Box Break: 2003 Flair Hobby (5 Hits)

This is the first of two boxes that I bought with some of the greenbacks I scored from selling my Jason Heyward auto on eBay. 2003 Flair is a fun box to bust for around $30-40, especially considering that you get 5 hits, 1 numbered rookie and 1 serial numbered parallel for less than the price of 2 blasters. This is the second box of 2003 Flair I've busted and this particular one far outshines the one I opened in January. Here's the goods:

Lance Berkman/Jeff Bagwell Dual Power Tools Bat #23/200: Yes I cracked some jokes about the name "power tools", although from what I know both Berkman and Bagwell seem to be standup guys. It's nice pulling bat chips rather than the garden variety jersey swatches--the fact that it's a double is just icing on the cake.

Troy Glaus Diamond Cuts Jersey Gold #49/100: I really need to find an Angels collector to trade with. As a Mariners' fan I despise the team, yet that doesn't stop me from pulling Angels left and right. Am I the only person who enjoys meaningless parallels like this "gold" version? I love serial numbers.

Chipper Jones Diamond Cuts Jersey: I've always liked Chipper Jones. Perhaps it's because his real name is Larry but he goes by Chipper and my real name is Matthew but I go by Bud. The similarities don't end there: He was a first round draft choice, I got picked first one time in softball; he's a switch-hitter, I've been known to crush longballs from both sides of the plate in whiffleball, etc. It's like we're living the same life. He looks really tired in this picture. Chipper always looks tired. Is he the next player to become embroiled in a "Napgate" after Griffey Jr.?

Greg Maddux Diamond Cuts Jersey: This was a real Braves hot box, perhaps a bit ironic because I ordered these from Atlanta Sports Cards (very underrated site). Even more ironic is the fact that my brother pulled both Chipper and the Mad Dog from his box of 2003 Flair that he opened a few months back. I don't think that's actually ironic, but since no one actually uses the word correctly (I'm looking at you Alannis), I'll let it stand.

Pedro Martinez Sweet Swatch Oversized Jersey #155/1480: If you follow my life as closely as I do (I hope not) you'd realize that I pulled this exact oversized jersey card the last time I opened this box. I guess it's good because I was able to save my scanner some trouble, but otherwise I don't have much use for a giant Pedro swatch. In fact, I care about this card so little that I'm not even sure where the first one of these is. Maybe next box I'll walk away with a jumbo patch--or maybe just another Pedro.

Overall Thoughts: Though the base set is dull and there aren't any noteworthy rookies in the set, it's hard to complain about 5 jerseys/bat cards for $30-40. The game-used checklist is pretty strong and I was happy to walk away with three future Hall-of-Famers and six game-used pieces total. I'm sure I'll bust another box of this if I get the chance, and I highly recommend you do the same. Thanks for looking!

Box Break: 2008 UD Masterpieces (Retail)

With my birthday coming up on Friday (there's no need to send presents, but if you feel so inclined, I wouldn't say no to them) I treated my self to a trio of boxes from a Blowout Cards weekend special. The first box was 2008 UD Masterpieces Retail, which contained 24 packs and 4 cards per pack. I had wanted to put the set together for a while and with 96 cards in the box I had a decent shot at completing the base set (I ended up 6 cards short; I'll post my needs at a later date) plus pulling a few framed parallels and a jersey or autograph. Here's what I got:

Steve Carlton Black Border

Eric Chavez Black Border

Pedro Martinez Blue Border #20/125

Vladimir Guerrero Captured on Canvas Jersey

Overall Thoughts: While it wasn't a great box in terms of hits, I was able to complete most of the base set and I pulled a few SP's if I decide to pursue the full set. The cards themselves are absolutely beautiful and the framed parallels are some the best looking cards of the decade (yeah, I went there). It was a fun box to open and I really wish UD had put out a set of Masterpieces last year. If you are interested in any of the cards pictured, drop me a line and we'll work out a deal. Stay tuned for two more box breaks in the coming days!

Box Break: 2003 Flair Hobby (Five Hits)

Since I didn't really get any baseball cards for Christmas (except for a sweet "card" from my girlfriend which I will show later) I decided that my X-Mas cash would best be spent on a few hobby boxes of cards. Was there really anything else I could do with it? I perused the big name sites (Dave and Adam's & Blowout Cards) before discovering a hidden gem of the collecting world, Atlanta Sports Cards. While they don't have the same selection of the bigger sites their holiday prices were tremendous and my little brother and I each got two boxes of 2003 Flair ($30/each) and two boxes of 2007 UD Masterpieces ($35/each). If we had been doing pack wars my brother would have kicked my butt (more on some of his pulls in a later post, including a case hit) but for the amount of money I spent, I was fairly happy with what I got. There's nothing extremely special about 2003 Flair, the base cards are decent and there really aren't any inserts, but I really got the box because it promised four game-used cards plus one jumbo game-used card for only $30 bucks. How could I possibly go wrong? Well, take a look and find out:

Ken Griffey Jr. Base Card

J.D. Drew Diamond Cuts Game Used Jersey: I would equate pulling a JD Drew jersey card to jamming a finger. It hurts like hell and the rest of your day is ruined. Eff word.

Austin Kearns Power Tools Game-Used Bat #301/500: If J.D. Drew is like jamming a finger than Austin Kearns is a paper cut that gets infected. Seriously, this box is jammed full of unfulfilled potential and broken promises. Cue the emo music!

Mike Piazza Diamond Cuts Game-Used Jersey: It's always nice to pull a non-white jersey swatch, and this black piece of Mets jersey was a nice surprise. I guess Piazza is considered a star player, although in his photo on the card it looks like he just smelled one of Al Leiter's farts. I didn't watch much Mets baseball (thank God) but that looks like classic "Piazza Face" to me.

Jason Giambi Power Tools Bat Card #300/500: I was really excited when I first pulled this because I thought it was a Derek Jeter. No, it's just a guy with lumps on his organs from steroids. I like the design of the card and bat chips are a nice change of pace from the dreaded white jersey swatch. The "Power Tools" name seems very fitting for someone like Giambi.

Pedro Martinez Sweet Swatch Jumbo Jersey #150/1480: I guess this is the big hit of the box, although more physically than financially speaking (the actual card is about 5" x 8"). I really feel like this card was designed for old people with large type on the back and the oversized design...it's just like a large print novel of the newest Agatha Christie mystery. I always like getting box-toppers and I won't complain about a decent sized chunk of jersey, but 1,480 seems like quite a big number of pieces to get from just one of Pedro's jerseys (at least during his slender days). There were also oversized patches and autos to be pulled from the set. Instead, I got this. Oh well, at least he's a future Hall-of-Famer.

While I might not have pulled the greatest cards from this box it was still a lot of fun to open and it's tough to beat five hits for $30 (I just had some bad luck). I would certainly consider buying another one of these boxes in the $30-$40 dollar range, although I'm sure they won't be getting any easier to find. If you see any cards you would be interested in just let me know (budbareither@gmail.com). Thanks for tuning in, I've been great!