I haven't forgotten the reason I started the blog...

...baseball cards.  Things around the Hopper household over the last few weeks have been a little hectic and not having hardly any money (read: no money) for new cards A Cardboard Problem's 2011 Topps Finest group break came along at the perfect time.  However many months back when the sign ups first went live I couldn't believe the Braves hadn't been taken so I quickly jumped on the opportunity.  This is the 2nd recent group break where my Braves have been highly successful.  Just take a look!

Refractor #467/549

Bronze Refractor #32/99

Gold Refractor #04/50

Finest Freshmen Purple Refractor #FF010

Finest Moments #FFM11

#459/499

#359/499

#326/499

#056/499

I'm not sure where the ladies got their Finest case from, but I'd swear it came straight from Turner Field.  I also got all of the base cards of the Braves and several duplicates so if any other Braves fans reading this (Silver Slugger, Captain Canuck, Tomahawk Chopping, etc.) need any base cards let me know.

This Julio Tehean card obviously wasn't part of the group break, but I managed to pick it up for only a few bucks.  I also got this awesome David Ross 2011 Topps Update Hope Diamond!

#35/60

Topps Wrapper Redemption

With everything going on in the last month or so I completely forgot about Topps' 2011 hobby wrapper redemption program until I started to see other bloggers post their cards.  I grabbed my stack of wrappers and sent them in to Topps early last week.  Over the weekend I got a small bubble mailer from Topps with one lone shiny silver pack.  I really didn't expect such a quick turnaround, I mean we're talking about Topps here!  Anyhow here is what was inside that wrapper:

#18 Mark Teixeira

#21 Prince Fielder

#24 Dan Uggla

Figures I get this card since I just sent a SASE to the gals @ A Cardboard Problem for the same card!

#39 Aroldis Chapman

#56 Mark Reynolds

The Uggla card will be available for trade if any other Braves fans want it.  The others I'll probably hang onto for the moment.  I would like to pick up or trade for others, but at the moment it's not a huge priority.  Sorry for the lackluster post...it's been a crazy last few days.

A Cardboard Problem Group Break Haul

I was fortunate enough to have claimed the Braves in A Cardboard Problem's recent group break of a case of jumbo 2011 Topps baseball.  In addition to a slew of base cards and a few common inserts I got one of the box "hits" - a Leather Nameplate of Jason Heyward!  I watched the live stream of the break and I was very happy to see the card come out of the pack, but I didn't look at it very closely and I'm not sure others did either.  The package arrived today and after holding the card something just stood  right out.  See you if you notice:

Yup, Topps misspelled Jason's name on both the front and back of the card.  How did they get the spelling right on all his other cards from last year and this year and get it wrong here?  Come on Topps, this ain't Jayson Werth!  Regardless of the goof up it's still a very nice card and I'm happy to add it to the collection.  It ain't the best insert and it seems a lot of collectors just don't care for these manufactured cards Topps keeps releasing.  All I can say is the card looks better in person, but I won't be chasing anymore of these cards.  That said if someone out there has the Prado card let me know.