Wax Wednesday: Topps Update

When I was in high school, I used to think that the act of physically seeing things was not a one way process.  I didn’t so much think our eyes took things as much as they shot out imperceptible rays that gathered information and bounced back to our eyes.  Kind of like sonar.  And I wondered if on some microscopic level, our vision “rays” left an impact on whatever they bounced off of.  Obviously, I knew it had to be imperceptible if this were  true or else we would all be shooting lasers out of our eyes at each other.  But I thought perhaps if the object you were looking at were sensitive enough, the impact of our vision rays could be perceived if you stared at it for a long enough period of time.  So one day in my photography class, I spent 10 minutes in the darkroom staring at some blank film.  Then I tried to process it and see if some little dots showed up where I was staring.  They didn’t.

Here are some Topps Update cards I got in a rack pack this week:

 SQUAT.

Wax Wednesday- 2011 Topps Chrome

Does anyone use the term “Boy Howdy” anymore?  It’s a term that I heard and used a lot in growing up in West Texas.  I didn’t think anything of using it until I moved out of state to go to college.  I remember one of the first days my freshman year, all of the guys from my dorm room floor got together for a meet and greet and when someone asked me if I was a Razorback fan, I said without embarrassment “Boy Howdy, am I!”  It was months until I heard the end of the mockery that ensued.   I think when we all started taking ourselves so seriously in the 90s as a backlash to the ridiculous 80s, terms like “Boy Howdy” were almost ridiculed into extinction.  That’s my pop-sociologist diagnosis.  

Please humor me for a moment while I dust off the term“Boy Howdy” for this post.

Boy Howdy, I like Topps Chrome!

I picked up a couple of rack packs today and am thinking seriously about building this set.  I’ll wait until the newness wears off and take another look, but these are sweet, sweet cards.  And I will echo what I have heard from others in saying that the curling issues seem to be solved. At $8.99 a pack they are expensive though, and I suppose I could build a base set off the secondary market much more cheaply later this fall.   Enough from me, here is what I got:

 While they didn't curl much, these slippery little suckers are still difficult to scan.  Lining these up on my scanner was like playing air hockey.

No major pulls, although I’m happy about the Orange Pujols and Stanton.   I guess I actually did pretty poorly on these packs, as I didn’t get any numbered cards or hits.  But the quality of these cards alone made them worth the purchase. 

GWAG12!! 

Wax Wednesday - COMC Haul

I don't know why I insist on calling this feature "Wax Wednesday."  I think I've actually shown pack breaks maybe twice since I've started blogging.  Of course, my ridiculous decision to not-buy-cards-for-lent-except-for-when-I-really-really-want-them has a little to do with it.  It's kept me from buying wax, but I still can't help myself when I see a good eBay auction or something on Sportlots.com or Checkoutmycards.com.  And recently I found some cards on COMC that for my super duper checklist that I couldn't pass up:

The Pujols was the best deal, coming in at a sweet $1.25 per card, so I grabbed 2.  These are part of 2002 Stadium Club set , and I am now 85% complete of this insert set, with only cards 9 (Piazza), 10 (McGwire), and 13 (Thome) to go.  If anyone has those three that are willing to part with them in trade, please drop a note.  I've already completed the base and Stadium Shots insert sets.  One of these days I will get my act together and set up a page of what I have for trade.

Wax Wednesday... late again

Yet another business trip interferes with my favorite thing to do in life: opening baseball cards….. I MEAN HANGING OUT WITH MY FAMILY!   Even a short overnight trip leaves me homesick for the Mrs. and the babies.   I think I’m done with travel for a short while now thankfully.     

Recently, before my stupid decision to give up buying cards for Lent, I opened two rack packs of 2011 Heritage, and 1 of the $10 special boxes of Topps 2011 from Wal-Mart.  I don’t know what they are called, but they have 72 cards and a special “Blue Sapphire” insert.  Here are the highlights:

No hits on the Heritage, but I’m happy with the Strasburg, Hellickson, Posey and Pujols.  I’m leaning toward not building this set and using these as trade bait.    Of course, by now I have about 1/3 of the set, so maybe I’ll trudge through it.  I’m sure everyone is dying to know what I’ll do.

Nice box on the 2011 Topps:   Matt Holiday bat card, Heyward Sapphire insert and Pujols, Stanton and Chapman base cards.    Plus a card of Cliff Lee (Razorbacks) in Rangers uniform.  

Wax Wednesday:

I’ve been trying to think of some consistent topics for regular posting.  To me, one of the more entertaining aspects of reading some of the baseball card blogs out there is seeing results of a pack or box break.  I don’t know why I think it’s interesting and I’ll spare you any hypothesis on the matter.  So I’ll create “Wax Wednesday” and open up something each week.  This will help justify my purchases to the Mrs.  “Honey, I have to do it… for the readers.”

So I started humbly and bought a rack pack of 2011 Topps.  Eh...  Here are the highlights.  No Diamond Giveaway card, but a nice Gehrig reprint.   Being a Rangers fan (more on my switch from the Mets to the Rangers another time), I was happy with the Felix 60 Card and the Andrus/Kinsler Card...

I was excited about the diamond parallel Jeter.  Until I noticed….

Notice the mis-printed Topps Logo in the upper corner.  &*$#(@!  I don’t want to keep it, and I don’t want to sell it.  First one to comment gets it if they want it.  Just send me your address via PM.. Hey, my first giveaway!