Saturday, February 14, 2015

The Nachos Grande Group Break Results Are Here

I have not participated in a group break for some time.  It was time to change that with the case break that Nachos Grande was hosting.  A whole jumbo case of 2015 Topps.  This break, unlike some others in the past, was really kind to me.

Up first are some random cards from Topps Chipz, some custom A&Gs, and some 1990 Donruss puzzle pieces:
The Chipz are of Clay Buchholz and Mike Napoli.  The Napoli is some sort of parallel.  I have never had one of these before.  I actually kind of like them.  The Napoli is clearly airbrushed, Boston does not typically wear that bright of blue.

The A&Gs are both custom Munnatawket cards.  I am not sure of the story behind them, but it is a damn good job.  The Pedroia caught me by surprise because it looked so real.  They feel real too.  Of course Mr. Reed there is our own Nachos Grande.  This is an autograph here.  It better be worth something someday.

The last two are puzzle pieces of Yaz from 1990 Donruss.  I need to go through some day and figure out how many of these I have.  Maybe some day I can put this puzzle together.

Those are most of the extras, now let's look at the 2015 Series One team set:
I am very excited about my first Rusney Castillo card.  He is going to be one of the more fascinating players in Boston this year.  A lot of the other players here are rookie cards.  Ranaudo has already been traded to the Rangers for Robbie Ross.  Barnes and Escobar could become fixtures in the bullpen in time.  There is a nice shot of Cespedes here sliding into home.  I am happy he made it into the base set because he has already been traded away.  I already have the Bogaerts but I wanted to show off the entire team set.  Buchholz and Napoli are both mainstays on the team.
I love the action shot of Jackie Bradley Jr.  I love his defense, but he just has not hit in the Majors.  Bryce Brentz is yet another rookie card.  Brentz will not last on the team.  I already had Nava as well.  Pedroia is healthy again this year and should have a nice season.

The team set is kind of underwhelming this year.  Series One usually is.  There are a lot of rookie cards and younger players who likely will not last in Boston.  Pedroia is the only real star here.  The photos are decent, particularly Bradley and Cespedes.

Now for the inserts:
The first three are all parallels.  A Gold Buchholz and two foil cards of Nava and Napoli.  I am not sure of the purpose behind most of the rest of these, but I can't argue with the player selection.  Four Ted Williams cards and a David Ortiz.  I am excited about the Cespedes because there will not be too many more Red Sox cards of him.  Unfortunately I did not get any of the awesome Gallery of Greats cards.  Night Owl got something like four.
Here we have Meb Keflezighi, who won the Boston Marathon and threw out a first pitch.  The Manny is an extra that Chris threw in.

Now we come to the biggest hit of the break for me:
For the first time, a group break landed me a relic.  This is a terrific jersey card of Pedroia.  I almost never get relics out of packs at all, much less group breaks.  This was a very successful break for me.  Thanks Chris!

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