2017 Topps Allen & Ginter Hobby Box Break #1

I hardly ever, and I mean ever, buy baseball.  But apparently there is some guy named Aaron Judge who plays for the Yankees who is pretty good.  He's brought madness to the baseball card collecting world so I thought I'd try my hand at a hobby box of 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter.  I pre-ordered it from Blowout Cards for $100 plus shipping.

My three hits were a Miguel Cabrera relic, a Gary Stevens relic, and a mini autographed black frame parallel of Kenta Maeda who is a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  When I first saw that I had a redemption in one of my packs, I thought I might have hit an Aaron Judge autograph since his cards are redemptions, but I wasn't quite that lucky.  I should still feel pretty good about hitting an autograph card at all since most hobby boxes only have three relics.

Overall, it was a fun rip.  I didn't get an Aaron Judge rookie card either!  Dare I try my luck again on another hobby box?  Prices have already gone up another $25 since I ordered this hobby box.

Topps Replacements for 2014 Five Star Marshawn Lynch Redemptions

I had two outstanding redemptions for 2014 Topps Five Star Marshawn Lynch which have been outstanding for years -- almost three years now.  At this point, it's quite clear that the cards will never be signed.  Panini has the exclusive license to produce NFL cards.  Topps has given up fulfilling outstanding football redemptions as a result.  This isn't something that they've publicly admitted but it's been reported on the Blowout Cards Forums by a few individuals who have spoken with Topps representatives.

I really wish that these cards would be made, so it sucked to finally give up and ask for a replacement.  If I didn't ask for a replacement now, the pool of possible replacement cards would get worse and worse as time went on as more people asked for replacements.

I honestly was not expecting anything good because I've read so many horror stories about Topps replacements since Panini has taken over the NFL licensing rights.

But to my absolute surprise, I got some decent cards!  I got a Matt Jones 2015 Topps rookie autograph, a 2015 Topps Fire Melvin Gordon autograph patch rookie card #/50, a 2014 Topps Finest Brandin Cooks patch autograph gold parallel #/50, a 2014 Topps Finest Jimmy Garoppolo autograph patch rookie card, and a 2015 Topps Chrome Marcus Murphy rookie autograph!

Obviously, the Brandin Cooks and Jimmy Garoppolo cards are the real jewels of this replacement pack.

I can't say that I'm disappointed.  Of course I would have wanted my Marshawn Lynch autographs, but getting two top notch 2014 rookies out of Finest is solid!

I think Topps did me good on these replacements.