Tuesday, August 31, 2021

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 categoriesbase cards, parallels, inserts/short prints, and autographs/relics.

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


Round 1Base 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 GinterThe 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 2Parallels

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 3Inserts & 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!

21 comments:

Adam Ryan said...

Happy birthday Fuji! Opening packs is always a fun way to celebrate. I just opened a blaster of GQ myself that I found in the wild at the grocery store. Didn't do great by any means but it was fun!

Jeff B - Wax Pack Wonders said...

Happy birthday!

The Diamond King said...

Happy Birthday, hope it's a good one. And that Trout does look nice!

The Snorting Bull said...

Happy Birthday!!! This was a great post! I love the scoring system for the blasters.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Happy birthday Mark, enjoy the day!

Brett Alan said...

Have a great birthday and I hope everything with your return to the classroom goes well!

bbcardz said...

This one's for you Mark!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t1vaF50Ks0

SumoMenkoMan said...

Happy Birthday. That was a fun opening!

Laurens said...

Happy birthday - grabbed some blasters off Target as well.

The Lost Collector said...

Happy birthday! Hope it's a great one!

Bo said...

Happy birthday!

Grant said...

Your Pache mini is a rookie variation ;).

Matt said...

Happy birthday Fuji!

GTT said...

Happy birthday Fuji!

Matt said...

Happy Birthday! finding any retail to open for entertainment is worth it!

Rebel Coyote said...

Happy birthday! You got some good blaster breaking today

Nick said...

Happy belated birthday, good sir! Had a feeling A&G would outdo Gypsy Queen...I don't think I've ever walked away satisfied from a pack/blaster of GQ. That's a set I definitely don't mind picking up in scraps on the secondary market.

Jafronius said...

Belated happy birthday Fuji! Glad you were able to grab a couple of boxes. Just as a heads up I checked today and got me a Topps Chrome box from their site. Unfortunately they're going for 30 bucks so I only got one.

Jon said...

Happy belated birthday, Fuji!

GCA said...

Happy Belated mister!

Fuji said...

Thank you for all of the nice birthday wishes! Outside of buying myself something like a pair of blasters and grabbing food with friends and family... I don't really make a big deal over birthdays anymore. That being said... it was nice to see so many people comment on a post. Thank you for that.

adam - just read and commented on your gypsy queen post. fun is a keep part of slapping down some money and busting blasters, because rarely do you pull $20 worth of cards from a box these days

the snorting bull - thanks. i need to tinker with it a little, but it made the box breaks a tad bit more entertaining

bret alan - so far... the school year has been good. hopefully things don't get messy once the flu season starts

bbcardz - thanks. instantly made me think of john hughes and sixteen candles

laurens - best of luck with your blasters!

grant - oh cool. maybe he'll blossom into a star :D

matt - target has had flagship series 2, a&g, gypsy queen, and stadium club on their site over the past couple of weeks, so if you want something to bust open that's a good place to start

nick - my favorite thing about gypsy queen were the matted parallels. these days i'm much more into a&g... but i've even lost interest in that as well. i was pretty bummed that i didn't get more non-baseball players in my box

jafronius - looks like i missed out on the chrome. best of luck on your box.