, I am sure he will enjoy the Majin Buu Hyun-Jin Ryu cards more that I would have. The purple Arenado really caught my eye, what Rockies fan doesn't love purple refractors. The Rosario is a nice numbered Archive parallel.

Tony Cingrani Topps Redemption Mailday

A successful Topps Redemption post, I have heard many horror stories about the Topps redemption program, so I was pretty disapointed to pull one from a box of Chrome this summer. After contemplating selling the redemption, I decided to redeem it and last week it arrived. I don't remember when I actually entered the code, but it did take a few months and there were a few Cingranis in the wild for a while before I got mine, but overall it was a pretty painless process. I now have 1 remaining in my personal account and have had 2 out 5 redemptions in my COMC go live, that will be shown off later. These Chrome cards never scan well for me, but this is the refractor numbered to 499, nice on card auto, and while I am not usually a fan of spring training photos, it is cool to see the alternate spring training cap on a card.

Trip to the LCS (Bowman Chrome, Topps Chrome, Topps Prime)

A trip to the local card shop for some supplies led to a few packs, as I don't want to be a guy that goes in, buys some supplies and leaves without really supporting the shop. Starting with the best pack of the bunch, the options are mostly limited to Hockey so after picking out a few baseball packs, I grabbed a pack of Topps Prime Football. For $10.00 a pack I was taking a gamble, and while not getting a huge hit, it was the best purchase of the day. A Quad Relic, numbered to 99, of Stepfan Taylor, a rookie for the Cardinals who has a total of 53 yards in 9 games played. At 4 hits per 10 packs I did ok on this, even though I have never heard of this kid.

2013 Topps Chrome 2nd Box Results

Box number two was a little kinder than the first box. Most of the big rookies were in this one with a
Hyun-jin Ryu refractor, Wil Myers 1972, and base cards of Puig, Gattis, Arenado, Jose Fernandez, and Myers. Pulling a Tulowitzki die cut is always nice for a Rockies fan. The color consisted of two Sepias and a blue Melky Mesa. I had actually heard of Darin Ruf, so that a step up my from first box's autos, but the second auto is a redemption, numbered to 499 of a Reds prospect that will probably go on eBay.

My two box total put me at 145 of 220 (with 4 dupes), leaving me 75 cards short of the base set. The decision I have to make now is to either track down the rest of the set, or just use them as trade bait. Another box would bring me close, but I pre-ordered these and got them for just over $60.00 a piece and they seem to be around $80 right now, which is more than I want to spend.

2nd Box Totals:
Base: 74 (No Dups, 34% of base set)
Refractors: 8
X-Fractors: 4
Sepia: 2
Blue: 1 (Melky Mesa)
Autograph: 1 (Darin Ruf)
Autograph Refractor: 1 (Tony Cingrani)
1972 Chrome: 2
Connection Die-Cuts: 2
Dynamic Die Cuts: 1

2013 Topps Chrome Box 1 Results and Review

Anyone who was jealous of the two boxes I posted yesterday, probably won't be after reading the next few posts. I will start with the base cards, I have read about some bad coalition in this product, but my box had zero duplicates, which is always a positive for someone who started collecting in the late 1980's, but one box still puts you at about 1/3 of the set. I am actually a little disappointed in the base set, I really liked the 2013 Topps flagship design, but it looks kind of drab with the chrome replacing the white. That being said, the refractors look amazing, other than the X-Fractors which I am not sold on. The Black parallels are stunning and might be my pick for the best looking design/parallel of 2013.

The inserts didn't really do much for me either, Topps did a good job with the 1972 style cards, but I am not really a fan of that set, so that is more or a personal taste issue. The Dynamic Die-Cuts are a nice design, and the Connection Die-Cuts seem like they are designed specifically to annoy people trying to put them in pages or penny sleeves.

The autographs look good with the on card auto's, but I pulled two duds in Jeurys Familia and Alfredo Marte. Out of my 96 cards the highlight is either the Tyler Skaggs Black Refractor or a Bryce Harper X-Fractor, which is pretty depressing. No Puig, Jose Fernandez, Gattis or Nolan Arenado, not even a base. I think this might be a combination of me expecting too much and getting a weak box, but I am pretty disapointed by this one.

Below is a full list of what I pulled:

Base: 75 (No Dupes) (34% of the base set)
Refractors: 8
X-Fractors: 4
Black Refractor: 1 (Tyler Skaggs)
Sepia Refractor: 1 (Jim Johnson)
Autograph: 1 (Alfredo Marte)
Autograph Refractor: 1 (Jeurys Familia)
Connection Die-Cuts: 2
Dynamic Die Cuts: 1
1972 Chrome: 2

2013 Topps Chrome Mailday

I am far from a Chromey, but I did buy a couple boxes to keep me busy for a while and celebrate selling my house, full break details, recap and trade/wants coming soon.