Can I Find the Justin Verlander Rookie? | 2005 Topps Series 2 Baseball Cards
A collector opens a 2005 Topps Series 2 baseball blaster box searching for a Justin Verlander rookie card. After opening multiple packs and finding various notable cards including golds and Larry Walker, he successfully pulls a base Verlander rookie card, which was his primary goal.
Summary
The video follows a baseball card collector as he opens a 2005 Topps Series 2 blaster box that cost $9.99, commenting on the excessive packaging with significant dead space compared to modern boxes. He discusses the contents and odds, noting the box features Barry Bonds home run highlights and autographs/relics as potential hits. Throughout the opening, he pulls various cards including Tom Glavin MLB Sports Clicks, multiple Barry Bonds insert cards, gold parallel cards (which he notes have superior sparkle compared to modern bronze-looking golds), and notable players like Ken Griffey Jr., Larry Walker, and JD Drew. He examines card centering and condition as he goes, even demonstrating how flipping cards upside down reveals centering issues. The collector expresses frustration with the orientation of cards in the set, noting that every other card is flipped around. Near the end of the box with only two packs remaining, he successfully pulls a base Justin Verlander rookie card—his primary objective for opening the box. He expresses genuine surprise and excitement at obtaining the Verlander rookie, analyzing its centering and condition before toploading it. The video concludes with him reflecting on the variety of names pulled and asking viewers about their best Verlander cards.
Key Insights
- 2005 Topps boxes featured significantly excessive packaging with dead space compared to modern boxes, following a 'potato chip philosophy' to make boxes appear larger than necessary
- 2005 Topps gold parallel cards have superior visual quality with sparkles throughout the gold finish compared to modern bronze-looking dull golds
- 2005 Topps Series 2 featured inconsistent card orientation with every other card flipped around, which the collector found frustrating
- Justin Verlander was considered a future Hall of Famer even at his rookie stage in 2005, and he recently pitched his last game for the Tigers
- Barry Bonds insert cards appeared with unusually high frequency in the box—the collector pulled three of them from a 10-pack box, suggesting they were common inserts
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] Hello. Today I've got a 2005 Topps baseball. This is basically a blaster box. Box is in I mean the box itself is in pretty good condition, but we're missing a little bit of cellophane here. And why am I doing this? I'm chasing Justin Verlander rookies. I actually don't have a Verlander rookie in my personal collection, so I figured now's the time. Let's do it. Interesting box. You know, this is uh definitely oversized. So, we can open it up and see how they used to do things back in the day. But it was $9.99. [0:33] Big time overkill here. Like, if you think about the packaging and what's the purpose? Like, why do we There's…
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