Sunday, August 30, 2015

Another one down for the base set

Today's card is a nice card of Matt Forte, RB for the Chicago Bears. I thought I'd showcase the Spx Rookie card that I have of his since it's always fun to pull a base of players where you've already got some cool autograph of. I'm now up to 15% of the base set and I have about 5% of the rookie autographs all from a cheap auction where someone had listed some no-name players a while back for around a dollar a card. Sadly that's about the price you can expect to pay for many of these autographed cards (or happily if you're a buyer completing the set).

On another note I'm really enjoying all of the Topps Digital card apps that you can play on your phone. I'd say the thrill of opening packs in the Bunt, Huddle or Star Wars Trader apps is nearly as fun as opening a real pack and you can do it for free which adds to the appeal. They even have a soccer player card app and I'm on all of them collecting my daily reward and busting packs. If you have not tried it I highly recommend checking any of these apps out to see what suits you.



Matt Forte Spx Rc /599 #171 (from my finished 2008 SPX set)


2014 Topps Chrome Matt Forte #46 (Base set 15% complete)



Saturday, August 29, 2015

3 more base cards for the set..

To keep it short and sweet here's 3 more base cards for the 2014 Topps Chrome Base set. All of these are vets so they fall within the first 110 cards. I'm slowly building up the base set from the group break I did in January but I'm coming to the end of the cards that I got from that one. There will be some nice rookie and base inserts to get added in a few days or so. Once I add these I will purchase box 2 so I'll always have a ton of cards in the pipeline even with all the duplicates.






2014 Topps Chrome Base cards, Jordan Reed # 4, 
Jordan Cameron #69 and DeMarco Murray #110


 Base set 14.45% complete

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

2014 Topps Chrome Blake Bortles RC Auto Challenge (new Base card)

      Today's card features a player that I don't have any autographs of. He was a rookie in 2008 and I did complete the 08' Spx set but it didn't feature this future star player. He was a part of National Treasures (a horridly overpriced brand that I don't understand the draw for) but also Contenders. They don't go for huge money but they are pretty cool. I wasn't even sure if Garcon had any RC autos or not.

I realized my calculations on the base card percentage completion rate were off, each card is not = .5% exactly, it's about .45% so over time the percentage gets thrown off. Got some cool cards in the mail today but I don't have any doubles yet so they won't come to light for a while.



2014 Topps Chrome # 18

Base Set 13.18% complete

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

2014 Topps Chrome Blake Bortles RC AU Challenge (base card added!)

Today's card is a Super Bowl winning QB and someone who plays the opposite of Peyton Manning. In the regular season he's very average but when the playoffs come he performs really well. I heard it said of Manning that he's the best regular season QB of all time but once playoff time comes he turns into Rex Grossman. I'd have to say that's pretty accurate as much as I enjoy watching and collecting Manning. Maybe some day Flacco's cards will be more valuable as he's got more chances to add to his ring count. More valuable than Manning? Maybe a stretch. It's always fun adding a base card of a player that you have an autograph of. Here's my Flacco Auto RC from 2008 Spx (I completed this set in 2012).

Here's the base card for my 2014 Topps Chrome base set. Nice photo on this one!


2014 Topps Chrome Joe Flacco # 6

Base set completion 13%

Monday, August 24, 2015

New base card (Blake Bortles 2014 Topps Chrome RC AU Challeng)

Hey guys, here's another installment of my "card of the day" feature, one that will one day culminate perhaps in a RC Autograph of Blake Bortles. After viewing over 75 boxes being opened on YouTube through various sources I finally spotted one that was pulled. This confirms my belief that this will be very difficult to pull myself. By that same token I've seen some of the garbage that's coming out now (Yah, I'm talking about you 2015 Panini Certified) and I really don't mind just opening this product for months and years to come. It's difficult to find boxes at 35 dollars which is what I think the true value should be but when you have to tack shipping on that is what's partially responsible for this. Tonight's card was one of 2013's top hobby kings if 2013 had one. Look at some of the guys that were hot in 2013 like Geno Smith and Montee Ball and most everyone's on the COLD list with the exception of Eddie Lacy from the Packers. Tavon Austin still has some potential but since WR get no hobby love this is little more than eye candy for Rams fans.


2014 Topps Chrome # 57 Tavon Austin

12.5 % of base card set complete



Sunday, August 23, 2015

3 more cards getting closer! (Blake Bortles RC AU Challenge)

Here are a few more sweet cards, 2 more for the base set as well as one insert. The base cards bring my total up to 12 % complete (base set) and the insert brings me up to 10 % complete for the "Fantasy Focus" set. I had a couple already added, the Tom Brady and a Jason Witten, so this makes it 3/30 cards. Even the insert sets look really nice here. I will enjoy adding the Broncos cards as well as some of the top players like Adrian Peterson.

In terms of viewing box breaks on YouTube I'm up to 40 boxes and I have not seen a single Bortles Autograph surface. The two best cards I saw broken online were one in a case break where CardsInfinity pulled a Jordan Matthews /25 black refractor autograph and a single box break where a guy pulled a Sammy Watkins pink /75. The difference between the main set and the Topps Chrome Mini is readily apparent. People cracking the mini version are getting far more colored autos and are not getting skunked very often on the autograph that they pull. As Adam Gellman said in his blog, mini is what Topps Chrome should have been.

Enjoy the daily cards and I'll be posting soon! I appreciate everyone that takes time to read my ramblings and pulls; this is the most fun project I've thought of in a while!


2014 Topps Chrome #45 A.J. Green (base set 11.5 % complete)


2014 Topps Chrome # 72 Jamaal Charles (base set 12 % complete)


2014 Topps Chrome "Fantasy Focus" #FF-DM (Insert Set 10% complete)





Thursday, August 20, 2015

11 % of Base card set complete (2014 Topps Chrome Blake Bortles RC AU Challenge)

Today's card is 2014 Topps Chrome # 55 Josh Gordon of the Browns. This brings me another card closer to the base card set completion date and another card for the master set.

As I've researched the elusive Bortles card I'm seeing just how short printed it really is. So far I've watched a total of 30 boxes broken on YouTube and have not seen a single one pulled; I'll continue to keep track of this as I have time to watch the videos. I see how over produced the cases really must be because there are very few color autographs that are being pulled, even just the refractors that are numbered to 150. I usually see about 1 sepia card per case so by this math we see that 99 * 220 (the total number of base cards) = 21780 we can probably surmise that there were close to 22,000 cases of this product made, or around 250,000 boxes. Seems crazy but this would explain the difficulty the average collector has in pulling anything good from these packs.




2014 Topps Chrome # 55 Josh Gordon

Group Break January 2015

Base set 11% complete

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Card for the day (2014 Topps Chrome #187 RC AU Blake Bortles Challenge)

Today's card is another base card but by the same token another card closer in the master set and another .5% complete in the base set. If you're a Colts fan this one oughta shake you up as it's just one the best WR to put on the horseshoe. This comes from the 3 team break I did in January. I can't get that excited about a base card anymore (I'm sure many of my readers feel the same way) except for the relevance that it holds to completing a set. I do also enjoy pulling any Broncos even if they are base cards, ESPECIALLY Peyton Manning. Base rookies are pretty cool to because those sometimes hold their value. Just look at the 2005 Aaron Rodgers Topps Chrome base RC which often fetches 50.00 or more now. And to think, when the product first came out it was a 3.00 card. I've got 25 more of these cards from my group break, some base and some refractors to show off and add before the first box gets underway.


2014 Topps Chrome Reggie Wayne #14

10.5 % of base set complete

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Another base card down, now at 10% of the base set! (Blake Bortles RC Auto Challenge)

Today's card is 2014 Topps Chrome # 2 Cecil Shorts who now sports a new uniform for the Houston Texans. Reports out of camp say he's a legitimate #2 receiver (but we knew that right?) along DeAndre Hopkins. I'd say the Jaguars were crazy to let this talent go but their front office has never exactly been on top of things. This is one of the guys who could have helped Bortles' stat line this season and perhaps made my chase card more valuable. In any case I'm already up to 10% of the base set just from some throwaway base cards from the group break. Many more to follow. I've made up a couple of rules and thoughts for this challenge as well.

1) No group breaks. I feel like getting into some Jaguars group breaks may be much easier but at the same time it wouldn't be as challenging and I am sure I will see many MANY sets completed for my Topps Chrome master set before this feat is complete.

2) If I pull a double (which will happen quite a bit with base cards as time goes along, maybe even some inserts) I will pull another card from the box. If that card is a double as well I'll add a different card to this blog that's been stored away in my "vault" of cards which includes box breaks, sets and team breaks over the years.

3) I know this can go on for quite some time. Could literally be years. It cheers me up to see box breaks posted online that are 15 + years because it means I will probably be able to find boxes many years down the line for this project.


2014 Topps Chrome # 2 Cecil Shorts
From Group Break January 2015
Base set 10% complete

Monday, August 17, 2015

Today's base card from 2014 Topps Chrome

Today's card is a beauty, I love the photography on this particular card. This is the 21st card that I have, the base set totals 220 cards. Last year I purchased the 2013 Topps Chrome set outright and usually this would be the way to do it. I will most certainly end up with many sets over and will sell some to buy more boxes as this challenge goes along. Heck I may have several refractor sets complete; I have no illusions to how hard this challenge is going to be. I certainly don't mind opening box after box of Topps because after this year it will be gone for who knows how long.




2nd card of Challenge (From Group Break Jan. 2015)

2014 Topps Chrome #87 Luke Kuechly 

9.5 % of base set completed

Sunday, August 16, 2015

New Challenge Card!

Randomly choosing an autographed card, I landed on one that will get me excited to find it and a method that will get me much closer to the thrill of opening packs. The card in question is 2014 Topps Chrome #187 Blake Bortles Autograph as pictured here.


The method I've chosen is to try to pack pull it. I know this could be quite a difficult endeavor but this will make for a real challenge. Once I've pulled it I will move on to a different autographed football card. I will only post new cards that I don't have to the blog and as I list them I'll post the percentage of the total complete set that the new card brings me to. I purchased a box today from Ebay for around $44.00 so that's a good start. I did a group break earlier this year in which I got the Cowboys, Bills and Patriots as well as about 30 base cards. I've added some of those to my collection already but still have some to add. I think this will be fun and perhaps frustrating at times since this particular card is considered a short print in a bloated autographed checklist.


First card of the challenge (2014 Topps Chrome #1 Frank Gore)
Base set completion (9.09 %)
From group break January 2015