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A TCDB Surprise Card from mpdillard25!

Group Break 1 in 2013: The Beginning!

Welcome one and all to my first group break in 2013.  I'm guessing most of you are familiar with how my breaks work but just in case, I'll summarize it quickly.  Over the next few days, I will open each pack in the break and post all the contents on the blog.  Based on previous group break participants comments - this method is preferred to long videos (perhaps I'm not exciting enough when I use the webcam).  Then, once everything has been opened up and sorted, I'll mail each participant his or her share of the break - in this case everyone has at least two teams in the break which means everyone has double the number of teams to root for!

Enough of my yammering though, let's get it started!

I don't think I've ever busted a box of 2000 Topps Finest - until now!  This box has 24 packs with 6 cards per pack.  As a surprise (to me at least), it also had a box topper.  A big congrats to the Padres who land the first card of the break!

This happens to be an oversized card from the Gems set.  Since this is a series 2 box (maybe if we like this box I could track down a series 1 box for a different break), the Gems card begin the numbering at 11 and run through 20.  Presumably the first 10 were available only in series 1 boxes.

The box also came with a checklist.  Now you know who to hope for!

Finally, according to the pack wrapper, we can expect the following:

  • Sequentially numbered finest rookies (1:13 packs)
  • Sequentially numbered finest rookies refractors (1:49)
  • Sequentially numbered finest rookies die cut gold refractor (1:448)
  • Finest Counterparts (1:8)
  • Finest Gems (1:24)
  • Veterans/Rookies Refractor parallel (1:24)
  • Counterpart Refractor parallel (1:96)
  • Gems Refractor parallel (1:288)
  • Veterans/Rookies Die Cut Gold Refractor (1:240)
  • Counterpart Die Cut Gold Refractor (1:960)
  • Gems Die Cut Gold Refractor (1:2,880)
  • Ballpark Bounties (1:24)
  • Dream Cast (1:36)
  • Finest Moments (1:9)
  • Finest Moments Refractor (1:20)
  • Finest Moments Refractor with Autograph (1:425)


As you can see, lots of cool possibilities.  I'll be pumped if we pull any of the cards that are rarer than 1:24 packs, but I'm holding out hope for a die cut or an autograph!

2000 Topps Finest Series 2:
Pack 01:

154.  Andy Pettitte - Yankees

187.  Mike Hampton - Mets
228.  Kip Wells - White Sox
232.  Jason Tyner - Mets
233.  Rick Ankiel - Cardinals

240.  Alfonso Soriano - Yankees

Although we didn't find any inserts or other rare cards, this was still a good start to the group break.  As often happens, the Yankees jumped out to the early lead (along with the Mets).  Of course, I would say the Padres were the big winner in the first post since they landed the oversized Gwynn card which is a nice looking card!

As for the base card design, it sort of looks like the baseball is a meteor about to crush the player in the picture...  Look out!  I will have more group break posts coming soon - in fact, I'm hoping to get at least one more done for tonight.

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