The Only Two Boxes I Opened Last Year

As much as I love opening boxes and packs, I rarely do so. These days, box busting is more about the chance of pulling big hits, so it's not very cost effective. Instead, I pick up the scraps; eBay, COMC, Sportlots, and shops and shows in Japan give me singles I want for far less than trying to pull cards out of packs.

I don't completely avoid them, though. I built the 2018 Topps flagship set via jumbo boxes; it was much more expensive than buying the set, but it was pretty fun. And when I last went back to the US, I grabbed a few packs at Target for the thrill of the rip.

But in 2019, I stayed away from packs. Until the Card Festa in early December.

Card Festa is a card show, but it features a bunch of card shops instead of independent dealers. There are a couple non-shop dealers, but the event is run by the Mint chain of card shops. PSA shows up, and the OB Club arranges for a retired player or two to sign autographs and (in the past - that didn't happen this time) give a speech. A couple manufacturers usually set up tables, too; I've never seen BBM, but Epoch and TIC Secretariat/Produce 216/whatever their name really is make appearances.

TIC brought some overstock from their two Used Ball sets to the show, and towards the end they dropped the price to $25 a box. Given the original price was $60, I feel like I got a good deal for some pack busting fun. I picked up one BayStars box and one Swallows box.

 This is the BayStars box; the Swallows box has the same design, just using pictures of Swallows players.

 Each box came with two free "mini trading paper" packs, each of which had two mini trading paper cards. The packaging indicates that they were originally packaged to be distributed at the 2019 BayStars Fan Festival, so I suppose these were leftovers as well. So in addition to two sealed boxes for $50, I got eight of these trading paper cards.

 Here are four of them, so you can see the designs. There were two BayStars mini trading paper sets issued last year, and the packs had a mix from both. As you can see, there was a mix of regular and SP gold signature cards. I'm not sure if there were any hand-signed cards included, though it's entirely possible.

 There were also free "cheki" (polaroid-style) photos, one per box. There was only one type for each team, so I took one of each. Sorry, the picture is blurry.

Okay, let's get to the packs. First, the BayStars:

 Twelve packs per box. The BayStars set originally came out in mid-July.

 Each box guarantees two "rare" cards, which usually come as one relic and one autograph. The game-used ball relic I got is the regular version with a facsimile signature, and I got a regular autograph card. I also got two SP insert cards and one photo card.

 The Swallows also have 12 packs per box. These were originally released in early August.

The ball cards for the Swallows don't have facsimile signatures, because there are no authentic signatures. So the second hit here is a "photo" card and facsimile autograph. I also got another Photo card, which is more rare than the photo and signature card. This time, I pulled three of the short printed inserts.

Photo cards are considered "rare" cards, so technically I got three rare cards in each box.

As for the base cards, each player has multiple cards in the set. There are 15 players in each set, and 81 cards. Players have up to nine cards in the base set; they also appear once in every insert/rare set.

There are several different designs. Here are all nine of Jose Lopez's base cards so you can see the different designs.

As you can see, there are basically five designs for the base cards. There are some additional cards in packs:

 Both boxes included one Exchange card each. These allow collectors to trade one regular card for another regular card, one special card for another special card, or four regular cards for one special card.

 Each box also included one Original Binder Application Ticket. If you had three of these cards, you could trade them in for a special binder for your cards.

Finally, my Swallows box included one Reservation Card. These are generally distributed with pre-orders. I didn't see any box cards, and the BayStars box didn't have a card.

Overall, busting these boxes was fun, and at the price I paid, I feel like I got my money's worth. We'll see when I finally get another box to bust!

Until next time...

One Box, One Post: 2017 Topps Series 2

Maybe I would have been better off posting this a month ago, back when I first picked it up. But here I am with actual, real internet, so uploading images is easier and I can do it on weeknights, too!

I piecemeal-patchwork built the Series 1 set via a bunch of jumbo packs followed by a Sportlots order or two. That certainly wasn't productive, so I decided that I'd grab a jumbo box when Series 2 hit shelves. And here we are!

At this point, nobody cares about base cards. So it's inserts-only for you.

I got two of the silver bonus packs, which gave me the following:

 The red Babe Ruth is great, and Ichiro's a nice addition. It would have been better with a bigger rainbow of colors.

 The inserts from the first pack brought a nice black parallel. Why is A-Rod getting cards? I thought everyone hated him. Except for maybe a couple people.

Derek Jeter makes appearances in this year's set, too. Is that going to be an annual thing now? Jeter, Nolan Ryan, Ted Williams, and Jackie Robinson, in every set.

 I don't know what to do with the code cards. I'm not using them. That was a boring pack.

 There's nothing better than a 1991 Topps buyback card, right? Well, except maybe that 1989 Topps buyback card earlier. Much like Night Owl wants to do with the '75s, maybe I should build the 1989 Topps set in buyback form.

 There's a Nolan Ryan! Williams and Robinson can't be far behind. The jersey card is a dud, but at least it goes into my type collection, right?

 Hey, Teddy Ballgame! I'm 3 for 4 so far! Seriously, I scanned these a month ago and completely forgot who was in the packs. I'm really hoping for a Jackie Robinson now. And getting an Ichiro feels special because his cards are just so expensive here.

 That Adam Frazier is a throwback logo version. That's pretty cool.

 There's the autograph! Check out the serial numbering: 09/10. A rare pull, though Nunez isn't exactly valuable. Again, it's a great addition to the type collection. I love the Bob Costas though, and I wish that had been my autograph.

 A baseball card with baseball cards? Okay. For collectors, I guess that's a memorable moment? I got another Ichiro, too. And nobody seems to realize he has stolen bases, because everyone talks about hits.

Aww, no Jackie Robinson. How depressing. But I did get a Bonnie Hunt, that means something. Oh, and that Joe Mauer is a 1/1.

A 1/1.

A. One. of. One.

This isn't such a bad box after all. And that Mauer was actually in the last pack I opened! A nice finish to the box.

As for the 2017 flagship set, I got a full set of Series 2. I'll definitely have the First Pitch set by the end of the year one way or another.

So my next box will be Update! Until then, hopefully I'll make some nice finds around Japan. When is Update coming out, anyway? In three months? Gah....

The Zippy Zappy Fukubukuro: Part Six (The Finale!)

We've finally reached the end! It took six posts - almost a whole week - to give just a sample of what was inside, from 1988 Score to Buck Farmer autographs numbered out of 75 to baseballs with multiple signatures. So what could be so special that I'd save it until the end?

 A retail Topps Update Mega Box. Huh? Why's that special? It's really fun to bust open packs, and I don't do much of that in Japan. I believe I opened maybe three packs last year. So when Zippy Zappy and I stopped for dinner at Taco Bell, I had to open it.

Speaking of Taco Bell, the Japanese version is a little more upscale than the usual fare found in the US. It's not fine dining, but there is an improvement in quality. I had the fajita quesadilla, which was very tasty. It came with a side; I ended up with the french fries even though I asked for chips. And the fries weren't that good. But, again, the quesadilla was great.

This is a box that has so much empty space I could have fit half of an Allen & Ginter set inside. At the bottom there are five packs of Topps Update and two special Topps Chrome Update packs. I'm not showing all the cards, but just the ones that are noteworthy for me.

Pack One:

 One of my former students (here in Japan) loves Corey Seager. I know where that card's going. The Tazawa can go in my Japanese MLB player collection. Does Matt Bowman have any Bowman cards? That's the only reason I scanned that card. To make that bad reference.

 But Ichiro and Altuve aren't bad. That Ichiro is a $3+ card here for some reason.

Pack Two:

 Just a small sampling. But I can take this opportunity to say how much I love the First Pitch series. Please, Topps, keep it up!

 Pack Three:

 Three good names. You know where the Seager is going, and Posey's one of my player collections.

 Yeah, uh, this offer expired before I even opened the box. Topps, you should have made the expiration date a little later to account for Christmas presents. Not that I'd be able to use this card anyway, but for other people, that's cutting it close.

 I remember Frenchy as a rookie. It's good to see him end up back on the Braves.

 Pack Four:

 That Stan Musial card is the redeeming card in an otherwise bland pack.

Pack Five:

 This pack had two non-regular cards: Cano as a gold parallel...

 ...and Craig Biggio as a 3000 Hits Club insert. That Jake Arrieta No-Hitter card is a good highlights addition to the Update series.

Now for the Chrome.

 Three regular cards, but that means one can go into my type collection.

 Now that's a good pull - getting anything but base in these Chrome packs seems rare based on the odds.

So, pack two should be boring:

 Two pitchers with names I could make fun of one way or another.

Wait, what's this? Something a bit thicker in the pack?

 "Bam." Which is what I said when I saw this card. Jersey autograph hit from a retail box!

And it's numbered out of 25! The odds are something like 1:500, not terribly tough, but I certainly beat the odds with this box.

Zippy Zappy put together an awesome package, and having this box to bust (with or without that great hit) made it that much more fun in person! As always, I get the better end of the deal, and I always feel bad about it. But I'm always happy to see him and talk shop as we jump from store to store around Tokyo! Come back to Japan soon, and thank you again for your generous Zippy Zapping!