2011 Topps - what I pulled today

I've been trying to find retail packs of Topps 2011 since the first week of release, when I bought several of the jumbo retail packs - it's been very difficult to find them lately. I stopped at Target and grabbed 5 retail and 4 jumbo packs. I would have just bought the jumbos but I still want a red diamond and throwback card for my collection. I almost bought a blaster for the manu-patch, but I hope to find one at Wal-Mart (if I can find a Wal-Mart - I haven't been to one since I left Georgia).

So, what did I pull? I'm not going to list the base cards.

Out of the 5 retail packs:

• Diamond Duos Steve Carlton/CC Sabathia, Ty Cobb/Miguel Cabrera
• Topps 60 Alex Rodriguez, Gary Carter
• ToppsTown Troy Tulowitzki, Nick Markakis, Josh Johnson, Brett Anderson, Joe Mauer
• Diamond sparklies Rafael Soriano
• Diamond Giveaway Roy Halladay, Derek Jeter
• 60 Years of Topps Mark Teixeira '04
• 60 Years of Topps Lost Cards Stan Musial '55, Stan Musial '56
• Red Diamond Mickey Mantle
• 9 base cards I needed for my set

I pulled the red diamond in the last pack. As others have said, the diamond needs to be foiled or sparklied or something but I guess that would cost too much. A nice way to finish that group of packs. No throwback cards though.

Now for the four jumbos:

• Diamond Duos Jeter/Cano, Boggs/Youkilis, Seaver/Chapman, Howard/Heyward
• Topps 60 Chipper Jones, Michael Young, Felix Hernandez, Jason Heyward
• ToppsTown Brett Wallace, Josh Hamilton, Ichiro, Miguel Cabrera
• Diamond sparklies Todd Helton, Neil Walker, Chris Carpenter, Peter Bourjos
• Diamond Giveaway Ryan Howard, Reggie Jackson
• 60 Years of Topps Cliff Lee '03, Andre Dawson '81, Bernie Williams '90, Mickey Mantle '96
• 60 Years of Topps Lost Cards Stan Musial '53
• CMGR Reproductions Ty Cobb '32 US Caramel, Honus Wagner '10 Standard Caramel
• Kimball Champions Joey Votto, Brandon Morrow, Ubaldo Jimenez, Mel Ott
• Gold R. A. Dickey, Edgar Renteria
• 24 base cards I needed for my set

Nothing special here. Interesting that all three Lost Cards I pulled today were Stan Musial. Unfortunately I already have that set (and the Kimball set). I now need 41 cards for the base set, plus I am trying to finish the 60 Years and Reproduction sets. I have no idea where I stand on those.

I'll be redeeming my giveaway cards some time in the future. I have several others to redeem as well.

I need to go through my awards/leaders list - some cards may fit in with that collection. I'll make a post some time in the next few days of '11 Topps I have for trade and what I need once I get my lists in order.

For the retail packs, I averaged just over 3 inserts per pack (or, 16 inserts for $10, plus base cards). The jumbo packs averaged just under 8 inserts per (15.75 inserts for $10, plus base cards). So both versions give basically the same amount of inserts for your money, but there are more base cards in the jumbos. This doesn't include "hit" possibilities, but if you're buying retail for hits you're gambling at high odds for low return.