Box Breaks: 3 Boxes of 2016 Topps Stadium Club Baseball

 

2016 Stadium Club Baseball was the exact reason I got back into collecting. I remember seeing the Previews and thinking...WOW...the photography is amazing. It drew me in. Also the price point wasn't bad at all. I decided to pre-order 3 boxes and I anxiously waiting for nearly 3 weeks before they finally went live and came in. Did it live up to the hype? Here are the results

Box 1

Gold Parallel
Mike Trout
Raul Mondesi
Brad Ziegler
Raisel Iglesias
Daniel Murphy


Black Foil Parallel
James Shields
Prince Fielder

Iso Metrics Gold
Manny Machado (1 Per Case!)

Iso Metrics
Dallas Keuchel
Nolan Arenado


Contact Sheet
Nolan Arenado
Michael Conforto


Triumvirate Luminous
Miguel Sano

Beam Team
David Wright

Stadium Club Buyback
1999 Stadium Club Darin Erstad


SP Photo Variation
Masahiro Tanaka (Batting Pose)


Autos
Chris Heston
DJ LeMahieu Gold (#5/25)

Box 2 (Verrrry Pleased with this box!!)

Gold Parallel
Cal Ripken Jr
Rick Porcello
Miguel Almonte
Felix Hernandez
Mark Melancon

Contact Sheet
Nolan Arenado (Again)
Michael Conforto (Yup...again too lol)
Kris Bryant


Isometrics
Carlos Correa
Chris Sale


Black Foil Parallel
Lou Gehrig
Devin Mesoraco

Die Cut Legends
Robin Yount


Triumvirate Luminous
Carlos Correa

Trimumvirate Illuminator (1:256 packs!!)
Carlos Correa

Autographs
Trevor May
Brian Johnson

Instavision Highlights (1:256 Packs!!)
Kris Bryant!

That was definitely a fun box, 3 Correa inserts and 2 Bryants!

Box 3

Gold Parallel

Nomar Mazara
Harold Baines
Ozzie Smith
Michael Conforto
Colby Lewis
Shin-Soo Choo


Isometrics
Carlos Correa (Again)
Chris Sale (Again)

Black Foil Parallel
T.J. House


Die Cut Legends
Brooks Robinson

Contact Sheet
Albert Pujols
Bryce Harper


Beam Team
Madison Bumgarner


Triumvirate Luminous
Andrew Miller

Triumvirate Illuminator (Another one! 1:256 Packs!)
Aroldis Chapman

1st Day Issue (1:210 Packs)
Fernando Valenzuela

Autographs
DJ LeMahieu 

Raul Mondesi

Overall Thoughts: Now THIS was fun! I'm not asking for high end cards worth hundreds or thousands to make a break enjoyable. Topps Stadium Club delivered EXACTLY what I wanted. First of the base set....absolutely STUNNING..photography is top notch. I had a blast going from card to card and just admiring the photography (while also looking for Parallels and Photo Variations). The inserts remind me of the mid to late 90's. You had your easier to find inserts like Isometrics and Contact Sheet, your mid tier inserts like Legends Die Cuts, Beam Team, and Luminous and then your harder to find inserts which include parallels of those insert sets, plus a 1 per case insert set called Instavision. That doesn't even include the two autographs per box. Admittedly, the auto's for the most part are nothing to write home about (there are star players, but apparently they are pretty short printed and the majority of the Auto checklist isn't great) but honestly, I knew that going in and unless you hit the big autos, they aren't typically intended to be the "big hit" of your box breaks. I pulled a gold # to 25 but of DJ LeMahieu, and honestly I'm not familiar with any of the other autos I pulled, but it didn't kill the break in the least. To me they are just "bonus hits". The inserts and parallels are where's its at. One gripe I did have was the Stadium Club buyback program. They are semi-tough pulls but there is absolutely nothing that distinguishes it from being a buyback. It's like you found an old stadium club card from your commons bins. I pulled a 99 Darin Erstad, and that's all it literally is, a 1999 Darin Erstad Stadium Club base card, it's literally a 2 cent card. Kinda defeats the purpose to me of buyback cards. That's the only gripe I have though. The fun thing is you get a parallel or insert in every pack so you know there's something lurking in those packs. I even got some good parallels (Ripken, Mazara, Trout Golds, Gehrig Black) and I killed the odds as far case hits. I only bought 3 boxes and I hit 4 cards considered Case Hits, another one (1st Day Issue) basically a case hit, and a photo variation (Tanaka Batting) that hit 2 per case. I'm a sucker for die cuts and love the Luminous (and parallels) and Legends design. I got great players too as case hits (Bryant, Correa, and Machado aren't too shabby!). In my short time back in collecting, this break was definitely the most fun I've had of them all! I highly recommend at the very least picking up a blaster box or 2 of this! You definitely won't regret it! Here are some pics of the cards I hit

Bryce base card..amazing photography

Showing off some base cards 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1-15-16 Gold Standard Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch
#2-15-16 Excalibur Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey
#3-15-16 Gold Standard Kristaps Porzingis Gold Strike Auto/Jersey Rookie Card
#4-15-16 Gold StandardMyles Turner On Card Patch/Auto Rookie Card
#5-(Tie)2016 Topps Stadium Club Triumvirate Illuminator Carlos Correa
#5-(Tie) 2016 Topps Stadium Club Instavision Kris Bryant

Box Breaks: 2016 Topps Road To Wrestlemania & 2016 Topps WWE

 

I'm going to break down my box breaks into 2 posts since it involves two different "sports" (I know I know wrestling isn't real...I don't need the spiel lol). Wrestling has always held a special place in my heart since I was a kid. It was something that my Grandpa used to love to watch and we'd talk about it or on the times he'd come over to the house on Monday's he'd be watching Raw right there with me (he used to always joke about me scarfing down a whole pizza in front of the TV while watching Raw). I know it's hokey, I know it's cringeworthy, but regardless 27 years later, I'm still watching it. It hasn't really converted until collecting much though. I do have a very small wrestling collection. A few autographs and relic cards that I've bought over the years, and a couple of autograph display pieces of Triple H and Stone Cold, along with an auto photo of Kevin Owens, but compared to my sports collection, it pales in comparison. I'd never bought packs or boxes of wrestling cards, and I decided to give it a whirl. These boxes were affordable and I thought it would be a fun and interesting rip. Here are the results

2016 Topps Road To Wrestlemania

Wrestlemania Roster (1 Per Pack)- Just missing cards #2, #8, #13, #16, #22, #28

Bronze Parallels
Rusev (Card #11)
Big Show (Card #18)
The New Day (Card #22)
Rusev & Summer Rae (Card #55)
Brock (Card #56)
Brock (Card #60)
Brock (Card #66)
John Cena (Card #69)
Undertaker (Card #79)
Becky Lynch (Card #88)
Breeze/Rose (Card #90)

Rock Tribute
Cards #1,#3,#5,#8


Dusty Rhodes Tribute
Cards #3,#4,#8,#9


Roddy Piper Tribute
Cards #1, #5, #6, #7


WWE Immortals
Randy Orton
Paige
Undertaker
Brock

Silver Parallel
Seth Rollins (Card #68)

Base Card SP
Alberto Del Rio


Shirt Relic
Becky Lynch

Hall of Fame Commemorative Ring Relic
Bret Hart

Overall Thoughts: I'm not going to lie, it was quite a boring rip. I like the idea of basically this set being a look back on important events that happened throughout the year, but to me the set design is pretty bland. I don't expect anything like high end, but it was rather uninspiring. The one per pack Wrestlemania Super Star Insert were ok, and to me the best insert set was the Immortals set, but overall just blah. The Rock, Dusty Rhodes, and Roddy Piper tribute inserts are underwhelming. The Parallels are just dull Bronze and Silver Bordered cards. The only cool card I liked was the Hall of Fame Commemorative Ring Relic card of Bret Hart. It features a replica of a WWE Hall of Fame Ring embedded into the card. Unfortunately, this also is considered on of the box "hits". I think a more ideal format would for this to be one of the inserts you could pull along with 2 relic/auto's a box, but alas it's not, therefore I had to sift through some very boring cards. I also pulled a Becky Lynch Relic, which has the same design as the regular base set. I know it's a lower level set, just wished for a little bit more pizazz when it came to the inserts. Here are some pics of the different cards and hits

 

 

 

 

 

 

So would 2016 Topps be any better? Here are the results

2016 Topps


Authority Database
Triple H
Stephanie McMahon
Kane
New Day
Wyatts
Sheamus
Sting
Reigns/Ambrose
Randy Orton
Undertaker
Chris Jericho
Daniel Bryan

Anti-Authority Database
Stephanie McMahon
Kane
New Day
Wyatts
Sheamus
John Cena
The Rock
Reigns/Ambrose
Randy Orton
Brock Lesnar
Undertaker
Chris Jericho

Bronze Parallel

Booker T
Corey Graves
Mark Henry
Stardust
Bam Bam Bigelow
Bushwhackers
Doink
Jake Roberts
J.J. Dillon
Nasty Boys
Ric Flair
Trish Stratus


Rock Tribute
Cards #11, #15, #18, #20


Silver Parallel
Ric Flair


Shirt Relic
Zach Ryder (34/299)


Autograph
Luke Harper (#32/99)

Overall Thoughts: A much better base set design in my opinion than the Wrestlemania set. The one per pack Authority/Anti Authority cards are bland though and my one minor gripe is on the parallels, it was confusing to me, because it blends in to the card that at first I couldn't even tell I had pulled parallels until I went back and saw them. I wish there were more variety of inserts, or tough to pull inserts like in sports. Here it's basically the parallels, bland Rock Tribute insert, 1 per pack bland insert, and your auto/relic cards. I'd love more variety like a super tough insert that's 1:100 or something in that respect. The hits were underwhelming (Ryder Relic/Harper Auto) but you can't expect something super in every box. Much better than the Road to Wrestlemania break, but still a little disappointed overall in what I thought would be a much more fun break. Pics of some of the cards

 

 

 

This is the Bronze Parallel, you can see the bronze around the borders of the card..not impressed. The Silver is the same way.

 

 

  

Overall Thoughts of the Break: Boring and disappointed. I think less is best when it comes to Topps WWE Products. Even though WWE Undisputed is expensive, it's only 10 packs and every pack has a hit to keep your interest. Ripping opening 24 packs per box of these products and only really pulling 4 cards that stand out leads to an uninspiring break. I might stick to the occasional singles when it comes to Wrestling cards. As you can see, nothing to threaten the Top 5 Pulls of 2016 lol. Tomorrow, we'll look at my 3 box Stadium Club Baseball Break!

Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1-Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch
#2-Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey
#3-Kristaps Porzingis Gold Strike Auto/Jersey Rookie Card
#4-Myles Turner On Card Patch/Auto Rookie Card
#5-LeBron James Memorable Materials Jersey Card

Box Breaks: 15-16 Select & 15-16 Gold Standard Basketball

So once I get going...I can't stop!! I decided to place another order with Blowout and try out a box of 15-16 Select and 15-16 Gold Standard. 15-16 Select seemed like it'd be fun because it had prizms in the set as well plus 3 hits, though it was definitely a tad on the expensive side for my tastes. Gold Standard was even riskier at it's price point because it's a "box" but that box consists of only 1 pack. How did I do?? Here are the results!

Select Box

Silver Prizms
Kenneth Faried
Nikola Vucevic
Andre Iguodala
Isaiah Thomas (Premier)
Justice Winslow (RC Premier)
Marcus Smart (Courtside)


Tri-Color Prizms
Jerian Grant RC
Al-Farouq Aminu
Larry Nance Jr RC (Premier)

Blue Prizm
Kyle Lowry (#114/249)

Red Prizm
Jahlil Okafor RC (132/149)

Copper Prizm
Langston Galloway Courtside (34/49)

Select Swatches
Stephen Curry (7/99)

Rookie Signatures
Jarell Martin (45/199)
Josh Richardson (78/199)

Overall Thoughts: Welp....pure definition of ya win some, ya lose some. I've noticed kind of a pattern, an underwhelming break followed by a great break. It happened in my first break with Prizm/Excaliber and I was hoping Gold Standard would end up saving this break. The cards are great looking, I love them, especially the color parallel prizms. I really overestimated the value of a Jahlil Okafor Red Prizm because I thought that was one of the better pulls of the box as he was a top rookie last season, but the ones I saw didn't even sell for 5 bucks. The jersey card was of Steph Curry and I like the design, but it's the dreaded plain white swatch..borrrrrring lol. Although Josh Richardson is intriguing, he's not even close enough to save this break. Not gonna sugar coat it...awful break, but the cards look fantastic. I least they feel premium. A few pics from the break






So now onto the riskier of the products. Gold Standard. 1 pack, 7 cards, 3 of them hits. I'm really going to need to hit a home run (a baseball analogy for basketball cards, go figure lol) on this box to save the break. How did I do? Well let's see....

Gold Standard
Base Cards
Brandon Knight (37/299)
Allen Iverson (95/299)
Hassan Whiteside (56/299)

AU Parallel
Paul Pierce (#51/79)

STEPH CURRY/KLAY THOMPSON GOLDEN PAIRS DUAL PATCH #12/25 (CURRY HAS A SWEET LOGO PATCH!!)

Myles Turner Patch On Card Auto RC #11/25!!

KRISTAPS PORZINGIS GOLD STRIKE AUTO/JERSEY #56/99!!!

Overall Thoughts: Oh I didn't just hit a home run...I hit a GRAND SLAM!! Gold Standard totally saved the day with all 3 hits being amazing! I was surpried how well the Turner sells, and as you'll see below, the Curry/Klay is STUNNING. To top it off a Porzingis Auto Jersey!! Even getting an Allen Iverson base and Paul Pierce parallel was cool. I have to say, put aside the hits, I love the look of Gold Standard! The cards are gorgeous and the hits are even better looking. I'm the type that quits while ahead so while I'm not gonna chance buying another box of this (I've seen quite a few box breaks, some of them are brutal, lol) I definitely wouldn't mind buying singles of this product off Ebay. Here are pics of the hits!

 
  
 
 

Overall Break Thoughts: The streak continues with a lousy break followed by a great break! The Gold Standard break was truly amazing. Any one of those 3 cards could anchor the break as the best card, so to hit on all 3 was such a cool feeling. That Curry/Klay Dual is so awesome looking. The patches and design just really stand out. There's definitely some changes right off the bat on my top 5 pulls list! I broke 2 boxes of WWE product and 3 Boxes of Topps Stadium Club last week, so tomorrow I'll be posting the review of that!

Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1-Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch
#2-Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey
#3-Kristaps Porzingis Gold Strike Auto/Jersey Rookie Card
#4-Myles Turner On Card Patch/Auto Rookie Card
#5-LeBron James Memorable Materials Jersey Card
 

Box Breaks: (2) 15-16 Prizm Jumbo & (1) 15-16 Excaliber

The thrill of the pull is what make this hobby fun. I think part of the reason I got burned out and bored is because towards the latter stages of collecting I totally abandoned buying boxes. I strictly bought singles off EBay. While of course that makes the most since financially, it also takes the fun out of the unpredictability of ripping boxes! Yes, 9 times out of 10 you won't get near what you pay for the box, but that 10th time...sometimes is a doozy!! So I decided the first purchase I was going to make for my comeback was some good ol' fashioned wax boxes. I went with Prizm Jumbo's because I love refractor type cards and Prizm is the closest thing to refractors in Basketball and Excaliber because...well I honestly don't know why to tell you the truth! Haha! So here are the results!

Prism
Box 1
Autos-Sam Dekker, Cody Zeller

Orange Prizm- Chris Paul All NBA (#55/65)

Purple Prizm-Gerald Green (#09/99)

Light Blue Prizms- Richard Hamilton (#124/199), Trey Burke (#135/199), Marcin Gortat (#61/199)

Silver Prizms- DeMarcus Cousins All Star, Richaun Holmes RC, Elfrid Payton, Derrick Favors, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala, Rudy Gobert, Marcus Morris, Dante Exum, Mike Dunleavy

Flash Prizms- LaMarcus Aldridge, Al Horford, Jeff Teague All Star, Richaun Holmes RC, Jason Terry

Ruby Wave Prizms-Tyler Zeller (#167/350) Zach Randolph (#145/350) Andrew Harrison RC (#235/350)

Emergent- Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Nemanja Bjelica, DeAngelo Russell, Justin Anderson

Fireworks-Russell Westbrook, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony

USA Basketball-Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala

Point Men- Damon Stoudamire, John Stockton

Box 2

Autos-Al-Farourq Aminu, Joe Dumars

Fireworks-Manu Ginobili, Stephen Curry, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving

USA Basketball- Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond

Point Men- Derrick Rose, Magic Johnson

Ruby Wave Prizms- Jordan Hill (#21/350) Mario Hezonja RC (53/350) Brandon Jennings (265/350)

Flash Prizms-Shawn Kemp, Clyde Drexler, Michael Finley, Raul Neto RC

Silver Prizms- Justin Anderson, Joakim Noah, Trey Burke, Markel Brown, Tyler Zeller, Thomas Robinson, O.J. Mayo, DeAndre Jordan All NBA, Evan Turner, Chris Kaman

Emergent- Walter Tavares, Sam Dekker, Kevon Looney, Frank Kaminsky

Light Blue Prizms- Dirk Nowitzki (177/199) Tim Duncan All Star (#181/199) Evan Turner (#72/199) Dikembe Mutombo (#109/199)

Orange Prizm- Lou Williams (10/65)

Overall Thoughts:  This was definitely a fun way to get back into the thick of things. I had a great time sorting through all the cards and getting all tons of different colored Prizm. They don't book for much, but are cool looking nonetheless. The autographs besides the Joe Dumars were pretty lame but an overall fun break that I really enjoyed!

Some scans of the Cards


 




         


Onto the Excaliber box. So the Excaliber box comes with 6 packs, 10 cards per pack and 3 hits. Little bit more risky than the Prizm product, but the price point was still decent so I took a shot and hoped for the best. Here are the hits

Excalibur

Silver Parallel-Paul George (#1/70) Willie Cauley Stein (# to 70)

Jam Fest-KAT, DeAndre Jordan

Team 20/20-Justice Winslow, Nikola Jokic, Willie Cauley Stein

Team Titans-Manu Ginobli, Anthony Davis

Crusade-Karl Malone (#141/199) Mario Hezonja (#57/199) Jordan Clarkson (#42/199)

Memorable Memorabilia- Reggie Jackson, LeBron James

Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey-KARL ANTHONY TOWNS!!!

Overall Thoughts: And this is why I'm back. I was SUPER excited right off the bat to pull an autograph rookie card of the reigning rookie of the year! What a great way to restart collecting. I know jersey cards aren't worth much, but hey if you're going to get one might as well be of King James! The Crusade insert cards are beautiful as well. Not a fan of the base too much, nor the other inserts they seem too bland. I like the product, but bias about the KAT pull aside, I'm never going to buy another box as the cards didn't really wow me much.

Pics of the top two hits




    

So how was the break as a whole. Very fun! The suspense of opening packs and the thrill of pulling something like the Karl Anthony Towns Rookie is what card collecting is all about! One thing I'd like to do after each box break I do, is keep track of my Top 5 Pulls and keep it as a running thing. So without further ado the very first Top 5 Pulls.

#1-Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey
#2-LeBron James Memorable Materials Jersey Card
#3-Joe Dumars Prizm Autographs
#4-Reggie Jackson Memorable Materials Jersey Card
#5-Chris Paul Orange All Star Prizm (#55/65)

Next Review will be my 2 box break of Select and Gold Standard Basketball!

After 5 Years....I'M BACKKKKKKKKK!!!

So after suffering from card burnout and taking a 5 year hiatus from collection (including basically selling everything I had in order to start a game used collection) for reasons beyond me...I got that itch again and a little less than a month decided to "unretire" and re-enter this crazy hobby again! So I'm resurrecting the blog and this is a reboot of sorts as I won't be continuing my Top 150 countdown that I started two years and never finished because so much has changed between then and now anyways. I'll be playing catch up and posting my box breaks (I've already busted 10 boxes of product lol) and EBay pickups I've had over these past few weeks. Let's just say it feels GREAT to back!!