2010 Tri-Star Obak
Special thanks to Tri-Star for this 2010 Obak review box.
100 YEARS AGO, baseball cards featuring minor league players were produced by the American Tobacco Co. for insertion into packs of Obak cigarettes. Each card featured a posed or action player image placed over a selected colored creative background.
TODAY, in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the release of Obak cards, TRISTAR has brought back the look and feel of the original 1909 release with added enhancements and color detail. Maintaining the core of the original design, we bring back the excitement of the past as it meets the stars of tomorrow.
Hobby Configuration: 20 packs per box. 6 cards per pack.
Pack Configuration: 5 Modern Size, 1 T212 Mini Size
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS:
- Each box is advertised as having 11 Hits!
- 4 autographed cards, all #'d to 125 or less!
- 2 Parallell Cards, all #'d to 50 or less!
- 1 T212 Mini Parallel Card, #'d to 50 or less!
- 3 Short Print Cards
- 1 T4 Limited Edition Cabinet Card, #'d to 75 or less.
BASE CARDS (120 subj)
- With titles ranging from History's Greatest Players to #1 Overall Draft Picks to Game Changers to Multi-Sport and Short Prints
T-212 Mini Size (45 subj + 13 Autos, total 58 cards)
- Autographs include Jim Abbott, Johnny Bench, Jason Heyward, Tommy John and Hulk Hogan
T-4 Size (30 Cards + 7 autos, total 37 cards)
- Each card is a different Baseball City
- Autographs include Don Baylor, Andre Dawson and Desmond Jennings
Autographs (101 autos, not including the autos listed above for T212 and T4 sets)
- Single autos include: Jason Heyward, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, Cal Ripken Jr and Joe DiMaggio
- Dual autos include: Ric Flair/Hulk Hogan, Stan Musial/Albert Pujols, Hank Aaron/Tommie Aaron and Stephen Strasburg/Bryce Harper
COMBINED INSERTION RATE FOR AUTOGRAPHED/RELIC* CARDS - Inserted 1 Per Hobby Box!
Here is what I pulled from our box of 2010 Tri-Star Obak
Regular Base Cards/Parallels and Numbered Cards
As you can see, the base set is a white bordered non-glossy card. The shots are all either action or still shots of the players/personalities set on a scenic looking background. Each card is labeled with the player/person name, town and the league they were a part of. The players are not shown in their MLB uniform as Tri-Star does not have a license to do MLB cards. So rather than seeing someone listed as a Chicago Cub, they are instead listed as a player for Chicago of the NL. There are 109 base cards (not including the "short prints") and we received 91 out of the 109. We received no duplicates of base cards. Of the 11 "Short Prints" we received only 1, #112 Johnny Evers. Also received in this box 2 parallels (only noted by a circle around the card number) as well as 2 numbered cards. Ken Landreaux #40/50 and Doc Newton #7/25.
T-212 Mini Sized Cards/Parallels and Numbered
As promised, we received one T-212 Mini-Sized card in every pack. There are 45 of them and we received 17 regular mini-sized cards, 2 parallels (only noted by a circle around the card number) and we received one short printed mini card, a Dale Murphy #/40/50.
T4 Cabinet Card
Not in a pack, but laying between packs of cards was the one promised T4 Cabinet Card. Ours is of Desmond Jennings, Tampa Bay's "2010 #1 Prospect". The front of the card is an action shot of Jennings, while the back of the card is a picture of the stadium, Tropicana Field.
Autographs
This box held up it's end of the bargain by supplying 4 autographed cards. None of the Mini's were autos, just the normal sized cards. We received Prospects Josh Bell #8/25 and Desmond Jennings #23/25. And we received Veterans Ron Blomberg #22/25 and Don Baylor #38/125
Final Thoughts on 2010 Tri-Star Obak
This was my first experience with a Tri-Star product and I would say that overall it was a positive one. These boxes retail between $70-100, and with a guaranteed 4 autos, there's a pretty solid chance that you will make your money back. There are some VERY nice autos and dual autos in this set, so you could end up doing quite well, if you're lucky. The boxes are #d to 3000. This particular box was #17/3000. This adds a more exclusive feel to the set as there are only 3000 boxes out there.
If you're an old school collector, or a collector that likes the vintage looking cards this is most definitely a set for you. When you through in that many of the cards are of turn of the 20th century figures, the set itself is like a mini-history lesson.
Something I always look for in my reviews is duplicates. This box had no dups at all. To me that's always very cool. When you buy a box, you're shelling out some decent coin, you shouldn't be forced to open packs containing the same 10 cards.
If I were to have a complaint it would be that the parallels and numbered cards have few differenced with their base counterparts. After opening the box, I actually had to sort through all of the cards to actually find the #'d cards.
For my rating, I gave this box 5's for Value (as I really do think that you get a decent bang for your buck) and Innovation (I love the throwback to the old tobacco card days and the minis are a lot of fun. I gave it 4's for Fun and Experience (the lack of an MLB license takes away from the cards, I think) and Rebuy Value (for me, the look of the cards are really neat, but I don't feel like I would need to buy another box of them.)
Here's how I would rate this product: B
Value = 5
Innovation = 5
Fun and Experience = 4
Rebuy Value = 4
I rate this product a "B" for Tri-Star!
NPN Information
There is no NPN for this product.
I would like to thank Tri-Star and Trader Retreat for giving me the opportunity to review this new product.
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