The idea of busting baseball packs and sharing the contents with others is not a new concept. Sharing with strangers over the Internet may have its pitfalls, as many unsuspecting participants find to their peril. Caveat emptor. Having a regular, trusted and experienced blogger such as Tribecards bust some boxes and share the contents is a completely different story. When the idea of Indians Cards Always buck a box was mentioned I joined, a little surprised because there are so many other Red Sox collectors around.

Five boxes- $1 a box
1988 Sportflics
1990 Topps Heads -up
2009 Allen+Ginter
2011 Bowman x2

A rather diverse selection of boxes should make it very interesting.
Box 1 -Sportflics
Jim Rice, Ellis Burks, Marty Barrett, Wade Boggs, Bruce Hurst, Boston Logo
Call me stupid (hang on...) but I didn't realise that these cards contained 3 images , not 2 (now call me stupid)

Box 2- Topps Heads-up
No Red Sox from this box.
Box 3- 2009 Allen and Ginter
J.D.Drew, John Lester, John Smoltz, Jed Lowrie
Box 4&5 2011 Bowman
John Lester, Carl Crawford, David Ortiz gold, Garin Cecchini, Garin Cecchini chrome,

Not to left out Tribecards added a large number of other Red Sox cards including the Red Sox Rippers at the top of the post #57/62 and lovely sparkly Jon Lester Topps Diamond Anniversary.

I enjoyed it and will be looking out for more box breaks.

Here's what Tribecards thought of his first ever buck-a-box break-After thoughts.

2009 Goodwin Champions Box Break

My favourite set from 2009 was Upper Deck's Goodwin Champions. I intend to collect a complete base set of 150 base cards, which doesn't include trying to collect all the short prints. My reason for choosing Goodwins was simple- I liked the design- and I was intrigued by the inclusion of non-baseball related cards, in particular the entomology series. Although the limit of one per case put these firmly out of my reach. There are also a number of 'English' cards available too, in the Citizen of the Day, Citizen of the Century series; Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill, Princess Diana and unbelievably Tony Blair! Bram Stoker too, if I am opting for British cards. Deemed a Major League Baseball set by Upper Deck, however the inclusion of:

'Champions from every realm of the Sporting World'.

put it directly in the 'other' category and not baseball. Most of the inserts were non-sports related- (Landmarks, Entomology, Thoroughbreds, Citizens of the Day, Animal Series, Citizens of the Century), far too many of the 210(including 60 short prints) base cards were from the other realm(46 if my maths is correct), there were too many short printed cards and super short prints, the card stock was poor (made to look like the original set) and therefore many baseball collectors stuck two fingers up at Upper Deck and avoided this set. Add the fact that there were only 4 cards per pack, meaning that a pack could contain; a 2oth Anniversary crap card, a surfer and/or a poker player, an animal and maybe 1 baseball card. This put many baseball collectors off and in these difficult financial times, most plumed for the superior Allen and Ginter outing from Topps. Although many collectors were disappointed with this set, Upper Deck has decided to release another Goodwin Champions in the summer of 2011. Goodwin Champions 2011 preview. I purchased a box with the specific intention of undertaking a video box break. I did record it on a digital camera. It was poor to say the least, but good practice for when I gain the courage to project my voice to the Internet masses. Here is what the video box break would have told you if it was half-way decent. The box should contain 96 cards. The first pack I opened revealed the memorabilia card above, which means only 3 cards in this pack and therefore 95 cards in the box. The breakdown of the rest of the box; 52 base cards (11 non-baseball), 1 memorabilia, 5 short prints, 1 super short print, 2 Citizens of the Day, 7 20th Anniversary rubbish, 5 mini-exclusives, 22 parallel minis (2 Gypsy Queen black borders, 6 non-baseball) I was able to wipe a fair few off the wants list, leaving 26 left to collect to the complete 150 base set. I would have traded these 7 20th Anniversary cards for 7 more base cards any day. I mean who wants an iceberg card really...anyone?

2004 Topps Bazooka Baseball

It is vary rare that this happens, so when this particular item, a whole box of cards-24 packs! of 2004 Topps Bazooka , appeared on e-bayUK I was fairly determined to acquire it.

And acquire it I did.

Odd thing though was that it didn't rise higher than my initial bid. Considering the rarity of such an item I presumed that it would go higher.
Each 2004 Topps Bazooka Baseball sealed box contains 24 packs (each pack including one sugarless slice of bubble gum) of 8 cards each in a 330 card base set. The base set is 300 cards with 30 cards being printed in 2 variations. Each box will contain THREE Memorabilia cards. Parallel sets: Minis 1:1 and Red Chunks 1:1. Inserts: Tattoos 1:4 - 4-on-1 Stickers 1:4 - Comics 1:4 - Stand-Ups 1:8 - and Relics Memorabilia cards 1:8 (Blasts > Game Used Bats #'d to 25; Adventures, Game Worn Jerseys #'d to 25; and One Liners Retired Game Worn Jerseys - #'d to 25).

This appeared to be an underrated set. The target demographics being children.

I have opened all the packs in 4 stages. I hesitated at opening them all in one go. Trying desperately to 'eek' this out for as long as I could stand.

From the 24 packs I pulled:

118 base cards, 3 doubles (39% of the set), although this caused some initial confusion as some of the cards are printed with two different images on the front. There were 3 cards with both variations in this box.

24 Mini parallels

22 Red Chunk parallels

and the following inserts:

7 Comic cards (1 double)

5 4in 1 stickers

5 Tattoos

5 Stand-ups (1 double)

and finally 2 Game -used Relic cards, although the box specifically states that there would be 3 in every box. Is 5 years too late to complain to Topps?

Bazooka One-liners #BOL-WS Willie Stargell

Bazooka Adventures #BA-AR2 Alex Rodriguez

My initial reaction is one of excitement as it is a novelty to actually open a full box of baseball cards. Overall as a collector I am pleased with the selection. Inserting only 5 base cards out of 8 may not be the ideal way for set collectors, however it adds to the uniqueness of the product.

2009 Upper Deck Artifacts blaster

The first of two blasters that were gifted to me recently. 2009 Upper Deck Artifacts: A piece of history baseball. There is the promise of ONE memorabilia card in every box on average. So my first thought is, will I receive an average memorabilia card or not? I know there was a few complaints about non-sports card in sports packs, I personally like the idea more than I do the same card printed in four different colours...wait a minute ... lets not be too quick to judge. I'm guessing there are different coloured parallels in this set.
There are seven packs, with 5 cards per pack.

Pack 1:

#66 Joba Chamberlain Yankees

#118 Josh Geer Padres

#126 James McDonald Dodgers

#160 HM USA enters World War 2

#161 HM 'D-Day' Invasion

Pack 2:

#12 Daisuke Matsuzaka Red Sox

#18 Carlos Zambrano Cubs

#92 Carl Crawford Bay Rays

#115 Alcides Escobar Brewers

#127 Juan Miranda Yankees

Pack 3:

#28 Gardy Sizemore Indians

#87 Chris Carpenter Cardinals

#185 HM X-Ray invented

#BSM-KG Khalil Greene Padres Jersey 29/149

Pack 4:

#2 Randy Johnson Giants

#137 Aaron Cunningham Athletics

#176 HM Elevator invented

#751 20th Anniversary Michael Jordan

#FM-RUH Marlins Franchise Members Green

Pack 5:

#60 Carlos Beltran Mets

#98 Alex Rios Blue Jays

#124 Lou Marson Phillies

#184 HM Brooklyn Bridge Completed

#197 HM Republican Party Founded

Pack 6:

#44 Mark Teixeria Yankees

#76 Adrian Gonzalez Padres

#103 Josh Roenicke Reds

#177 HM Microwave Oven Invented

#193 HM Voyager 2 Records Neptune Green 106/150

Pack 7:

#34 Magglio Ordonez Tigers

#50 Clayton Kershaw Dodgers

#82 Felix Hernandez Mariners

#112 Luis Cruz Pirates

#170 HM Hollywood Sign Debuts Red

34 cards

22 base cards

9 Historic Moments: 1 red and 1 green

1 Franchise members: green

1 memorabilia

1 20th Anniversary

My verdict: I like the Historical moments cards, in particular the black and white photography. The grey tombstone look works well on these cards but not neccesarily on the player cards. Still not sure I see the point of the different coloured backgrounds. The Hollywood sign card has to be up there in the 'most boring card ever produced' category.

As always cards are available for trade.