My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 7

This is the only card on my list that I actually pulled from a pack of cards. Sadly, it was one of my better pulls of 2010. Not to bash the card, but I'd hope for something better than this card for my pull of the year.

Zack Wheeler was rated the #3 prospect in the Giants organization by Baseball America entering last season. The two players in front of him were Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner, now with the Giants. This means that Wheeler could earn the #1 spot in the Giants organization when Baseball America releases its 2011 Giants top ten on January 26th.

What really makes this card special is the grade given to it by Beckett Grading. It earned the elusive BGS 10 Pristine grade, my first card to ever receive this grade. This is his autographed Xfractor from 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft, only 225 produced.

I never could figure out why the autograph received a 9 grade. I've had a couple come back that way with no explanation.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 10

Over the next five days I'm going to count down my ten favorite card purchases of 2010, two per day. As I was going through my cards tonight I realized that I'm partial to my favorite team and a particular type of card. You'll notice these trends over the next five days. I only have a couple players I collect and they both have a card represented in this list.

On New Years Day I'm going list a card, or list of cards that I'm most looking forward to purchasing in 2011. Hopefully I'll be able to show off those cards during the year as I obtain them.



Most of you are going to say who is Liam Hendriks? Well, as you can see from the card pictured, he pitched for Team Australia in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He's 21 years old, from Perth Australia and had a fantastic 2010 season between LoA and HiA in the minors.

Hendriks is in the Minnesota Twins organization. He split 2010 between Beloit (LoA) and Fort Myers (HiA), posting a combined 1.74 ERA in 108.2 innings pitched He had an 8-4 record, 105 strikeouts, just 12 walks and a 0.84 WHIP. Baseball America ranks him the #6 prospect overall in the Twins organization. Among pitchers he ranks #2 just behind #1 overall Twins prospect Kyle Gibson.

The card pictured is his 2009 Bowman Sterling World Baseball Classic Game Jersey Black Refractor numbered 24/25. This was his only card until 2010 Bowman Chrome came out this year. I've purchased quite a few of 2010 Bowman Chrome autographs but I still prefer this card as it is very hard to find. I spent almost the entire year looking for this version after I'd already picked up the base, refractor, blue refractor and gold refractor versions. I was thrilled to finally add this one to my rainbow.

Bowman Chrome Wrappers!

You guys have all seen the results of my Topps Chrome wrapper redemption packs. I redeemed enough wrappers for 24 packs. I was really happy with the results of those so I figured I should dive into the Bowman Chrome wrapper redemption program. I purchased a lot of 684 wrappers on eBay which will yield 38 redemption packs.

For the Topps wrappers I paid an average of $3.35 per box of wrappers. For the Bowman Chrome wrappers I paid an average of $6.75 per box of wrappers. I think the increase is price for the Bowman Chrome is very reasonable considering what these packs can yield.

Topps tweeted last week that the redemption packs will start shipping in January. I'll be sure to post the results of my packs as soon as they come. I can't wait!

Bowman Chrome Wrapper Redemption Program Details

For every 18 wrappers of the hobby version of 2010 Bowman Chrome Baseball set to the company, collectors will receive an exclusive 5-card pack of exclusive Black Bordered Parallels of 2010 Bowman Baseball cards. All 110 prospects from the Bowman checklist will be included.

In addition, Topps will randomly insert the following cards into 5-card redemption packs:

37-card USA Baseball Bowman Chrome Black Bordered Autographs numbered to 25 featuring the 2010 Collegiate National Team as well as the 2010 18 & Under National Team.

5-card Bowman Chrome Rookies & Prospects Autographs numbered to 100 featuring Buster Posey, Mike Stanton, Mike Moustakas, Miguel Sano and Dustin Ackley.

And due to a production error, the previously announced Autographed 2010 Bowman Chrome USA BUYBACK program will now be included as part of the wrapper redemption. Cards will be numbered to 100 and will include big names like Bryce Harper, Jameson Taillon, Yasmani Grandal, Drew Pomeranz, Michael Choice, Christian Colon, Manny Machado and Bryce Brentz.

2010 Bowman Chrome Baseball Retail Box Break

I know, you're already asking yourself before reading this, why did this guy get a retail box of 2010 Bowman Chrome Baseball? Well, I didn't just buy a box, I bought three cases. I pre-ordered these back in July for a really good price, well before Strasburg got hurt and the price plummeted. It was also long before I knew how bad the odds would be on the retail packs. I had faith that Topps would continue to release retail products with decent odds as they've been doing for a couple years. The odds are horrendous on retail this year. Pulling a prospect autograph, which are one per box in hobby, are 1:191 packs in retail. Even pulling a prospect or USA non-autographed refractor are 1:110 packs. Just insane!

I decided I'd open one box before I started selling these off a box a time. The first thing I noticed after opening a couple packs was that the top card in each pack was scratched. Scratched actually puts it mildly, more like gouged. They look like someone ran a nail down the front of each card. I have 24 like this, one for each pack in the box. I already sent them all back to Topps for replacement. The good news is that the other two cards in each pack were free of defects.



Enough of the bad news. As I started ripping packs I started getting good cards, defying the odds on the back of the packs. I first pulled Jason Heyward and Carlos Santana rookie refractors (1:6 packs). The next card that came was a Corban Joseph Autographed Prospect Blue Refractor (1:2,850 packs). I would have been happy at this point if nothing else came out of the box. Next came the A.J. Vanegas Team USA Autographed Refractor (1:1,620 packs) and an Andrew Cashner Gold Refractor rookie (1:837 packs). Amazing!

I figured this box was all a fluke but decided to open one more to be sure. I was right, nothing came out of the next box other than the four expected regular refractors and a couple purple refractors. The box did yield a Stephen Strasburg base rookie as well as a Jason Heyward and a Starlin Castro. I decided to stop at that point as I realized I had simply run into a hot retail box with that first one.

Hopefully this information is somewhat helpful to people reading. My advice - go with hobby boxes as they're down around $40 per box now and you're guaranteed an autograph per box. Don't count on being as lucky as I was with that first box of retail.

Replacement Cards From Topps

If you all remember, a few weeks ago I opened a case of 2009 Bowman Chrome Football. Well, in the very first box I got 10 extremely off-centered cards. So off-centered that you could see the name from the other card it was cut from.

I've never sent anything back to a card company for replacement but I thought I'd take a shot with some cards that I don't care about. None of these were rookies, just semi stars or commons.

It only took three weeks for my replacements to arrive from Topps. Thanksgiving was right in the middle of that too. I had honestly forgotten about mailing them back when the envelope arrived. As you'll see from the scan, they're packaged in a little box and there was some foam on top of that protecting the cards.

I'm also including a scan of the letter they sent with the cards explaining their replacement policy. Hopefully someone will find this helpful. Click on the letter picture for a bigger version.

Has anyone noticed the centering problems with this product? Out of the whole case I think I only sent 12 cards to be graded. Most of the cards I chose not to send had centering issues. Some had surface lines.

Target Half Price Blaster Saturday - 2008 Bowman Football

I know what you're thinking, how could I be buying blasters when I bought all that stuff at the Blowout Cards Black Friday Sale yesterday. Well, trust me, I thought the same thing. Although, the cards from Blowout won't arrive until Tuesday at the earliest. So this purchase is justified... right?

Anyway, I went to Target specifically looking for 50% off blasters. I wasn't going to buy anything that was full price today. I settled on two blasters of 2008 Bowman Football because the only other choices were 2008 Upper Deck Heroes Football and 2008 Upper Deck Series 2 Baseball. I've been on a football kick lately so I figured I'd stick with it. I also needed to see if the two 2008 Bowman Football Hobby boxes I got from Blowout are worth opening.

To my surprise, the "One Authentic Memorabilia Card" they mention on the front of the box is a 2008 Topps Rookie Premiere Jersey card. I just figured it would be a jersey card from the 2008 Bowman set. As you'll see below, I did very well on these. I got a Matt Ryan and a Joe Flacco. I can't complain about that at all.

As for the rest of the cards, nothing exciting. You basically get two Bowman rookies, one Bowman base, one Bowman Gold and one Bowman Chrome rookie per pack. I also ended with two Bowman Blue cards, each numbered to 500. The best card I got out of all of that was a Tim Hightower Bowman Chrome rookie. There really wasn't anything else exciting. I thought it was really funny that one of my Bowman Blue cards was Tony Sparano. I didn't know they made coach cards in this set.

The Bowman/Bowman Chrome design is boring to me. The Bowman singles have black borders and many of them have chipping straight out of the pack. I'd have been very disappointed with the condition if I'd paid full price. Bottom line, I'm not a fan of this product at all and won't be opening the boxes from Blowout. Those will be Christmas gifts or eBay items.

2009 Bowman Chrome Football Case Break - Boxes #7, 8, 9 and 10

In a word, ugh. This case was definitely a disappointment. The biggest disappointment had to be getting doubles of autographed rookies twice. I ended up with two Nate Davis and two Andre Brown. Obviously had they been two Mark Sanchez and two Knowshon Moreno I wouldn't be complaining.

I gathered up the cards that were worth grading and sent them off to BGS today to take advantage of their half price grading special. I was surprised how many of the cards had scratches or lines on the surface. I had to hold a few back because of that, most notably the Mark Sanchez refractor.

I was able to put together two complete sets. I'll be putting those up on eBay unless someone reading is interested. They've been going in the $40 range on eBay so that's what I was hoping to get. Leave a comment if you want one.

I also got ten severely off-centered cards in one of my boxes. Luckily none of them were rookies or cards of any value. I mailed them back to Topps just to see if they'll replace them. I've never sent damaged cards for replacement so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Here are the last four boxes:

Box 7

Autographed Rookie: Brandon Tate

Box Topper: Donald Brown Silver

Gold Refractor: Jason Smith RC

Green Refractor: James Davis RC

Xfractor: Mike Thomas RC, Lamarr Woodley

Refractors: Johnny Knox RC, Joseph Addai, Matt Cassell, Felix Jones

Notable Rookies: Kenny Britt, LeSean McCoy, Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno, Darrius Heyward-Bey



Box 8

Autographed Rookie: Brian Hartline Orange Refractor!

Box Topper: Louis Murphy Silver

Gold Refractor: Oshiomogho Atogwe

Xfractor: LeSean McCoy RC, Matt Ryan

Refractors: Brian Robiskie RC, Shonn Greene RC, Warrick Dunn, Braylon Edwards, Fred Taylor

Notable Rookies: Mark Sanchez, Percy Harvin, Jeremy Maclin, Hakeem Nicks, Donald Brown, Johnny Knox, Chris Wells



Box 9

Autographed Rookie: Johnny Knox

Box Topper: Mohamed Massaquoi Bronze

Green Refractor: Calvin Johnson

Blue Refractor: Brandon Tate RC

Xfractor: Laveranues Coles

Refractors: Tyson Jackson RC, Randy Moss, Jared Allen, Marshawn Lynch

Notable Rookies: Michael Crabtree



Box 10

Autographed Rookie: Andre Brown (case starts and ends with him)

Box Topper: Tom Brandstater Bronze

Blue Refractor: Frank Gore, Fred Taylor

Xfractor: Jared Allen

Refractors: Brandon Gibson RC, Trent Edwards, Marc Bulger, Jay Cutler

Notable Rookies: Mark Sanchez, Percy Harvin, Jeremy Maclin, Hakeem Nicks, Donald Brown, Johnny Knox, Chris Wells

2009 Bowman Chrome Football Case Break - Boxes #4, 5 and 6

Well, things turned around a bit on these three boxes. The highlights were the Jeremy Maclin Blue Refractor Autograph the Brian Orakpo Orange Refractor and the Mark Sanchez Refractor. The low point was the second Nate Davis autograph in six boxes. We'll see how the last four boxes go tomorrow.

Box 4

Autographed Rookie: Jeremy Maclin Blue Refractor

Box Topper: Austin Collie Bronze

Gold Refractor: Bernard Berrian

Blue Refractor: Matt Ryan

Xfractor: James Davis RC, Jason Witten

Refractors: Derrick Williams RC, Mohamed Massaquoi RC, Willis McGahee, Maurice Jones-Drew, Derek Anderson

Notable Rookies: LeSean McCoy, Chris Wells, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Kenny Britt, Knowshon Moreno, Matthew Stafford



Box 5

Autographed Rookie: Nate Davis

Box Topper: Brian Robiskie Bronze

Gold Refractor: Dwayne Bowe

Blue Refractor: Reggie Bush

Xfractor: Steve Slaton

Refractors: Mark Sanchez RC, Carson Palmer, Chad Pennington, Greg Jennings

Notable Rookies: Michael Crabtree



Box 6

Autographed Rookie: Curtis Painter

Box Topper: Kenny Britt Silver

Orange Refractor: Brian Orakpo RC

Green Refractor: Darren McFadden

Xfractor: Malcolm Jenkins RC, Matt Cassell

Refractors: Brian Cushing RC, Rhett Bomar RC, Greg Camarillo, Terrell Owens, Michael Turner

Notable Rookies: Michael Crabtree

2009 Bowman Chrome Football Case Break - Boxes #2 and 3

Here are boxes 2 and 3 from my 2009 Bowman Chrome Football case break. They got a bit better than the first box but still not great. It was nice to see some rookie refractors and some good base rookies in the third box. If the autographs continue to be like this then the case will be a bust.

BOX 2

Autographed Rookie: Nate Davis

Box Topper: Knowshon Moreno Bronze

Gold Refractor: Eddie Royal

Blue Refractor: Steven Jackson, Lee Evans

Xfractor: Shonn Greene RC

Refractors: Ramses Barden RC, Lamarr Woodley, Joey Porter, Tim Hightower

Notable Rookies: Michael Crabtree



BOX 3

Autographed Rookie: Austin Collie

Box Topper: Glen Coffee Bronze

Green Refractor: Tyson Jackson RC

Blue Refractor: Aaron Curry RC

Xfractor: Clinton Portis

Refractors: Jeremy Maclin RC, Derrick Mason, DeMarcus Ware

Notable Rookies: Mark Sanchez, Percy Harvin, Jeremy Maclin, Hakeem Nicks, Donald Brown, Johnny Knox

2009 Bowman Chrome Football Case Break - Box #1

Over the next few days I'll be breaking a case of 2009 Bowman Chrome Football (purchased from Blowout Cards). I'll post the results of the boxes as I get to them. From what I've seen so far these are pretty hit and miss. There are so many rookies in this set that it would be really easy to miss on an entire case.

Unfortunately, I missed on the first box. I did get what seems like a lot of refractors. Too bad none of them were overly exciting. Here are the results:

Autographed Rookie: Andre Brown

Box Topper: B.J. Raji Bronze

Gold Refractor: DeMarcus Ware

Blue Refractor: Santana Moss

Xfractor: Kenny McKinley RC, Joey Porter, John Carlson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh

Refractors: Brandon Tate RC, Brandon Gibson RC

Notable Rookies: LeSean McCoy, Johnny Knox, Hakeem Nicks, Darrius Heyward-Bey

Tommy Hanson Mania

Tommy Hanson has received a considerable amount of attention ever since his stellar performance in the Arizona Fall League. He continued that trend in AAA with the Gwinnett Braves going 3-3 with a 1.49 ERA in 11 starts. He added 90 strikeouts while walking only 17 batters.

Collectors have been anticipating his June call-up for some time. His 2007 Bowman Chrome has risen from the $5 range to the $8 range within the last couple weeks. The value of this card is also helped by the fact that he has no other 2007 releases, unless you count Just Minors.

Well, Hanson got the call and made his first major league start today against the Milwaukee Brewers. He started off very strong, going into the 4th inning before yielding his first hit. It all went downhill after that. He gave up three 2-run home runs, two of those to Ryan Braun. All told, he went 6 innings giving up 6 runs.

Prospectors will be keeping a close eye on his second start which should be June 12th at Baltimore.

Mike Mussina Really Likes My Cards

Date sent: 3/13/09
Date returned: 4/8/09

I will start this post off by saying that Mike Mussina is one of the best TTM signers out there. You rarely find a modern day player of Mussina's stardom that signs so reliably. I've sent requests to him on three different occasions and each time received cards back signed in under 5 weeks. You can see from the picture that he has a very nice signature.

I thought it would be cool to get a couple cheap jersey cards and have Mussina sign those. As I've said before, I'm willing to send some nicer cards to players that charge for autographs, or in Mussina's case, are very reliable. So, I purchased two 2008 Topps Heritage jersey cards off eBay and sent them off. The cards only cost me a total of $10 with shipping included.

Here's where it gets a little odd... I had read some posts in the past on the sportscollectors.net forums that Mussina is a collector and tends to keep jersey cards that are sent to him. I'd read the same thing enough times to make me purchase two '08 Heritage jersey cards. Otherwise, I would have just sent one. I figured if I sent two that he wouldn't possibly keep both of them, I'd at least end up with one. I even said in the letter that I wrote him that he could keep one and to please sign one for me.

Well, on April 8th I opened my mailbox and there was an envelope with my handwriting and a return address of Montoursville, PA. I knew that it was my Mussina jersey cards. The minute I picked up the envelope I knew something was wrong, it just wasn't thick enough. I tore it open and found a 2006 Bowman Chrome and a 2001 Bowman Heritage.

I posted to the sportscollectors.net forums later that night asking if anyone had received my cards. I listed the cards that I had received and stated that I'd like to switch them out if anyone got mine. The only replies that came back were members that had sent jersey cards and received others in return, just like me. The rumors were true. Mike Mussina keeps jersey cards.

Am I upset? Not at all. I knew the risk and I'm thrilled to get back beautifully signed cards from Mussina each time I send a request to him. The signed Upper Deck rookie pictured above was a recent return from him. I'll just know not to send jersey cards to him in any future requests.