2017 Bowman Platinum Blaster Box #3

And... I finally opened this blaster box too.

Ice Parallels (blaster box exclusive): Gary Sanchez, Starling Marte, Michael Kopech, and T.J. Friedl.

Rookie Radar: David Dahl.

Purple Parallel: Bryce Harper.

 The inserts in this set are so nice.  I really love the Platinum Presence cards. 

Rookies: Yulieski Gurriel, Tyler Austin, Cody Bellinger, Tyler Glasnow, Robert Gsellman, and Jorge Alfaro.

2017 Topps Chrome Blaster Box #3

I had this blaster box sitting around the house for months.  I wish I had bought more of this product.  This has to be one of the best blaster boxes I've had for this product so far. 

Rookies:  Mitch Haniger, Kyle freeland, Antonio Senzatela, Luke Weaver, Yulieski Gurriel, and David Dahl.

Rookies: German Marquez, Jordan Montgomery, Amir Garrett, Jesse Winker, Matt Strahm, and Joe Jimenez.

 Freshman Flash: Orland Arcia.

Rookie Autograph: Reynaldo Lopez. (1:82 odds)

Negative: Craig Kimbrel.  (1:38 odds)

Sepia Parallels: Chris Owings, Ivan Nova, Joey Votto, and Matt Holliday.

Getting an autograph -- albeit a fairly worthless one -- was a nice surprise.  The negative card was a nice surprise as well.  It's a lot thicker than the regular base cards.  The big splash of color parallels and insert cards make this product fun to rip.  Tons of rookies in this blaster box, but still no Aaron Judge! 

2017 Topps Chrome Rack Pack #2

It's about time I finally opened this.  It was just sitting around the house for months.

Rookies: Jeff Hoffman, Gavin Checchini, Hunter Renfroe, Alex Reyes.  Pink Refractor: Alex Reyes.  Topps Chrome 30th Anniversary Rookie: Andrew Benintendi.

Lost Mail

It finally happened.  It seems as if the United States Postal Service lost a package that was supposed to be delivered to my house.

It was a 2016 Panini Optic Jared Goff bronze autograph.  I paid $84.99 plus $3.00 shipping for it.  Tracking information said it was delivered today, likely between 11 a.m. and noon, but it was not in my mailbox. 

I'm hoping that it was merely put into a neighbor's mailbox by accident and that they'll deliver it to my house. 

2005 Playoff Contenders Football Hobby Packs

My desire to hit an Aaron Rodgers autographed rookie card hit its peak a few months ago.  I bought thirteen 2005 Playoff Contenders Football hobby packs from Steel City Collectibles.  They were $13.95 each, for a total of $181.35.  

There are supposedly about five autographs per box.  So by buying thirteen packs, I was expecting to hit about two to three autographs.  I emailed Steel City Collectibles prior to my order asking why the hobby packs were loose packs and not in a sealed hobby box.  They said that the hobby box was damaged, but the hobby packs were fine.  Who knows if that's the truth or not, but Steel City is a reputable seller so I figured I could trust them.  

Well, here's the haul from those thirteen packs:

You will note that there are ZERO autographs.  

Yup, thirteen packs and $181.35 later, I have nothing to show for this break except a few worthless inserts.  I found it hard to believe that I didn't even hit one autograph.  Were these packs searched?  They didn't seem tampered with or resealed.  

I looked on YouTube for some other box breaks, and it does seem like boxes having less than the advertised autograph content is a common problem.  I saw a few breaks where there was one or zero autographs in an entire box.  So I guess that is what happened with the hobby box that these loose packs came from.

I knew that buying these hobby packs was going to be a risk.  I wasn't expecting a return on my money.  But I wasn't expecting it to be this much of a disaster.  And boy, was this a disaster.  It's painful to think what other cards I could have purchased with that $181.35 instead.  Ugh.

2017 Topps Chrome Blaster Box #2

I'm going to go broke buying Chrome Baseball.  The cards just feel so good in your hand.  Topps really does make very nice cards.

Rookies: Antonio Senzatela, Dansby Swanson, Kyle Freeland, Rob Zastryzny, Dan Vogelbach, Renato Nunez, Jorge Alfaro, Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo.

Sepia Parallels: Chris Sale, Kyle Seager, Jackie Bradley Jr., Zach Britton.

These inserts are really nice.  Future Stars: Corey Seager.  30th Anniversary: Kris Bryant.

30th Anniversary Rookie: David Dahl.  Rookies: Luke Weaver.  Prism Refractor Rookie: Dansby Swanson.  Freshman Flash Rookie: Alex Bregman.

2017 Topps Chrome Baseball Rack Pack #1

Every trip to Target means more baseball cards.  Helped myself to a 2017 Topps Chrome Baseball rack pack.

Of the 15 cards in the rack pack (four cards per three packs, plus one bonus pack of three pink parallels) I got 11 rookies.

Rookies: Mitch Hangier, Antonio Senzatela, Jordan Montgomery, Matt Strahm, Kyle Freeland, Amir Garrett, German Marquez.  Refractor Rookies: Jharel Cotton. Freshman Flash: Orlando Arcia.

Topps Chrome 30th Anniversary Rookie: Dansby Swanson.

Pink Refractors: Christian Yelich, Ian Desmond, Braden Shipley.

Great rack pack overall.  Still no Aaron Judge rookie card, which means I'll be buying more Chrome on my next visit to Target.