2014 Tier One Box Break

I'm a little bit behind on my posts, but a couple weeks ago, I decided to finally spring for a box of baseball cards. As each year has gone by, I find my collecting interests shifting further away from baseball and closer to hockey, but I still do enjoy picking up the occasional product when I can. With baseball, I prefer to go a little bit more in a high-end direction (with the exception of Allen & Ginter), so with the recent release of Tier One, I figured it would be as good a time as any to jump in to the baseball season, even if the season is almost half done.

Tier one is a base-card-less set, as each box contains just three cards. Of those three, two will be on-card autographs and one will be a relic card, and every card is serial-numbered. Let's take a look at how I did:

John Smoltz Relic 108/254
If you're going to get a solid-colored relic, it may as well be of someone great. I was never a huge Braves fan, but considering that Smoltz is a Cy Young Award winner (1996), was named NLCS MVP in 1992, and finished his career with 3,084 stikeouts, I'd say I did pretty good.

Eric Davis Acclaimed Autographs 159/299
Like Smoltz, you have a retired player who may not be in the Hall of Fame, but when he was hot, he was one of the best in the game. Davis's best years were in the late-'80s, beginning in 1986, when he hit 27 home runs and stole 80 bases, and from 1986 to 1990, averaged 30 home runs and 40 stolen bases. He was a part of a World Series winner in 1990, but injuries limited his production beginning in 1991 and after being diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996, played a few more seasons, before hanging up the cleats in 2001.

Xander Bogaerts New Guard Autographs 288/399
When he debuted in 2013, Bogaerts became just the fifth Aruban to play in the major leagues, and tasted victory early on, as he would be a part of a World Series-winning team in his rookie season. He played in only 18 games during the 2013 season, but came up big for the Red Sox in October, and was in all six World Series games, going .238, with 5 hits and 2 RBIs in 21 at bats. His opportunities have increased this year, though, as he has played in 77 games so far, hitting .251 with 6 home runs and 19 RBIs.

AS I am becoming more and more of a "casual" baseball card collector, I personally like a product that just gets down to business and avoids all the other stuff. I don't necessarily need all the base cards, and I certainly don't need all the inserts that Topps puts in their flagship product. Tier One just gives you the hits, and they do a great job of making some clean-looking high-end cards.