Buzz Break: 2009 Topps American Heritage (25-pack retail lot)

From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and break down the results here. Like this and want to see more -- or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The packs: 2009 Topps American Heritage (25 blister retail pack lot)
Where to buy: Click here

Packs per lot: 25
Cards per pack: 8
Cards per lot: 200
Base set completion: 92 of 125 (74 percent)
Duplicates: 57
Triplicates: 20
Quadruplicates: 6
Quintuplicates: 2
Sextuplicates: 1

Notables on base cards: Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Amelia Earhart, Davy Crockett, George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, Alexander Hamilton, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Thomas Edison, Samuel Morse, Eli Whitney, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Barbara Rose Johns, Cesar Chavez, Gutzon Borglum, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer, Thurgood Marshall, Robert F. Kennedy, P.T. Barnum, Joe Namath, George & Ira Gershwin, Harry Houdini, Buster Keaton, Duke Ellington, Clara Bow, John D. Rockefeller, John Paul Getty, J.P. Morgan, William Randolph Hearst, John Deere, Frank Woolworth, Andrew Carnegie, Plymouth Rock, Constitution, George Washington, Louisiana Purchase, Emancipation Proclamation, Neil Armstrong

Insert/short-print cards: 22 (a sampling of inserts and base in gallery below)
2008 Election Collection short-prints (6) – John McCain and Barack Obama are subjects
American Presidents (4) – George Washington, Lyndon B. Johnson, James Buchanan, George H.W. Bush
American Celebrity (5) – B.B. King, Keith Olbermann, Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh (with George W. Bush), David Cross (2)
Chrome parallel (7) – David Farragut, Samuel Adams, Alexander Graham Bell, Cesar Chavez, Henry Cabot Lodge, Harry Houdini, John Deere (/1,776)

Autographs/Memorabilia: None

What's Buzz-worthy: Try to find a hobby box of this one and if you do note that price. That's one of the reasons why this one is here. It's not even a decade old and its hobby boxes aren't easily found because of all of the interesting and historic inclusions -- and, more importantly, the unique and sometimes unusual inclusions on the autograph and memorabilia front. This was the first of two American Heritage sets to arrive in the wake of Barack Obama's presidential election and it includes a heavy amount of cardboard for that campaign but it's also a set with plenty of American historical figures included. Writers, explorers, military leaders, founding fathers, inventors, Civil Rights leaders, artists, politicians, entertainers, industrialists and notable events in American history make up the 125-card base set. ... As said in the other American Heritage break here, in the case of retail, you don't get hits easily (see odds below ), so a bulk lot like this one is more of a rip-for-fun project on the cheap ($1 a pack). The hobby boxes can deliver some really great hits -- this collector pulled a Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig dual Relic from this one back in the day -- so if you can find a hobby box on the cheaper side, it's worth a rip. It's still risky as this wasn't a super-premium brand back in the day but it's one with a lot of unique stuff inside. Autographs include names from the American Celebrity set and cut autos (presidents, legendary baseball players, other historical figures including dual, and quad autos).  Relics range from the biggest MLB names to unusual pieces that include pieces of the White House, Florida ballot chads (want!), presidential clothing, stadium seats and more. (The second set actually has weirder Relics but this one has the pricey stuff.) This break was solid for Chromes -- it should only have had three statistically -- and that's what helped it out. I still think I'd try one more lot of this at some point as it's a different break for sure and even these retail packs are bound to dry up at some point.

Product Grade: A-
Lot Grade: A- (heavy on dupes, but Chromes over-delivered)
Fun Grade: B+

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