It has been 8 (yes 8) years since I last....

Bought an actual hobby box of cards.   I thought about that today, I'm 100% positive that the last time I bought a hobby box of baseball cards it was for the 2003 Heritage set.  For eight long years, when I did buy cards, it was a pack or 2 at a time, or maybe a blaster box here and there.  I don't know what is worse, the fact that I went that long, or the fact that I actually remember the last one!!

Indeed, I followed history and bought a hobby box of '11 Topps Heritage today, and opened the first 6 packs.  I'll show them off to you here and start off with the box toppers.

Box toppers

The top picture is an advertising panel, which basically consists of an uncut sheet of 3 cards, in this case they are the NL HR leaders, Derek Lowe (who doesn't really look too impressed), and the San Diego Padres team photo.  On the back is some Topps advertising, along with the back of Roy Halladay's card (#453).  The other box topper was an actual buy back card from the 1962 set, card # 188, Chuck Hiller of the SF Giants.  The card is stamped in the lower left corner with a 50th anniversary foil logo, and to be honest, the card has been pretty worked over to say the least.  All 4 corners have wear, and as you can see the lower right corner is totally rounded.  The edges have some wear, and there are a couple of visible creases as well. 

What I'll do over the next 4 days is break the box 6 packs at a time and give everyone the rundown...so here we go!!

Pack 1:

26. Josh Thole
106. Yadier Molina
141. Babe's twilight years (I do like this subset)
177. J.A. Happ
180. Jim Thome (he of the 600 HR club...belated congrats to Jim)
302. Ramon Hernandez
311. Derek Jeter (Jeter turns the double play, a great 4 pic card)
396. Carlos Gonzalez (NL all star)
and a Chrome card, C82 Nyjer Morgan (0826/1962)

Pack 2:

4. Ben Zobrist
85. Ike Davis
88. Joe Girardi
172. Dusty Baker (2 straight manager cards)
254. Chris Carter (no, not the Viking WR)
275. Billy Butler
353. Neil Walker
369. Dan Haren
465. Cincinnati Reds SP team card (I haven't had many SP's in the packs I've bought so far)

Pack 3:

29. Terry Collins
48. CC Sabathia
49. Jordan Brown
164. Jason Kendall (2195 hits and 5th all time # of games caught..not too shabby)
186. Rick Ankiel
220. Ryan Howard
252. James McDonald
355. Brian Matusz
And....another chrome!!  C66 Bobby Cramer (Rookie) 0265/1962

Pack 4:

45. Evan Longoria
115. Alfonso Soriano (1 of 2 contracts that got Jim Hendry canned)
142. Babe's Coaching for the Dodgers (this I did not know)
160. Garrett Jones (they should have left him at 1st Base all year, he can't play right field)
179. Mat Latos (inside joke to Chris at Nachos Grande...see, I get Latos' cards also!)
234. Rangers Retaliate (Game #3 of WS)
235. Bumgarner Baffles Bats (Game #4 of WS)
347. Nyjer Morgan (what would make this set even better IMO, would have been making the chrome cards have different photos from the base cards)
Finally, BF-2 Brooks Robinson of the Orioles slams Kansas City

Pack 5:

71. Jonathan Sanchez (again same photo as Chrome card, see yesterdays' post)
124. Brian Duensing
127. Pride of the A's (Braden/Cahill)
178. A.J. Pierzynski
324. Tommy Hunter (not the country singer)
331. Mike Leake (I can hear the Bermanism now...Mike "gotta take a........")
346. Felix Hernandez
411. Michael Young

Another insert finishes off this pack.  TN-4 Then and Now (Aparicio/Pierre)

Pack 6:

74. Hanley Ramirez
79. Jordan Zimmerman
109. Ted Lilly
150. Miguel Cabrera
212. Roy Oswalt
280. Hiroki Kuroda
334. Tampa Bay Rays team photo
364. Russell Branyan
435. Huston Street SP (Huston was born in Austin, figure that one out...)

there you have it folks...packs 1-6.  2 Chrome cards, 2 SP's, and 2 inserts...not too shabby so far.   Packs 7-12 to come tomorrow....

Thanks for reading, Robert...