30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Boatload of Blasters

Back in August, I opened up two blasters of Allen & Ginter and pretty much had my fill of the product.  But that's the thing about addiction.  There's temptation hiding behind every corner.  This time temptation took the form of a bargain too good to pass up.

Two weekends ago, Target had 2018 Allen & Ginter blasters on sale for $12.49 each and I happened to be sitting on a 20% off coupon.  If that weren't enough... Target Redcard holders get an additional 5% off every order.


I ended up grabbing six blasters.  The damage after factoring in taxes was $62.22 delivered.

The bargain hunter in me knows that even at that price, I can add a really nice autograph or vintage hall of famer to my collection.  But the collector addicted to busting packs convinced me this was too good of a deal to pass up.  The question is whether or not I made the right decision.


Well... it's no surprise that I didn't pull $62.22 worth of cards.  I knew that going into this purchase.  The four stacks at the top of the photo are the base cards sorted by hundreds.  Haven't decided if I'm going to build the set or not.  At the bottom are the minis and the inserts.  I was happy to see at least 5, maybe even 10 cards that will eventually be entered into my Player PC Binders.

My favorite was this mini of Roberto Clemente:


In addition to the inserts and minis, I also pulled three decent rookie cards:


Unfortunately... I didn't pull a single Ohtani out of the 48 packs.  No Andujars either.

On the flipside... I did manage to pull this nice Paul Goldschmidt framed autograph:


After factoring in this autograph and the entertainment value, it makes things a little less painful.  And as crazy as this sounds... waking up on a Sunday morning knowing full well that there are a boatload of blasters waiting for you to tear into was practically worth the purchase price alone.  It brought back childhood memories of waking up early on Christmas morning.

Well that's it for today.  In addition to these six blasters, I also purchased a few 2018 Sportkings blasters that I'll open up eventually.  Plus I have a bunch of Black Friday boxes that are still sitting in my office as well, so stay tuned.

Until then...

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

15 comments:

Bubba said...

I'd say you did fairly well! The Goldy auto is probably $20-$30. Ginter commands an obscene premium for stars' autos.

Chris said...

I always struggle with the dilemma of spending that kind of money on retail blasters vs. one high-end single. But that is a great price and the important thing is you enjoyed ripping these. Plus you got a great Goldschmidt auto.

RunForeKelloggs said...

Did you get cards on Christmas? That never happened when I was a kid.

The Lost Collector said...

Not bad! The Gold is a pretty good pull. Hard to beat blasters for $10 each...even if it is Ginter!

Nick Vossbrink said...

As someone who doesn't rip packs for the pulls I'd say that if you had $60 worth of fun then you got your money's worth. Meanwhile I need to muster the courage to not look at the per-card price of things and start saving my money for higher-priced singles.

night owl said...

Yikes. I could never let myself live down 60 bucks on blasters. And to get a D-back auto, ugh.

Greg Zakwin said...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1950-Menko-Japan-F-Fujimura-5S-BCCG-9-MINT/183535174797?hash=item2abb8c848d:g:Q7EAAOSwsPNb69ud:rk:34:pf:0

SumoMenkoMan said...

Wow, almost half off, yeah, you almost can’t pass that up. The thrill of opening packs is worth some of that purchase price.

Matt said...

Ouch. Retail hurts. At least you got an autograph. There are some products like Ginter I try to avoid in retail knowing the painful reality that they are tough to get anything from. Always stick to shiny :)

Matt said...

The thrill of opening packs is the simplest of joys among card collectors...

Hackenbush said...

Glad you enjoyed the experience and the Goldie card is pretty nice. I'm tempted to open something from my stash. I was just looking the other day at a box full of about 100 packs I picked up cheap at a store that was closing . It's a hodgepodge of baseball football wrestling soccer GPK and Wacky. It has a blaster+ worth of Ginter. And I looked at a picture of my main stash. Too bad you can't have your cake and eat it too. So far I still have the whole cake. Maybe I can have a small slice.

Fuji said...

matt stupienski - very little buyer's remorse this time around (thanks to goldy).

chris - it's not usually a struggle for me. 98% of the time i'd choose the single. it's just that these blasters were so cheap.

runfore kelloggs - if i did it wasn't very memorable. i just loved waking up and knowing there were tons of presents waiting for me under the tree. it was a great feeling

the lost collector - yeah. ginter used to be one of my favorite products. not so much anymore.

nick vossbrink - the past few years i've made the transition from quantity to quality. but obviously i take a few steps back from time to time

night owl - lol. i do it, so you don't have to ;)

greg zakwin - missed out on that. love me some menkos though

sumomenkoman - yeah... wish there was a way to put a price on the enjoyment we get from ripping into packs

sport card collectors - yeah... chrome was my favorite blasters to open this year.

matt - agree 100%

hackenbush - take a slice! they were put on this planet for you to enjoy.

Josh D. said...

I saw the SportKings blasters at Target, but didn't pull the trigger. Looking forward to seeing what you got.

Jafronius said...

Didnt have anymore A&G at my Target but I would have gotten one at that price if it was there. 6 though may be pushing it for me.

Fuji said...

josh d - i'm looking forward to busting them open & hopefully building a base set. always enjoyed the design

jafronius - i've been told i sometimes go overboard