By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

We got a chance to open some packs of 2012 Topps Opening Day baseball cards without the cameras rolling on Tuesday, well in advance of the arrival of the retail staple’s debut on March 7.

We’ll save the details for the Box Busters and more to come, though.

For now, check out some of the cards — inserts and notable uniform updates for a few players not seen in 2012 Topps Series 1 — that we found inside.

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Click on the images (twice) for a larger and unobstructed view.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Baseball Editor

Visit any sports card and collectibles forum and you’ll likely see one of these types of posts — a recap of what arrived into a collector’s possession that’s one part “Check This Out!” and one part bragging. It’s one part a reflection of a hobby and, perhaps, a reflection of the madness that is what we do as collectors.

It’s the mailday report.

I tested the waters of live online video to a select few Twitter followers late Monday afternoon with a UStream mailday report after I received a big ol’ box of goodness from CheckOutMyCards.com at lunchtime. The video was one part to show a curious few the end result of how that sales site works and to examine my stuff — a stash that had been amassed over the last few months of buying — while subtlely showing off — ok, maybe not so subtlely — what I collect. (As if you didn’t know, as a regular reader, already …)

This time, though, it was a little less Swisheriffic. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of Nick Swisher — and Jose Canseco on Topps Tiffany cards (a recently completed kick) — but the big guns were something else. It was a selection of cards that caught my eye for one reason or another. A couple were cards I had always wanted and the specimens presented themselves, while a few others were just good buys or unique cards that grabbed my attention. I did some spring cleaning of sorts in the ol’ collection recently — something long overdue — and turned some not-so-wanted cards into these you see here (and more).

So, here’s a rare mailday post from me. (Do you have a cool mailday to report? Start a thread at the first link above or comment below.)

The biggie, was a Roger Maris 1958 Topps Rookie Card in PSA 4 condition. It’s not the prettiest specimen, as seen above, but I’ve seen worse-looking copies — in lower condition with higher prices to boot. Unlike many of you guys out there, dropping $500 on a single card just isn’t an option here — but a lesser-grade guy, one that’s pretty well-centered and free of a heavy dose of 1958 Topps “snow” (white spots in the photo) was. To top that, I got it for roughly the price of a PSA1 or 2 after making an offer to the previous owner. Yes, it’s still a rough copy … but I won’t be able to top it without a firesale from someone who deals in higher-grade vintage. (When’s the last time that happened?)

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The second biggie was another long-term want — a copy of an early Rickey Henderson minor league card. This 1979 TCMA release pre-dates his 1980 Topps RC but isn’t his first MiLB release. It is the earliest one I could ever afford, though. I made an offer to the seller, which turned out to be a deal. This one cost me far less than the roughed-up and ungraded copy on that site right now.

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My third biggie wasn’t really a card that I had been targeting at all — my run of Roger Maris cards basically focuses on 1958-61 — but this card just looked too good to pass up. It’s not a perfect specimen, but it’s very close. It looked good enough for me to buy and I’ll consider getting this 1966 Topps Maris graded by the BGS crew. Better yet? I got it for $20 less than high book price after making an offer.

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This is a card that I’ll readily admit that I probably slightly overpaid for … but it looked pretty darn good, too. I’m not a member of the Donnie Baseball Fan Club by any means, but the O-Pee-Chee print job here looked very, very clean — much brighter and crisper than its ungraded Topps brother already at home. Was it worth the price of two blaster boxes? Maybe not, but I took it. Or, maybe I had been working on the upcoming 1980s issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly too closely and thought it was 1985 all over again …

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This next one might have scared off a few potential buyers with a scuffed up BCCG case, but the card inside — an autographed Trevor Cahill 2007 Bowman Chrome card — looks pretty solid to me. It’ll likely get upgraded to a clean BGS case someday … though I’ve had a stash of cards I’ve been aiming to send in grouped together since roughly 2004. (It’s like that 2004 Topps 205 Series 2 mini master set I’m working on … slowly but surely … I swear.)

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You had enough Oakland and pinstripes, right? (Just imagine if you had seen all 40 cards I had shipped … the entire video was full of them.)  Well, this buy — a 2010 Topps National Chicle printing plate — was a complete late-night impulse buy. Why? The price was right — about the price of five retail packs of that red-hot 2011 Topps Heritage. Not a Tim Wakefield fan at all, but that painting was cool enough I put it on a Beckett Baseball cover last summer. Now, I own one of four plates that helped make the card.

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There were 30-some other inclusions in my mailing, but this one was one of the more unique ones — something I just haven’t seen often. It’s an obligatory pro wrestling inclusion (especially if you know my Tweeting habits) — a 1998 Topps WCW/nWo autograph of a pretty memorable WWE referee also known as “Lil’ Naitch” … a piece of trivia that prompted a quick discussion about the origins of “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair‘s nickname that prompted a miniature lesson, err, discussion, about the history of pro wrestling and “The Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers. The card cost me a couple the same as a couple of packs at retail but the ability to spark a story about something — one of the reasons I bought such an odd card — was priceless.

Perhaps we’ll bring you more maildays — or more live video/chat sessions — soon.

Until then, keep on collecting.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.