Topps 2009 Jumbo Box break x 2...tale of an unhappy box breaker

William, PA and I went in together on a whole case of Topps 2009 jumbo packs. I know what you're thinking, "But Peter, you broke those boxes almost 4 weeks ago. Why are you posting it now?" To be honest I was disappointed and ashamed of what I pulled. In my opinion it wasn't even worth blogging about. But I'm gonna suck it up and throw these out there just so people can see what you might pull when you buy a box of these.

After opening two jumbo boxes, I'm one card away from completing the base set. What a slap in the face that is. That was the nail in the coffin for me after I broke these boxes. I spent the next day after the break collating the cards into their proper order and that's when I realized I was one card short. I find that statistically mind blowing. Out of 1000 cards, 2 x 500 and even subtract out the inserts which is something like 3 per pack perhaps. I should've easily pulled off a 350 card set. But I have quadruples up the ying yang which is even worse because it leaves you with not much of a variety to trade with.

Anyhow, these are some of the inserts I pulled:

The Jeter Ring of Honor was actually pulled by William. He was kind enough to give it to me. The only thing I liked about these cards is that they featured more Yankees this time around. Otherwise, it's the same exact thing from 2008 Updates & Highlights.


The Gold cards I pulled weren't even exciting. I did actually pull the Matsui gold. I may have traded with PA for the Miranda gold. The only good gold card I pulled was the Rays Highlights gold card.



The Career Highlight cards are the biggest disappointment out of the entire box. I get a crappy auto and 3 crappy relic cards. Complete trade fodder. I have no use for these cards so if you want them, make me an offer on something I need and we'll deal. I know lots of people don't like the YSL cards and I'm more than willing to trade for them. I hate the design of these cards, I like Upper Deck's relic designs a hell of a lot more.


I did get a bunch of Turkey Red cards and I have to say I do like these cards as an insert. I have some Turkey Reds from 2007(?) and they're okay. But I don't think I would collect a whole set of these. I think these cards work pretty well as an insert for 2009 Topps. If Upper Deck was smart, they'd make Masterpieces an insert set in one of their sets later this year. And if they're not bringing it out next year they should consider adding it as an insert to the Base set like Topps did here.

Out of the very few black cards I pulled this is the best one. I saw one of these sell on eBay for about $30 so when I figure out how to do it, that's where this is going. Once again, I have no use for a Red Sox card in my collection so the world's biggest flea market is getting this card.


And then there are these Legends of the Game commemorative patches. I have no idea what to make of them. They're manufactured patches that are short printed. They're just a letter from a phrase that has to do with the player. It's not the full name of the player but it could be a nickname of the player as we see with these. I've contemplated going after the Roger Maris "Against All Odds" but that's way too long and they're selling for too much on eBay. I may sell these on eBay one day. It would've been nice to pull Mickey Mantle or Thurman Munson so I could add them to my Yankee collection.


I did pull some Legends of the Game cards but we've all seen those before.

These are the variation cards I pulled. I actually had no idea they were variations until I started to see them show up online and everyone began talking about them. I didn't think anything about these cards and put them in the regular set. I had to go back through and take them out. I also pulled the Johnny Mize variation. PA pulled the CC Sabathia variation and William pulled the Barack Obama variation.




I also have a WBC redemption card which I've entered on Topps.com. The likelyhood it would produce a good card is slim to none in my opinion. I'm not sure how the WBC fits in with the first product of the year. We don't have the full rosters to know who is on the teams and it's a redemption card. Redemption cards should be religated to hot up and coming prospects or really special autographs or relic cards that they didn't want to package in the regular packs.


And that's it. No printing plates, no 1/1 sketch cards, no amazing autograph, no high demand Obama cards. Not even a full set. I can't say I hate the product because I don't. I like the base cards, they're one of the best Topps designs I've seen in awhile. But breaking two jumbo boxes and just having this to show for it is pretty disappointing. I was really hoping for a 1/1 printing plate or something else special. When you buy this big and expensive of a Cracker Jack box you expect to get a pretty decent prize. I've never pulled a 1/1 and I figured this would've been my best chance. I'm not going to go out and buy any, I just wanted to have the excitement of pulling one from a pack.

But I do have to paint the whole picture with this case, William and PA (who had the other 4 boxes in the case) had some really great pulls. I just happened to get two run of the mill boxes out of the case.

But that's the risk you take. Am I going to stop buying boxes because of this? Hell no. It's a crap shoot and you never know what you're gonna get. Sometimes you can pull a Pete Rose autograph relic or no autographs at all. It's a gamble.

Was it worth it? Not really. My goal was collecting the full set and getting some insert cards that I would want to keep in my personal collection. Neither happened. While I'm only 1 card short and I know William has that card waiting for me, it's unacceptable that two jumbo boxes almost 1000 cards can't produce a complete set. And as far as the inserts go, when I saw the release sheet I was excited at what I saw. Topps marking had me. But my actual experience differed than the advertisement, go figure.

I'm starting to think I did this collecting the base set all wrong. Maybe this is supposed to be a long drawn out process of buying 1 regular box, some blasters, some packs and accumulating the cards over time rather than go for a big bang with a couple of jumbo boxes. Who knows.

All I know is that these boxes put a bad taste in my mouth and a box of 2009 Heritage may help wash it out.

PS. I got a boatload of doubles if you're interested. Just let me know what you need or send me your wantlist and I'll see what I can do.