By the Box: 2008 Sweet Spot Baseball (retail)
It’s pretty unusual for a product to arrive at retail ahead of its hobby store counterpart, but that’s exactly what has happened with 2008 Sweet Spot baseball this year as special three-pack tins have arrived in Target stores ahead of the Dec. 23 hobby release date.
Here are the results from a randomly selected box I recently opened …
2008 Sweet Spot baseball
Price: $29.99 (Target)
Packs per box: 3
Cards per pack: 8
Cards in this box: 27 (Each pack actually had nine cards inside.)
Base set completion: 23 of 100 (23 percent)
Duplicates: 0
Insert cards found: 4 (One autograph or memorabilia card per Target tin.)
– Sweet Swatch Memorabilia — 1. No. SS-MO Joe Morgan.
– Yankee Stadium Legacy — 3. Nos. 2,725 Gil McDougald, 3,496 Whitey Ford, 4,042 Chris Chambliss
Notes: Like most retail blasters, these tins will merely give you a hint of what the product is all about. All of the collectors I have seen open these tins received standard jersey cards, though a I’d consider a Hall of Famer’s card to be a minor upgrade from some. … The cards have full-bleed fronts with embossed baseball stitches on the sides reminiscent of 2000 Ovation (the backs make it a little more obvious). … the selection of base cards in this tin was solid — Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jose Reyes, Derek Jeter, Vladimir Guerrero, Dustin Pedroia, Ichiro, Prince Fielder and John Smoltz just to name a few — but it’s all about the inserts. … For the hobby release, each box will include six one-pack tins with each guaranteeing one autograph or memorabilia card per pack. Each box will contain one Sweet Spot Autograph and one Sweet Beginnings Signature card.
Grade: *1/2 out of *****
Chris Olds has collected sports cards and memorabilia since 1987. Before coming to Beckett Media, he wrote about the hobby for the Orlando Sentinel on his blog, SportsStuff, and for the San Antonio Express-News and The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. Do you have a comment, question or idea? Send e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.
For $30, Ill pass. The Morgan is a nice hit, but you would need to have 1 per pack to give the retail product value. Thanks for the break.