Wednesday, January 16, 2008

2006 Topps Chrome and Friends

Geez, I sure caused a lot of trouble yesterday. Truth is, I can't open just one pack a day on this blog either. Oh well. This is a three packs for 4 bucks repack I picked up from Wally World on a whim. I couldn't resist the allure of chromey goodness. I'll open that pack first. Along for the ride are retail packs of 2006 Ultra and Topps Updates and Highlights.

2006 Chrome
235 Jeff Francoeur
250 Javier Vazquez
142 Cliff Floyd Refractor
134 CC Sabathia

Freakin' awesome pack. Chrome Frenchy with a Rookie cup starts us off plus there's a refractor. Cliff Floyd is a dang good player, it's a shame he can't stay healthy. Plus the card is shiny! Shiny shiny shiny! The absolute best thing about refractors is that they scan so much better than regular chrome cards. Compare Floyd and Francoeur's scans, it's not even close. This is how good this pack is: CC Sabathia is the AL Cy Young winner and he's the worst card in the pack! How does Javier Vazquez beat Sabathia you ask? The cartoon on the back:

Ok, it's silly, but the "Work" horse made me laugh.

2006 Ultra
88 Carlos Delgado
32 Ben Sheets
248 Lucky 13 Zack Greinke
URS3 Rising Stars Jeff Francoeur
87 Gold Juan Pierre

Woohoo! Another Francoeur! This time an insert that looks like Frenchy is being beamed up to the Enterprise. What's with me and inserts lately? This is a 5 card retail pack, but it still manages to have three inserts in it. The other two aren't as good as Jeff though. The Gold parallel is of much-maligned Juan Pierre who is about to bunt on this card, appropriately enough. There's also an SP of Zack Greinke. I'm kinda bummed by this card because it's a Lucky 13 Rookie card that isn't actually a rookie and it's a card I already have. I don't have that much 2006 Ultra either and I should not be getting SP dupes. Anyone need this card? Beuller? Delgado and Sheets are nice though, but 2 base cards in a pack makes for a difficult set build. Lets see if we can go three for three on Frenchy cards with U&H...

2006 Topps Updates and Highlights
UH39 Zach Day
UH124 Jamey Carroll
UH218 Ichiro AL All Star
MHR108 Mickey Mantle Home Run #108
UH239 Classic Duos Stephen and JD Drew
UH312 Tigers Team Leaders
Checklist 3 of 3

Nope, no Francoeur. He's not even on the checklist card, I checked. That would have counted too. It's a decent pack though, any Ichiro is a good Ichiro. I think I'm going to end up with the entire Mantle Mirror set by accident the way I manage to pull them all the time. Just as 70's and 80's Topps will always be known for their spectacularly bad airbrushing, the Aughts will be known for terrible photoshop. Check out the Drew brothers standing side by side in a sunny field with two different light sources hitting them at the same time that both manage to cast weird wispy shadows behind them. Plus JD looks like he's about to club his unsuspecting bro on the back of the head. Brilliant! Not so brilliant is Topps' inability to get their act together on the numbering on the back. This is one of those pet peeves of mine that I've never gotten around to bitching about, but this is as good a time as any. Check out the numbering for the first three cards in the pack:


Three cards, three font sizes. C'mon, Topps. Pay attention to what you're doing. I'll be watching for this when 2008 comes out...

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