Box and Pack Busting Birthday Bash

Good morning.  Today's post is jam packed with stuff I opened up over my birthday weekend, so I'll keep my words down to a minimum and let the photographs do the talking.

For a few years, I've been chasing down a copy of Buster Posey's 2010 Topps Emerald rookie card, which was a stadium giveaway.  Last Sunday, I purchased a complete set still sealed inside of its original package and opened it up on Friday night after grabbing dinner with a friend.

2010 Topps Giants Emerald #1

Sadly... since Posey is the first card in the set, it was more susceptible to damage and ended up with a soft bottom right corner.  The good news is the rest of the set was clean.

Here's a look at my other two Topps Posey rookie cards for comparison purposes:

2010 Topps #2

2010 Topps Target Throwback #2

2010 Topps Giants Emerald #1

I also decided to finally bust open my two blaster boxes and four value packs of 2019 Topps Chrome:

I've been really good about abstaining from retail card purchases... until my recent trip down to Southern California.  That's when I dropped over $80 on what you see above in hopes of pulling one or two Tatis or Guerrero rookie cards.  Spoiler alert... I pulled neither.

I won't bore you with the garbage I pulled.  Here are the five best cards I pulled (in my opinion):

2019 Topps Chrome #204

2019 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractor #204

2019 Topps Chrome #152

2019 Topps Chrome Negative Refractor #158

2019 Topps Chrome Greatness Returns #GRE11

Trust me.  This break was ugly.  Thankfully my final two breaks were not.

A few weeks ago, Ryan (SumoMenkoMan) hooked me up with two packs of UFO cards from Japan.  My original plan was to keep these intact for my unopened pack collection, but he talked me into busting them open.

Here's a look at what the packs look like:

Each pack contained one card...

Pack #1

I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but based on the back of the card it looks like this photograph might have been taken in 1952.

Pack #2

This second card clearly features a UFO.  I'm excited to add both of these cards to my Japanese trading card binder.

Thank you Ryan for hooking me up with these two interesting packs of UFO cards.  Looking forward to hanging out again in a few weeks.

And rounding out this post was a birthday box sent to me by Rod over at Padrographs.  Here's a quick snapshot at the contents in the box:

The first thing I saw when I opened up the box was a copy of the Beastie Boys Book:

I bought this book last year at Barnes and Noble when I went up to Portland, but ended up returning it because there were cheaper copies online.  I never actually got around to picking up another copy... and now I won't have to.

He also included two more issues of SI for Kids... which means I added two more sheets of cards to my collection:

Plus there were two team bags filled with cards... some of which were signed:

These are the first Los Angeles Lakers autographs I've added to my collection in quite some time.  Plus there were a few autographs that I felt deserved a closer look...

2010 Rittenhouse Lost: Archives #8

I only watched maybe 10 to 20 episodes of LOST, but I definitely remember Daniel Dae Kim's character and his gorgeous wife.

Custom Card by Rod

I saw this card last week on Rod's blog, but didn't get to see the card back until last night when I opened up this birthday package.  That's when I learned that Mr. Yoshiwara was the first Asian American general manager in professional baseball.  And his father was a member of the Army's 442nd Regiment, 100th Battalion during World War II.  Talk about real American heroes.

And arguably the coolest card in the package was this signed custom of Mr. Padrographs.  This is my third custom card of him... and the second signed card.

If you look at the complete contents of this care package, you might notice three custom cards he made of me.  He actually included a bunch of these for me to pass out, which was very generous of him.  All he asked in return was for me to sign one of each card for his collection.  I've already taken care of this... and will be sending them back to Oregon in the next few days.

Thanks Rod for another awesome care package!  As I've gotten older in age, most of my birthday presents come in the form of dinners (from friends and family) or gift cards (from students).  So it was a pleasant surprise to open up an actual birthday present.

Oh I almost forgot... Rod also sent me my latest addition to my Prime Number PC:

2018 Bowman Chrome Prospects Purple Refractor #BCP116 (#'d 250/250)

Well that's it for today.  I hope all of you are enjoying your holiday weekend.  My thoughts are with all of you who have been hit by Hurricane Dorian.  I've seen some videos and it's straight up scary what Mother Nature is capable of.  Hopefully all of our friendly bloggers out there on the East Coast are safe and sound.

Happy Labor Day and sayonara!