Box Break Madness: Dodgers, Puigs, Autos and More

Friday night my LCS owner had a baseball box break. He was going to break two boxes of Bowman Sterling, a box of 2011 Leaf limited, a box of Topps Finest, a jumbo box of Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects, a box of WBC Tribute, and a box of Triple Threads, with the exception of the Leaf box, all were from 2013. A spot in this break cost 40 bucks, which is pretty damn good if you ask me. The problem was I had no card money and was initially left to watch.

My buddy Dikran, the same guy who got me this sweet Christmas present, heard about the break and decided he wanted in. Now, he isn't your average card collector. He doesn't have a favorite team, or a favorite player. He likes the big, chunk-a-licious hits you can find in the high end products. Because of this, he usually passes everything else down to me. If it has a decent value, I end up listing it on eBay, but for the most part I use the cards to complete sets and trades, or simply add them to my various PC's.

Dikran not only decided to buy a spot into the break, he bought three! That means triple the opportunity to pull some nice cards. 

The owner randomized the teams with the names and we were pretty ecstatic. The Phillies, Mariners and....the Dodgers!

Yay! I would be adding some new Dodger cards to my collection tonight, I thought. Seems like most of the guys in there thought that too and instantly attempted to buy the Dodgers from us. Nobody even got an offer out before I turned them down. This was finally our chance to get some Dodger cards from products I couldn't afford.

Time to rip some packs. I'll start with the hits from the Phillies.

Roman Quinn

Cord Sandberg

Jake Sweaney

Nothing too valuable. I have only ever heard of Roman Quinn, but I still don't know that much about him. I wasn't expecting much from the Phillies, but we ended up with three autos. Pretty damn good.

On to the Mariners. They have good high level prospects, so the potential here was good. Let's take a look at the hits.

Austin Wilson

Brad Miller

I have never heard of Austin Wilson before, most likely because he was a late second round draft pick of a team I don't follow, but he put up pretty good numbers at Stanford. Brad Miller is thought to be the Mariners shortstop for the next few years, but after adding Robinson Cano their infield became a little crowded. They may move Miller and stick Nick Franklin in at short, or they may move Franklin. They may also decide to not move any one. These were not my only Mariners autos though.

Taijuan Walker

Unlike the previous cards, this Taijuan Walker auto is a refractor #'d 73/150. It is going for about 10 bucks on eBay, but I plan on holding on to it. It sounds like he could be the next big thing, and with the attention Seattle has, a decent season from him would improve the value of the card. 

Now we can move into Dodgers territory. We were half way through the break before any Dodgers showed up, but they eventually did. Needless to say, I was very pleased with what we walked away with. I'll start with the non hits, and move down from there.

Absolutely beautiful cards of top prospect Joc Pederson, minus the Giant. I  do not understand putting rival team prospects on the same card, but at least the colors have a nice contrast. 

In addition to these base cards, I got about 25 Dodger bases from the varying products. Moving on to the big stuff now.

Shawn Green

One of my favorite players, if not my favorite, when I was growing up. This card is #'d 272/299, and will be placed with the rest of my Green cards. I plan on uploading my secondary player collections soon, so be on the lookout for that.

Chirs Anderson

My first Chris Anderson auto! The big righty was the Dodgers 1st round choice in this years draft, and has had a solid showing in the minors so far. He is someone to watch for, as he may make a late season debut in the bullpen this year.

Julio Urias

One of my favorite cards of the bunch comes from 17 year old lefty, Julio Urias. Urias sprung on to the scene this year, putting up gaudy numbers for the Great Lake Loons. The fact that he only recently turned 17 has many people turning their heads, including myself. Pitchers are hard to predict, especially when they are as far away from the majors as he is, but he seems to have the potential to be a very successful major leaguer. The Dodgers will have to teach him to sign is autos in a more central position though.

Adrian Gonzalez

I have been wanting to get my hands on an A-Gon auto for quite some time now. I would have liked to have had one with him in a Dodgers uni, but this gets the job done. It's a beautiful card, and didn't cost me a thing. The owner wasn't really running the break. A friend of his was sorting the cards as they were pulled and was jealous of our success. He is a big Dodger fan, which I learned from his Brooklyn hat and his Dodgers sweater. He got stuck with the Rays, who had very little cards to offer in the break and was obviously upset. When the A-Gon was initially pulled he tried to say the Red Sox person would get it. I said BS, this is a 2013 product from a guy the Dodgers acquired in 2012. He gave in and placing it in our modest stack of Dodgers,

  

Of course, there had to be some Puig's in all of this madness. In fact, I got three different Puig cards all with the same picture. Thank you Topps!

But the most valuable card we pulled from this was a different Puig. One with a different picture no less.

This by far, one of the nicest cards I have ever seen. It is the refractor parallel, meaning it's #'d 139/199. This baby sells for around 50 to 60 bucks on eBay, which is where it might end up. As much as I like Puig, I would rather sell it and use the money to buy some cool Kemp or Kershaw autos. If any Dodger fans want to make me an offer on it, I'll gladly listen.

At the end of the night, we walked away with 11 total hits, and a ton of other cool cards from the Dodgers, Phillies, and Mariners. The biggest hit was pulled by a friend of mine who didn't get to attend the break. He put a #'d /3 Yoenis Cespedes Auto Relic from Triple Threads. As nice as that card was, I am much happier with the haul we pulled in. Dikran was nice enough to pass all the cards down to me, though I will be looking to getting some nice cards for him to return the favor.

Every Non-Dodger card shown, except the Puig Sterling Refractor, is available for trade. I will add them to my trade bait shortly, so be sure to check that out.

Speaking of my Trade Bait, you may notice it is a little thin. I haven't bought many packs recently, which explains the shortage of hits. I'll look to buy some cards again when Series 1 comes out later this month. Expect more cool cards to come this year.