Happy Fourth!

I'm taking the weekend off for Independence Day festivities and a trip to Daytona for the Coke Zero 400. Have a safe and happy weekend!

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2007 Topps Turkey Red [Retail]

The local target it trying to get rid of some retail packs of '07 and older product and despite my need to tighten up on spending dough, how can you turn down $0.99 to $1.52 packs of cards? I snagged 4 packs today, all of which had a hit a piece (surprisingly)... not too bad for $4 worth of retail wax.

Here we go...

30 Barry Bonds, lacrosse arm guard and all



41 Barry Zito
164 Jorge Posada



59 Carlos Beltran



12 Orlando Hernandez
37 Edgar Renteria
114 Gary Matthews (Refractor, #1154/1999)



11 Kenji Johjima
## Topps of the Class waste of space

Ok, that was weird... Follow me on this:

A) Two Giants with the same first name to start

B)Posada, who plays with former Zito teammate Giambi, and currently plays in New York

C) A second New Yorker from the other team in Carlos Beltran

D) A third New Yorker that's played for both teams in the Big Apple, but is currently playing with the NL East's Mets in "El Duque" (all three are Hispanic as well)

E) A Mets' rival in the Braves' Renteria

F) Then Gary Matthews who shares a former teammate with Renteria (Mark Teixeira, Rangers/Braves)

G) And to wrap it up, another AL Wester [like Matthews] in Johjima

I don't know how valid/relevant that is, but it was kinda creepy to bust. I'm not gonna lie... the Renteria/Matthews relationship was a stretch. I just wanted to figure out a link so the pack was complete and I could hype it up even more.... whatever.

Good pack, I think. Most of them will end up going somewhere in a trade or on eBay, aside from the Posada... that's a dope card.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Operation: '98 Metal Universe (Box 1/Pack 2)

I want to apologize as it's been a few days since the last post. I was celebrating a birthday last weekend and, well, things got a little crazy. So I'm back with pack #2 of the amazingly B.A. Metal Universe box break. For the record, I can't wait to get my hands on some more of this stuff... it keeps me young.

Here we go...


74 Edgar Martinez (DH) with the Space Needle appropriately located in the background

193 Gary Sheffield rounding the bases, errr check that... enjoying the sights in the MIA

11 Bernie Williams with a flexed bat... on a FREAKING FRONT-LOADER! God, I love this stuff. Have I mentioned that yet?

87 Tony WHOA-mack... yeah, that's a Cessna in the background

22 Bobby Bonilla sans batting gloves accompanied by the Seven Mile Bridge

182 Alan Benes is literally out of this world

115 Jeff King and his epic mustache caught on the tracks

59 Tom Glavine's not out of the woods yet

Aside from the general awesomeness of this set, one of my favorite aspects can be seen when comparing the Edgar Martinez card to Glavine's card in this pack. Martinez is featured in front of a prominent Seattle landmark while Glavine looks like an 'Other' trying to defend the Dharma Initiative and its cause rather than pitching for Atlanta, a town not known for its natural landscapes. All the more reason to love this set.

Check back tomorrow for pack #3!

- J.C.F.

Operation: '98 Metal Universe (Box 1/Pack 1)

No, I haven't gone crazy. The title is correct. Yes, I am a 1998 Fleer Metal Universe fan and you can't stop me. I completely missed out on this set in '98, most likely because I was carried away at the time with Fleer Ultra. Anyway, a few weeks ago I was rummaging though the Colorado Rockies commons box at the local shop when I came across two cards that both made me laugh while inspiring me more than you could imagine. When I saw these beautiful pieces of work, I began to stop by the shop a little more frequently and take a look through other commons boxes of other teams for this newly discovered Metal Universe set.

Needless to say, there were only so many Metal Universe cards from the '98 series in the shop... and I came home with all of them (roughly 42). That, clearly, was not going to give me my fix. I decided to hop on the interwebs and start looking for unopened hobby boxes of the product (ok, maybe I am crazy)... and I found one for $25.99.

Yeah, I bought it and it will NOT be the last box I purchase. I was going to do a box break for ya, but I decided to break it up into individual pack-break posts so that you could savor the goodness. I'll give you some info on the set first, then get to the reviews.

According to the Sports Collectors Digest, 2008 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (17th Edition):

"This 220-card single series release captured players over a foil etched, art background that related in some way to them or the city they played in. Metal Universe included a 15-card Hardball Galaxy subset..." "The set arrived with a parallel called Precious Metal Gems, and included the following insert sets: All-Galactic Team, Diamond Heroes, Platinum Portraits, Titanium and Universal Language."

I received the box on Tuesday, and it felt like the birthday I was to have the next day had come early. I grabbed the package from the mailbox, ran inside, and immediately started busting it with a house full of company. I digress, however...

In the box, we're looking at 24 packs with 8 cards per pack and the most absurdly amazing background shot on each card. Unfortunately, the metallic backgrounds on the cards are done no justice by the scanner.

To start, each pack comes with a 1998 Acclaim All-Star Baseball (N64) promo/official entry 'flyer' with none other than Larry Walker blessing the cover (as he did for the game as well). Unfortunatley, the deadline for all entries was September 30th, 1998.


Now that I've wasted enough of your day, I'll go ahead with the pack break (scan below):

146 Roberto Alomar swimmin' with the fishes
184 Tony 'The Tiger' Clark... I'll take the actual tiger in this footrace
37 Robin Ventura going for a chopper/fly ball on the Southside
45 Paul Molitor running away from/racing some sort of bullet train/mass transit that obviously does not exist in the Twin Cities

116 Matt Williams (displayed in an Indians uni... common theme in this set) playing third base on some scaffolding... no biggie

199 Derek Jeter with Lady Liberty to his back
52 Henry Blanco popping up on the surface of the moon, or similar
152 Mickey Morandini (Phils uni) throwing to first but playing somewhere other than Chicago



I really wish I could get a scan that would show the beautiful ridiculousness of these cards, but that technology doesn't exist (in my world) quite yet.

That's it for today, but expect some more hilarity in the future. Also, if anyone has any cards from this set and are willing to trade, shoot me an email and let me know what you'd like in return.

Completely obsessed...

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2007 Bowman Baseball

For a good review of the product, check out Chris' HTA break over at Stale Gum or Thorzul's hilarious [and historically accurate] pack break at A Pack A Day. I'll save most of the details and get right into it.

One pack of '07 Bowman Baseball, 10 (or sometimes 11...) cards/pack

Here we go...

36 Jorge Posada
180 Johnny Damon (is this a Yanks pack??)
20 Nick Markakis (maybe not... AL East much?)
37 Brian Bannister
211 Jerry Owens (RC)
158 Aramis Ramirez (finally, some NL action)

BC88 Duke Dardinha (1st BowChro)
BC45 John Otness (1st BowChro)

BP109 Ryan Mullins (Gold/1st Bowman)
BP79 Doug Deeds (1st Bowman)
BP96 Vincent Blue (1st Bowman)

Count it... 11 cards. Other than that, pretty standard. I must add that I picked up both this pack and the previously reviewed pack and snagged Rockies in both. I wish that happened every time. Maybe my luck could rub off on them and they could WIN A DAMN GAME.

... Outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2008 Topps Chrome

When I saw the local card shop selling hobby packs of this product for over $4, I thought I'd never touch this stuff. Well, it seems as though this price gouging was due to the early availability of Chrome as they had it on sale the day prior to official release.

Oops, should I have kept that to myself?

By now you should know the deal... If not, check it out here.

Here we go...



220 Brian Bass
38 Justin Upton
C200 Steve Pearce (Heritage Rookie Insert) [0918/1959]
185 Brad Hawpe (Gotta love a Rockies pull)

Topps '08 and I don't really get along, but Chrome wasn't half bad for the following reasons:

1) $3/pack
2) Shiny, Shiny, Shiny
3) Sweet inserts/parallels/refractors in every pack [or close to it]
4) Pulled a Rockie

The sad part is that I had planned on picking up a pack of something old school for cheap, but everything pre-2007 is outrageously priced at this joint due to the possibility of pulling ManRam, Jeter, or Jose friggin Reyes rookie cards. I guess that box of 1992 Bowman will remain completely stocked with the packs it left the factory with because $17/pack ain't gonna move any product.

I'm amazingly bitter all of a sudden.

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.