pastmyshades
01-08-2013, 07:00 PM
Decades after reading my first book I still find myself looking at the pictures and ignoring the words. It’s just easier. So I took notice when I found myself not fixated on the assortment of Robert Griffin and Andrew Luck autos and six player booklets staring back at me on the 2012 Bowman Sterling Football sell sheet (http://www.blowoutcards.net/images/ss/2012bwsterlingFB.pdf). Instead, I couldn’t stop reading the same sentence. I must have read it six times. Then I got someone else to read it. Then we read it together. After all that, I still thought I was missing something.
“We’ve trimmed the fat from past releases and reconfigured the 2012 edition to introduce better box guarantees, bigger relic swatches, more patch hits, a greater focus on top rookies, and an overall improved look and feel to an amazing technology and design”
Bigger swatches? More patches? More RGIII, Luck, and Wilson? And most importantly, less Egnew, Pead, and Criner?
That reminded me of a party I once was invited to. I was told about how pretty all the girls were going to be. And smart. And single. Now, any man would likely settle for any one of those three traits. Any two are enough to warrant an all out sweep her off her feet campaign. Combine all three and I’ll start donating organs if that’s what it takes. Thinking it was too good to be true, I had to ask how many other guys would be there. That is when I heard five words I’ll never forget, “There are no other guys”. What?! No other guys? That’s even better than perfect girls!
Of course it wasn’t exactly like I was told. There were other guys but not nearly as they were at every other party I’ve ever been to. All the girls had at least one of the three guarantees going for them, a lot had two, and some even had all three. I hoped Bowman Sterling would be the same.
Thanks to the good folks at Blowoutcards.com (http://www.blowoutcards.com/) I was able to host a 4 Box Inner Case Group Break on the Blowout Cards Forums (http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/). For $1100 we were guaranteed 52 hits plus an array of base cards and parallels. Our case played out as follows:
Notable Base Rookies
Andrew Luck :D
Robert Griffin III :D
Russell Wilson :D
Blue Refractor (1:6) – Expected = 4 : Actual = 5
Vinny Curry (41/99)
Peter Konz (36/99)
Shea McCllelin (04/99)
Devon Still (84/99)
Derek Wolfe (53/99)
Black Refractor (1:7) – Expected = 3 : Actual = 3
Lamichael James (73/75)
Greg Childs (08/75)
Chris Rainey (68/75)
Gold Refractor (1:10) – Expected = 2 : Actual = 3
Chris Rainey (07/50)
Lavonte David (24/50)
Jerel Worthy (37/50)
Prism Refractor (1:20) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Morris Claiborne (11/25) :)
Printing Plate (1:125) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
T.Y. Hilton Yellow (1/1) :)!
Jumbo Rookie Relics Tier Two (1:3) – Expected = 8 : Actual = 11
Coby Fleener x2
Robert Turbin x2
Brian Quick
Cyrus Gray
Chris Rainey
Lamar Miller
A.J. Jenkins
Isaiah Pead
Juron Criner
Jumbo Rookie Relics Tier One (1:5) – Expected = 5 : Actual = 6
Robert Griffin III :)!
Andrew Luck :)!
Nick Foles
Brock Osweiler
Trent Richardson
Brandon Weeden
Jumbo Rookie Relics Blue Refractor Tier One (1:39) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 2
Brandon Weeden (99/99) :)
Ryan Tannehill (67/99) :)
Jumbo Rookie Relics Black Refractor Tier Two (1:25) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 2
Don’t’a Hightower (42/75) :D
Stephen Hill (42/75)
Jumbo Rookie Relics Prism Refractor Tier Two (1:40) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Ryan Broyles (43/47) :D
Jumbo Rookie Relics Prism Refractor Tier One (1:82) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
LaMichael James (09/47) :)!
Jumbo Veteran Relic Blue Refactor Tier One (1:67) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
Shonn Greene (03/75)
Veteran Autographs (No Odds Listed) – Actual = 2
Kenny Britt
Akeem Ayers
Rookie Autographs (No Odds Listed) – Actual = 12
Kendall Wright :)
Harrison Smith :)
Coby Fleener :)
Matt Kalil x2 :)
Orson Charles
Dan Herron
Dontari Poe
Taylor Thompson x2
Cyrus Gray x2
Rookie Autograph Blue Refractor Tier Two (1:16) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Melvin Ingram (63/99)
Rookie Autograph Black Refractor Tier One (1:59) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
Robert Griffin III Redemption (xx/50) :flex::flex::flex::flex:
Rookie Autograph Printing Plates (1:209) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
Rueben Randle Cyan (1/1) :flex::flex:
Autograph Rookie Relics Tier Two (1:9) – Expected = 3 : Actual = 3
Ronnie Hillman :)
Michael Egnew
Robert Turbin Redemption :)
Autograph Rookie Relics Blue Refractor Patch Tier Two (1:22) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Cyrus Gray (88/99) :)
Autograph Rookie Relics Gold Refractor Patch Tier Two (1:32) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 3
Dwayne Allen Redemption (xx/66) :)!
Coby Fleener (32/66) :)!
Devier Posey (41/66) :)
Prism Refractor Dual Autograph Relic (1:24) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Joe Adams & Nick Toon (008/110) :D
Rookie Patch Boxtopper Blue Refractor (No Odds Listed) – Actual = 2
Andrew Luck (57/60) :flex::flex::flex::flex:
Bernard Pierce (30/60) :)!
Rookie Patch Boxtopper Printing Plate (No Odds Listed) – Actual = 2
Brock Osweiler (1/1) :flex::flex::flex:
LaMichael James (1/1) :flex::flex::flex:
Six Autograph Book (1:1000) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Trent Richardson, David Wilson, Justin Blackmon, & Michael Floyd (10/10 – Griffins Jersey #) :flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex:
Lets go back and see if Topps delivered on its promises…
Better Box Guarantees: We were not shorted any hits, we actually got two extras for a total of 54!
Bigger Relic Swatches: Every non-auto relic was at least twice the size of a customary jersey swatch. The boxloaders feature huge patch swatches!
More Patches: We got 13 in four boxes including 4 autographs, 2 1/1’s, a Luck Blue Refractor, and a Griffin. We only received 2 single color patches, both of which had stitching.
More Top Rookies: We found Luck 4 times (1 auto, 1 patch, 1 jersey, 1 base), Griffin 4 times (2 autos, 1 patch, 1 base), and Russell Wilson 1 time (1 base). We also had Brandon Weeden, Ryan Tannehill, Harrison Smith, Justin Blackmon, David Wilson, Doug Martin, LaMichael James, Ryan Broyles, Trent Richardson, Morris Claiborne, Nick Foles, Matt Kalil, Kendall Wright, Dwayne Allen, Coby Fleener, and Brock Osweiler show up at least once.
Trimmed the Fat: Only 16 of our 56 hits were of players I would deem undesirable – Orson Charles, Dan Herron, Dontari Poe, Taylor Thompson (x2), Cyrus Gray (x4), Michael Egnew, Devier Posey, Lamar Miller, A.J. Jenkins, Isaiah Pead, Juron Criner, Brian Quick
Bowman Sterling produced big time. There was a great variety of players with very few being bottom of the barrel types. In addition to all the guys we pulled, we missed out on hitting autos of Josh Gordon and Alfred Morris, both of which do not have very many autographed cards to their names and are very solid pulls. The Jumbo boxtoppers are a huge success and I will be thoroughly disappointed and surprised if they do not return next year.
Quality control was a bit spotty as we received doubles of 3 different autographs and 1 relic but the rest of our case more then made up for it. We also received extra hits, which is a good thing but can mean that possible boxes down the line are missing some. The last issue I have is the cards are abnormally thick. The base autographs are the same thickness as the jumbo patches. This is probably to help ward off pack searchers but is a bit of a nuisance because all the cards command 130Pt toploaders, which are not cheap.
Bowman Sterling treated us very nicely. You can’t ask for much more from a product then what we received. Although somewhat similar to Finest, the cards have a very nice look to them. Parallels and top autos were abundant and there were no condition issues. The addition of a handful of veteran hits were a nice touch to help replace some of the low-end rookies they removed. Look for prices to be around $1300 for a 4 box case before you know it.
Thanks again to Danny and Chris at Blowoutcards.com for the excellent case!
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070000_zps3275dbaa.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070002_zps14085cb2.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070001_zpsc12c0248.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070003_zps5e2befe4.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070004_zps3e114c33.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070006_zps389a00f1.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070005_zps2ad2c7f8.jpg
“We’ve trimmed the fat from past releases and reconfigured the 2012 edition to introduce better box guarantees, bigger relic swatches, more patch hits, a greater focus on top rookies, and an overall improved look and feel to an amazing technology and design”
Bigger swatches? More patches? More RGIII, Luck, and Wilson? And most importantly, less Egnew, Pead, and Criner?
That reminded me of a party I once was invited to. I was told about how pretty all the girls were going to be. And smart. And single. Now, any man would likely settle for any one of those three traits. Any two are enough to warrant an all out sweep her off her feet campaign. Combine all three and I’ll start donating organs if that’s what it takes. Thinking it was too good to be true, I had to ask how many other guys would be there. That is when I heard five words I’ll never forget, “There are no other guys”. What?! No other guys? That’s even better than perfect girls!
Of course it wasn’t exactly like I was told. There were other guys but not nearly as they were at every other party I’ve ever been to. All the girls had at least one of the three guarantees going for them, a lot had two, and some even had all three. I hoped Bowman Sterling would be the same.
Thanks to the good folks at Blowoutcards.com (http://www.blowoutcards.com/) I was able to host a 4 Box Inner Case Group Break on the Blowout Cards Forums (http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/). For $1100 we were guaranteed 52 hits plus an array of base cards and parallels. Our case played out as follows:
Notable Base Rookies
Andrew Luck :D
Robert Griffin III :D
Russell Wilson :D
Blue Refractor (1:6) – Expected = 4 : Actual = 5
Vinny Curry (41/99)
Peter Konz (36/99)
Shea McCllelin (04/99)
Devon Still (84/99)
Derek Wolfe (53/99)
Black Refractor (1:7) – Expected = 3 : Actual = 3
Lamichael James (73/75)
Greg Childs (08/75)
Chris Rainey (68/75)
Gold Refractor (1:10) – Expected = 2 : Actual = 3
Chris Rainey (07/50)
Lavonte David (24/50)
Jerel Worthy (37/50)
Prism Refractor (1:20) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Morris Claiborne (11/25) :)
Printing Plate (1:125) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
T.Y. Hilton Yellow (1/1) :)!
Jumbo Rookie Relics Tier Two (1:3) – Expected = 8 : Actual = 11
Coby Fleener x2
Robert Turbin x2
Brian Quick
Cyrus Gray
Chris Rainey
Lamar Miller
A.J. Jenkins
Isaiah Pead
Juron Criner
Jumbo Rookie Relics Tier One (1:5) – Expected = 5 : Actual = 6
Robert Griffin III :)!
Andrew Luck :)!
Nick Foles
Brock Osweiler
Trent Richardson
Brandon Weeden
Jumbo Rookie Relics Blue Refractor Tier One (1:39) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 2
Brandon Weeden (99/99) :)
Ryan Tannehill (67/99) :)
Jumbo Rookie Relics Black Refractor Tier Two (1:25) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 2
Don’t’a Hightower (42/75) :D
Stephen Hill (42/75)
Jumbo Rookie Relics Prism Refractor Tier Two (1:40) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Ryan Broyles (43/47) :D
Jumbo Rookie Relics Prism Refractor Tier One (1:82) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
LaMichael James (09/47) :)!
Jumbo Veteran Relic Blue Refactor Tier One (1:67) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
Shonn Greene (03/75)
Veteran Autographs (No Odds Listed) – Actual = 2
Kenny Britt
Akeem Ayers
Rookie Autographs (No Odds Listed) – Actual = 12
Kendall Wright :)
Harrison Smith :)
Coby Fleener :)
Matt Kalil x2 :)
Orson Charles
Dan Herron
Dontari Poe
Taylor Thompson x2
Cyrus Gray x2
Rookie Autograph Blue Refractor Tier Two (1:16) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Melvin Ingram (63/99)
Rookie Autograph Black Refractor Tier One (1:59) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
Robert Griffin III Redemption (xx/50) :flex::flex::flex::flex:
Rookie Autograph Printing Plates (1:209) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
Rueben Randle Cyan (1/1) :flex::flex:
Autograph Rookie Relics Tier Two (1:9) – Expected = 3 : Actual = 3
Ronnie Hillman :)
Michael Egnew
Robert Turbin Redemption :)
Autograph Rookie Relics Blue Refractor Patch Tier Two (1:22) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Cyrus Gray (88/99) :)
Autograph Rookie Relics Gold Refractor Patch Tier Two (1:32) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 3
Dwayne Allen Redemption (xx/66) :)!
Coby Fleener (32/66) :)!
Devier Posey (41/66) :)
Prism Refractor Dual Autograph Relic (1:24) – Expected = 1 : Actual = 1
Joe Adams & Nick Toon (008/110) :D
Rookie Patch Boxtopper Blue Refractor (No Odds Listed) – Actual = 2
Andrew Luck (57/60) :flex::flex::flex::flex:
Bernard Pierce (30/60) :)!
Rookie Patch Boxtopper Printing Plate (No Odds Listed) – Actual = 2
Brock Osweiler (1/1) :flex::flex::flex:
LaMichael James (1/1) :flex::flex::flex:
Six Autograph Book (1:1000) – Expected = 0 : Actual = 1
Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Trent Richardson, David Wilson, Justin Blackmon, & Michael Floyd (10/10 – Griffins Jersey #) :flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex::flex:
Lets go back and see if Topps delivered on its promises…
Better Box Guarantees: We were not shorted any hits, we actually got two extras for a total of 54!
Bigger Relic Swatches: Every non-auto relic was at least twice the size of a customary jersey swatch. The boxloaders feature huge patch swatches!
More Patches: We got 13 in four boxes including 4 autographs, 2 1/1’s, a Luck Blue Refractor, and a Griffin. We only received 2 single color patches, both of which had stitching.
More Top Rookies: We found Luck 4 times (1 auto, 1 patch, 1 jersey, 1 base), Griffin 4 times (2 autos, 1 patch, 1 base), and Russell Wilson 1 time (1 base). We also had Brandon Weeden, Ryan Tannehill, Harrison Smith, Justin Blackmon, David Wilson, Doug Martin, LaMichael James, Ryan Broyles, Trent Richardson, Morris Claiborne, Nick Foles, Matt Kalil, Kendall Wright, Dwayne Allen, Coby Fleener, and Brock Osweiler show up at least once.
Trimmed the Fat: Only 16 of our 56 hits were of players I would deem undesirable – Orson Charles, Dan Herron, Dontari Poe, Taylor Thompson (x2), Cyrus Gray (x4), Michael Egnew, Devier Posey, Lamar Miller, A.J. Jenkins, Isaiah Pead, Juron Criner, Brian Quick
Bowman Sterling produced big time. There was a great variety of players with very few being bottom of the barrel types. In addition to all the guys we pulled, we missed out on hitting autos of Josh Gordon and Alfred Morris, both of which do not have very many autographed cards to their names and are very solid pulls. The Jumbo boxtoppers are a huge success and I will be thoroughly disappointed and surprised if they do not return next year.
Quality control was a bit spotty as we received doubles of 3 different autographs and 1 relic but the rest of our case more then made up for it. We also received extra hits, which is a good thing but can mean that possible boxes down the line are missing some. The last issue I have is the cards are abnormally thick. The base autographs are the same thickness as the jumbo patches. This is probably to help ward off pack searchers but is a bit of a nuisance because all the cards command 130Pt toploaders, which are not cheap.
Bowman Sterling treated us very nicely. You can’t ask for much more from a product then what we received. Although somewhat similar to Finest, the cards have a very nice look to them. Parallels and top autos were abundant and there were no condition issues. The addition of a handful of veteran hits were a nice touch to help replace some of the low-end rookies they removed. Look for prices to be around $1300 for a 4 box case before you know it.
Thanks again to Danny and Chris at Blowoutcards.com for the excellent case!
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070000_zps3275dbaa.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070002_zps14085cb2.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070001_zpsc12c0248.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070003_zps5e2befe4.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070004_zps3e114c33.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070006_zps389a00f1.jpg
http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad84/pastmyshades/Scan130070005_zps2ad2c7f8.jpg