More 2013 Allen and Ginter Retail Blasters

It seems I am getting hooked on this years Allen and Ginter. Once again I passed by a Target next to me and found two more blasters. The funny thing is, someone was there before me and had one in his hand reading the box. I patiently waited (at least thats how I appeared to be :) ) to see if he wanted it. But when he put the box back I did not hesitate and grabbed both blasters.

Not to say I had the greatest pulls, but sometimes you just have to buy the product. So here is what I pulled out of two boxes. One Will Middlebrooks No Number Mini and one Vida Blue framed autograph.

2013 Bowman Platinum Retail Edition

Although I prefer buying single cards online, sometimes I still buy boxes of cards. The most recent buy is Bowman Platinum retail which I have had decent luck with and for some reason I always kind-of-liked if that makes any sense.

So after two blaster boxes and two value packs which equals six packs, I ended pulling nothing special. The best card was probably a Bryce Harper gold parallel, I did not get a Yasiel Puig. Hoping to get something better I passed by the Target again and bought another 4 value packs. The second time was a charm, though there was nothing spectacular I did pull some decent cards.

Here are the notable cards I got. Nate Roberts autograph, Orlando Calixte autograph, Joc Pederson green refractor numbered out of 399 and a Blue Sapphire Refractor of Ryan Braun. But still no Yasiel Puig.

Now it probably makes more sense to buy a hobby box instead of all this retail stuff. But I keep telling myself I like the purple refractors.

Are rookie cards killing or helping the baseball card hobby?

Rookie cards as we all know are currently dead. The MLB no longer allows a company to label first year cards as rookies since technically they are pictured in a minor league uniform. But this is old news, this happened a few years back and Topps as we know have changed their Bowman product to bypass this. We now see cards as prospects and first year cards, but is this helping or is this making the hobby worse?
So I'm trying to figure out exactly how this works. A drafted player has one card labeled prospect and another labeled first year. Then they have another prospect card that is autographed and then another first year card that is autographed. Seems like Topps has found a loophole in the MLB license agreement or is it that MLB and Topps are working out a special deal?
Well okay, enough with the questions. I have stated before that there are too many cards of certain players already. We have players with dwindling ERAs and batting averages, but now we have players with non-existant stats, wonderful. Now I understand that Topps and other companies are a business and must find ways to make a profit. But how about doing it in a way that won't damage the hobby or confuse the heck out of us collectors?
I think this hobby is turning more and more towards an adults only thing. Seldom do I see a collector chasing a prospect card because they are on his favorite team. And even rarer do I see a collector buying a first year card because he is a huge fan and how can they be when they never heard of said player? This hobby is turning more into an investment form.
There are way too many people that buys tons of prospect cards hoping to make money on them. Gone are the days of a collector holding on to every player on their favorite team. Gone are the collectors that wants one card ever made of their favorite player. But that happened when they released one-of-ones and cards serial numbered to five. I will say it again this hobby is a mess and I don't see it improving anytime soon. There are still good money to be made but the word collecting and baseball cards, I believe don't really exist anymore.

2010 Bowman Platinum Retail Blaster Boxes

So I've been on a buying spree after seeing getting some 2011 Bowman Platinum. I was passing by retail stores looking for boxes, and you may be wondering why I'm buying retail. Well, with almost no sports card stores left in the NYC area the only options I have is either online or retail.

So I walked into Toys'R'us and looked at their small selection of cards. This was a very small Toys'R'us and their selection was even smaller then other locations. But to my surprise they had two 2010 Bowman Platinum blaster boxes which was a year old already. Needless to say, I bought both of them.

Well the first box yielded nothing, and I was hoping I would at least get an autograph in my second box. Halfway through my second box I pulled an autograph of Miguel Sano. Needless to say, I was pretty happy getting not only an autograph but one of a pretty good prospect.