A Case of Redemption
After a dismal 2014, I’d had enough. This just wasn’t fun anymore. My plan was to back off of hobby boxes and go with breaks whenever that made more sense. As plans go, it wasn’t necessarily a bad one. It lasted 8 months. Despite a strong start to 2015, I stuck with my plans to cut back, limiting myself to whatever retail I could find and an occasional hobby box for a select few products. Team and player breaks filled in the gaps, along with the usual purchases on the secondary market. And then this happened.
1. 2015 Bowman Chrome Kris Bryant Rookie Autograph Green Refractor BCAR-KB #d/99 (Redemption)
$252.49
My first box of 2015 Bowman Chrome yielded $300 worth of hits, most of which was from this card. So of course I had to buy another box. Which was a complete dud. Still, this ranks behind only the 2012 Topps Archives Bryce Harper RC Autograph as the second best redemption card I’ve ever pulled.
2. 2015 Topps Heritage High Number Jung Ho Kang Real One Special Edition Autograph ROAH-JHK #d/66 (Redemption)
$103.70
With a strong checklist and good odds, I had to go big on Topps Heritage High Number. And this came out of my first box of that product. It’s like deja vu all over again…
3. 2015 Bowman Marcos Molina Prospect Autograph Orange Refractor BCAP-MM 10/25
$100 (Estimated)
It’s not like the breaks had been bad to me before the September of Redemption(s). There were some duds, but there was also this Molina auto that came out of the penultimate pack of the Crackin’ Wax 2015 Bowman case break. This card ranks as the best Mets hit I’ve ever gotten, I just didn’t get to open the pack…
4. 2015 Topps Series 1 Yadier Molina Postseason Relic PPS-YM 029/100
$54.78
2015 got started on a positive note when this Postseason Relic card headlined my first box of the year. I was a bit disappointed to see that it was just a piece of bat, but that didn’t seem to affect the price. I’m just glad I don’t have to chase any Mets cards in these insert sets. Oh, right…
5. 2015 Topps Heritage High Number Al Kaline / Roberto Clemente ’66 Punchboard 66P-29
$52.00
The first card I pulled from 2015 Topps Heritage High Number, in the same box that produced the Jung Ho Kang autograph redemption, was this punchboard box topper. Anything is better than a worthless ad panel or stamped buyback, but I was not expecting this to go for much more than $20. It was a pretty good box.
6. 2015 Topps Chrome Javier Baez Gold Refractor Autograph AR-JB 13/50
$46.09
My top retail hit this year was just the opening act for a much bigger Cubs RC autograph. But at least this one is the actual card. There once was a time when I kept pulling low-numbered Phillies parallels. Am I now doomed to an eternity of low-numbered Cubs autographs?
7. 2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks Kyle Schwarber Prospect Signatures Red Prizm 3 031/100
$36.00 (Estimated)
Sure looks that way… I picked up some heavily discounted 2014 Panini Prizm Draft for Christmas because I skipped it last year and this Schwarber was in the first box. The Conforto from this product stil eludes me (and apparently Panini as well because the redemption has yet to be fulfilled…).
8-22. Everything Else
$11.00 – $32.51
The rest of the $10+ cards I pulled in 2015 (15 in total) were a mixed bag: 8 autographs, 3 RC photo variations, 3 parallels, and 1 memorabilia card. For once, manufactured material did not make the cut. Two cards from last year did, however. Breaks also added another two cards, two Milton Ramos autographs from a 15-case Bowman Chrome break. There’s a good chance that the Desmond Lindsay refractor autograph that I got from a 2015 Bowman Draft break would also slot in here somewhere, but I haven’t gotten it yet.
And that’s about it. $700 worth of hits out of I don’t even want to know how much in purchases. That’s still quite a bit down from 2012 and 2013 but better than 2014. And mostly thanks to the Cubs. We have a new hobby nemesis and it pays quite well.
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