2012 Goodwin Champions Blaster

 

When the Upper Deck version of Goodwin Champions first appeared in 2009 with the inclusion of  butterflies and insects, bits of coal from the Titanic and thoroughbred horse hair. It looked like a pretty exciting product. The base cards looked nice too, so I decided to collect the whole set. Who knows I might even snag a horse DNA card and create my own horse...in the future.

I looked forward to 2010, but had to wait until 2011 for the next helping. Some unique cards again became accessible. Fancy a piece of Abe Lincoln's desk, a piece of White House wood (no pun intended), Nelson's Battle Flag or even some of Edward the 8th's snot? 

Well 2011 Goodwin Champions made it possible, but you would have to be extremely lucky with stated odds of 1 in 54,000 packs for a piece of desk, but only 1 in 4,000 for a piece of Eddy's hanky. 

By the time 2012 Goodwin Champions, I had moved on and had pretty much lost interest in these rare relics. Even the tempting possibility of landing a space rock or collecting the card of a stellar sportsman like Kasey Keller didn't override my desire to pursue other cards.

However that doesn't mean I will turn away a free gift. 

The 2012 Goodwin Champions blaster contains 12 packs, each pack contains 4 cards.
There are 210 cards in the base set; 150 'regular cards', 40 short prints and 20 super short prints. In other words there are 150 base card and 60 cards you might get.

Pack 1:

#62 David Robinson basketball

#84 Don Mattingly baseball

#127 Dennis Eckersley baseball

#190 Sherry McGee baseball SP

Pack 2:

#44 Chris Paul basketball

#90 Clyde Drexler basketball

#113 Steve Carlton baseball mini

#130 Marques Colston football

Pack 3:

#93 Arnold Palmer golf

#105 Mike Bossy hockey

#120 Kawhi Leonard basketball

#153 Ross Youngs baseball SP

Pack 4:

#27 Mike Schmidt baseball lady luck mini

#91 Jonathan Huberdeau hockey

#102 Mike Tyson boxing

#147 Y.E.Yang golf

Pack 5:

#52 Robert Griffin III football

#64 Ned Crotty lacrosse

#115 Sarah Bernhardt actress

#207 Walter Travis golf SSP

Pack 6:

#66 Annika golf

#108 Nolan Ryan baseball

#136 Doug Flutie football

#MM17 USS Balaq

Pack 7:

#36 Eric Lindros hockey

#56 Bo Jackson football

#103 Bryan Clay track and field mini

#124 Brendan Shanahan hockey

 

Pack 8:

#70 Kent Desormeaux jockey

#80 Randy Couture MMA

#87 Jim Kelly football

#144 Adrian Peterson football

 

Pack 9:

#32 Wayne Gretzky hockey mini

#46 Zach Johnson golf

#88 Larry Bird basketball

#139 Shoeless Joe Jackson baseball

 

Pack 10:

#17 Grant Hill basketball

#28 Ron Francis hockey

#118 LeBron James basketball

#186 Camille Pissarro artist SP

 

Pack 11:

#11 Dawn Harper athletics

#21 Jozy Altidore soccer

#34 Troy Aikman football

#163 Pretty Boy Floyd gangster

 

Pack 12:

#38 Billy Hamilton baseball

#94 Adrian Dantley basketball mini

#103 Bryan Clay athletics

#142 Chantal Sutherland jockey 

Being predominately a baseball card collector, I think this sort of multi-sport set is wasted on me. Which is probably why I have only chosen to collect Allen+Ginter/Goodwin sets only once.
Although the black borders are very smart and it is pretty cool that the set contains cards of a gangster and an impressionist, it just isn't for me.

Blaster Break-down
7 basketball
7 baseball
7 football
5 hockey
5 golf
5 minis
2 jockey
2 track and field
1 MMA, soccer, boxing, lacrosse
1 actress, gangster, artist
1 insert
3 Short Prints
1 Super Short Print

2013 Topps Heritage Baseball - coming soon

Product released 6th March 2013

Topps Heritage is a throwback to the Topps 1964 baseball card release, featuring the top MLB players of today and retired legends from the past.
 

BASE CARDS (1-500):
Base Cards (425 Subjects): Veterans & Rookies in the 1964 Topps Design.
High-Numbered Short-Printed cards (75)

Base Card Variation: - Error Short-Prints Cards reproducing errors from the 1964 set. Limited - Throwback Colt .45s Variations - All Houston Astros players will have a base card variation featuring them in their throwback Colt .45s uniform used during the 2012 season commemorating the last year they were named the Colt. .45s. Limited

PARALLELS:
Venezuelan Parallel:The card back color changes from Orange to Black

INSERT CARDS:
Then and Now:Statistical comparison of a 1964 player vs. a 2012 player who were the leaders in statistical categories.
Baseball Flashbacks:Flashback highlights from the 1964 season.
News Flashbacks:World news moments from 1964.
1964 Topps Complete Set Redemption:A redemption card for a complete set from 1964.
1964 Topps Tattos Buybacks:These original tattoos from 1964 will be framed.
1964 Bazooka Stamps Buybacks:These original stamps will be framed.

1964 (Box Loader):Parallels of selected base cards that are included as 3-card strips with an advertisement back.
1964 Topps Originals (Box Loader):Original cards foil-stamped and inserted in 1-card penny packs. 1964 JUMBO Box Loader: Styled after the 1964 Topps over-sized cards.

24 Packs Per Box, 9 Cards Per Pack
  

 

The one that got away.

 

 

There are meant to be times in your life when you reach a moment of sudden clarity of thought, referred to as an epiphany. A moment of great and sudden revelation.

My epiphany? I am stupid.

Very rarely, if ever, does a large lot of baseball cards appear for sale on EbayUK. Never are they located on the Isle or close enough that doesn't involve a passport and an eight hour flight.

So what did I do when I saw this item (picture above) listed on Ebay.

Buy it for £59?

You would think that wouldn't you. Well you would be wrong.

I ran, literally ran, upstarts to my wife and asked if we were doing anything this weekend as I would like to a little round trip to Reading -about 130 miles, 3 hours - if the traffic was bad.

Brilliant, calendar free.

Run back downstairs, Try to Buy it Now....Sold.

Should have bought it first and then asked.

I'm sure there is a moral to this story in there somewhere.