Topps Diamond Giveaway Transmogrifier is Live

Per multiple other blogs, the Topps Diamond Giveaway machine is live today.


I unlocked my first (and only) code today:

Oh boy 1974 Norm Miller - well at least it's not junk wax.

But wait, I'm not done yet, I guess with every code you enter you get a dig square! I tried digging at first base and got nothing. So I reloaded and dug again and this is what I won:

Looks like if I collect 5 rings I get a bonus card and dig, 10 is a $10 ShopTopps gift card, 15 is a custom skin-it and 45 is a complete set of Topps 60th Anniversary cards (perhaps this is also the prize for the pack-pulled redemption?). If you manage to get 60 rings you get a diamond ring. Joy

You don't have to re-register

Here's the cool thing, your log-in name from the ToppsMillion site will work for this one too. NOW if they could just transfer over the catalog of cards you have in Millions to continue trading on the 60th Anniversary site....ah well.

SPEAKING of ToppsMillion








THIS is what I have currently - I don't have to pay for shipping because I'm in California - I already verified this as I have had two cards shipped already.

I'm more than willing to trade any and all of this crap (except for the one Angel player Minnie Rojas, I have two of him, but I want them both).

I want ANGELS cards

SO send your trades in the machine, or something like that.

Topps 2011 Part 3 - Hobby vs. Retail

HOBBY Reflections

Being that I titled this blog "The Budget Collector" perhaps I should include some budget or economic based posts? Yes, I think I should.

Yesterday I picked up my first 2011 Topps cards at Target, as you may recall I bought a single rack and a single retail pack, a total of 48 cards or the equivalent to 4 retail packs of 12 cards each. For that I paid $7.66 or just under 16 cents a card. Today I checked out my friendly local hobby store, Beverly Hills Sports Cards and bought 4 packs of Hobby from a brand new box. The cost was $13.17 after tax for 40 cards or 32 cents a card. Obviously right off the top you're paying double per card, and that's not a smart thing at all.





So if I'm paying twice as much per card, shouldn't I get some good cards? Well, yes and no. See what you're really paying for is the CHANCE to get better cards. When you look at the odds listed on the pack though, you find something very, very interesting: unless you're a big sucker for long-odds high end pulls, retail is actually a better buy. Certainly there are cards in Hobby that don't exist at Retail, specifically Silk, Black and Press-Plate parallels, the manufactured gloves and most of the autos and relics are only found in Hobby. However, the easiest of those to pull are the black paralles at 1:100 packs!


The odds on the standard non relic/auto inserts are virtually identical in hobby and retail. Gold parallels are half as easy to pull at 1:8 in hobby vs. 1:17 at retail. Something really odd happens though to the remainder of the auto/relic sets, they are actually EASIER to pull at retail rather than hobby. That's awfully strange, but true. Example: A Diamond Duos relic is 1:12,500 at hobby and 1:10,500 at retail. The 60th Anniversary Reprint Auto set falls at 1:13,200 retail and a whopping 1:14.750 at retail. The 60 for 60 redempions are 1:150,000 at retail and 1:167,000 at hobby. Again, long odds, but significantly less at retail.

Bottom line here, if you're looking to build the set and want most of the low end inserts, go with retail. If you're actually try to get hits, well, I think you should really look for a different set, other than the flagship.



So let's take a look at exactly what I got for my $20+ "investment" in 2011 Topps shall we?



Hobby/Retail

Base 28/37
Topps town 4/ 2
Topps 60 2 / 2
Gold 2 / 1
60 Years of Topps 1 / 2
Diamond Ann 1 / 1
Diamond Duos 1 / 1
History of Topps 1 / 0
Kimball Champions 0 / 1
Vintage Repro 0 / 1
Total Inserts: 12 / 11

OVERALL:

Total Cards 88
Base 65
Total Inserts: 23
--------------------
Topps Town 6
Topps 60 4
Gold 3
60 Years of Topps 3
Diamond Ann 2
Diamond Duos 2
History of Topps 1
Kimball Champions 1
Vintage Repro 1

So far the best two cards I've pulled were the Jeter Mini and the Topps History with Eisner. Yuck. Honestly, I'd just as soon pull more of these:



Honestly, I'm paying a bit more than 25 cents a card here, and besides putting together a set, which I attempt and fail at every year, I'd be better off buying singles rather than packs, but I'm just so addicted to opening packs. It's a problem I tells ya.

Topps 2011 First Impressions Part 2

More Inserts

Sorry about that, had a slight family emergency to attend to. Nothing spectacular I assure you, all is well. So moving on...

Here we have this year's version of "The Cards Your Mom Threw Away", which are more reprints. Yes, I realize the back here doesn't go with the front, why should I do more than one scan? In any case, I actually really like the backs this time around, as they don't really focus on the play on front, but rather the set as a whole. Plus they seem to be written by someone who actually knows about the hobby! Here we have an insert set that I actually want to pull, sweet! Oh and there's original backs too. These are seeded at 1:3 retail/unlisted rack (which I guess means 1:1). The original back versions are 1:12/1:36.




There's also the "Lost Cards" insert set, which I haven't seen yet, but they list out at 1:4/1:12 and then there's an original back version of those too which are 1:36/1:108.

The first actual insert I pulled this year was this card, which is a "Vintage Reprint" and seeded at 1:2/1:8. Considering this is reprinting the most famous card in history, that's not too shabby. The set is numbered with a "CMGR" prefix, and this is #10. They're also old-school cardboard stock. Another cool set, but I'd have to see what else is in there before I pass judgement.




The last card I will be spotlighting today is this mini of some damn Yankee or another. I'm not a HUGE fan of minis, I think they're nice an all, but the multiple sizes across sets kind of turns me off. I mean they're kind of nifty, but they don't really float my boat. This set is called "Kimball Champions" and is 1:4 in retail/unlisted in rack. It's a 50 card set and has the usual suspects, including some pretty common vintage names. The checklist is on the back of this one (and I ASSume every one) and really isn't that special to be honest. I'm not sure why there are so many vintage card styles out there, when this looks just like Allen & Ginter to me.





I also got two ToppsTown cards, one in each pack. They're actually very shiney as well this year and the backs aren't just fluff and a code. OK they still have the code, but the fluff text is a bit more beefy this time around. I've completely the ToppsTown Baseball set each of the past three years, and I expect to do so again this year. You can't put the codes in quite yet though, Mid-March says the website. They have never actually had an online component launch on day and date of the set thus far, and I think that's a real failure on the marketing team's part. If the site isn't ready, then don't launch the product. There's nothing more frustrating than buying a product with an online component, only for the component not to work when you buy the product. Happens way too often too. Companies have to learn that the online component isn't a selling feature to a product if the component doesn't work immediately upon purchase. I venture to guess that the Diamond Redemption Site isn't working yet either. I didn't pull any codes, so I can't say for sure, but considering the ToppsMillion site didn't go live right away, I wouldn't be guessing that this new version would be working on drop day.

So in all I purchased 48 cards at a retail price of $6.98 + tax. That works out to just under 16 cents a card, which in today's marketplace isn't all that bad. Consider that Bowman Chrome at retail is $2.99 and comes with three cards, and virtually ever other brand runs above 50 cents per card, your value is definitely with Topps Flagship. Plus to me, there's still some cachet value to the big T's main set. Especially in this anniversary yet, if you had all 60 years worth of sets you'd really have a great chronicle of Baseball for the second half of it's entire life, and that's not too bad.

I'm sure I'll be buying more of this product than any other this year, in fact, at the moment I'm not planning on buying any other product, except for a few packs of Heritage, A&G and Chrome when they hit. I'm no longer interested in one-off brands or Topps "High End" products. Gimme a few packs of Topps Base and I'm a happy Budget Collector.

Topps 2011 Arrives at the Budget Collector! Part 1

First and foremost, I have joined the Twits and now have a Twitter account. At the moment I'm following Jim Rome only, but hey you never know, once I get into something I usually go whole hog. Anyway, my twitter name is @wnoetling.

Topps 2011 First Impressions

I don't believe that you can ever really tell whether or not you'll like a set from a photo, I think that you have to hold the things in your hand and open some packs before you can really give an accurate assessment of the product. So with that in mind I didn't post anything about the sell sheets for this year's Topps flagship, rather I waited until the new product hit stores. And hit it has. My local Target had a box of rack packs and at least three gravity feed packs. I managed to snake a one each. While I wasn't thrilled with my pulls, there some solid cards in there, which I'll be highlighting as well as giving my opinion on each of the inserts that I received.



I chose Erick Aybar here for the main card design example because he was my only Halo in two packs. I have to say, I really like this design. It has the classic elements that all good cads must have, including the official MLB logo, and it's color coded. My only major issue is that there's too much foil, but this has been the case with every set of Topps since I can remember. Here the foil is fairly attractice, but the smaller text is awfully hard to read. Also make sure you pay attention to the space above the name frame, some cards have "flavor text" there, such as denoting who the 2010 ROYs were, or a superlative like "first to 600 saves" (for Trevor Hoffman).



There are three parallel sets that I can see from the wrapper. Most folks will never see the Platinum Parallels or the Canary Diamond Parallels which are 1:9,200/1:27,000 (rack odds/retail pack odds). However, most people will pull a ton of these "Diamond Anniversary" foils which are 1:4 in retail and not listed on the Rack, though they are advertised on the front. These aren't serial numbered, which I think is a shame, but they are awfully shiney. I like shiney.




The ubiquitous 'gold' parallels are serially numbered to 2011 and are a bit harder to come by at retail falling 1:5/1:17 . Here's the back of the one I pulled. I really like the fact that they actually put a space in the design as to where the serial numbering is supposed to go. I also like that they're still using the same font/type for the serial number as they've used in years past. Continuity is important you know.



Diamond Duos are this year's version of Legendary Lineage. After awhile the LL cards really bored me, and I have no doubt these will as well. On the back are listed some comparison stats and a brief blurb, but they really aren't all that special. They are numbered with the initials of the player's depicted, so this Boggs/Youklis is # "DD-BY". I hate that. They are also being produced as a relic edition. They're 1:4 in retail packs and unlisted in Racks. The relic edition is 1:3460/1:10,500.




This set is called Topps 60 and has the obligatory Mickey Mantle that no modern collector needs at this point. These are also 1:4 in retail and not listed in racks, but since I got one in each, I'm guessing they're 1:1 in racks.

Part 2 will have the rest of my review.