I thought I knew the included inserts and such, but I was puzzled when I opened the box and saw the one card per pack silver wrapper lying on top. I debated whether to open it first or last. That debate didn't go on very long as I quickly opened it to discover this:
Wow, neat...I guess. You see I was never on the Strasburg bandwagon. Yeah his first outing was very impressive, but I guess with being a Braves fan and with Jason Heyward being a rookie and all I just never cared much for Strasburg's stuff. I did pull a Bowman Chrome RC of his earlier this year, but quickly sold it.
Moving on. I ripped a few more packs and then I got these:
Card #661 & #US-274. I read that this card features a different photo from the card released in the Million Card Giveaway program...am I correct? I actually ended up 2 of #661 from this box.
Another handful of packs later and I got the "Merry Stras-mas" checklist card and it's gold parallel.
This is crazy! At this point I haven't even pulled a base card of Jason Heyward, but I've pulled 5 cards of Stephen Strasburg! What gives Topps? I figured I may pull one of Strasburg's Attax code cards since they are one per pack and sure enough I did with a few packs later.
The last Strasburg card I pulled from this box was a Turkey Red insert. I still don't know why I like these cards, but I do and this one is no exception.
I plan on building the base set as well as the inserts again so the base cards & the Turkey Red I'm keeping...but I could care less about keeping the duplicate #661, the gold parallel, chrome refractor or the Attax code card. If you've got any Jason Heyward cards (esp. the chrome refractor) I'm willing to deal.
The box also yielded several good Yo Mama cards and other inserts which were a lot of fun to pull. The box stated one autograph or relic per box, but I ended up w/ 2 All-Star Game relics. Neither were too exciting, but I figured someone out there in blogger land will want to swap for them. Here's a quick break down of the rest of the inserts:
Gold parallels:
#030 Roy Halladay (0370/2010) - Phillies
#068 John Danks (0787/2010) - White Sox
#129 Gregor Blanco (1732/2010) - Royals
#191 Danny Valencia (1118/2010) - Twins
#242 Shelley Duncan (0643/2010) - Indians
#274 Stephen Strasburg & Ivan Rodriguez (1879/2010) - Nationals
All-Star Game Relics:
#AS-MCA Matt Capps (Nationals)
#AS-FC Fausto Carmona (Indians)
Cards Your Mom Threw Out:
#118 John Podres
#124 Lew Burdette
#128 Willie McCovey
#131 Robin Roberts
#145 Lou Brock & Carl Yastrzemski
#158 Frank Thomas
#162 Derek Jeter
#163 Mike Piazza & Ken Griffey Jr.
#165 Barry Zito & Ben Sheets
#169 Jim Thome & Mike Schmidt
#173 Joey Votto
#174 David Price
CYMTO Original Backs:
Nolan Ryan
Legendary Lineage:
#63 Victor Martinez & Carlos Santana
#67 Hank Greenberg & Ike Davis
#68 Mark Teixeira & Logan Morrison
#69 Tom Seaver & Mike Leake
#70 Ernie Banks & Starlin Castro
Million Card Giveaway:
#s 21, 22, 23, 24, 26 (x2), 27 (x2), 30
More Tales of the Game:
#02 Triple Billing
#04 Eddie Matthews - "Homes" of the Braves
#07 Mike Schmidt - Tape-Measure Single
#09 Andre Dawson & Alex Rodriguez - the Last Shall Be First
#11 Warren Spahn - Spahn Spans the Decades
#12 There's No Tying in Baseball
Peak Performance:
#105 John Lackey (x2)
#113 Carlos Santana (x2)
#122 Dallas Braden
Turkey Red:
#103 Jason Heyward
#110 Shin-Soo Choo (x2)
#126 Matt Cain
#134 Rod Carew
#140 Thurman Munson
#146 Duke Snider
Vintage Legends Collection:
#26 Johnny Mize
#31 Babe Ruth
#35 Mel Ott
#36 Ty Cobb (x2)
#39 Roy Campanella
#42 Jackie Robinson (x2)
#43 Johnny Bench
