FOUR 2011 Topps Value Boxes

This was a pretty big deal for me, considering I haven’t opened anything at all in over a year & a half. I used to open everything I could get my hands on, but after getting involved with online trading/selling/buying it seemed so much more cost efficient to simply buy the cards I wanted instead of opening tons of new product and try to get lucky and pull something I actually wanted. I did really well with that, and then the other day I got the itch. I was making a routine stop at Wal-Mart and checked out the card aisle,..I’ve done this many times over the past year or so and just left empty-handed each time. This time, after looking around I decided to try my luck at one of the Value Boxes. I had seen quite a few of these breaks around the interwebs and a couple people have gotten pretty lucky. I figured with the two guaranteed Diamond Giveaway Codes to recoup some of the cost right away, I’d take a stab at it and try to pull something nice or at least get some trade-bait out of it.

The first one I opened didn’t have anything too special to note, but in addition to the two guaranteed Diamond Giveaway Cards, I pulled another two and immediately sold the codes for $11. Boom. $4 Dollar purchase. That was just gas to fire, if I could end up (technically) only spending $4 for 7 packs of cards, and one of the legends refractors, I was all over it!

I had to make another stop at good ol’ Wally World a couple days later and bought all three of them that they had left, here’s the damage (of all four boxes combined) :

Kimball Champions Minis

Legend Refractors, a whole lotta Babe.

Shiney (or maybe sparkley?)

Diamond Duos

History of Topps

Topps 60

60 Years of Topps. I got a 1981 Andre Dawson too, but he didn’t fit on the scanner with the rest of them and wasn’t important enough to get its own scan. This insert set kinda seems like over-kill to me after the Cards Your Mom Threw Out insert set just last year.

My lone gold card. If these are a much harder pull this year (1:17 packs retail) but they are still numbered at the same rate, does this mean Topps Flagship was even more mass produced?

Topps Town, Topps Town, anddd more Topps Town. At least they aren’t nearly as big of an eye sore as the past couple years.

What is this thing? At first sight, I thought it was a 60 Years of Topps Original Back, but it’s not a Topps card.. It’s a 1932 Caramel. It is on a cardboard cardstock, very much like a Goudey feel.

And now onto the Heritage. The inserts.

The short prints.

Lastly, a Rickie Weeks Chrome Refractor. This card was a little bit of a tease, it came in the very last pack I opened and when I peaked into the pack I thought I had something big. Oh well, I’m not complaining.

I’ve got a sale pending for the final 8 Diamond Giveaway Codes for $24. That would make a total of $35 back on a $60 purchase. Not too shabby if ya ask me.

Everything from the breaks are for trade, I don’t have a particular interest in this year’s base set and if I’m going to collect it I think I’ll just go for the factory set. I’ll try to get a list of base from both sets added to the Trade List tab at the top of the page here after a while.