Return of the Grande Box: The Good Stuff

 As good as some of the stuff I'd already showcased in these Nachos Grande group break posts were, the best stuff was yet to come. The hits had their own section of the box, and that included inserts and odd stuff, like this 2003 Bazooka card of Bazooka Joe as a Yankee. There's one of these for all 30 teams.

First of all, since there were lots of modern Topps boxes in these breaks, there was a glut of modern Topps inserts. These three came from 2021 Archives, and they're all welcome here, even if Aaron Judge looks like he's staring down the Yankees people for not paying him enough.

More basic inserts. I love that Beam Team design for Bohm, and I do like how inspired it is that there's a shoe-related insert set in Topps now.

Heritage inserts. Again, I don't know what the deal is with Garcia, but Aaron Hicks sure is heating up.

This weird little thing was a GQ Gems insert from 2022 GQ, and it's a very cool and shiny insert, even if it's cut differently than a lot of other cards I'm used to.

DK inserts from this year. Man these look cool. That Judge Aficionado one is awesome.

This Jeter comic also came out of the 2003 Bazooka box. Very charming, even if I'm not quite sure what to do with it.

Shiny, refractory stuff from recent products. All unnumbered. That Cole GQ one looks cool.

More refractory stuff. The shine aids the Winfield card. That Jeter is a 91 recreation insert. 

90s/00s inserts. Top 2 came from 2005 Playoff Prestige. Bottom one is a silver parallel, though unnumbered, from 1998 Invincible. 

Now onto the mojo. Jeter's is a variation from 2022 GQ. Nola's is a color variation #'d to 2022 from Donruss. Matsui's is a Prestigious Pros from 2005 Playoff Prestige, that's numbered to 900. All cool stuff.

The guaranteed manu-relic from Chris's box of Topps Series 1 was a Judge. Cool. These are kind of meaningless, but at least it's a Judge. 

The two autos I received were both Phillies. One is a Nick Mason from 2021 Stadium Club chrome. Maton's still in the Phillies' system but is currently injured. I'm still thinking he's useful for us. The other one was a sticker auto from 2022 Donruss of Luke Williams, who is no longer on the team. 

Like last time, I wound up with a Jason Giambi relic. I don't collect Giambi as much as I used to, but I do think it's cool to find relics of him, considering how much I enjoyed him as a kid. This is also a really fun relic design from 2003 Bazooka.

So...

I've joked about this with Chris, but he has a penchant for pulling me Nick Johnson stuff. I don't really collect Nick Johnson, I don't think he was that great in New York, and while I'm glad he became a better power hitter and 1B/DH in Montreal and Washington, I still think the fixation on him in 2003 products was misguided. Like last time, Chris pulled a Nick Johnson relic. But not only did he pull one Nick Johnson relic from his box of 2003 Playoff Update...HE PULLED TWO DIFFERENT ONES. The one on top is numbered to 500, the one on the bottom is numbered to 100. I now have three Nick Johnson relics, and three Johnson cards numbered to 100. I...guess this is become a niche. 

The good news is that this break also helped some collecting niches that I am 100% okay with:

Folks...Chris pulled an Andrew McCutchen Phillies relic out of a box of 2021 Panini Chronicles. Any Nick Johnson tomfoolery wasn't so bad when that happened. Cutch is one of my favorite players, I'll take any Cutch cards I can find, and now I can say I have a Cutch relic from his time on the Phils. This is also a pretty cool design, too. 

And we'll end on the strangest bit of business from this break:

So...Chris got a box of 2001 Donruss for these breaks, which is already intriguing. That's a weird-ass set, people have called it one of the worst card sets of its era, it's got subsets and crazy numbering and wild logic. But the box toppers are all graded cards from Donruss's 20 year history. Graded rookie cards.

And in Chris's box, there was a graded 1990 Donruss rookie of Bernie Williams. 

I find it very funny that not only was Donruss just giving away graded rookie cards in 2001, but they weren't even gem mint 10 graded cards. This is a 7.5. Not terrible, but...you'd think if they were grading the card for you, it'd be a little nicer.

NOT THAT I'M COMPLAINING. This is still a graded rookie card of a Yankee legend I enjoy collecting, and I will keep this in a safe place of my collection, because why even try to sell it. It's just...odd. Great, and welcome, but...odd. 

At the end of the day, though, this was a really solid group break spread with some excellent stuff for my collection, and I'm thankful to Chris for doing these so consistently. I don't know when the next one will be, or if I'll be a part of it [I'm starting a new job, so maybe I will be at this rate], but these have all been very exciting, unpredictable ways of getting new, awesome cards.

Return of the Grande Box: The Yankees

 

Like usual with these Breakers Clubs I go out for from Nachos Grande, I always expected to do well in the Yankee section, and that I certainly did. With the width of different boxes, as well as the foray into more Pacific stuff [of which I've gotten stuff from solely by doing these breaks], I've been using these to build my Yankee collection even more than it already was. 

Another Tim Raines Yankees card, from 1999 Pacific, is always welcome. 

Like with the Phils, there were a lot of modern Yanks to go through first. These breaks yielded stuff both from much-heralded rookies and since-traded stars.

While Clarke Schmidt has settled in as a long-man, Deivi Garcia has yet to return to the majors, and the belief is he may not anytime soon. 

These boxes also helped boost my collections of the new Yankees from last deadline. Rizzo has done extremely well in New York. Gallo has not.

A few Sanchez's for the road, and some new Giancarlos. That Obsidian insert from 2021 Chronicles is pretty cool.

Lots of Gleybers. He looks great on that Big League insert.

Lots of LeMahieus. That Score one, well-designed as it is, just makes me wish Panini could somehow strike a deal to get logos, because their products are way more inspired than Topps'.

Some Coles. A few of these, like the 2020 Heritage High and the 2020 GQ, are from before Topps knew Cole would be able to grow out his hair in New York, so he just looks oddly photoshopped. The 2022 Donruss one is an unnumbered blue parallel.

And of course, some Judges. Not a lot of insane ones [yet], but a few of these were new to me.

Before we get into the 90s Yanks portion of the results, some Hall of Famers. Babes from all eras. 

A few Boggs's. Again, 1998 Pacific Invincible is a strange set because it had an entire base set I had no idea existed til these breaks.

Only a few Mussinas, but both welcome.

I've figured out recently that I want to start collecting some of the Yankee heroes that I'd cast off for not being Hall of Famers. That includes people like David Cone, who had a great career, and helped the Yanks notch some rings. That 98 Tradition Smoke 'n Heat subset is a cool one.

That also includes Tino Martinez, who my dad is still convinced didn't start hitting as a Yankee until I started going to games. That Tale of the Tape one is cool too. 1998 Tradition had underrated inserts and subsets. 

And some Paul O'Neill ones. That 98 Tradition retro one is also pretty cool. 

Quite a few Matsui cards here. Chris broke a box of 2003 Playoff Update, which was a rookie-based addendum to several of their 2003 sets, including Leaf, Donruss and Team Heroes. It's...an odd set, because it's just rookies, and not all of them had careers. Thankfully Matsui sure did...

As did Chien-Ming Wang, one of those underrated Yankees I still collect, who looks awesome on all of these. I had no idea they put out a 2003 Diamond King of him either, that's awesome.

As for other Yankee heroes, not too many Posadas or Sorianos, but at least that 2000 Bowman one is a rookie-ish thing.

A whole page worth of Pettittes, including a 1998 Pacific Invincible cut-out insert, another awesome Smoke 'n Heat subset, and a lot of great cards of his pitching style. 

Good number of Riveras too. I love how happy he is on the 1998 Fleer Tradition one.

Page o'Bernies. Needed all of these, I think. So good at making great cardboard. 

And, of course, a mess of Jeter's. I had the regular 98 Tradition, but I didn't have the retro one. That 99 Pacific one is also a great shot. 

And some perks, including the cooler 98 Invincible subset, a 99 Pacific photo variation, and a rookie card [sort of] from 1996 Leaf. Awesome stuff all around.

Tomorrow, I'll show off the inserts and hits. 

Return of the Grande Box: The Phillies

As discussed, the two teams I primarily claimed in these Nachos Grande Breaker's Club breaks I got the results back from this week were my two allegiances, the Yankees and Phillies. I will go through the Phillies highlights first, because there's a bit less of them.

Since these boxes spanned the 90s, early 00s and last few years, there were a lot of Phillies I collect hiding in this shipment. There was only 1 Ryan Howard, but it was a rookie card of his from 2005 Playoff Prestige. 

 

Sadly, the 2008 World Championship team wasn't too represented in these findings, but there were some key members. Even some rookie-esque material for J-Rol and Pat the Bat from 2000 Bowman.

Yes, there were Jim Thome cards as well. Fleer InScribed is a set that was trying to resemble SP Authentic but was very much a Fleer set.

Of course Bobby Abreu made some appearances. Separated by whether or not the people making the cards knew he preferred 'Bobby'. 

Requisite Dutch issues. I like that Chris went for odder 90s sets, like 1996 Select and Leaf. 

And, as there were a lot of 90s boxes, lots of Scott Rogen, which I'm not complaining about. It also gives you a chance to see how much Pacific product got ripped, which...yeah, quite a bit. I'd never seen an actual base card from 1998 Invincible, and I didn't know they had fairly simple base cards in addition to the translucent cut-out ones that everyone knows. 

Hall of Famers abound. Bunning was a giveaway insert from 1998 Tradition, Alexander was from DK, Schmidt was from last year's Archives. 

And yes, that means I got a good supply of modern Phils as well. Not only that, but from sets I don't get a lot of, like Topps Our Lawyers Would Prefer Us To Call The Set GQ, and A&G Chrome. 

Lots of rookies though, as is custom for modern Topps. This means guys who are still with the team, like Nick Maton, and guys who've been traded, like Spencer Howard.

Even more. Williams is long gone from Philly, though his big debut in 2021 made for his inclusion in lots of 2022 products. Moniak and Vierling are still valid rookie picks, though I wish Topps would have had more photo choices for Moniak.

Yes, there were Andrew McCutchen cards, too.

Current heroes Rhys and Wheels. I'm glad Chris netted the majority of the GQ team sets for me.

JT and Nola, two guys that should have been All Stars this year. 

And, of course, the man above the Marquee. Most of these were new. The Donruss throwback one was not only an appreciated inclusion with a great throwback,

But it came with a nickname variation, which I don't think Chris marked in the package. Either way, an awesome pull that I'm definitely holding onto. 

Tomorrow, you'll see the Yankees that came about in this package.