1996 Topps Series 2:

1. #318 Greg Maddux
2. #302 Dave Nilsson
3. #368 Dennis Eckersley
4. Mickey Mantle Sweepstakes Entry Card
5. #227 Ivan Rodriguez (Star Power)
6. #241 Garrett Long (Draft Pick) (Rookie Card)
7. #282 Jeff Cirillo
8. Wrecking Crew #WC3 Barry Bonds
9. #410 Glenn Dishman
10. #231 Jose Mesa (Star Power)
11. #385 Heathcliff Slocumb
12. #309 Moises Alou

Pretty neat pack here.  The Barry Bonds Wrecking Crew card is one of the most valuable cards in 1996 Topps packs.

“Few pitchers can pitch in a hitter’s “kitchen” with any consistency.  And Barry Bonds will turn anything that’s in his attic, basement or living room into a souvenir.  Once he reigned-in a penchant for impatience, Bonds evolved into a three-time MVP, a slugger who also hits for average and commands high walk totals.  His ability to recognize pitching patterns only adds to pitchers’ problems.”

Barry Bonds is scheduled to go to trial for perjury in the BALCO scandal next March.

Then I also found this:

The Mickey Mantle Sweepstakes Entry Card is also pretty neat.  They came only one in every three hobby boxes.  In 1996, Topps gave away 19 original Mickey Mantle cards, one from each year.  They randomly inserted 2,500 Sweepstakes Entry cards in packs for each Mantle card they were giving away.  If you got one, you could fill it out and send it in to enter the drawing for the card that was pictured on the Sweepstakes Entry card (I got the entry card for the 1964 Topps Mantle).  Entry cards had to be mailed in no later than October 15, 1996, so I’m a little too late to mail mine in.  It’s sort of like an early version of the Topps Million Card Giveaway if you think about it.

I don’t have any Jumbo packs of 2007 Topps series 2, so I’ll be ripping 5 hobby packs of it.  Let’s see what treasures lie within:

Pack 1

1. #502 Brian Roberts
2. #448 Fernando Rodney
3. #446 Jaret Wright
4. #464 Omar Vizquel
5. Mantle Home Run History #MHR386 Mickey Mantle
6. Generation Now #GN268 Delmon Young
7. Red Back #617 Ned Yost (Manager)
8. Red Back #425 Tomo Ohka
9. #428 So Taguchi
10. #429 Carlos Zambrano

Pack 2

1. #649 Brian Barden (Rookie Card)
2. #599 Kansas City Royals (Team Card)
3. #476 Aaron Harang
4. #342 Bengie Molina
5. Trading Places #TP15 Aubrey Huff
6. DiMaggio Streak Before the Streak #JDSF8 Joe DiMaggio
7. Red Back #457 Mike Hampton
8. Red Back #383 Jon Lester
9. #391 Kelvim Escobar
10. #485 Tadahito Iguchi

Pack 3

1. #468 Kerry Wood
2. #539 Eric Milton
3. #341 Akinori Iwamura (Rookie Card)
4. #396 Chris Capuano
5. #399 James Shields
6. Hit Parade #HP3 Frank Thomas
7. Red Back #647 Juan Morillo (Rookie Card)
8. Red Back #616 Fredi Gonzalez (Manager)
9. #550 Trevor Hoffman
10. #483 Kris Benson

Pack 4

1. #392 Craig Wilson
2. #594 Angels (Team Card)
3. #610 Jim Leyland (Manager)
4. #473 Xavier Nady
5. Gold #532 Jose Vidro (Serial#0671/2007)
6. 1st Edition #577 Jason LaRue
7. Red Back #418 Boof Bonser
8. Red Back #559 Doug Mientkiewicz
9. #500 Pedro Martinez
10. #398 Jacque Jones

Pack 5

1. #552 Chris Woodward
2. #484 John Maine
3. #355 Oliver Perez
4. #586 Willy Aybar
5. #426 Jeff Francoeur
6. Red Back #625 Josh Hamilton (Rookie Card)
7. Red Back #634 Alex Gordon (Rookie Card)
8. #409 Khalil Greene
9. #350 Chase Utley
10. #459 Jeff Suppan

Today I’m starting up a new feature. Each Sunday, instead of opening up a single hobby pack, I’m going to open up either a jumbo pack of the most recent release or 5 hobby packs of a past Topps release.

2010 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack:

1. #444 Yuniesky Betancourt
2. #360 Justin Morneau
3. #517 Cliff Pennington
4. #603 Gerardo Parra
5. #338 Brett Cecil
6. #374 Scott Feldman
7. #403 Jimmy Rollins
8. #569 Jacoby Ellsbury
9. #495 Carlos Pena
10. #437 Luke Hochevar
11. #363 Joba Chamberlain
12. #556 Chicago White Sox (Team Card)
13. #366 Hiroki Kuroda
14. #498 Sergio Santos (Rookie Card)
15. #651 Mike Aviles
16. #496 Rajai Davis
17. #357 Scott Downs
18. #365 Logan Ondrusek (Rookie Card)
19. #512 Scot Shields
20. #492 Brian Wilson
21. #339 Jose Reyes
22. #381 Miguel Montero
23. #555 B.J. Upton
24. #629 Oliver Perez
25. #399 Matt Garza
26. #384 Chris Johnson (Rookie Card)
27. #469 Alex Burnett (Rookie Card)
28. Gold Border #631 Marc Rzepczynski (Serial#0267/2010)
29. The Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT60 Mickey Mantle
30. History of the World Series #HWS15 Bob Gibson
31. Million Card Giveaway #TMC-13 Bob Gibson
32. 2020 #T10 Evan Longoria
33. Vintage Legends #VLC25 Honus Wagner
34. Turkey Red #TR63 Nate McLouth
35. Legendary Lineage #LL-38 Cal Ripken Jr./Hanley Ramirez
36. Peak Performance #PP-61 Hunter Pence
37. #616 Franklin Gutierrez
38. #576 Paul Maholm
39. #625 Grady Sizemore
40. #579 Trevor Cahill
41. #540 Sean Rodriguez
42. #483 Daisuke Matsuzaka
43. #334 Jayson Werth
44. #408 Detroit Tigers (Franchise History)
45. #647 Alfonso Soriano
46. #623 Miguel Cabrera
47. #551 Everth Cabrera
48. #422 Vin Mazzaro
49. #383 Derek Lowe
50. Attax #JV Justin Verlander

50 cards, no Nats… I guess Topps realizes that there are about 10 Nats fans collecting cards out there.  Maybe Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper will change that in the future.

I don’t have the Beckett values on Series 2 yet, but I can guess that the Mantle was the best pull out of the pack:

“The hand-painted image of Mantle on his 1953 card depicted a striking 21-year-old coming off a season in which he made the AL All-Star team for what would be the first of 17 consecutive times.  His ’52 rookie is the only more valuable Topps “Mickey.””

Some of the other nice pulls:

And I’m sure you were all wondering what I got from the Million Card Giveaway this time…

1977 Topps #551 Bill North

Not bad, but I still haven’t gotten anything from the 50′s or 60′s yet.

1996 Topps Series 1:

1. #53 Al Martin
2. #139 Steve Finley
3. #136 Hideo Nomo (Topps All-Star Rookie)
4. Mantle #3 Mickey Mantle (Reprint)
5. #84 Omar Vizquel
6. #102 Brian Givens/T.J. Mathews (AAA Stars)
7. #41 Tripp Cromer
8. #194 Alex Fernandez
9. #152 Benji Gil
10. #130 Kenny Rogers
11. #89 Jose Offerman
12. #37 Tony Tarasco

“Many baseball experts say that switch-hitting Mickey is the greatest baseball prospect they’ve ever seen.  He certainly showed why in ’52 finishing 2nd in the American League in Doubles and Slugging (.530).  In ’52 Mickey also set a new Yankee record and led the League with 111 Strikeouts.  He broke in as a shortstop in ’49, hit .383 for Joplin in ’50 and split the ’51 season between the Yankees and Kansas City.”

I think I have like 40 Mickey Mantle cards now because of all these dang reprints and Mantle inserts.

2009 Topps Series 1:

1. #160 Evan Longoria
2. #305 Ivan Rodriguez
3. Legends of the Game Nickname Letter Patch #LGCP-MM Mickey Mantle (Serial#33/50) (Manufactured Patch)
4. Topps Town #TTT23 Josh Hamilton
5. #55 J.J. Hardy
6. #294 Brandon Boggs

I guess I share the same sentiment about these manufactured patch cards as I’ve read in other blogs.  I don’t like how they’re basically “fake relics”, but it’s pretty cool to actually have one and see it in person.  I actually kind of prefer a manufactured patch over a real relic card of a player I don’t give a damn about.

This card goes into my display case as my most prized card, right next to the Gordon Beckham Red Hot Rookie Auto that I have for sale on eBay right now.

And I got another I-Rod to go into my Future Hall of Famers binder:

He’s on a tear right now, leading the league with a .449 Batting Average!

2010 Topps Series 1:

1. #58 Kyle Blanks
2. #161 Denard Span
3. #172 Joe Mauer (MVP)
4. #265 Angels (Team Card)
5. #199 Seattle Mariners (Team Card)
6. Million Card Giveaway #TMC-3 Bob Gibson
7. Peak Performance #PP-39 Chipper Jones
8. Topps Town #TTT15 Miguel Cabrera
9. #74 Casey Blake
10. #7 Mickey Mantle

Got the yearly Mantle base card and my first Million Card giveaway card!

What did I unlock?

drumroll….

1971 Topps #36 Dean Chance

Sweet, it’s not a card that I would pay money to have shipped to me, but I’m just glad it’s not junk wax.  Dean Chance was a 2-time All-Star back in the 60′s.  He went on to found the International Boxing Association in the 1990′s.

2009 Topps Series 2:

1. #347 Jason Bartlett
2. #501 Jeff Suppan
3. #404 Matt Capps
4. #473 Jered Weaver
5. #540 Russell Martin
6. #660 Jacoby Ellsbury
7. #543 Travis Ishikawa
8. #367 Bobby Abreu
9. Legends of the Game Career Best #LGCB-MM Mickey Mantle
10. Legends of the Game #LG-CJ Chipper Jones
11. Topps Town #TTT45 Alex Rios
12. #579 Rocco Baldelli
13. #534 Skip Schumaker
14. #470 Lance Berkman

Topps really packed it into this pack!  14 cards in a 10-card pack!  I guess that makes up for all those 9-card packs I got in this box.

A few selected Mickey Mantle career bests:

Highest AVG in a season: .365

Most Hits in a season: 188

Most HRs in a season: 54

Most RBI in a season: 130

Most SBs in a season: 21

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights:

1. #UH80 Erik Bedard
2. #UH272 Guillermo Quiroz
3. #UH92 Eric Hinske
4. #UH316 Ben Sheets (All-Star)
5. #UH136 Hanley Ramirez/Albert Pujols (Classic Combos)
6. #UH246 Kelvin Jimenez
7. #UH36 Xavier Nady
8. #UH252 Tony Clark
9. World Baseball Classic Preview #WBC5 Chase Utley
10. Mickey Mantle Story #MMS75 Mickey Mantle

…and checklist 3 of 3.

::shudder:: it’s hard to find a creepier picture of a baseball player…

“The Mick helped the Yankees to a 12-3 rout of the Braves in Game 3 of the World Series, launching a two-run homer in the fourth inning at Milwaukee County Stadium.  It was his ninth World Series home run of his career and his first in the 1957 Fall Classic.  Mantle went 2-for-2 with two walks in the game.“