2016 The Mint (High-End Birthday Box Break!)

I was able to talk my mom into buying me a box of The Mint for my birthday, a product from Topps with a $999.99 MSRP. There was a brief period where collectors marveled at the excess and extravagance, but then Topps promptly came out with the even way more ridiculous Transcendent, that cost more than a house in some areas, and The Mint sort of faded away from thought, with really its only claim to fame being the Topps debut of Vin Scully autographs on the market.

Then it started popping up in Black Friday sales from card webstores at around half the original $1k price. Without any other ideas to ask for from my mom this year, I went ahead and hit her with a link and a little plea about how cool it would be for me to bust this crazy box of cards. God bless her, she went for it, though she was never 100% onboard with my baseball card collecting. Thanks, Mom!

So now I get the thrill of opening a very expensive box of cards, without the anxiety of having my money on the line. I'm very EXCITED!! I've gotten some great gifts in my life, but I don't think I've ever gotten anything that brought such a nice extended period of anticipation with it. Maybe like a big concert ticket or something.

There are just 5 cards in a box, all autographs, as is my understanding (Update: 5 autos and 1 relic). There are plenty of big name baseball guys in it, plus a few stinkers (damn you, Henry Owens, stay out of my box!). I think even Sylvester Stallone has a Rocky auto in there. And the aforementioned Vin Scully autos, which are all unfortunately redemptions, but they are apparently live now.

Fingers crossed for a nice hit or two!

I've drafted this intro part before opening the box, but now let's do it!






[....]







Oh, man. This box did not let me down. Do you like Mike Trout? I like Mike Trout.

NICE!!!!
I was very happy to pull this gorgeous Trout auto #'d 44/50. He's the best player in the game and only 25. I bought a Trout auto a couple years back, but that's a stickergraph, and I had been hoping to one day be able to land one that was on-card to really help kick my Trout PC up a notch. This card definitely does just that. You know what card also does that?

THIS ONE! Yep, back-to-back Mike Trout autos. Now that's something you don't pull everyday! This one is #'d 16/75 and includes a nice piece of jersey with a patch stripe thing (whatever you call that; hey, I'm no seamstress). Great looking card! Normally, 2 autos of the same guy in a pack would be something to roll your eyes at, but a double dose of Mike Trout? You jump at that 100 times out of 100. A terrific pair or pulls for me here.

This was actually the first card showing when I opened up the inner box, right before the pair of Trouts. Jason Varitek is no slouch, but when I saw this card, I briefly panicked that I was in for a bunch of cards like this.. not bad, but not justifying the crazy price tag. This one is #'d 95/99 and includes a little jersey number inscription. A key member of bringing multiple World Championships back to Boston, he's a bigtime Red Sox fan favorite. Pretty cool pull.

Ha, man, I sure to seem to pull Piscotty autographs frequently. I had just recently traded a couple away, but I had a feeling I'd be reunited with his ink again before long. And here we are. I might have to hang onto this one, a birthday gift, after all. It's #'d 45/50 and has been inscribed with the date of his MLB debut. At first I figured he was dating the signature, I guess just for the heck of it. But no, as you can sorta see at the bottom of the card, it's calling out his rookie debut, which was July 21, 2015. He had a very solid first full season in 2016 and looks to be an important part of the Cardinals' lineup for the long haul. (What's crazy is that Mike Trout is younger.)

And here's another guy whose autographs keep finding their way to me in recent months, 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel. This one is #'d 80/99. Nice enough looking card, but can't get too excited about it after the down 2016 season he had. Hopefully he bounces back next year.


With the 5 autos out of the way, there was one non-auto relic card left to finish off the box...

It's a David Ortiz relic #'d 245/250. The plain grey swatch isn't too exciting, but as the card mentions (and authentication sticker corroborates), this is from his uniform worn on Mother's Day 2016, a very big day for him. May 8, 2016, he "unloaded for his 453rd and 454th homers with Boston, towering solo shots to right-center in the fourth and seventh innings of the Red Sox's 5-1 win at Yankee Stadium ... Big Papi's first blast on the night allowed him to pass Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski for second on the team's all-time list. With 512 home runs in his career, Ortiz also passed Mel Ott and is tied with Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews for 22nd on MLB's all-time list." (source)

So that's a nice piece of history in that card. A silver-ink autograph on the card would really have taken it to incredible heights, but I can't really complain. It's a heck of an addition to my Big Papi PC.


And there you have it, the most expensive box of cards I've ever opened. The pair of Trout autos were clearly the highlights. If I were inclined to sell all these cards, I could likely make my (mom's) money back on the box without too much trouble. So it's definitely a relief not to have gotten a dud of a box. It would have been a particularly nice box for a Sox fan, with the Varitek auto and Ortiz relic... but thankfully no Henry Owens, the crappy young pitcher who somehow got an autograph included in this product.

The anticipation was a lot of fun, and I'm ecstatic that there was a nice payoff. While it would have been cool to pull maybe a Vin Scully auto, or like Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, or Kris Bryant in there, too.. definitely no complaints about a Mike Trout auto.. much less TWO Mike Trout autos! Wow.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Bryce Harper autograph!

That was rough. It was a 2-bottle of wine night for my wife and I, just drinking and watching silly shows to try taking our mind off the election and what's ahead. I drunkenly broke down and ranted on Twitter a bit. I seem to only have lost a couple followers in the fallout. And hey, that's totally fair; I've unfollowed accounts for less myself. I get that collecting cards is a hobby and an escape. It's nice to try keeping the ugliness of real life out of it. I originally drafted this post up late election night, and it got pretty nasty. Glad I resisted posting it, though, and have rewritten most of it.

Oh well, I try to comfort myself in the knowledge that I'm white, straight, male and have enough money in the bank to blow $200 on crap boxes of cards and then chase that down with a sweet Bryce Harper auto to make myself feel better about the dud of a high-end break. Not that I can make that a regular thing. In fact, buying this card was directly to help me not be tempted to buy high-end boxes anymore, since pulling a Harper auto was one of the main things I hoped for when I did.

But yeah, I love this 12/25 auto and it's now the clear highlight of of my li'l Bryce Harper PC. He's a streaky hitter, for sure, but he just turned 24 last month and already has 121 ding-dongs just heading into what should be his prime years. Pretty incredible. Definitely a fun player to watch, though sometimes he rubs people the wrong way.

Rolling the dice on a couple high-end boxes

I recently treated myself to a big order of a few boxes of cards from Dave & Adam's.

I took a shot on a box of 2016 Archives Signature Series, fully expecting to pull somebody like Jeff Conine or Carlos Baegra. Imagine my surprise when I actually hit a pretty good card..

Bo Jackson! The buyback is a 2014 Topps insert and it's numbered 5/5. Bo is a guy I've kinda collected forever, though he's never really been one of my top-tier PCs. But I'm extremely happy to pull this card and provide a clear highlight for my modest collection of the two-sport legend.

Glad I took a chance on this product and was able to beat the odds. That card could easily pay for the box if I wanted to sell it.

But I also bought a box of 2015 Topps Five Star, and was not nearly as lucky there.

Cue the sad trombone. Rafael Palmeiro has HOF numbers, but the PED stuff and finger wagging turned everybody off. Collectors have kind of come around on the other big steroid guys from the era-- autos of Canseco, McGwire, Bonds, and Clemens still fetch decent prices-- but not Palmeiro. His autos are quite cheap.

And Mike Zunino is a backup catcher with a sub-Mendoza career batting average.

That's it; those 2 cards. Pissed away a good chunk of change on that box. Luckily I opened it first, then the Archives Signature box right after, so Bo cheered me up.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Raffy and Zunino are available for trade if anybody wants them.

Some more (less exciting) boxes to bust here, but I'll save them for another post.
Thanks for visiting.

a GREAT ONE for my collection

Wanted to get myself a nice "Congrats on the job" gift (I start my new gig 5/31-- excited about it!), and this fits the bill. While I've never pretended to be a big hockey guy, I grew up admiring the greats. And when you're talking about the GOAT, it's gotta be The Great One, Wayne Gretzky. And Mark Messier isn't far down on that list, either. So this is a "dream card" caliber pickup for me.

I was keeping an eye out for a Gretzky auto, preferably one that could fit in my Christmas Card collection, I mean, as long as I'm going to spring for a sweet, expensive card, might as well, right? This one popped up with a low opening bid, and well, I like Messier too, and I was feeling emboldened by my new job (AND THAT OTHER THING WE WON'T GET INTO BUT HELPED OUT CONSIDERABLY WITH THI$$$. Hey, the Fleer name is now owned by Upper Deck, right? And hockey is known for fighting, so it's a good fit tying it together as a memento)
so I went after it and came out on top. And hey, I was also supporting the local economy, seeing as the eBay consignment seller PWCC is out of the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego. Another nice thing about that is delivery is really quick. Not to be dark, but I need to leave a note for my wife to contact them about selling my collection in the event of my untimely demise.

This is a hell of a cornerstone card for my collection. It looks great, with two big, on-card signatures. Tough to really capture well in photos or scans thanks to all the foil. Foil cards like this can be tricky from a condition perspective as they're super vulnerable to dings, scratches, and chipping. This one looks good to me with the worst offenders to the eye being light scratches on the casing, which I think I could send in to get replaced for like $5 if I really wanted. The grade (8) isn't very good by modern card standards, but it doesn't really mean a thing to me other than helping keep the top bid from getting too high. I'll probably keep it encased to protect it and for authentication purposes, though. I wouldn't say it's an investment piece for me, though if I was ever in a financial pinch and needed to liquidate some of my collection, my hockey cards would likely be among the first to go, truth be told.


Let's check out my other good hockey cards while we're at it.

Hey Look!, it's those same two guys. An early Topps Gretzky and a Messier OPC rookie.

Nice looking Brett Hull hockey stick auto I picked up a few years back.

So there you have the 4 crown jewels that highlight my li'l hockey card collection. I really doubt I'll add any more big cards to it, but who knows. Gotta admit, I've put up the Hull on eBay a couple times over the past year, but didn't get any takers at my price that was admittedly reaching a bit.

Knock wood, things are going pretty good for me these days, getting the new job and all, so hopefully this card remains a highlight of my collection for a long time, commemorating an exciting time in my life.

Side note, I wish Wayne's Hawaiian skit from Saturday Night Live was on YouTube so I could link it here. Classic! (UPDATE: Thanks to Greg Z. for passing on this link to it!) It'd be biting off a bit too much for me, but an awesome autograph project would be to get autos of every pro athlete who's ever hosted SNL.

new best card of my collection

Say Hey!

Willie Mays 2003 Topps Retired autograph refractor numbered 24 (jersey number!) out of 25.

You know I love Topps Retired.. especially the autos.. and especially the /25 refractor autos. I'd been thinking about picking up a certified autograph of one of the greatest ballplayers ever (Hall of Stats has him ranked 4th greatest of all-time statistically), and pulled the trigger on this one.

I'm super excited to have a certified auto of the great Willie Mays in my collection now. Let's celebrate with a song. Here are a couple of my favorite little-known songs that mention Willie Mays in them...

A grungy rocker:

And a mellower tune, if that's more your speed:

Thanks for stopping by.

I got a Nolan Ryan auto

After posting nearly everyday for a good stretch there, things are slowing down again slightly at Baseball Card Breakdown. Between things picking up at work (back to full-time till September.. poo! The money is nice, but I loved sleeping in and working 6-hour days) and just general blogging ennui, expect to see me back to posting just 2 or 3 times a week for a while.

Now, here's just a quick post to show off a neat card I picked up recently. This was a "wedding gift to myself" that I bought (on eBay) while honeymooning in Maui last month.

I very rarely drop three-figures on a card, but this is a pretty sweet Ryan with a print run of just 35 (though it's not serial numbered), enticing enough for me to spend a little over a C-note on it. While 2004 Topps Retired gets most of my adoration, I also am a fan of the 2003 and 2005 Retired sets, the latter being whence this card came. (I've still got an eye out for a reasonably priced 2004 Retired Ryan auto; I've seen a couple pop up on eBay in recent months, but in the neighborhood of a $400 buy-it-now, which is crazy.)

Nolan Ryan is obviously one of the game's all-time greats, so this is a pretty nifty addition for me; certainly a centerpiece of my collection. No offense to the Lone Star State or Big Apple, but as a Southern Californian child of the 70s, I think my favorite Ryan Express era is his stint with the Angels, so I'm happy with this photo selection (though an action shot could have been better than Suttoning). Nice-looking on-card autograph. Still in the uncirculated hard case (a couple scuffs behind Nolan's back, but not too bad). And of course, the full stats on the back, which I appreciate so much more than a "Congratulations" back. Yep, I like this card a bunch.