2008 Bowman Chrome Case Break - Live Starting at 7 PM

[parsetdx]

Okay - over the course of the evening I'm going to be breaking my case of 08 Bowman Chrome. I know the product is only so-so this year, but I'm a loyalist and I needed something to rip. I bought it with the 25% MS Live discount so I paid about $550 shipped which ends up being around $45 per box. I'm hoping I can get some value out of it at that price. Let's see......

Summary

(Card Type : Expected : Received)

Veteran / RC Refractors : 72 : 72
Veteran X-Fractors #/250 : 5.54 : 5
Veteran Blue Refractors #/150 : 3.72 : 3
Veteran Gold Refractors #/50 : 0.93 : 1
Veteran Orange Refractors #/25 : 0.47 : 1

Prospect Refractors #/500 : 5.40 : 5
Prospect X-Fractors #/250 : 2.73 : 3
Prospect Blue Refractors #/150 : 1.65 : 3
Prospect Gold Refractors #/50 : 0.55 : 0
Prospect Orange Refractors #/25: 0.28 : 0

Prospect Auto : 6.97 : 7
Prospect Auto Refractors #/500 : 2.45 : 4
Prospect Auto X-Fractors #/250 : 1.23 : 1
Prospect Auto Blue Refractors #/150 : 0.73 : 0

Plate : 0.16 : 1


Overall, I have to say I did pretty well. I pulled 2 of the nicer Autos (Lambo and Villalona) with some other mid-level Autos from the set as well (the Latos #/500 is pretty nice). Throw in the decent collation (I think I'll be close to a full base set and several prospect sets) of the base which yielded a ton of RCs and RC Refractors (18 of them) and I really liked the break more than BC of the past with it's really poor collation. Finally, the fact that I hit a Gold, Orange, and Plate means I really can't complain about too much here (and the fact that they are all decent players is a welcomed plus).

I will be posting my set needs (we all know I need at least 1 Longoria base RC for my set since that's the one RC I did not pull) and hopefully some folks can help me out with finishing it off. Also, please let me know if you need anything for your sets, or if you want to trade for any parallels, etc. I'm open to most anything. Let me know.

Thanks for reading!
Josh

[parsetdx]

Box #1

Red Veteran Refractors
Kosuke Fukudome
Asdrubal Cabrera
Andruw Jones

Green RC Refractors
Justin Masterson
Robinson Diaz
Nick Blackburn

Red Veteran X-Fractors #/250
Jeremy Guthrie

Prospect Refractors #/500
Justin Cassel

Prospect X-Fractor #/250
Dominic Brown

Prospect Auto Base
Ryan Kallish

Comments
Off to a pretty good start considering the product this year. Let's hope it keeps up and I beat the overall (tough) odds on the Prospect parallels. I liked pulling the 3 RC Refractors - wish Longoria and Fukudome were mixed in there, but at least I grabbed a Veteran Base Refractor of Fukudome. Final note - of a total of 30 Veteran / RC base, I pulled 8 RCs (about 25%). If I end up having to double up on base due to traditionally bad collation, then it may as well be on RCs!

[parsetdx]

Box #2

Red Veteran Refractors
Adam Jones
Aaron Harang
Randy Johnson
Chone Figgins
Gary Sheffield
Fausto Carmona

Red Veteran X-Fractors #/250
Hanley Ramirez

Prospect Refractors #/500
Collin DeLome

Prospect Blue Refractors #/150
Alfredo Silverio

Prospect Auto Base
Angel Villalona Redemption

Comments
Can't complain again - two decent prospect parallels and the Villalona hit for one of the best autos in the product. I'm not sure about the Blue Ref as it says Silverio was signed as a free agent back in 2003 (then why is he in this set?) which points to the fact that Topps was scraping for people to put in here. Along those same lines, I've always complained that they could cut their base set by about 20 to 30 players. This is my personal opinion, but I don't think Adam Jones and Randy Johnson belong in the same set - I would prefer to see a smaller set of higher quality.... and in fact I'd be willing to pay (slightly) more for a set designed with quality players in mind. And BTW, why does Topps keep insisting in putting Dontrelle Willis into their sets? TOPPS... HE HASN'T PITCHED FOR MONTHS!?!?!!!! I think they would have enough advanced notice to remove him from the set - LAME!

[parsetdx]

Box #3

Red Veteran Refractors
Adam LaRoche
Oliver Perez
Jered Weaver
Jason Varitek
Alfonso Soriano

Green RC Refractors
Jeff Niemann

Prospect Auto Refractor #/500
Aaron Cunningham

Comments
Well - that was a tough one - not much more to say about that. I guess I was punished for pulling the Refractor Auto. Oh well, onto the next one.

[parsetdx]

Box #4

Red Veteran Refractors
Delmon Young
Josh Beckett
Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Green RC Refractors
David Purcey
Callix Crabbe
Jayson Nix

Red Veteran Blue Refractors #/150
Travis Hafner

Plate - Black #1/1
Chien-Ming Wang

Prospect Auto Refractor #/500
Matt Latos

Comments
Another nice box - like the plate hit a lot, and the Latos is a gorgeous card with pefect centering. I always wish my Blues are people I collect, but they never are so I'm stuck with Hafner. 1/3 of the case is done, and I think it's looking pretty good to me.

[parsetdx]

Box #5

Red Veteran Refractors
Aaron Rowand
Chase Utley (yay pc!)
Mike Lowell
Dan Uggla

Green RC Refractors
Denard Span
Matt Tolbert

Prospect Auto Base
Mitch Boggs

Comments
Eh - another weak box. At least I pulled a PC Refractor. Of note, I'm compiling a nice little Red Sox Refractor lot for some Red Sox fan that wants to trade for it.

[parsetdx]

Box #6

Red Veteran Refractors
Rich Harden
Carlos Pena
Miguel Tejada (of course - following me again...)
Josh Hamilton
Orlando Cabrera

Green RC Refractors
Joey Votto

Prospect Auto X-Fractor #/250
Mark Malancon

Comments
Another weak one, but the auto is nice. I'd prefer not to waste an X-Auto on somebody I don't know and who was drafted in the 9th round, but at least he's a Yankee. Halfway through and the strong start is starting to decline. Let's see if we can pick it back up in the second half. I'm still looking for my first Fukudome Green RC and same with Longoria. I've been pulling plenty of Green RC Refractors, so maybe those two guys will come in that form.

[parsetdx]

Box #7

Red Veteran Refractors
Dan Haren
Chien-Ming Wang
Corey Hart
Eric Chavez

Green RC Refractors
Johnny Cueto
Hiroki Kuroda

Red Veteran Blue Refractors #/150
Mark Buehrle

Prospect Refractors #/500
Joe Mahoney

Prospect Auto Base
Adrian Alaniz

Comments
Definitely a better box. Still not happy with an auto from a 6th round pick of the Nationals, but oh well. Maybe this is a sign things are looking up!

[parsetdx]

Box #8

Red Veteran Refractors
Chipper Jones
Brian McCann
Lance Berkman
Adrian Gonzalez
Raul Ibanez

Green RC Refractors
John Bowker

Red Veteran Gold Refractors #/50
Ryan Braun

Prospect X-Fractor #/250
Fabio Castillo

Prospect Auto Base
Chaz Roe

Comments
Okay - still not too bad. I'll take a Gold Ref of Braun. Overall the parallels seemed to be the HR hitters! :-) I feel like I've heard good things about Roe - anybody agree?

[parsetdx]

Box #9

Red Veteran Refractors
Nick Johnson
Tim Hudson
Matt Garza
Jason Bay
Jeremy Hermida

Green RC Refractors
Brad Harman

Prospect Auto Base
Andrew Lambo Redemption

Comments
I'm okay with the Auto, but the parallels were weak - same story. Onward and upward....

[xciceroguy]

Got some nice cards there......

[parsetdx]

Box #10

Red Veteran Refractors
Adam Dunn
Derek Jeter
Justin Upton
Vernon Wells
Carlos Lee
Tom Gorzelanny

Red Veteran X-Fractors #/250
Jermaine Dye

Red Veteran Blue Refractors #/150
Adrian Beltre

Red Veteran Orange Refractors #/25
Russ Martin

Prospect Refractors #/500
Jose Vallejo

Prospect Blue Refractors #/150
Bryan Morris

Prospect Auto Refractor #/500
Dustin Richardson

Comments
Well, that's about as hot of a box as you can hope for in 08 BC. I think that was a great one. I'm sure the Orange will do nicely - they are such good looking cards. Not sure about the Auto, but again a Red Sox player can't hurt. As for the Blue Prospect, it says he's a #1 pick of the Dodgers - anybody know anything about him? Overall - I'm pretty happy at this point - let's see if the last two boxes can beat this one out for best box (maybe a colored auto would help). Oh yeah, almost forgot - to top it off I got a Fukudome, Kobayashi, and Lu base RC in this box (among others) - still no Longoria - fingers crossed.

[mcguirem13]

who's the auto? You forgot to list it.

[parsetdx]

Box #11

Red Veteran Refractors
Robinson Cano
Jim Edmonds
Troy Glaus

Green RC Refractors
Kazuo Fukumori
Justin Ruggiano (wrong Devil Ray!)
Troy Patton

Red Veteran X-Fractors #/250
Bobby Abreu

Prospect Blue Refractors #/150
Justin Cassel

Prospect Auto Refractor #/500
Danny Lehmann

Comments
That was a pretty decent box - certainly not the worst. I know nothing about the Auto prospect, but then again I know nothing about most of them that Topps selected. I hope this Cassel guy ends up being decent because I snagged a regular Ref #/500 earlier and now I got his Blue. Finally, still not a single Longoria Base RC, let alone the Refractor I was hoping for. All my hope lies in the last box. And oh yeah, I have pulled 4 Ref Autos (more than the odds), but only 1 XRef and 0 Blue - so I'm hoping this last one will be a Blue Brackman or better! :-)

[parsetdx]

Box #12

Red Veteran Refractors
Brett Myers
Aaron Hill
Nick Markakis
David DeJesus
David Wright

Green RC Refractors
Hernan Iribarren

Red Veteran X-Fractors #/250
Brian Bannister

Prospect Refractors #/500
Duke Welker

Prospect X-Fractor #/250
Andrew Romine

Prospect Auto Base
Jordan Zimmerman

Comments
Well - I was a little surprised to only find a base Auto and not at least an X-Fractor. Oh well. This box was okay in terms of parallels, and I'm not sure about Zimmerman - yet another Nationals prospect. I guess my only solace (as I watch my Phils come back from a 3-1 deficit tonight while I opened this case) is that the Nats really do suck and should be looking to their farm system pretty soon for some fresh talent. :-) I think they commit more errors than clean plays. But I digress. My final note on the box... I can't believe I didn't pull one single Longoria in the entire case - but triples and quads of some of the other Rookies. My full summary will be forthcoming....

[parsetdx]

mcguire - good to see you - I updated the Auto.

[parsetdx]

I posted a summary at the top of this thread - take a look and let me know if you need anything. Also please look for my set needs after I go through the base if you have a few base to trade. Thanks!

Josh