Hard Boiled

My daughter was on a run to Target to get some flowers for a co-workers birthday,

so I texted her and asked if she could grab me another Topps egg.

"For sure!" She responds.

She's a good one.

Let's sample the 56-card pack.

The typical 3 Holiday inserts that everyone pulls.

Some good players but nothing fancy there.

Rainbow Foil; Holo Foil; Aqua Holo Foil (1:101)

Yay a Trout insert!

A sampling of some of the other cards.

Heim must have a massive upper body because his head looks kinda small.

And three Future Stars.

Blasted by Blasters - Blaster 4

 

Last of the four birthday blasters.

Let's see the Inserts, Angels, and other interesting cards found in each pack.

Pack 1

That Bagwell and Holiday parallel is a nice start.

Pack 2

Bam!

Pretty stoked about pulling an autograph (1:1,209).

Cubs hot pack.

Pack 3

Ohtani Bleacher Reachers!

Pack 4

The Pressly is a Golden Mirror Variation (1:860).

Not sure if these are SSPs as TCDB hasn't marked them as such.

Pack 5

Again seeing the same SMLB cards.

Pack 6

The pack with only one insert also gave me the most rookie cards I've seen in a pack.

Pack 7

And ANOTHER Dodger Black Gold.

There were 20 inserts (18, 19 and 20 in the other three blasters) and again one of the packs had only 1 insert.

Typical Topps:

In three of the four blasters I opened, I pulled these same SMLB cards:

Merrill (x3)

Bregman (x3)

Muncy (x3)

Chisholm (x3)

Butler (x3)

Campbell (x2)

McCutchen (x2)

From 3 consecutive blasters.

Damn that sucks.

Eliminates the chance to pull something else I might have liked.

I usually sit on the rookie cards for a year or so to see how they do, but most of the rest of the other cards I've pulled in the four blasters are available for trade on TCBD.

I have a Holiday Egg coming up, stay tuned for that.

Blasted by Blasters - Blaster 3

 

Third of the four birthday blasters.

Let's see the Inserts, Angels, and other interesting cards found in each pack.

Pack 1

That's a True Photo Variation (1:618) on the top Jose Iglesias card.

I always liked the full bleed cards like 1992 Stadium Club.

Pack 2

Nice group of inserts, I especially like the jack-o-lanterns (1:22), and a Nick Kurtz rookie is always nice.

Pack 3

Drake Baldwin is a pretty good rookie pull.

Pack 4

Would have liked to see a better photo of Gehrig.

Pack 5

Here's some cards from the pack with one insert.

Pack 6

If I'm not mistaken, every Black Gold (1:24) I've pulled has been a Dodger.

I seem to be pulling a lot of Kristian Campbell cards recently as well.

Pack 7

Starting to see a repeat of the same SMLB cards per blaster.

Harper looks like he's wearing spandex with leg warmers.

This blaster had 19 inserts (18 and 20 in the others) And again one of the packs had only 1 insert.

Stay tuned for fourth and final blaster.

The Coca-Cola 600

You've probably heard of the Coca-Cola 600, the longest NASCAR race on the schedule at 600 miles. The event is held on the last Sunday in May at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It is a unique race in that it starts in the daylight of the early evening and doesn't conclude until the sun has long been set. The lateness of the start means that some drivers can also compete in the Indianapolis 500 which is held on that morning. Imagine driving in two long races on the same day!

Well, this isn't about that.

This is about my 600th TCDB trade!

 A trade with Ymmat who is the one who sent the milestone to me.

Nothing too flashy for the 600th but all good stuff that I needed.

Oh, and a checklist card too!

This checklist has the Angels team listed on the back.

Cool thing about this trade is Ymmat reached out to me with this offer asking only for any three cards depicting HOFers in return.

Other trades have been coming in as well.

This is the second one in about a week from bcmeeker and is the result of me sending him the wrong 1962 Topps card in the first trade. We figured why not trade again in order to get the correct 1962 Topps cards to each other.

Here's a nice two-PWE trade that came from alh who lives in the beautiful state of Hawaii.

This trade started out as a request for all the 1987 Topps Tiffany Angels he had. Unfortunately, they were already committed so I went for the 1988 instead.

I also got a bunch of Tiffany PC guys. The Ripken is a #444.

Here are some cards from a trade with Chemo (that would be #603 for those counting).

There's a lot going on here.

The Gallego is a reversed image (on back) ERR I needed for the 1989 UD set.

I don't know why I was missing the Grich card as these Smokey's came as a set.

The Geoff Zaun VAR has his name as Jeff on the front.

Last up for now is a trade with SMSiegell.

Nice to knock out most of the Series 1 Angels in one big chunk.

The Abbott is a "no period" variation.

Blasted by Blasters - Blaster 2

 

Second of the four birthday blasters.

Let's see the Inserts, Angels, and other interesting cards found in each pack.

Pack 1

Pack 2

Two-Angel pack! 

And I always appreciate pulling a Votto. He was a fringe PC guy at one time.

Pack 3

Angels Holofoil parallel!

Pack 4

Pack 5

Pack 6

I was really hoping Hendricks would have a great season last year so that the Angels would bring him back. They granted him free-agency.

Pack 7

We had 18 inserts in this blaster, 20 in the last.

And 1 pack with only 1 insert just the last blaster.

Stay tuned for Blaster #3.

Red Cardboard is Back!

You read that right. Over a decade away, but now back to blogging. Go check him out HERE, Follow and add him your blog roll. And get in on the GIVEAWAY!

Blasted by Blasters - Blaster 1

 

First of the four birthday blasters.

Let's see the Inserts, Angels, and other interesting cards found in each pack.

Pack 1

Four inserts and an Angel. nice pack.

Pack 2

Ooh, Black Holofoil PCA card, numbered 07/10

Pack 3

Third Angel in three packs and a Black Gold is always a nice card.

Pack 4

Pack 5

Nice Griffey pull.

Pack 6

Not a very good pack.

Pack 7

Four inserts and an Angel, again!

Great way to finish.

So I guess the SMLB cards are 1-per pack, after that no telling what inserts you'll get.

In total 20 inserts in seven packs.

Stay tuned for Blaster #2.