A box now and many more boxes to look forward to

I was active on Black Friday on the card front. In addition to linking my folks and in-laws some high-end boxes for xmas/bday gift ideas for me (excited about these! Heck, the month of anticipation is the best part), I grabbed a few deals for myself.

Here's what I ended up with:

2012 Topps Baseball Factory Set - Fenway Dirt Relic Edition
2013 Panini Beach Boys Box
2008 Bowman Chrome Baseball Hobby Box
2015 Panini Stars and Stripes Baseball Hobby Box
2008 Upper Deck SP Authentic Baseball Hobby Box
2012 Benchwarmer Vault Trading Cards Box
2011 Topps Baseball Value Box
2011 Benchwarmer Bubble Gum Trading Cards Retail Box
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box

Yeah, I went heavy on the 2014 Prizm Draft, but it was a great deal (it was the quickest baseball product to sell out during Dave & Adam's black friday sale). A few bucks less than a blaster each, you get 3 on-card autos with a chance to pull the likes of Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner (with a tiny chance of Kris Bryant ink, too). Plus there are still a few Gavin LaValley parallels I need. Grabbed enough boxes to qualify for free shipping. Unfortunately, Dave & Adam's hasn't had much else to get too excited over this holiday weekend. I seem to remember last year's sale was more impressive.

The other stuff was from Blowout Cards. Again, I grabbed just enough stuff to qualify for free shipping (which is currently set at twice as much as Dave & Adam's). Nice mix of baseball products, plus a Beach Boys box and I caved to pretty girls and bought my first-ever couple boxes of Benchwarmers. On the topic of non-sports, I was sad to see that boxes of Cryptozoic Ghostbusters are apparently sold out.. was hoping to score one of those if the price was right.

Rather than just have a box-bustin' orgy over the next week or two, I've decided to ration the boxes out over the next year. It'll be a test of my self-control, but I think it'll be nice to have things to look forward to. And I want to cut down on busting boxes (well, paying a lot of money to do so, that is), so grabbing a bunch when they're cheap and spreading them out seemed like a good idea to hopefully keep my ripping urges satisfied. There are really only a couple upcoming 2017 products I plan to buy a box or two of (Archives and Star Wars 40), so hopefully my Black Friday haul carries me through the year with minimal additional blaster and hobby box purchases.

Here's the tentative schedule I've drafted up:

DEC 2016
2011 Topps Baseball Value Box (this was the worst deal; let's get it over with)

JAN 2017
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box

FEB 2017
2012 Benchwarmer Vault Trading Cards Box (just in time for valentines)

MAR 2017
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box

APR 2017
2012 Topps Baseball Factory Set - Fenway Dirt Relic Edition (ring in the new season with dirt)

MAY 2017
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box

JUN 2017
2013 Panini Beach Boys Box (summertime is the right time for Beach Boys)
2011 Benchwarmer Bubble Gum Trading Cards Retail Box (some girls to join the Boys)

JUL 2017
2015 Panini Stars and Stripes Baseball Hobby Box (good way to celebrate the 4th)

AUG 2017
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box

SEP 2017
2008 Bowman Chrome Baseball Hobby Box

OCT 2017
2008 Upper Deck SP Authentic Baseball Hobby Box (Update: there was an inventory error and Blowout was out of this box. I also made an inventory error myself and only counted 5 of my 6 2014 Prizm Draft boxes on this schedule, so I'll pencil in another one here.)

NOV 2017
2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Baseball Hobby Box

So that's the plan.. but we'll see if I follow through with it or not. Hopefully the fact that I've posted it here will make me feel too guilty to give in and rip anything sooner. I'm also gonna label them and store them out of the way to help avoid temptation.

Some good stuff to look forward to. But for now, hey, I just got a blaster of 2016 Donruss Optic for a few bucks less than SRP off eBay. I won it on Thanksgiving Day, and the seller was just a few zipcodes over, so it arrived very quickly. There are a couple blasters of this on the shelf at my local grocery store that I've been tempted to grab, but I had some patience and saved a little money by shopping online.

Let's see what I got...

Pack 1 is heavy on Rated Rookies. I collect Jankowski and Donaldson, so this is a fine pack. The Lopez is a refractor, though you can't tell in the photo.

Pretty sure I already have that Sale DK (wait, actually no, I had the refractor, not the base). Strasburg is a PC guy. The Sonny Gray is a refractor.

A pink Strasburg (I call them Bubblegum Refractors, personally) and a Harper DK I needed. Nice.
David Wright is a refractor.

Bubblegum Dee Gordon. I might need that refractor Cutch DK, but it looks familiar.

Oh hey, there's a bubblegum version of the Cutch, as well.. cool. Also a Machado DK that I might've needed and a Donaldson insert that doesn't look too bad.

Final pack is a Tyler White hot pack, though I'm more happy about the Junior insert and the Trout base.

So that was an ok box for me. No hits or even any numbered cards, but picked up several PC additions. The rest are available for trade, so just give me a shout if you're interested in anything.

Thanks for stopping by.