Battle of the Birthday Blasters

When the pandemic hit... blasters started disappearing off of retail shelves faster than hand sanitizer and toilet paper.  Ultimately this didn't really impact me, because I haven't seen fully stocked shelves in the card aisle at my local Targets and Walmarts in years.  In fact... I've written posts about how I'd have to travel to Portland and Vegas to find blasters in the wild.

Recently... I've actually started seeing blasters on Target's website... so I scooped a few up and decided to bust open a box of Gypsy Queen along with a box of Allen & Ginter for my birthday (which isn't actually until tomorrow).

I figured I'd have these two blasters battle it out using the following scoring guidelines that were created to fit my collecting interests:

My original plan was to go pack by pack... but unfortunately these boxes don't have an equal number of packs.  Luckily when you factor in A&G's bonus pack, Gypsy Queen only has one additional card in their blaster... which I assume won't make too much of a difference.

Instead... I'll break down the blasters into the four categories:  base cards, parallels, inserts/short prints, and autographs/relics.

Are you ready to rumble?  Well... it's time.  Fight!

Round 1:  Base Cards

Larkin (+2), Thomas (+5), Smith (-1), Abreu (-2), Javier (-1), Clemente (+2),

Bregman (-1), Spahn (+2), Cole (-2), Banks (+2), and Sanchez (-2)

Allen & Ginter:  +4 Points

Luzardo (+2), Murphy (+2), Olson (+2), Cronenworth (+2), La Stella (-1), White (-1),

Stanton (-2), Bauer (-1), Abreu (-2), Garcia (-2), and Gracia (-1)

Gypsy Queen:  -2 Points

I can't believe I didn't pull a single A's or Padres base card out of my box of Ginter.  The Big Hurt came through though and received points for being both a PC guy and a hall of famer.  His five points made the difference as A&G starts out strong.

Round 2:  Parallels

Perez (+4), Pache (+2), Cole (0), Caldwell (+2),

Parmelin (+2), Carter (+2), Musial (+4), and Bleier (+2)

Allen & Ginter:  +18 Points

Allen & Ginter (Round 1 + 2):  +22 Points

Kaprielian (+4), Moniak (+2), Merryweather (+2),

Mateo (+5), Pujols (+2), Muncy (+1)

Alvarez (+1), and Merrifield (+2)

Gypsy Queen:  +19 Points

Gypsy Queen (Round 1 + 2):  +17 Points

2021 Gypsy Queen Sepia #263 (#'d 06/99)

The Jorge Mateo rookie parallel (#'d to 99) was a cool pull and nice addition to my San Diego Padres PC.  It also helped Gypsy Queen close the gap.  After two rounds, Allen & Ginter holds a five point lead.

Round 3:  Inserts & Short Prints

Freese (+2), Jeter (+2), Urias (+1), Bradley Jr. (+2), Matsui (+0), Berrios (+2),

Blue Spruce (+2), Eclectus (+2), Elephant Seal (+2), Machado (+4),  Adell (+2), and Blue Shark (+2)

Allen & Ginter:  +23 Points

Allen & Ginter (Round 1 + 2 + 3):  +45 Points

Trout (+2) and Bogaerts (+2)

Gypsy Queen:  +4 Points

Gypsy Queen (Round 1 + 2 +3):  +21 Points

Allen & Ginter made it obvious that my point system is flawed.  If I ever do this again, I will reduce the bonus points awarded to inserts and parallels.  These days Topps pretty much inserts two inserts/parallels into each pack of A&G and at least one into each pack of Gypsy Queen.  This gave A&G a huge advantage... which led to a landslide victory.

I was going to give bonus points to the Trout insert, because I really like that card and I only own a handful of his inserts.  But in the end, it wouldn't have made a difference anyways.  If I ever do something like this again, I will probably award points to favorite cards and possibly key rookies.

The final round was cancelled due to zero hits being pulled from these two blasters.  So here's the final score in this year's Battle of the Birthday Blasters:

2021 Allen & Ginter Blaster:  +45 Points

2021 Gypsy Queen Blaster:  +21 Points

As with any box purchased and opened, there's going to be risk involved.  I definitely did not pull what I consider to be $41.54 worth of cards.  However there was value in the entertainment of opening packs and sorting cards.  It also provided cards for future blogger care packages.  So I'm not going to complain about this little birthday present to myself.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Battle of the Blasters

I'm not a fan of spending my hard earned money on blaster boxes... especially when they're not discounted.  Bottom line... even when I have beaten the odds and pulled something rare out of one... I still walk away wondering if I spent my money wisely.

But today is different... because this time I used my student's (actually probably their parent's) hard earned money to buy me the following two blaster boxes at Target.  Last month, I received three Target gift cards at the end of the school year.  My original plan was to buy a 2015 Topps factory set, but I never pulled the trigger.

Then last week...  I noticed that my local Target had finally has received their shipment of 2016 Archives and 2016 Stadium Club blasters.  In the thrill of the moment, I made the decision to pass on the factory set and go with the blasters.

Of course when I came home... I had mixed feelings about my purchase.  On one hand, I was excited to bust open some boxes. On the other hand... I couldn't stop thinking about all of the sub-par experiences I've had in previous years with silly blaster boxes.

That's when I decided to look at things from another angle.  Instead of only focusing on the actual card value, I factored in the entertainment value.  And that's where today's Battle of the Blasters post comes into play.

It's simple... instead of getting the standard 10 minutes worth of entertainment out of these blasters... I decided on turning it into a game... similar to the ever so popular Gint-A-Cuffs competition.

Obviously there were three major things that required me to modify the scoring of cards.

A.  I'm not using Allen & Ginter.

B.  There are twice as many Archives cards in each pack than there are SC cards.

C.  I'm way too lazy and prefer a simpler way to score.

With that in mind... here's my Battle of the Blasters scoring system:

I'm sure that there will be issues with scoring, but I'll cross those bridges when I get to them.  Let's get it on...

Round 1...

Archives (0 Points): Gary Sheffield, Richie Shaffer, Max Kepler, Shin-Soo Choo, Yordano Ventura, Dustin Pedroia, Carlos Rodon, Rob Refsnyder, Jake Arrieta, and Adrian Gonzalez

Stadium Club (10 Points):  Greg Maddux (+4), Gerrit Cole, Miguel Sano, Archie Bradley Gold Parallel (+4), and Colin Rea (+2)

Stadium Club kicks off the battle with a huge first round with three out of five cards earning them points... while Archives threw up a huge goose egg.


Round 2...

Archives (5 Points):  David Robertson (+1), Curtis Granderson, Collin McHugh, Mac Williamson, Socrates Brito, Dennis Eckersley (+2), Ron Shelton (+2) Bull Durham Insert, Andrew Miller, Hunter Pence, and Rougned Odor

Stadium Club (2 Points):  A.J. Pollock, J.J. Hardy, Jose Abreu, John Smoltz (+2), and Dustin Pedroia

Archives finally gets some points on the board.  I ended up giving Robertson a point, because he's one of the eight cards I need for my 2016 Archives set.  Additional points will be rewarded if I pull any of the remaining seven cards I need.


Round 3...

Archives (6 Points):  Jacob DeGrom, Alex Rodriguez, Kole Calhoun, Wade Boggs (+2), Carl Yastrzemski (+1), Lou Gehrig (+1), Bryce Harper 1968 Topps Super Insert (+2), Chris Davis, David Peralta, and Carl Edwards Jr.

Stadium Club (6 Points):  Jorge De La Rosa, Trevor May, Hisashi Iwakuma (+2), Catfish Hunter (+4), and Jason Kipnis

I awarded Boggs with 2 points.  One for being a hall of famer... and the other because it's the first card from either boxes where no limbs were cropped off.  I almost awarded Iwakuma an extra point for cool photograph... but then I caught myself.  The last thing I want to do is start awarding pity points.  It's a nice photograph... but so is the Gehrig.  I'm looking for AMAZINGLY COOL photography.


Round 4...

Archives (2 Points):  Josh Harrison, Matt Carpenter, Marcus Stroman, Carlos Martinez, J.D. Martinez, Garrett Richards, Gerrit Cole #1 Draft Pick Insert (+2), Freddie Freeman, Zach Godley, and Jose Peraza

Stadium Club (5 Points):  Matt Duffy, Kevin Kiermaier (+1), Jay Bruce, Trevor May Black Parallel  (+4), and Luis Severino

So far... the Kiermaier is the coolest photograph of the box break.  I'm hoping to see more in the four remaining packs, because so far... the photography has been average at best.

Halfway through the battle and Stadium Club is currently dominating over Archives with a 23 to 13 lead.


Round 5...

Archives (9 Points):  Zach Britton, Jim Bunning (+1), Joe Morgan (+1), Justin Bour, Joc Pederson, Masahiro Tanaka (+2), Josh Donaldson 1969 Topps Super Insert (+2), Harmon Killebrew (+1), Orlando Cepeda (+1), and Edgar Martinez (+1)

Stadium Club (4 Points):  Rusney Castillo, Nolan Arenado, Tom Seaver (+3), Randal Grichuk (+1), and Brock Holt

Archives kicks off the second half of the battle with a slew of hall of famers and is slowly chipping away at Stadium Club's lead.  Edgar hasn't been enshrined yet, but I gave him a point because I needed him for my set.


Round 6...

Archives (13 Points):  Ralph Kiner (+1), George Kell (+1), Tony Fernandez, Kris Bryant, Kyle Seager, Sonny Gray (+1), Larry Doby Blue Parallel (+5), Catfish Hunter (+2), Gary Carter (+3), and Hector Olivera

Stadium Club (8 Points):  Carlos Gonzalez, Jorge Soler, A.J. Pollock Iso Metrics Insert (+4), Ken Giles, and Ichiro Suzuki (+4)

I pulled another card for my set (Catfish) and awarded Carter three points because he's a hall of famer who plays on the Expos... and I really like the photograph they used of him.  Archives has caught up to Stadium Club with only two packs to go.  Let's see if they can pull off the miraculous comeback.


Round 7...

Archives (5 Points):  Madison Bumgarner, George Springer, Trevor Plouffe, Tom Seaver (+1), Bert Blyleven (+1), Jim Palmer (+1), The Alomars Father/Son Insert (+2), Michael Conforto, Todd Frazier, and Wade Davis

Stadium Club (7 Points):  Kendrys Morales, Michael Reed, Derek Norris (+3), Greg Holland Gold Parallel (+4), and Aroldis Chapman

I absolutely love the Derek Norris card.  I probably should have awarded an extra "play at the plate" bonus point, but it's not like Stadium Club needs it.  They have reclaimed the lead and enter the final pack with a two point lead.


Final Round...

Archives (1 Point):  Carlos Carrasco, DJ LeMahieu, Hanley Ramirez, Carlos Santana, Ketel Marte, Jon Gray, Jason Heyward, Brian McCann, Taijuan Walker, and Adam Eaton (+1)

Stadium Club (0 Points):  Brad Ziegler, Peter O'Brien, Albert Pujols, Raul Mondesi, and Raisel Iglesias

Wow.  One point out of two packs?  That's how we wrap up these two blasters?  And to be honest... the Eaton was a pity point.  It's a sad day when I start awarding a point for an action shot with full appendages intact.  It didn't matter though... because Archives needed two points to tie... and three to win.

Final Score:  Stadium Club 42  Archives 41

Final Assessment:  I'm sure glad I turned these two box breaks into a Battle of the Blasters competition, because in terms of value this was pretty disastrous.

I mean... I didn't walk away totally empty handed.  I managed to pull three cards closer to completing my Archives set.  Plus the Harper and Doby inserts will go into my binders... as well as the three Japanese players I pulled.  There were also a few A's and Padres cards scattered among those two boxes.  But let's be honest... there wasn't a single card in these boxes worth more than a couple of bucks.

I guess the question I need to ask myself is...

Was there enough entertainment value in this Battle of the Blasters to justify purchasing these blaster boxes?

Normally, I'd say probably not.  However since this was a belated Christmas present from three of my students... I feel that I need to show some gratitude and say "yes".  Speaking of gratitude... a huge thank you goes out to one of my fifth grade summer school students who hooked me up with this fat piece of honeycomb:

I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it, so she told me that her family cuts up pieces, chews on them, and then spits out the wax.  It's not how I normally eat honey, but I've got to admit... it's pretty good.

Well that's all for today.  Only one more day until I get to enjoy my three day weekend.  Happy Wednesday and sayonara!