2012 Topps HTA Jumbo box – missing foil and a BIG HIT!

OK, so I got around to opening the rest of my box yesterday.  I missed it in the first couple of packs as I was organizing what numbers I had toward the set, but around pack #3, I noticed something on the front of some cards:

That’s not a tricky photo shop from me.  I don’t even know how to photo shop.  Those cards have no foil!

I checked back on cards I’d already sorted, and it had happened in the other packs as well.  In fact, it happened in a very specific way.  The way HTA jumbo packs are organized, the insert cards are in the middle of the HTA jumbos.  These cards were always the 9 cards in front of the insert cards.  This happened in all but a couple of packs – 7 out of 10 of the 50-card packs!  The way jumbo packs are, you end up usually getting the full set – but these error (?) cards kept me from doing so – I’m 58 cards short of the set – hopefully my retail purchases will get me there.  And, maybe I can sell them as some super rare variations on eBay 🙂

Next up, here are the “hits” from this box.  The first one I pulled wasn’t anything to shout home about, but still is a nice card.  And I’m guessing Hiflew at Cards from the Quarry may be interested in it.  It highlights Carlos Gonzalez hitting a for a cycle AND hitting a walk-off home run in the same game.  Topps calls this a Mega cycle – I don’t know about that, but apparently this is something that’s only been done 4 other times.  Thinking about this – I believe there’s been a little less than 300 cycles in MLB history, so probably ~150 have been done at home.  That’s about 3% of all cycles!  I’m actually surprised it’s that high.  I remember when Car Go did this.  The other guys were Ken Boyer (1961), Cesar Tovar (1972), George Brett (1979), and Dwight Evans (1984).  None of the 5 players hit for a “natural cycle” – doing it in order – in the game they accomplished this feat.

I got 2 more “hits” in the box, as you’re supposed to.  I’ll skip ahead to the 3rd hit I pulled – which I did in the last pack.  This is a Jeter World Series pin.  I know many collectors really don’t like the manufactured patches type cards.  A lot of times I agree with them – but I actually LOVE these cards.  I’ve always thought World Series or All-Star pins are really cool collectibles.  There’s only 20 in the product, and I was thinking about collecting these cards – but I looked into this a little further.  All the pins look the same – and don’t match the actual press pins for each series.  So I think I’ll pass.  I do want to pick up the Bench card, and I can’t wait to see the Retired Rings manu-patches, either.  They look sharp.

OK, so, finally – here’s the big hit.  This is up there (easily) as one of the biggest pulls I’ve ever had.  Previous contenders are:

• a Griffey ’96 SP buyback out of ’97 SP
• a Prince Fielder RC auto out of ’08 SPX
• a Derek Jeter auto #’d to 5 out of ’08 Upper Deck Heroes
• a quadruple relic of DiMaggio, Berra, Reggie, and Jeter in that same Heroes box
• an Abe Lincoln Presidential Masterpiece #/10 in ’11 Goodwin

This card definitely bumps at least the relic card out of the top 5.  Without further ado, here it is.

Wait, let me make it bigger.

OK, you can probably see that pretty well.  I’ll blow it up one more time so it can be properly viewed!

An autograph #’d 5 out of 10 to the former home run king, one of the greatest players of all time!

Yes, it’s a sticker auto, and yes his signature has deteriorated with age.  But it’s an autograph of Hank Aaron, and you can’t beat that!