Quick Thoughts on 2010 T-206

This morning I watched about an hour of the Cardboard Problem case break for 2010 Topps T206, in which I have the Tigers cards bought and paid for. For the chunk of the video (2nd video) that I saw--approx 4 boxes of cards--here are some quick thoughts, ordered by what struck me the most:

• Man, screw those non-baseball minis. Mini cards are one-per-pack and were the best non-"hit" part of 2009's T206 set. They were the only Tigers I chased down, as I was unimpressed by the full-sizers. They're still one-per-pack this year, except a bunch of random-ass non-baseball minis are also in there. This is bull. This is not Allen & Ginter and it's already hard enough putting together a team set at 1-per-pack. It took at least two boxes to pull a single Tigers mini. Ridiculous.
• Bronze parallels. What is the point of these? Another one-per-pack insert, they are completely unnecessary and add nothing to the product.
• BIG hits. There were some legit hits in this case, with the mini relic booklets standing out. The framed autographs and relics look fantastic again this year, although the white doesn't sing to me the way last year's blue did. I understand switching it up though.
• "Big" hits. What's with the American Caramel autographs? They are awful. A landscape oriented card with a tiny picture and huge sticker autograph is a disaster for this product. What were they thinking? Sure, there were some good subjects (I saw a Duke Snider come from this case), but these are a poor effort.
• Quality control. A handful of bronzes and minis had centering/cutting issues. Need to get cards in-hand to see how bad.
• Yay me! I appear to have done well in this break. I saw a Max Scherzer auto pulled, and then a Brandon Inge cycle mini, and then...
• ...A Clete Thomas autograph? Why was this ever produced? I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, but come on. Clete Thomas has played in exactly zero games at any level this year after season-ending surgery in Spring Training. It is September. It is obvious that he hasn't played by the time these cards were being designed. He wasn't even on the prelim checklist! I don't know man. I like off-beat Tigers cards a lot, but if I had just bought a box of this and pulled Clete as one of my hits I'd be pissed.
• Speaking of checklists, can I get some freaking Brennan Boesch? I mean WTF? I get an RC and autograph of Scott Sizemore, who played on the team for all of a month but I can't have the rookie phenom who helped carry the team in May and June? Last year it was no problem to sneak in Wilkin Ramirez, who had played all of two games, into this set, and now Topps stiffs me on Boesch...Again? How long will we have to wait? I'm not happy about checklist selection here.
  
• I like the variations, the old-timer backgrounds and the no-hat motif. It give us something a little different, which is always nice. As minis, I'm sure these will look great. As full size? I was really unimpressed with the quality of the 2009 cards, so I'll need to get these in hand to really see how they are.

In all, I think that you will do right by T-206. I really think that the autographs and relics are worth the price of admission and rival their beloved Allen & Ginter counterparts. Topps needs to be careful though. This already screams "A&G Lite," and I don't like the direction they've started going with the non-baseball subset in the minis. As a team collector, watching this break reminded me why I don't really buy packs/boxes any more. I saw pack after pack of no Tigers and no Tiger minis (until a little run later on), until every now and then when a multiple-Tiger pack would rear its head. Too much chance for me. I'll just go onto eBay and buy what I want, thank you very much. Of course, that is exactly what I'll do with this set once I see what I'm missing.