Black Friday Box Breaks #2 - 3 Boxes of Hometown Heroes

I bought a total of 6 boxes of cards off DA Cards over Black Friday weekend of 3 different products.  I thought I would group my 3 boxes of 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes into one post.  I have always been drawn to this product but have only broken a couple packs here and there until this purchase.  My hope was to complete the non-SP set and get a bunch of the SPs so the rest were in reach.  The base set proved to be not much of a challenge but the SPs are more SPed than I thought.

Here are some stats from the breaks:

Box 1 - 11 cards short of the non-SP set with 1 duplicate
Box 2 - 27 cards short of the non-SP set with 13 duplicates
Box 3 - 10 cards short of the non-SP set with 0 duplicates

Fortunately there were no overlapping duplicates so in the 3 boxes I got 2 complete 260 card sets not counting the SPs.  I would be very open to trading one of them away, especially if the return trade offer helps compensate for the shipping of almost 300 cards - let me know if you are interested.

I only scanned the SPs, pics of the base are pretty easy to come by.  I only got 5 of the 40 SPs in my boxes. If you cracked a box or some packs and got a card 261 or higher that isn't shown here, I would very much appreciate working out a trade.

I am pretty happy that of the 5 SPs I got I pulled 2 HOFers and the Puig rookie.  Nolan Ryan always goes for a premium so it is nice he is off my want list.  The design on these is the same as the base cards and I enjoy it.  There is of course that pesky non-license thing so logos are airbrushed out and we can only use the city/state name for the team but beyond that I find the cards appealing.  The yellow background with the red stars and banner pop nicely.  The banner is great and a tribute to/theft of the Topps 1965 design which is one of my favorites.  The rookie cards get the RC logo treatment inside the baseball which looks great.  I like that the HH logo sits in the background and doesn't interfere with the player picture.  The names are easy to read on the black banner near the bottom.   The backs of the cards are appealing to me as well but I failed to scan any and this post will have enough scans as it is.  You either have to trust me or go to COMC to see the backs.

I decided to scan all the parallels, inserts and hits from my boxes.  The parallels are up for trade as are the parallels to the inserts.  I have contemplated building a couple of the insert sets but I am not sure yet so let me know if you are interested in any.

Let's start off with the parallels.  There are 2 types of parallels, the first has the zip code of where the team plays embossed in gold on the front.  These are pretty rare I guess as I only pulled 4 in my 3 boxes.

 Next up are the state parallels which are much more common.  These have the gold embossed state the team plays in.  I also pulled a Kevin Mitchell that I added to the Giants collection.

As far as I know, those are the only 2 parallels in this set.  There are quite a few insert sets and I figured I would share all I got in this post.  Be prepared for a bunch of scans. If you are only interested in the autographs you may want to advance down towards the bottom.

 These Sportdiscs are pretty cool and if the dang set wasn't so big I would go after this set.  I pulled a player collection guy in Rickey and a Giant in Will the Thrill but had both already.  This is a pretty solid group of players.

I am a big fan of these Defining Moments inserts.  The top of the front of the card has a neat little headline and the back describes a game that was big in the players career.  The Harper is the first example of a parallel insert with this one having a gold border.  There are also black borders of most of the inserts as well.

 These Homegrown Heroes inserts are another one of my favorites.  I got a great mix of players and a couple parallels as well.

 The Curtain Call inserts are a little more common, as you can see I got quite a few.  I was really happy to get the regular Rickey and the parallel, both were needs for my player collection.

 Another cool insert set.  Love the cartoons and the highlighting of the player's nickname.  Just a great design.

 Probably my least favorite design are these Rivalry cards showcasing players that played on both teams of a rivalry situation.  The inability to use the team names may detract a bit as all the New York/New York cards are a little silly.

 These City Hall inserts are pretty solid.  I like the changing back color that matches with the team.  I included a couple dups I got in the scans and got a quad of parallels as well.  The player jersey number is featured on both the card front and back which adds to the overall design.

Finally the last, and least appealing insert set featuring managers and called Calling the Shots.  I have nothing against managers but just don't find anything worthwhile in this insert set.  Lucky for me I received the fewest of this one.

Now on to the hits.  The boxes promise 3 autographs per box.  I was lucky enough to get a 4th auto in my first box.  I got 3 different designs of autographs plus one parallel so I will start off with the most common.

 I guess I would call these the base auto.  This player selection fits right in with the theme of this set.  Really good players, most of them All Stars at some point in their career but not the normal selection of Hall of Famers we get in most products that feature retired players.  These will all probably end up remaining in my collection for the "F" of it.  I remember seeing all of them play, the autos are on-card and it just brings back the memory of my younger days when baseball was at the center of just about everything I did.

Looks like the checklist on Beckett goes up to 100 cards but only 93 different are listed so going after this set really doesn't interest me - too big of a set.  There are some cool names on here though.

Next up are these City Hall autos. I am a huge fan of these, really like the design.  I wish the autos were on card and not stickers but outside of that I have no complaints.  This checklist only runs 9 cards deep and with already possessing 22% of the set going after this one is a real possibility.

 I was shocked and pleasantly surprised when this auto of Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg popped out of a pack in my last box.  It is my second Ryno auto and both were pack pulled.  I searched Beckett and there is no info on scarcity or book value.  I searched eBay and COMC and couldn't find one for sale or one that has sold.  For now it will find a nice place in my HOFer collection, great card.

 I consider this my extra auto.  It came out of the first box that had 4 auto and was the last one I pulled.  It is of the same design as the first group I showed but is a parallel with a black border.  I wasn't super excited about the pull as it is a Dodger and he isn't at the high end of popularity, even for guys in this set.  However I did get more excited when I popped it over and saw this:

 Apparently the black border auto parallels are 1 of 1s. Not bad out of a $30 box.  I am just hoping that there is a Paul LoDuca super collector out there that runs across this post, gets excited and makes me an offer I can't refuse.

Overall very happy with these breaks.  It was a lot of fun to crack open so many cards and to sort them all out.

I have lots for trade if anyone is interested.  As mentioned above, I have a complete set minus any SPs that I am open to trade.  I have another 200+ base cards if you are working on the set or want to fill in some team set gaps.  Most of the inserts could be had and if someone really wants an auto, ping me and we can probably work something out.