May Group Break Results from Thorzul Will Rule x 2

Friday, 27 May 2011

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Thorzul will Rule

Boxes Busted in the first
2005 Fleer America's National Pastime
2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot
2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classics

Boxes Busted in the second
none (a cheapo mystery lot)

Along with Colbey, Thorzul's (Bill) break is one of two that I try to get into each and every month if financially possible.  This month, Bill had two different breaks going on.  The first (well second chronologically but first here) was his regular break with one team and one randomized team and a handful of mid-high end products.  The second was a cheapo break with only one team.  I snagged the Rox in both of course and my randomized team was the Diamondbacks which I desperately tried to trade before the break started.  Luckily (well somewhat luckily), I was unsuccessful.  Let's take a look at my new loot.


THE FIRST BREAK

I didn't get a hit with the Rockies in the first break, but I did pick up some new base cards.  And for a team collector getting a few base cards you don't have is almost as good as getting a hit.  I like this design for some unexplainable reason.  I think my favorite part is the ghostly purple swoop above the solid purple swoop.

I was shut out on the 2007 box and this is the only card I got out the 2005 box other than one more below.  I like this design as well, but would like it even more without the silver logo that reminds me of mid 90s Donruss.

Here are the two DBacks I got from the 2006 box.  Snore, they are for trade.

My hit for the break was a buyback.  It surfaced in the 2005 National Pastime box and was a buyback from way back in 2001, precisely 4 years earlier.  I mean it is a nice jersey swatch of a complete jerk, but the only thing that stands it out as a buyback is the blue Sharpie numbering on the front.  What is stopping someone from just randomly labeling an old jersey with a numbering and calling it a rare buyback?   I think it is numbered to his jersey number, but it is for trade to any Schilling collectors out there.


THE EL CHEAPO BREAK

Now we get to the meat of my break.  In my $8 lot I got not one but two autos.  The Chad Bettis is technically a USA jersey/auto, but he is in Colorado's system and Bill graciously included it in my pack.  I have two other Bettis autos already and this one fits real nicely with the others.  The Aneury Rodriguez auto is from 2008 Donruss Threads.  He was traded to the Rays for Jason Hammel in 2009 and is currently in the Astros bullpen.

For $8 getting those two autos would have made me happy, but I also got two serial numbered cards.  The Jeff Francis is the base card from 2007 Topps Triple Threads and is my first from that set.  The second card is a Barndon Durden blue chrome refractor from 2005 Bowman.  Durden was released druing Spring Training this year after making it to AAA and I don't believe he has caught on with anyone else.

Also in my lot was a pair of Xponentials from 2008 Upper Deck X, a set that is really starting to grow on me.  The Helton is an X2 and was needed.  The Holliday is an X3 and is a dupe and thus up for trade.  Let me know if you need it.

Everything else I got was a dupe, but I thought I would show them off in case you need them.
2010 A&G This Day in History Carlos Gonzalez
2010 Ticket to Toppstown Todd Helton

I also got the entire team set from last year's Topps 100, including my favorite player with him name misspelled on the front.  It is spelled correctly on the back, but for future reference it is spelled Friedrich NO SECOND E.  These are all duplicates as well and can be had in a deal.


OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Thorzul's breaks are usually either a home run or a groundout.  I have been lucky enough to hit a couple of homers with him.  The first break did not go so well even with the Schilling jersey and that had to do mostly with having two expansion teams and basically being shut out of one of the boxes.  But it was still fun.  The "el cheapo" break more than made up for it.  There is no way I could have gotten all of the cards I received for $8.  All in all I consider it a successful pair of breaks averaged out.

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April Group Break Results from Thorzul will Rule...SERIOUS REDEMPTION

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

 GROUP BREAK RESULTS

Site
Thorzul Will Rule

Boxes broken
2003 Donruss Elite
2005 Topps Retired Signature Edition

As I said in the past, I LOVE group breaks, so I decided to create a nice little form for posting the results.  After last month's poor results from Thorzul's break I had three options.  One, slink away with my tail between my legs...not even really considered.  Two, buy the Rockies and hope for the best...considered.  Three, buy the best team available and trade for the Rox as my second team.  I decided on option three and double secret option four.  We'll start with option three, the Mets were available so I popped hoping someone would trade me the randomized Rockies later.  Double secret option four was to double down and purchase a second group of two teams.  After some research on the boxes being broken I chose the Royals hoping for a nice George Brett.  I was randomized the Pirates and Tigers and flipped (luckily as it turned out) the Tigers to Ryan G. for the Rox (that have 0 cards in the 2005 set, so an easy trade).

So my teams for the break ended up being (with projected rankings)
1. Mets
2. Royals
3. Rockies
4. Pirates

That was the order I expected the loot to shake out...Oh how wrong I was!  Because what followed is my greatest group break victory EVER. (which you can see later)  heehee

I will start with the team that finished 4th in my final rankings, my Rockies

4. ROCKIES

I picked up 5 Rockies out of the Elite box and 0 from the other which was no surprise as mentioned earlier.  These cards are really good looking, but you just about need to wear white gloves when handling them to avoid fingerprints.  I  got every Rockie from this set now minus two short print rookies of Jeff Baker and Garrett Atkins. I got the 4 needed cards (Jennings is the dupe) to finish the base team set for my Rockies and they still finished 4th.  Are you starting to realize how great this break was for me?

3. ROYALS

I only got two Royals in both boxes combined, one from each...Let's take a look.

 Eh, nothing special here, so how did this team beat the Rox?

This is how.  A George Brett gold parallel #'d 166/500.  Not the $150 Brett autograph I was hoping would pop from the box when I chose the Royals, but very nice nonetheless.  I am not a book value junkie by any means, but for this I will share what my 2007 SCD says the cards are worth.  This Brett books for somewhere between $6-$12.  Not too shabby.

2. METS

I got very little from the Mets in the 2005 box (1 base card), but I killed the 2003 box with them.  Let's look.

 I am only showing one of the 3 Met base cards I got.  I also got Roberto Alomar and Al Leiter.  This is around Glavine's first ever Met card in uniform (odd that they had Jose Hernandez in his Brewer uniform, but they got a Glavine in spring training pic).  The base card I got from the 2005 box was of manager Davey Johnson, like I said very little.  But let's check out the serious 2003 mojo that some of you traders may go apeshit with your offers over.

A Hideo Nomo Throwback Threads jersey patch #009/250.  And what a patch it is!  The thing I loved about older Donruss (and some Fleer) relics was the picture of the actual item cut up on the back of the card.  This 4 color patch (a little blue in the extreme right) appears to be taken from the name possibly between the N and O.  This card help me forget that with the Mets in this break I got cards of both pitchers to ever no hit the Rockies, Nomo and Leiter.  Hmm, well I didn't forget it, but I am okay with it.  In case you are curious, 2007 SCD books this card at $20.

That brings us to one of the biggest surprises of my group break career, a cool Pirates card (make that 3 cool Pirates cards).

1. PIRATES

Yep, Aramis Ramirez used to be a Pirate, before the Cubs absolutely stole him (and Kenny Lofton) at the 2003 trading deadline for I think a bag of balls.  Actually they were traded for Jose Hernandez (seen above) who the Rockies had dumped on the Cubs earlier in that summer.  I also got Kenny Lofton and Josh Fogg from this set.

Sweet, my first Roberto Clemente card that I remember owning.  Strike that, I had the 1982 K Mart reprint, but this is my first non-reprint of Clemente.  I have always loved the Pirates color scheme and it works well on this card design.  How good is this that my first Clemente card is only the 3rd best Pirates card received?  SCD book value $4.

A gold version of the only early 90s Pirate that I did not despise and the Pirate colors really work well against the gold background.  I was a fan of Van Slyke in his early time with the Cardinals as well.  This card is numbered 177/500 and being a collector from the mid 80's I think this might be the 500th Van Slyke card I have owned at one time or another, but it really brings back some good memories which ups its value to me.  SCD book value $2-$4.

AND NOW THE BEST CARD OF THE BREAK

 

TAADAAA!!!!  How great is that card! An uncirculated, on-card autograph of Bill Mazeroski, hero of the 1960 World Series defeating the damn Yankees.  This card is not numbered, but I don't care.  There could be 8 billion of these floating around and I would still be happy, well maybe not 8 billion but you get the idea.  For 33 years he was the only person that won the World Series with a walk off home run (I hate that ESPN term, but it works here) and now I have his autograph.  When I watched the video break I didn't stop smiling the rest of the day.  I would like to formally apologize to all the other participants in this break for hogging all the best cards, but my loot sucked last month so maybe it will turn around for you next time.  BTW, in case you are curious the SCD book value on this card is $45, but it's worth more than that to me.

Thank you to Thorzul for hosting this break and I see absolutely no reason to not join you next time.  I spent $42 bucks on both slots and got around double my money's worth in cards, not a bad investment indeed.  I just about know for a fact I couldn't have gotten all of these cards on eBay or from a shop for $42, so I am just thrilled and I also apologize to the next group break (Sorry, Jon) I post because it couldn't possibly live up to this one (it's like being the guy that took over at UCLA for Wooden).

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March Group Break Results from Thorzul will Rule

Friday, 15 April 2011

I have joined several group breaks since becoming a member of the blogging community and they continue to be one of my favorite events that happen on card blogs.  I joined the mid-high end March break over at Thorzul will Rule.  Thorzul's breaks are set up with 15 buy in slots.  You choose a team and are randomized a second team for x amount of dollars.  I chose the Rockies naturally and was randomized the Marlins.  Since there was one retired box I wanted to get an older team with the possibility of getting something in every box, so I traded the Marlins for the A's.

What was busted
2005 Donruss Throwback Threads
2008 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection
a handful of packs of 2011 Topps

Honestly I did very poorly in this break, but that is mainly because most of the hits went to one guy that had the Cubs and Astros.  There were some good hits for others, but I still got some decent base cards for my Rox.  Oh and for the record, the Marlins for A's trade was basically a wash.

Here is my new loot, starting with the A's (which are all for trade).

And now the Rockies (all keepers of course)

Well I got shutout on the Ultimate box, but that wasn't surprising because only 3 or 4 cards comes out of one box.  So not getting one wasn't THAT disappointing.  I got a bunch of base cards from the Throwback Threads box including 6 of the 10 for the Rockies team set.  Unfortunately, one of the four I missed was the card I really wanted, the Ubaldo Jimenez true rookie.  I also got one needed card for my 2011 Topps team set.  Now I am down to needing just one, #141 Ubaldo Jimenez for Series 1 completion.

As I said it was kind of a disappointing break for me, but it hasn't stopped me from joining the April group break with Thorzul.  In fact I doubled up and got 4 teams (Mets, Royals, Pirates, Rockies) so hopefully I will pick up something sweet to show off next month.

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Quick Group Break Plug x 3

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

I'm sure you all have seen these plugs on several sites, but mine is the first (that I have seen) to plug all 3 of them together.

Cardboard Collections - Colbey is at it again.  This he is doing some 1994 Fleer and 1994 Score series 2 along with several bonus packs for the low price of $7 a team.  There are a few good teams remaining like the Red Sox, Tigers, and Twins.  My teams are the Rockies and the Blue Jays (Delgado RC, Olerud ProVisions...eh I took a shot).

Thorzul will Rule - Thorzul is busting a 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads hobby box and a 2008 UD Ultimate Collection hobby box.  Two teams (1 chosen, 1 random) for $20.  I think it might be full now though.  Surprisingly, the Dodgers went unbought maybe I will get them randomly and replenish my trade stock.  My teams are the Rockies and the Marlins (maybe I can trade them for prospects). 

Community Gum - Jon at Community Gum is apparently a former stockholder of Fleer, because he is busting 7!! different Fleer products ranging from 2000-2005.  One team will cost you $28 (and a couple cheaper with extra discounts available).  I got the Rockies only in this one and this one I will be okay with just base cards (not turning down hits though) because it is the weak years of my team collection.

Check them out and tell them the Quarry sent you.

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