Box Break - 2012 Finest

Don't forget to enter my contest...now on to our regularly scheduled post.

Recently I went by a new card store close to my office.  Well it isn't actually new, it has been there for 20+ years and it actually wasn't that close, about 25 minutes away.  Regardless, I was in the need for a fix, did a quick Google search and found a shop I didn't know existed before.

I looked at a few of the singles in the cases and nothing jumped out at me. There was a nice assortment of vintage but I didn't have my want list with me.  The last time I tried picking up vintage cards without my want list was during a business trip in Nashville.  While I got a couple of nice cards, I also bought about 5-6 that I already had.

These are the cards from that Nashville trip earlier in the year.  Nice pickups with a vintage Mays and a modern Mays.  I also like the Bowman Kennedy, the ad in the background really helps make the card.

Back to my recent visit.  I went the pack and box route.  First I picked up two packs of 2012 Goodwin and 2012 Bowman Platinum.  The Platinum was a bust but I did get an auto from Goodwin:

Dawn was a gold medalist in the 100 m hurdles in 2008 and won the silver this year.  Obviously a great track runner but not the greatest auto to pull.

I also tried my hand at a box of Finest.  Again not the greatest break but I think it was pretty decent.  I did get the last 2 Giants I needed for my team set.  I also picked up a nice Rookie Card:

 The inserts this year are pretty nice, especially the two die cut versions.  I really am a fan of die cut cards and Topps didn't disappoint with these.  At 1-2 per box they are fairly rare as well.

 One of the draws of Finest are the refractor parallels.  Here are my 4 regular refractors, pretty good selection of players:

I also score 2 Xfractors and 2 colored parallels.  The Darvish green is pretty nice and is numbered to 199.  The Napoli is numbered to 99.

 In this years Finest you are guaranteed 1 auto card and 1 auto/relic card. I was happy to get parallels for both and the players are fairly good prospects, unfortunately nothing that excited me too much.

 This Xfractor Auto parallel of Jacob Turner is numbered 020/299.

 The Green Refractor Auto/Relic of Trevor Bauer is numbered 137/199.

As usually, these cards will be for trade for similar Giants cards.