Topps Redemption Success - Jonathan Gray

A card that instantly moves to the top of favorite cards in my collection, a redemption from Bowman Draft that arrived today. Hand signed, numbered to 25 and black bordered. This is also the new record holder for most I have ever paid for a single card, but I really want to finish the Rockies team set of these Black Collection auto's and I think I actually got a decent deal considering what Jonathan Gray cards have been going for.

Tony Cingrani Topps Redemption Mailday

A successful Topps Redemption post, I have heard many horror stories about the Topps redemption program, so I was pretty disapointed to pull one from a box of Chrome this summer. After contemplating selling the redemption, I decided to redeem it and last week it arrived. I don't remember when I actually entered the code, but it did take a few months and there were a few Cingranis in the wild for a while before I got mine, but overall it was a pretty painless process. I now have 1 remaining in my personal account and have had 2 out 5 redemptions in my COMC go live, that will be shown off later. These Chrome cards never scan well for me, but this is the refractor numbered to 499, nice on card auto, and while I am not usually a fan of spring training photos, it is cool to see the alternate spring training cap on a card.

2013 Topps Chrome 2nd Box Results

Box number two was a little kinder than the first box. Most of the big rookies were in this one with a
Hyun-jin Ryu refractor, Wil Myers 1972, and base cards of Puig, Gattis, Arenado, Jose Fernandez, and Myers. Pulling a Tulowitzki die cut is always nice for a Rockies fan. The color consisted of two Sepias and a blue Melky Mesa. I had actually heard of Darin Ruf, so that a step up my from first box's autos, but the second auto is a redemption, numbered to 499 of a Reds prospect that will probably go on eBay.

My two box total put me at 145 of 220 (with 4 dupes), leaving me 75 cards short of the base set. The decision I have to make now is to either track down the rest of the set, or just use them as trade bait. Another box would bring me close, but I pre-ordered these and got them for just over $60.00 a piece and they seem to be around $80 right now, which is more than I want to spend.

2nd Box Totals:
Base: 74 (No Dups, 34% of base set)
Refractors: 8
X-Fractors: 4
Sepia: 2
Blue: 1 (Melky Mesa)
Autograph: 1 (Darin Ruf)
Autograph Refractor: 1 (Tony Cingrani)
1972 Chrome: 2
Connection Die-Cuts: 2
Dynamic Die Cuts: 1