I Caved At Trade Night

So, BigHit Sports Card in Spanish Fort, AL is awesome. I've mentioned them a lot and well they did their trade night last night. They only did one Pack War for baseball, and it was 2012 of course. So as I sat there watching everyone open their jumbo boxes and hobby packs, I did what I said I wouldn't do. I threw down $10 for a jumbo pack. They handed over one jumbo and I took my seat to open them and wallow in my shame...

Here's the highlights from the base cards I pulled:

 Ok, I gotta admit, the photography on this year's set is AMAZING. Sure there are plenty of the standard "pitchers pitching" and "hitters hitting" shots but they've done an amazing job catching a bunch of guys in action. Brian over at Play At The Plate is going to love this set, as I got several cards highlighting a play at the plate. I like the Cardinals WS Champ card mainly because it's awesome to see Berkman finally get a ring, of all the good guys in baseball, he definitely deserved a ring.

And of course here are the regular vertical cards. Again, great photography. That Kotteras card is awesome.

Here are the inserts that I got (of course with a jumbo I also go a golden giveaway code card as well)...

I was geeked to get the Nolan Ryan. Do I love those mini cards? Yes, yes I do. Will I buy a bunch of packs in order to get them all, no way. They may be worth an investment for a complete set at some point but no way I'd hand collect them.

Oh yea, I miraculously pulled this beauty:

Ok, so for as much crap as I give Topps for being lame with this "game-changer" of a set, they really knocked it out of the park with this manu-set (and heck, all their manu-sets to be honest)! AWESOME! And check out the black felt behind the pin, an addition they didn't really have to make but it makes the card even better. These pins are going to be highly collected, I feel. They look great, are numbered and typically have a superstar on them. The guy next to me pulled a Willie Mays pin card. The guy next to him got a Reggie Jackson Ring Top out of his jumbo box. Those Ring cards are ridiculously awesome as well. Topps did well with their manu-relics this year, made them worth collecting and worth the "third" hit that comes from a jumbo box. I'll give credit where credit is due.

And while we're here, I also got entered in the door prize contest just for showing up. My ticket got pulled and I ended up winning this:

In the lower right corder there, that white rectangle is a piece of jersey certified to have been worn by Barry in the 2002 season during a game. The card is from Flair and the picture is of Barry becoming the "All-Time Home Run King". A nice framed piece of memorabilia. Not sure if I'm going to hang onto this one or not. If there's a Giants fan out there who would just LOVE to have it, please feel free to make me an offer. If not, I'll just hang it on the wall next to the other non-Astros memorabilia I have up there... seriously, HUGE Astros fan, my man cave walls have a poster of Babe Ruth, autographed picture of Nolan Ryan as a Ranger, and Nolan's 1978 Topps Record Breaker card as an Angel autographed and framed. I need to work on this...