Archive for Retail

2011 Bowman Chrome retail results (Bryce Galore)

Posted in Box / Pack Break with tags , , , , , , , , , , on October 19, 2011 by Cardboard Icons

I had the good fortune of getting to a Target on Wednesday just minutes after the vendor stocked the shelves with new items, including 2011 Bowman Chrome baseball.  I tell you, it’s a wonderful feeling to walk through the doors and see from about 100 feet away the sight of new packs.

So I dove in.

I bought a blaster and a few of the Value Pack Rack Packs.

The basics:  The blaster offers eight packs for $19.99 while each Value Pack offers three basic retail packs (same odds as loosies and in blasters) and a single pack of three green xfractors for $8.99.

What’s great about all of these packs is they offer a shot at the same cards that are in hobby packs, save for the superfractors.  This means the basic chrome prospect autos are available in retail packs.  Someone is going to pull a Harper Chrome Auto out of a pack at Target, or WalMart, or Kroger, or whatever. Awesome, right?

One problem:  Autographs fall one in 77 packs. They are one per box (18 packs) in hobby.

Anyway, the price points are obviously a lot more palatable than that of the hobby prices, which I imagine are eclipsing the $5 per pack point in some places.

Anyway, here are the better cards I pulled in my packs.  And yes, I actually hit an auto.

Did you know Bryce Harper is in this product?!

Calm down, I said that facetiously.

I got Bryce from the Past:

(And yes, it is dead center on both sides)

2001 Bowman Throwbacks

Bryce from the Present:

2011 Bowman Chrome Prospect

And Bryce from the Future:

2011 Bowman Chrome 2021 Bowman Chrome Future

Always nice at this point to see Bryce Harper in my packs.  Too bad none of them were covered in ink. That said, I did manage to pull this auto:

2011 Bowman Chrome Prospects Autograph Starling Marte

I know I showed off my Bryce Harper 2001 Bowman Chrome throwback above, but I also puled these two:

2011 Bowman Chrome 2001 Throwbacks Brett Lawrie

2011 Bowman Chrome 2001 Bowman Chrome Reprint Ichiro rookie

The Ichiro is the Japanese version.

But perhaps the nicest card of all came from one of my retail exclusive packs:

2011 Bowman Chrome Prospects Green Xfractor Brett Lawrie

Dead center.  No print lines. No scratches. Just beautiful.

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Topps National Chicle Baseball Retail is Live

Posted in Box / Pack Break with tags , , , , , on May 10, 2010 by Cardboard Icons

I stopped at Target this weekend to get some painters tape and noticed that they had one box of Topps National Chicle. Based on this image you can guess someone already went through it in search of game used and autos.

I bought one pack even though it goes against everything I am doing right now. One pack was better than two or more, sue me. Pack results were OK. Even though I am a Red Sox fan, I do not hate Derek Jeter, so pulling his card from one pack is nice. And the Mathewson was also a nice surprise.

And in case you’re interested, here are the odds posted on the wrapper.

Glad I only bought one pack. I can tell this is going to be a “love it, hate it” type of set. The art work is so-so, really depends on the artist and the player they are trying to depict. The card stock actually reminds of me another hit-and-miss product — Upper Deck Goudey. I was not a huge fan of that set, although I purchased plenty of it when it hit discount levels. Why, I am really not sure. That’s going to have to change.

Anyway, if anyone has any Red Sox from this set, I am interested.

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