Group Break from The Home of the Toddfather

Back in early October, I grabbed 4 teams in The Home of the Toddfather's Group Break. I was late to the party, so I grabbed Astros and Brewers and was surprised to see The Red Sox and Royals left. So even though, I am a Yankee fan, I figured, that I could get some solid trade chips from taking the Red Sox and I was very right.
I want to thank Tim from Home of the Toddfather for doing this Group Break. It was well run and fun to do and I am looking forward to the next one.

Here are my highlights:

I like the Chrome refractor of Ellsbury and also added 3 Will Middlebrooks Rookie cards and a couple of the Sox's top prospects to my collection. I am a Yankee fan, so the Ellsbury is up for trade.

Tyler Thornburg from the Brewers organization and Jake Odorizzi from the Royals were my big hits from 2012 Pro Debut

This is one of my favorite base cards from 2012 Topps, just a great moment captured on cardboard.

My big hit is this auto of Ryan Lavarnway from Topps Chrome, it is a great looking card, but is in my trade pile for you Red Sox fans out there.

My biggest surprise hit was from my Golden Giveaway Code card with Will Middlebrooks on it.
When I put the code in... Jose Reyes Gold Parallel. 

Blasts from the Past - Topps Archive

Towards the end of May, Topps released Archives, which combined 4 different card designs (1954, 1971, 1908, and 1984).  I will say that this was my favorite product of 2012. The SP cards are cool and while they make it more difficult to complete the set, I still enjoy the checklist. I also like the insert sets that include 1967 Topps Stickers, 1968 Topps 3-D, 1969 Deckle Edge, and my favorite, 1977 Cloth. They add a little more personality to the the insert sets. The All-Time Fan Favorite Autographs cards were a great addition and while the checklist includes some stars, it is made up of players who were home town favorites. It's not the usual star studded checklist, but there are a lot of players, whose cards I think it would be really cool to have like Steve Balboni, Wally Joyner, Mike Scott and Ken Singleton.
I grabbed a box from my LCS and hoped for the best. I didn't get any of the star autos, nor did I get any of the players that I had hoped for, but I did end up with an almost complete set of the base cards, plus some other good stuff. I have since made some trades which have helped me acquire almost all of the base set (I'm still 4 cards short), a bunch of the SP's, and some of the 1977 Cloth cards. I also turned to Ebay to purchase some of the autograph cards that I wanted.
I am still looking to complete the base set with SP's, the 1977 Cloth Insert Set, and the Gold Stamped Reprints. You can check out my needs and what I have for trade: Topps Archives Needs and For Trade List