$10 (only spent $8) twitter challenge.

So here is my entry to the $10 local card shop twitter challenge.  The goal is to try to to get the best card or cards for $10 from your local card shop.  I ended up going to Price's sports cards in Greendale, WI. So here's what I ended up getting for $8 after I had pulled $10.25 worth of cards from the boxes. 

Not shown is the $.25 Allen and Ginter's panda card my son wanted. 

1998 Collectors Choice Reserve Steve McNair, 2010 Topps Sterling Prince Fielder 003/250, 2010, Topps Peak Performance Nick Swisher jersey, and 1980 Topps Tomjanovich, Johnson, Collins. 

1995 Leaf Alex Rodriguez Gold Leaf Rookie, 1998 Sky Box Thunder Ken Griffey Jr. Boss '98, 2001 Bowman Heritage Phil Rizzuto , 1975 Topps Mini Mets team card, 2000 Fleer Ultra Diamond Mine Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken Jr. 

2004 Bowman Chrome Gio Gonzalez autograph and Refractor autograph. 2009 Topps Allen and Ginter's Max Scherzer autograph.

Diamond Giveaway Contest winners.

Congrats to the following posters who won one Topps Diamond Giveaway code.


82RedBirds
White Sox Cards
Rob-AKA "VOTC"
HockyGuy


Congrats to the winners.  Codes have been emailed out or DM on twitter. 

3 boxes of 2009-10 SP Authentic Hockey. 1 super box.

Just got back from the shop and had an itch to bust some hockey. They where all out of 2010-11 products so I got a deal on some 2009-10 that was sitting there.
First two boxes yielded these:

The Simon Gagne has on real bad corner. I'm not sure if it's too late to send back for a replacement.

The last box was super!

Spring training is here! Lets give out some free stuff!

In celebration of the start of Spring training I'm going to be giving away 3 Topps Diamond Giveaway codes to 3 lucky winners.
All you need to do to enter is, comment on this post with what is your all time favorite Topps Baseball card is.
I'll pick three random winners on February 21st.

2011 Topps Baseball pack break.

I finally got around to opening some 2011 Topps Baseball packs. I really like the base design this year.  The white borders look real crisp and the players names are easy to read in silver foil.  The other thing I like about the base design is that the numbers are large and easy to read on the back. If you every make up sets you know that sometime the numbers can be hard to read.  I'm not sure why out of the cards I pulled there are two Mike Stanton cards. As far as I can tell they are the same with just a different picture.

The star of this year's set has to be the Platinum Diamond Anniversary cards. This has to be the card set of the year. They are awesome looking in hand and definitely have a 90's insert vibe.  

Another great insert set is the Kimball Champions set. It is a (so far) 50 card mini sized set.  I think I'm going to attempt to build this one. They have great images on them and the set features a solid list of HOF'ers and current stars. The only bad thing with the 4 I hit was that 2 got caught in the pack sealer and got crimped.

Another new insert set for 2011 is Vintage Reproductions set.  Topps is going back and reprinting some of the great old cards from some of the all time great baseball card issues.

Replacing the Topps Million Card giveaway card this year are the Diamond giveaway cards.
Topps Diamond Giveaway site.
I ended up getting 3 of them but will have to wait until the site gets up and running later this month.

I was also lucky enough to get a Don Mattingly jersey in one of the last packs I opened.  Nice designed card. I'm not sure I like the dark boarders of it but it could grow on me.

Also remember to save your hobby wrappers for the announced series 1 wrapper redemption program.

Sets or technology I miss

I've been slowly digging through some real old binders and boxes of card from high school and college and  started to reminisce on how cool some of the sets where back then.  I'll add more when I stumble upon them.

Pacific Omega

Pacific always tried out different things and pushed the boundaries of card technology when they where in business.  I always though cards where more fun when they where around.

Donruss Igniters insert set

Just a sharp looking insert set. Great color and photography with embossing on the front. And only numbered out of /5000!

Upper Deck Ice McDonalds

I really think Upper Deck should go back and make Ice an all acetate set again.

Groundhog's day 2010 Bowman Platinum 6 box case break.

I picked up the case fairly cheap last week.  I had only ripped one box previously so I didn't really know what to expect. The case really reminded me of the Bill Murray classic Ground Hog Day. It seemed I was opening the same box over and over again.  OK, not really but when you see the scans you'll understand.