Transatlantic Triple Break! 2000 Topps Finest and 2004 Bowman Draft

I would say that in general, the Triple Breaks I've had with Kevin (The Card Papoy) and Matthew (Bob Walk the Plank) have been pretty good. Usually there's been a nice hit or two for everyone during a round of breaks. This time, I feel like I found a mediocre middle ground - see if you agree.

First up, 2000 Topps Finest (series 2)

The Box Topper - Sweet! Pedro in his Prime. Kevin had the AL East, so this 4" by 6" card is headed to France.

The reason I wanted to break this particular box is selfishly, I wanted to pull a Johan rookie, so I got my wish.

Here was the one refractor in the box, Octavio Dotel - Can you tell the refractor from the base card? It looks pretty good in person.

Here is a random sampling of the other guys from series 2 - I am keeping the AL Central and the AL West in this break, the rest go out to Kevin and Matthew.

And of course, the rest of the Twins

Second box, 2004 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects. Here is a situation where I feel like I failed in my research. I wasn't collecting in 2004, so I didn't know for sure what was in this box, I just knew that they would for the most part be new to me.

Willy Taveras is a Topps Rookie Cup Winner, so I didn't mind pulling this one.

The only autograph pulled from either box - not too shabby, Gio is still in the majors, and is considered an anchor in the rotation.

Oh, bummer. This is the research I was talking about. I thought the Aflac cards were inserts in the packs, not redemption only. I thought the redemption was just the autographed versions. I was hoping to pull a chrome refractor of the  Andrew McCutchen rookie for Matthew, but it turns out this was not to be...

Here's the refractor I did pull...

There were these chunky Gold variations, but the backs are peeling off, I guess spending over a decade in storage was too much to bear.

Some Twins, the Lew Ford throwback jersey card is awesome!

 

and, finally, Ray Liotta for some reason.

Oh, not related? That's too bad.

Overall, I give this break a C- Could have been worse, but if I had known that the Cutch rookie was impossible I would have picked something else to go with the Topps Finest. 

What do you think?

Santa Claus, You're All Right.

Santa Claus sent me some awesome cards! Matthew of Bob Walk the Plank set up a Secret Santa program this year, and it looks like it's been a resounding success. I am pretty sure I know the Secret Santa, but I won't spoil it for the rest of you.

Things start out with some Twins- I'd been trying to get that Nunez since it came out (no really) at card shows and shops, but locally the selection has been pretty slim.

Santa knew just what I was wishing for -these three were all on my list!

Two more needed 56s and I was already wishing I left out a bigger plate of cookies.

I had to share the backs of both of these guys, some of the best Comic strips in the set.

AHA! An Arbitrary Eight guy. I think I will keep Dean Chance in his protective case - it's by far the nicest Kellogg's card I've ever seen in person, part of me thinks that if I jailbreak it, it will immediately curl itself up into a tube shape, cracking like a bowl of Rice Krispies all the way - so this one's gonna stay right there.

THANK YOU SANTA!

Customizing The Season of Giving

Welp - Gavin has really outdone himself this holiday season. He's been issuing custom gifts all around the blogosphere and I was very lucky to have an envelope arrive last week with my name on it. Lots of really cool an ingenious work coming from the author of Baseball Card Breakdown

 Some great Manny Ramirez cards for the PC

B-Rad is back- in Pog form! I can't believe they only made 50 of this particular platinum parallel.

 Add in an Albert Belle and we've got a very nice holiday PWE.

 Of course, Gavin did not stop there and included a custom built "rip card" numbered to 25

Inside was this fantastic little magnet featuring Kirby Puckett! Eat your heart out, Cracker Jack.The scan doesn't really do this item justice


Thanks Gavin!

The Distinct Aroma of a Super Trade

Tim From I Love the Smell of Cardboard in the Morning bestowed a fully loaded padded mailer in a stunning Super Trade.

Four New Kirbys!

plenty of old friends

Lots of more recent friends

A Jim Thome Party!

Some sneaky vintage in the form of a 1965 Topps Killebrew

And some nice hits to round it all out.

Thanks Tim!

The Rule Says You Gotta Rack em up

Adam from Infield Fly Rule sent over a #supertrade for the Holidays...

 This mailer hit all the mini collections (bat rack, shades, commemorative patches, etc) as well as Twins and player collections.

 It was not at all puzzling to me why this mini Musial was included - I collect Donruss Diamond Kings and this is a special insert in "The Rookies" sets

 There were several Horizontal Heroes

 Lots of Twins, from all eras

And some potential future Hall of Famers? Girardi as a Manager, of course...

Thanks very much Adam, I will see I can pull together some cards from your lists!

A Transatlantic Triple Papoy

Ke\vin of The Card Papoy followed quickly behind Matthew with a Transatlantic Triple Break of his own- featuring the 2016 Donruss Diamond Kings AND a bonus of 2014 Bowman Chrome.

Nice to get both Sano variations in this break!

Bowman offers lots of variety considering their design has stayed very similar for several years now.

 Kevin always includes a nice share of Twins as well - Carew and Sano are both serial numbered.

DeVries didn't set the world on fire in the majors, but he's now a regular on Twins radio pregame shows and offers some great insights into the mental side of the game.

I'm hoping for a break out season for Berrios - he's struggled to pitch deep into games so far in the majors as the big league hitters are much more patient than their AAA counterparts.

Thanks again Kevin - It's my turn to break some boxes, hope to get something secured before the end of 2016 and out the door!

Walking the Transatlantic Triple Plank (A Transatlantic Triple Break)

Matthew of Bob Walk the Plank fame sent over the latest Transatlantic Triple Break. Matthew, Kevin, and I feasted on 2016 Topps Archives one more time.

These are probably not new to you, savvy collectors, but I enjoyed these quite a bit!

As is often the case, Matthew also loaded up the mailer with hits!

Signatures like crazy!

Torii two I's with the card numbered to just 215 (Skybox does things their own way)

Morneau is a free agent again, hope he finds a good home (maybe in his home country with Toronto?)

BOOM. that's a real Killer.

Matthew, thanks again as always!

... And This is Why I Have Wantlists

I sent a #supertrade over to Cardinals blogger Kerry from Cards on Cards, focusing on wantlist needs- and Kerry came up big with a super return trade of his own.

These were not on my list, but they are my first cards from this set - they all fell into that gap of not collecting in the mid 2000s.

Four more that would have been on my list, if I had gotten far enough into it (I'm still looking at 1997 cards to see what I want to add to my collection).

Then things get really interesting - Kerry assaulted my 80s and 90s junk wax list with some fantastic cardboard gems.

There were too many to scan, but suffice it to say, this was an impressive mailer. I leave you with a near perfect Jim Leyland card, the only thing missing is a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Thanks Kerry!