2011 Topps Box Packs 31 and 32

Pack 31 yielded some decent cards. I got a Kimball Champions Pablo Sandoval, Diamond Giveaway card, and ToppsTown Billy Butler. The base cards were so-so. They included Cliff Lee, Jack Wilson, Lars Anderson, Batting Average Leaders, Brendan Ryan, Tyler Clippard, and Nate McClouth. Other than the Cliff Lee card, there’s not much there.

Pack 32 brought some crummy inserts: Topps 60 Nick Markakis, History of Topps, and ToppsTown Dan Haren. The base cards were a little better: Erick Aybar, Adrian Beltre, Felix Pie, Buster Posey, Arizona Diamondbacks, Roy Oswalt, and Ubaldo Jimenez. Between both packs, I received some decent pitchers and a few good inserts.

eBay Mailbag: Xavier Nady

I will take a break from my box break to show off my latest eBay purchase. I was unsure if this card was a Black card or a Walmart card due to a subpar picture. It turns out that it is a Walmart card. That’s OK because I only paid 17 cents shipped for this card. It is a 2011 Topps Walmart card #137 of Xavier Nady. I’m not a Nady collector so I’ll just add the card to the general collection and move on. Oddly enough, I pulled a Nady Gold Card from my Topps Box.

2011 Topps Box: Packs 29 and 30

Pack 29 of my 2011 Topps Box wasn’t that great. The inserts were a Hornsby/Holliday Diamond Duos, Cy Young Vintage Repro, and a ToppsTown card of Ichiro. The base cards were Aaron Hill, Ted Lilly, Julio Borbon, Ben Revere (Who?), Brennan Boesch, Jamie Moyer, and Aramis Ramirez. Surprisingly, I have yet to get a double of a base card.

Pack 30 contained a Kimball Champions card of Jose Bautista, Johnny Cueto 60 Years of Topps, and Miguel Cabrera ToppsTown card. I don’t think of Johnny Cueto when I think of great baseball cards of the past 60 years but I digress. The base cards included Matt Joyce, Gio Gonalez, Derek Jeter (Score!), Jeremy Jeffress (Who?), Red Sox Team Card, Chipper Jones, and James Loney. I think that Pack 30 was the better only by virtue of the Bautista and Jeter cards.

2011 Topps Box Packs 27 and 28

Pack 27 of my 2011 Topps Box yielded a Justin Upton Diamond card, a Diamond Giveaway card, and a ToppsTown Manny Ramirez. I heard that Manny retired in disgrace. I hope that works out for him. The base cards were: Yadier Molina, Garrett Jones, Kurt Suzuki, Neftali Feliz, Shin Soo Choo, Freddy Sanchez, and Darren Ford. I have honestly never heard of Darren Ford.

Pack 28 was even more lackluster. The base cards included A.J. Pierzynski, Yorvit Torrealba, John Buck, Scott Cousins, Jake McGee, Ryan Kalish, and Jair Jurrjens. The inserts brought a Kershaw/Latos Diamond Duos, Mickey Mantle reprint, and Evan Longoria ToppsTown card. Somebody needs to explain why Latos and Kershaw are on the same card.

2011 Topps Box Packs 25 and 26

Pack 25 of my 2011 Topps Box yielded a few interesting inserts. I received a 60 Years of Topps Tommy Hanson, Gold Freddy Garcia, and ToppsTown Vladimir Guerrero. The Garcia card shows him as a member of the White Sox, but he has been decent this season for the Yankees. The base cards included Miguel Montero, Derrek Lee, Pedro Alvarez, Ozzie Martinez, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Brandon Inge, and David Price.

Pack 26 brings a Diamond Duos card of Brett Wallace and Lance Berkman. Meh. The ToppsTown card was Carlos Santana. The base cards are Lucas Duda, Brian Fuentes, Jon Lester, Hanley Ramirez, Freddie Freeman, Ryan Dempster, Carlos Silva, and Adam Dunn. But wait!! That’s no ordinary Ramirez card. Look at the helmet. That is a sparkle variation card. I almost missed that. This pack just got interesting.

2011 Topps Box Packs 23 and 24

Pack 23 of my 2011 Topps Box was a really good pack. The inserts included an ARod 60 Years of Topps, my second Andrew McCutchen Kimball Champions, and a ToppsTown Buster Posey card. The base cards were decent too.

Seth Smith

R.A. Dickey

Josh Johnson

Wins Leaders

Kevin Correia

Alexei Ramirez

Hank Conger

Pack 24 was an equally good pack. In fact, I think it was better. I got a Diamond Giveaway card, a Neil Walker Diamond card, and Dustin Pedroia ToppsTown card.

The base cards were:

Andrew Cashner

Gregor Blanco

Rickie Weeks

Pedro Ciriaco

Brett Gardner (Yankee!)

Jeremy Bonderman

Nelson Cruz

I don’t think I have any doubles of base cards yet. That’s pretty impressive. Overall, these were a really good pair of packs. The base cards were decent but the inserts were terrific.

2011 Topps Box: Packs 21 and 22

Pack 21 of my 2011 Topps Box was rather unimpressive. The base cards included Torii Hunter, Koji Uehara, Desmond Jennings, ERA Leaders, Home Run Leaders, Jason Marquis, Tyler Colvin, and Edgar Renteria. The Uehara card will make a good TTM auto candidate. The inserts were pretty lackluster. I received a Diamond Duos card of Joey Votto and Adrian Gonzalez and a ToppsTown card of Felix Hernandez.

Pack 22 wasn’t that great either. The base cards were Ian Desmond, Barry Zito, Mike Stanton, Aaron Harang, James Shields, Milton Bradley, and San Diego Padres. The photograph on the Bradley card is pretty interesting. The background is a Majestic billboard which looks really cool. The Desmond card also has a cool Turkey Hill ad in the background. The inserts were a Lou Gerhig Vintage Repro, Gary Carter 60 Years of Topps, and ToppsTown David Wright.

TTM Mailbag: Gordon Beckham

My latest TTM autograph return came from White Sox Spring Training in Arizona. Gordon Beckham signed my 2010 Allen & Ginter in 41 days. The signature is in black Sharpie and it looks great. There are no smudges or blemishes. The signature itself looks like what it’s supposed to look like. The “G” and “B” are definitely present. Beckham is actually off to a pretty hot start with the White Sox. I still hope to get a few more ST returns throughout the year.

2011 Topps Box Packs 19 and 20

Pack 19 of my 2011 Topps Box yielded the following cards:

Andrew McCutchen

Mariano Rivera – 60 Years of Topps

Starlin Castro

RBI Leaders – Cabrera, ARod, Bautista

Gaby Sanchez – Diamond

Brian Bogusevic

Gaby Sanchez

C.C. Sabathia

Brett Anderson

Matt Garza – ToppsTown

This was a great pack for the Yankee fan as it yielded a Rivera, ARod, and Sabathia card. This was also a good pack for the Gaby Sanchez collector. But look closely. The two Sanchez cards have different photos and alas different card numbers.

Let’s see what came in Pack 20.

Clayton Kershaw – Kimball Champions

Paul Konerko

Cristian Guzman

Jose Ceda

Omar Vizquel

Paul Molitor – 60 Years of Topps

Chris Narveson

Melvin Mora

Jon Niese

Carlos Gonzalez – ToppsTown

OK, so this pack was a little less impressive. The inserts were decent, but the base cards were so-so. But it was a decent haul between both packs.

2011 Topps Box Pack 17 and 18

Pack 17 of my 2011 Topps Box contained base cards of Brad Lidge, Daniel Hudson, Chase Headley, Matt Lindstrom, John Danks, Pablo Sandoval, and Felix Hernandez. I might send the Hudson card off to get autographed TTM. The inserts were pretty decent. I got a Mark Teixeira 60 Years of Topps, Robinson Cano ToppsTown, and Michael Brantley Diamond card.

Pack 18 contained a Ryan Howard ToppsTown, History of Topps card, and a nifty Diamond Duos card of Jeter and Cano. That History of Topps card is the biggest waste of cardboard I’ve ever seen. I’ll trade that for 3 magic beans. The base cards included David Aardsma, Andres Torres, Tom Gorzelanny, Tim Hudson, Hunter Pence, Max Scherzer, and Michael Brantley. The Gorzelanny and Scherzer cards may be destined for a TTM auto. BTW, Scherzer really stunk it up today but so did Phil Hughes. Also, how did I wind up with 2 different Michael Brantley cards? Also, who is Michael Brantley?

2011 Topps Box Packs 15 and 16

Pack 15 of my 2011 Topps Box contained some decent pulls. I got a Diamond Duos card of Kevin Youkilis and Wade Boggs. I know it’s a Red Sox card but its still cool. I also got an insert of former Cardinal great Stan Musial and a base card of current Cardinal great Albert Pujols. The ToppsTown card was Victor Martinez. The other base cards were Brian Duensing, Omar Infante, ERA Leaders, Josh Tomlin, Kyle Davies, and Jason Kubel.

I think that Pack 16 may have been even better. I’ll start off with a Kimball Champions card of Pujols. Then, I’ll add in a Diamond Giveaway card. There are also base cards of Ichiro and Ryan Braun. The ToppsTown card was Jose Reyes. Other base cards included Russell Branyan, Luke Scott, Brewers Team Card, Ronny Cedeno, and Johnny Cueto. I may try to have the Luke Scott card autographed TTM.

Between both packs, this was a pretty good haul. I ended up with Pujols cards in back to back packs and scored a Diamond Giveaway card.