I'm in a crazy mood this week, so like my Bowman Draft pack I'm going to try something different on this pack as well. I've already got a big chunk of this set (255 out of 330 cards) and I'm now regretting just not getting a factory set. As an experiment, I shall rip this randomly selected Target pack of Updates & Highlights and see just how many cards I have already. By doing this I hope to prove how useless it is to open packs to try to complete a set. This better work out, because I'm counting on this experiment to justify all the oddball basketball and hockey and otherwise packs I bought to open the next couple of weeks. Let the experiment begin!
Card 1: 142 Jeremy Guthrie - HAVECard 2: 195 Marcus MacBeth RC - HAVE
Card 3: 130 Eric Gagne - HAVE
Card 4: 206 Tom Glavine Highlights - HAVE
Card 5: 176 Kurt Suzuki RC - HAVE
Card 6: Carlos Carrasco/Chris Denorfia error - HAVE *
Card 7: Dustin McGowan - HAVE
Card 8: MMLB-9 Mickey Mantle Life in Baseball insert - Hey, I ain't got one of these...
Card 9: ARHR380 Alex Rodriguez Home Run Foolishness - Sinead O'Connor said it best
Card 10: 280 Crawford & Guillen Classic Combos - HAVE
Card 11: 299 Edinson Volquez - Hey! I need this one! Woohoo!
Card 12: 234 Francisco Rodriguez All Star - Need this one too!
Ok, the inserts kind of blew my argument there even if one was a waste of space card. Still, the point remains that of the 10 base cards I got, 80% were doubles. Considering I already had 85% of the set, that's actually pretty good. Once you get a certain percentage of cards in a set buying random packs will likely only get you a bunch of doubles - or worse, the dreaded double pack... So trade with others or buy up the singles that you need and you'll have more money left over for other wax. Like hockey packs that you would never ever have bought otherwise... hrm, bad example. Well, I'm doing this all for science, and it's really more of a guideline anyway.
* Hey Topps, why wasn't this error card fixed, huh? Why? Its a pretty blatant error you know... Why not this one, Topps? You fixed the Joba card, why not this one? Huh, Topps? I thought you only did one print run and couldn't fix errors at all? How did Joba get fixed? Why not this one? Why, Topps, WHY?
That's a good theory, but unless your local shop carries commons for anything after 1990 in significant quantities, good luck finding those last few. Especially if it's not the current year's issue. At least I have trouble finding people that are interested in commons and not the hot GU hits...
ReplyDeleteIs it no wonder people are trading online?
ReplyDeleteI did post about my Many, Many Doubles on my blog, so I know your pain about it. However, in my first pack, I got a Prince Fielder game-used jersey card. I should have known enough to stop there.
Just curious, but how many of those Target-exclusive Mickey Mantle cards are there?
ReplyDeleteWhoops, I just saw this tonight... There are 10 cards in the Target Mantle set. They are random in packs, (I think 1 in 4) and there are 3 and 6 card bonus packs in the blasters.
ReplyDelete