I Guess I Know My Stuff

30-Year Old Cardboard held a contest to pick who would win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP awards, with a prize of 4 packs of 2012 Update. To make it more interesting, we had to pick the 2nd place finisher for the MVPs as well. Even with that wrinkle thrown in, there was still a tie for the win. Since I'm writing this post, you can guess that I was one of the two winners, picking each position correctly except for NL runner-up, which I listed as Andrew McCutchen instead of Ryan Braun. Luckily the other winner had the AL MVP vote finishing Cabrera-Hamilton. So, we split the prize. Let's see if I got the better of the two packs. I mixed up the two packs when pulling out my favorite to scan, so here they are together.

2012 Topps Update #US227 Mark DeRosa

I don't care if we only had him for part of 2009, Mark DeRosa was a Cardinal, so he's a player I collect.

2012 Topps Update - Blue Border Parallel #US21 Buster Posey

Appropriately for this contest, the NL MVP. The Blue Border looks pretty good with the All Star Jerseys this year.

2012 Topps Update - Golden Moments #GM-U13 Matt Cain

2012 Topps Update - Golden Moments #GM-U26 Robin Yount

Despite being horizontal, I like these Golden Moments cards. The Yount card commemorates the final game of the season 30 years ago, with an era-appropriate powder blue jersey to boot.

2012 Topps Update - Golden Giveaway #GGC-28

I've got a few of these, but I haven't redeemed any yet. I've got until February 1 to decide if I want to do that or try to trade them away.

2012 Topps Update - Gold Parallel #36 Michael Taylor #1481/2012

2012 Topps Update - Gold Parallel #331 Albert Pujols #0698/2012

This year, as in 2011, Update has a parallel with all 990 cards of Series I, II, and Update. At first I thought I hit a Short-Print jackpot, because I remembered Pujols being a late add as #331 in Series I. Then I realized it was numbered to 2012, just like the others, so it couldn't really be short printed. Then I thought, was there  even a #331 in Series II, or did it start later? So I looked it up, and I don't have a parallel of the SP, which shows Albert in a fielding position, but instead the regular #331 from Series II. I really wish Topps would skip the SP duplicate numbering scheme, it's terribly confusing. Or just be straightforward with it, and number the SP variation #331a right on the card, for example. When I'm in charge, that's what we'll do.

All told, I'd call these a pretty good 2 packs of cards. No Cardinals, but 2 former Cardinals, and you can't beat the price I paid. Thanks to Brian at 30-Year Old Cardboard for the cards!