30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, May 4, 2019

It's A Trap

Star Wars has been a part of my life since I was four years old.  I'm pretty sure they were the first packs of cards I ever opened.  To put things into perspective, the first baseball card packs I remember opening were 1981 Donruss or 1981 Topps, which came four years after my interest in Star Wars cards.


These days sports cards are my primary focus, but back in November I picked up a box of 2017 Topps Star Wars High Tek for $29.95.  The box was part of DA Cardworld's Black Friday sale.  Each box contains eight cards, one of which is hard signed.  I figured the price was reasonable, especially since I enjoy acetate cards, Star Wars cards, and on-card autographs.

Reasonable or not... my box sucked.  See for yourself:


I decided to kick things off with the best card in the boxR2-D2 is one of the most beloved droids in the Star Wars galaxy and my personal favorite.

Here's the on-card autograph I pulled:


As much as I love each and every one of the Star Wars movies, I had no clue who General Ramda was.  According to the internet, he appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  The actor who signed the card and played the role of Ramda is Richard Cunningham.  It would have been a little cooler to have the autograph of the actor who played Richie Cunningham in Happy Days instead.

There were also two numbered parallels in the box:


I'm familiar with Barriss Offee, since I've watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars multiple times on NetflixToshdor Ni is another character from Rogue One that I wasn't familiar with.

And here are the final four base cards:


I've always been a big fan of Vader's bounty hunters, so the Bossk is cool.  The rest are "meh" at best.

Overall this box was almost a complete waste of money.  But that's how most of my box breaks are.  It's rare that I pull something I really, really want out of a pack.  The wiser move for me would be to take the money and buy something I'd appreciate.

However that's the thing.  Every now and then I get lured into buying a box, because I want to be able to beat the odds and pull something nice.  But realistically it's a trap.

Happy Star Wars Day and sayonara!

Special Star Wars Lego Edition

I know most of my readers could care less about Legos.  But since today is Star Wars Day, I wanted to show off my latest purchase:


When I first saw this set on YouTube about a month ago, I knew I'd eventually pick one up.


This weekend Lego is offering up a free Battle of Hoth set with any Star Wars purchase of $75 or more, so I decided to grab it now.

The regular price for the Slave I is $119.99.  However over the years, I've managed to save up $80 in VIP points, so I ended up paying $39.99 (+ $3.70 tax).

I can't wait to receive both of these sets.  I probably won't build the Battle of Hoth set.  But I'll definitely make the Slave I.

What about you...

Are you a Star Wars fan?  Did you take advantage of any May the 4th sales?

16 comments:

SumoMenkoMan said...

Man, that auto is really sloppy to boot....geez. I didn't do anything special for May the 4th, now it is Cinco de Mayo so I better get a move on.

Mark Hoyle said...

I’ve never watched any of the Star Wars movies

The Lost Collector said...

I’m not at all. Just could never get into the movies or understand the fuss. Cool to see those cards in the Tek design though.

gcrl said...

Apparently those aren't the cards you were looking for.

I'll show myself out.

Dennis said...

My fellow Wolverines and I always celebrate the day thanks to University of Michigan alumni James Earl Jones and Lawrence Kasdan. Also, Lego Star Wars--the kits and the video games--is awesome.

The Shlabotnik Report said...

I enjoyed the original trilogy, but I am about as young as someone could be while still saying "I didn't grow up with the movies".... Unless you're like Mark Hoyle and just don't watch them at all.

Baltmoss68 said...

I only like the original trilogy. But some of the collectibles are amazing

sg488 said...

No and no.

SumoMenkoMan said...

Awesome! One of the best replies I have seen in a long time!!!

Matt said...

I am a fan of the original three, well the movies 4-6, but that's it for my fandom. Though I will add autographs and other fun Star Wars cards for my PC

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

Definitely a fan of the original trilogy, the rest not so much. It’s turned from a story about a deeper meaning to just action sci fi (though the last 2 of the series were better but mostly rehash).

Chris P said...

Never had an interest in Star Wars for some reason. Just never have had an inclination to watch any of the movies. I'm weird though lol..there's a ton of stuff that I just have zero interest that's mainstream

GCA said...

I'm a fan, but obviously favor the "Trek" side a bit more. Have seen most of the movies, but not all, and I do think some of the later ones are newer versions of the same themes. Lucas always acknowledged that he wasn't the best writer in the world. "The master of wooden dialogue." I did used to have a bunch of the figures and toys, but sold them all (as well as two other friends' stuff) on eBay. They sold well.

I have picked up all but the orange series cards in the last few years. I had the Wonder Bread series from when they came out as well as the silver Empire sets - just lack a few.

Go Sharks! I've been rooting for them.

acrackedbat said...

I saw the first two movies but never could get into Star Wars. I'm a Trekkie. The first episode of the original series was "The Man Trap".

Sean said...

I love Star Wars. I collected most of the Topps cards issued during the original trilogy, which are IMHO far and away the best. I think I just need the blue series of the 1977 Topps set to finish it, I collected it a few years ago and my memory is a bit hazy.

Trivia: The title of this post is a reference to Admiral Ackbar's catch phrase from Return of the Jedi. But I was watching Empire Strikes Back the other day and noticed that its actually a Princess Leia line - she screams it at Luke on Bespin. Since that happened first, Admiral Ackbar is basically ripping Leia off as far as I'm concerned!

Fuji said...

sumomenkoman - i didn't even look at it until you pointed that out. yeah... it's pretty bad.

mark hoylr - now that's impressive.

the lost collector - i went on a star wars tek autograph shopping spree back when they came out, because they looked awesome and were on-card

gcrl - lol. nice.

dennis - had to look up kasdan. i thought i knew star wars trivia... guess not.

baltmoss68 - i enjoy watching some of the higher end collectibles on youtube. it's crazy how detail some of the high end action figures are. it's even crazier how much they cost.

sg488 - :) :)

parts of my past and steve at 1975baseballcards.com - seems like if you could only pick one of the trilogy's... the original trilogy would be the most popular among fans

chris p - i hear ya. all of my co-workers watch reality tv and i have zero interest in that

gca - i finally purchased the original topps star wars sets. one day i'll go after the esb sets too. tonight is the big game. hopefully the sharks year doesn't end today.

acrackedbat - i like star trek too... but i was mainly into the next generation. i started watching that new star trek series, but haven't gotten around to watching the 2nd season.

sean - oh man... that's awesome trivia. i watched esb earlier in the year, but didn't catch that. i'll look for it the next time i watch it.