If At First You Don't Succeed...

Back in the 90's... when my cardboard addiction was bad... real bad.  I'd bust a box at the shop and if I didn't get anything good... I'd bust another.  And sometimes I'd keep going and going and going.

Like I said... I was addicted.

It happened again Wednesday evening.  I came home from dinner and decided to open my 2006 Upper Deck Future Stars that I bought from Blowout Cards on Black Friday for $24.95.

Each box was suppose to contain 5 autographs, so I grabbed it, because I felt the price was right.  I figured it was worth the shot at a Justin Verlander or Matt Cain signature.

Unfortunately... I ended up pulling these guys instead:

Along with an expired redemption card:

It's hard to see... but it's for a Clear Path To Greatness autograph of Martin Prado... which would have been a pretty cool card to have.

Thankfully, at least I was able to pull a few cards for my PC:

Unfortunately... these six cards just weren't enough to satisfy the cardboard craving I felt that evening.  So I grabbed the next box on the shelf... my 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom:

I'm not a huge fan of the base card design, but I've gotta admit I like the cards embedded with authentic ticket stubs.  Each pack came with at least one insert or parallel, but I didn't pull anything too significant in that area.  So I'll just get straight to the point and show off my three hits:

2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom "Autograph + Relic"" #TSAR-JCC (#'d 182/489)

Let's go ahead and get the autograph out of the way.  Hmmm... Mr. Cueto.  I guess he's not the worst person I could have pulled.  Hopefully he'll stay off the DL next year and regain his old production numbers.

2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom "Dual Relic + Ticket Stub" #TSP2-42 (#'d 115/126)

Okay.  Now that's what I'm talking about.  I know that he's a cheater and a liar... but the card itself is pretty cool.  It contains a ticket stub from a game against the Astros in which Braun went 4 for 4 with a home run.  I wonder if this is just a coincidence... or if Topps planned it this way.

2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom "Relic + Ticket Stub" #TSP-64 (#'d 03/90)

This is by far the best pull of the box (in my humble opinion).  At first, I was confused by the date on the ticket stub.  Then after some research, I discovered it's a stub from the 2009 WBC Final between South Korea and Japan.  Here are some highlights from that game:

It's a shame that Fukudome didn't play in that game.  But no biggie... this card is a huge addition to my Japanese Athlete PC.

More importantly... it was a big enough pull for me hold off on opening the final two Black Friday boxes.

Happy Friday and sayonara!