Ain't No Break Like a Nacho Break

Last year, our principal decided to take advantage of the modified school schedule the school board gave us. He took the Wednesdays we suddenly had with no students in the building and instituted "Nacho Wednesday." Every Wednesday, we had Crock Pots full of nacho cheese sauce and bags of tortilla chips in the faculty room. I will never pass up nacho cheese. Seriously, my wife once bought me a #10 can of nacho cheese from Costco as a Valentine's gift. Thanks to Nacho Wednesdays at work, my wife has started to refer to my growing belly as my "nachos." I'm not complaining. I'm also not complaining that this year--though we're back to a normal schedule--the principal decided to keep Nacho Wednesday. So I sit here writing this post after taking a nacho break. Hence, the topic of my post today: Nacho(s Grande) Breaks.

I haven't done many team breaks of late because I've been more focused on different aspects of my collection lately. Well, that and it seems like the Cubs are already taken whenever I see Nacho's posts. But I got in on his recent Chrome break and asked him to send the stack that I had reserved for who knows how long.

There were only four Cubs in that box. Two of them were two different refractor types of Brailyn Marquez. Marquez only has 2/3 inning pitched in the Majors, in which he gave up 3 walks, 2 hits, and 5 earned runs. But, hey, these cards are cool! He was also the 6th youngest player in the NL this season, according to Baseball-Reference, so there is time for some growth and development.

 

At one point, I also bought into a 2020 A&G break from Chris.

I love these non-base cards from that break The Longball Lore set is especially appealing to me. I also picked up the Brewers in this break, so if you are interested in a Christian Yelich Longball card or a couple of Milwaukee minis, I have some for trade.

And I got the Cubs from this year's Heritage, imitating the funky 1972 Topps set. This is the problem with collecting Cubs right now: only three of these players still play their home games at Wrigley Field--and one of these is in a Padres uni on the card. Interestingly, #1 and #2 on the Pitching Leaders card were traded for each other last offseason. And the third won a World Series.

 

A few extra Nacho throw-ins (possibly a Stadium Club break? I can't even remember) brought me these Cubs from yesteryear. A new Kerry Wood is always welcome in my binders.

I feel pretty certain that the only reason I bought into a 2021 Opening Day break was to get one of the last cards I needed for the Outstanding Opening Day insert set. Well, mission accomplished. I have just two more on my wantlist (Giancarlo Stanton and Hank Aaron, if you can help out with that).

Up til now, there hasn't been too much exciting stuff in this haul. Where I really lucked out was the box toppers, where I picked up Javy Baez from both 2020 A&G and 2021 Heritage. That's not too bad! I love this picture, though, with four different sizes of Baez cards. Pretty sweet, I think.

Thanks for the breaks, Chris! Nacho breaks really are the best.

Let's Have a Super Bowl Group Break!

I didn't really set any hobby goals this year, but I do know that I don't want to spend much money on retail this year.  I have a few projects in which the end is near, and I'd rather put my money toward known quantities than gambling on what might be in the pack.  That said, I thought it would be nice to do one more big break before I mostly shut it down for the year.  So I ordered some football boxes and decided to host a group break.

I know most bloggers out there are baseball collectors, so many of you will tune out now, but we're going to do a football break this time as the season winds to an end. 

What will we break?  

We're going to break 3 boxes: 1 hobby box of 2018 Panini Elite and 2 boxes of 2017 Donruss Optic jumbo packs.

Box configuration: 

2018 Panini Elite

• 20 packs, 5 cards per pack
• 2 Autos
• 1 Memorabilia
• 3 Rookies
• 6 Parallels 
• Rookies in the set include Saquon Barkley, Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson Sam Darnold, Josh Allen

2017 Donruss Optic Jumbo

• 12 packs, 12 cards per pack
• 4 Lime Parallels
• Rookies in the set include Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Mitchell Trubisky, Christian McCaffrey, JuJu Smith-Shuster, James Conner

 

How much is it?

Each slot will cost $17, and that includes shipping.

 

What does a slot get me?

 Each slot gets you a choice of your team (first come, first served).  You will also receive another randomized team.  Three boxes, two teams.

I also have some single packs to break as a bonus, and I'm running a little side bonus for the first eight people to sign up.  As of right now, there are eight possible Super Bowl outcomes.  I've assigned each one a number, and the first eight people who sign up will receive a random number to coincide with the outcomes.  If the the first eight slots fill up before this weekend, I will randomize then.  If not, I won't randomize the numbers until right before the breaks.  I'm fully aware that by that time, only two outcomes will be possible.  I'm just trying to get as many people into the randomization as possible.  The lucky winner will receive an extra hit from my collection of the team he/she selected.

Here is the table of the outcomes and the numbers.

 

How do I claim a team?

I'm reserving the Packers for me. There will be 15 other slots, and the 16 remaining teams will be randomized among those who have joined the break.

To claim a slot, comment on this post with the team you want.  I'll update the list as slots fill.  Payment will be taken through Paypal.  To pay, click on the button below.  Be sure to include your team in the comment box.

Team Claimed

Payment will be due within a week of claiming a team.  If I don't get payment, I'll have to open the slot back up for somebody else.

 

When will we break?

I want to break this sometime during Super Bowl weekend.  I will let you know more details as the break fills.

 

Other Rules:

• ALL CARDS will ship.
• Any card featuring multiple teams will be randomized off to one of the people holding a team on the card. 
• Randomization of second team will happen on the day of the break or as soon as all slots fill, whichever comes first.

So, for a little less than a blaster, you will get two teams from three boxes--one hobby, two jumbo packs.  You will also get anything from the single packs.  The first eight to claim a spot will receive a spot in a randomization to a Super Bowl outcome.  The lucky winner there will get one extra hit--of the team they claimed--from my collection.

I'm doing this to have a little fun in the cardboard community.  So let's have some fun!

 Slots

1. Packers-Trevor P (tntcardsstg)
2. Browns-Angus

Group Break Update and 2nd Team Randomization

I've never done a video post before.  Let's try this.

So, we are ready to roll.  We'll break on Thursday!

Spoils from a Pair of Group Breaks

I've gotten in on a couple group breaks hosted by fellow bloggers in the past month.  The first was a break of some 1990s Pacific boxes from Colbey at Cardboard Collections.  The second was a smorgasbord of older and newer boxes (but called a "retro" break) from Nachos Grande.  I selected the Cubs in both.  I have to say, I was pretty satisfied with the results of both breaks.

First up is Colbey's Affordable Group Break of Bilingual Pacific cards.  I was intrigued by this break because I didn't own any 1993 or 1994 Pacific.  They're not bad looking cards, either, and I like the novelty of having both Spanish and English on the card.  It's kind of like the appeal of O-Pee-Chee, but with cards that aren't quite as widespread.

My random second team was the Rockies, which was kind of a tough break because they didn't exist for one year of this break.  Still, I wasn't in it for the random team, so I'm content just to have these new Cubbie additions to my collection.

Here is 1993 Pacific.  This isn't every card I got, but a sampling of some of my favorite North-Siders from that year.  I was familiar with Pacific football from this year, but this set doesn't share too much resemblance with its gridiron counterpart.  In fact, this looks much more like the 1992 Pacific football.  It's a nice, colorful design, and I like it.

And here is the 1994 edition.  I like the team color marbling on the bottom.  Once again, I didn't scan every new Cub, but here are some of my favorites.  Two boxes, two new Gracies for my collection.  I'm not complaining.

I'm not showing the Rockies (which only came in the 1994 variety) because I already have them ear-marked for someone.  I also have some Cubs dupes from this break, so if any of you Cubs collectors have some 1993-94 Pacific-sized holes in your collection, just let me know.

The second break was Nacho Grande's Rockin' Retro Group Break.  Chris broke 7 boxes spanning 20 years from 1997 to 2017.  Once again I picked up the Cubs, receiving the Rays as my random second team.  Once again, it was a team that didn't exist when some of these products were released.  But again, I was content with my Cubs.  Plus, you will see that I got some Rays that fit into my PCs anyway, and one team would have been sufficient with the cards I wound up with.

This was my first look at 1997 Sports Illustrated in hand.  They were much nicer and glossier than I anticipated.  Here is the complete Cubs team set, so no complaints here.

Here is the one insert I got from that box: a mini-poster of Ryne Sandberg.  Good thing I have some page protectors so I can put this in my Cubs binder.

1998 Bowman Chrome came next.  A second Mark Grace from the break, a young Kerry Wood, and a zero-year card for future All-Star Jon Garland.  Old Chrome is usually pretty fun.  I had to look up the Kerry Wood because I wasn't sure if this was a rookie or not.  As it turns out, he had a rookie card the previous year.

Now we have a set that I had never seen before: 2002 Fleer Triple Crown.  Like most Fleer sets from this time period, it is rather simplistic and easily forgettable.  The Moises Alou in this scan may be wearing an Astros uni, but the team is listed as the Cubs, so I got the card for my collection.  One Ray managed to become part of my collection from this box: Ben Grieve, former AL ROY.  The McGriff and Young additions are welcome, as both are underrepresented in my Cubs collection.  Nate Frese spent his entire career in the Cubs organization, but never advanced beyond AAA.  This is the first card I have of him.

Here's some 1998 Gold Label.  Class 1 has a fielding picture in the background, as you can see most of these do.  The Sammy Sosa in the middle is Class 3, and the one on the right is a Home Run Race insert.  Nothing screams late 1990s baseball like an entire insert set featuring players who could break Maris's home run record.  It seems like half the teams in the league had a candidate.  Thank you, steroids.  The Fred McGriff on the bottom is a cool black parallel.  It's hard to see in the scan, but the name and the Gold Label logo on the front are not gold.  That's a nice All-Star Game MVP pickup.

Fast forward 19 years and Chris is breaking a box of NEW Gold Label.  I really liked these cards when I got them, but I was surprised at how thin they were.  I can't complain about the player selection.  Neither can I complain about the fact that not one of these is a Class 1.  That's right; KB and Javy are both Class 2, and Jake is Class 3.  That's pretty lucky, I'd say.  I didn't notice at first, but along the left edge of the cards, the Class is written very faintly.  Here is a close-up of Bryant:

Finally, Chris threw in a blaster of 2016 Donruss Optic.  It was kind of an afterthought, so I didn't think much of it.

I ended up with one base card and one pink parallel that both fit into my collection.  I'm still not impressed with Panini Donruss, even with the Chroming treatment.  But then, Chris made an amazing pull.

Kudos to Colbey, who noticed on the live feed that this was not a facsimile signature.  I thought it was at first.  I just planned on adding a new Schwarber rookie to my collection.  But this is a real, autographed hit!  More than that, it is the black parallel signature.

Yes, Chris pulled an autograph numbered to 25 from a blaster box that he just added to the break at the end, and I got it!  That is astounding luck!  Had I walked away with nothing else, I would have been okay.  But adding this as a cherry on top of the rest of my new acquisitions just made this an incredibly fun, unforgettable break.

I don't always get in on group breaks, but I really enjoy these breaks within our blogging community.  Thanks to Colbey and Nachos Grande for hosting the breaks.  You do a great job, and I appreciate it.