Weekly Trade Bait #9 – Birthday Boxes Week 1 of 11

I’m back with what I hope will be a regular series.  Did you miss the other installments?  Well, you can either scroll down a couple posts or check out the “Trade Bait” link at the top of the blog.  There’s a 1/1, some other low numbered parallels and a few good autos among others in there. Also, stickers!

Before I get into the meat of the post, I wanted to apologize for the lack of updates lately.  I was in New Orleans for a work conference and I planned to have time to write a few posts in my hotel during off hours.  The problem was I didn’t get off hours.  I would work the convention floor until 5, go to work dinners and then come back and do my normal job until it was time to go to bed.  It was fun, but exhausting.

Oh, and the main purpose of the conference was to essentially double my existing workload.  Since I currently work between 8 and 16 hours a day as it is, it’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out.  Anyway, that’ll be the reason for delays for a while.  Either way, I hope to get on a regular weekly schedule with my trade bait posts if nothing else.

On to the good stuff.  This is the first week of packs from my birthday boxes.  I’m opening 1 pack a day and between the four boxes, it will work out to just about 11 weeks worth of cards.  If you don’t see anything that speaks to you this week, just wait, because there will be 10 more installments to go.

I’m actually a little more than 4 weeks into my pack ripping and I can tell you there are some pretty cool things coming up.  Let’s see what I’ve found in week 1

Studio 1

Victor Martinez
Matt Clement
Steve Finley
Curt Schilling Portraits – Zenith B&W Red #/55
Joe Blanton
Rick Ankiel – CLAIMED

Since I still owe Cards on Cards a bunch, I’ll mark them all for him until he tells me otherwise.

Studio 2

Norihiro Nakamura – CLAIMED (GCRL)
Todd Walker
Troy Glaus
Jeff Bagwell Portraits – DK White #/60
B.J. Upton
Jose Castillo

The portraits insert are the main reason I chose this box.  There are butt load of parallels and it’s actually quite confusing to figure out which is which.  Still they look nice. What doesn’t look nice is Jose Castillo.  Would a smile kill you?

UD Piece of History 1

Justin Upton
Carlos Lee
Clay Buchholz
Reyes/Beltran/Delgado/Santana – Franchise Members #/799
Jerry Blevins
Jamestown
California Gold Rush

Shorted a card in the pack….  Not a great start.  Well, it may not be as great as the Buchholz auto that’s still available, but maybe a Red Sox fan will want it.

UD Piece of History 2

Todd Helton
Delmon Young
Travis Hafner
David Ortiz – Timeless Moments #/699
Mitch Stetter
Erick Threets
New York City Subway
Space Shuttle Launch

Well, it’s been a Red Sox heavy week so far.  C’mon champs, who wants ’em?
It looks like we’re going to be seeing two rookies in each pack.  That’s likely to result in a lot of names I’ve never seen before.  What I have seen before is that NYC picture.  I’m pretty sure that was on the wall of a Subway restaurant at one point.

Pinnacle 1

Tim Lincecum
Carlos Quentin
Johnny Cueto
Gio Gonzalez – Museum Collection
Ryne Sandberg – Clear Vision Single
Michael Bourn
Adrian Beltre – CLAIMED
Jeurys Familia

I also owe Play at the Plate quite a bit, so I’m saying all Rangers are his unless he doesn’t need/want them.

Those Clear Vision cards are better in person than they are in the scans.  What a great start to the box.  I like the etching on the Gio, too.

Pinnacle 2

Josh Willingham
Mark Trumbo
Chase Utley
Jay Bruce – Clear Vision Double
Huston Street
Brett Lawrie
Manny Machado

Yay! Possibly the second best rookie in the box, and another clear vision!  I know the Doubles are tougher than the singles, but I don’t know the ratio.  Same for Triples and Home Runs. I hope there are a few more in the box to find out.

Hometown 1-1

Rickey Henderson
David Eckstein – CLAIMED
Cleon Jones
Matt Williams
Matt Harvey
Teddy Higuera
Jerome Walton
Juan Samuel

This box is going to be fun.  Each pack has 24 cards with a bunch of fan favorites.

Hometown 1-2

Vince Coleman – CLAIMED
Mariano Rivera
Brooks Robinson
Evan Gattis
Asdrubal Cabrera
Dusty Baker – CLAIMED (GCRL)
Rob Dibble
Johnny Ray

I like the RC logo inside the baseball.

Hometown 1-3

Chipper Jones – Hometown Heroes
John Kruk – State Parallel
Rick Dempsey – City Hall
Robin Ventura – CLAIMED (GCRL)
Frank Viola
Vinny Castilla
Reggie Jackson
Dwight Gooden

What a Gooden way to end the pack and the week.  As you can see, just about everything here is up for grabs and the next 10 weeks will bring more of the same.  Stay tuned!

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