Three Duds of 2016 Topps Heritage Packs

I'm taking a break today from getting caught up on the Super Trader packages to show off three 2016 Heritage packs that were complete duds (at least in my opinion). I picked these up during my trip to the card shop last month, the same trip in which I got some awesome stuff from four packs of Donruss. These packs, however, were quite the opposite.

First up, some cards from the NL Central. Phillips was the only Reds card I got in this batch. I wish I could find something good to say about these cards but I can't.

Three Diamondbacks cards. I like the Goldschmidt simply because he doesn't have any versions of the horrid unforms that the D'Backs are wearing this season. It's just the basic red and white, which is perfect.

These posed shots coupled with the bad design this year do not make these very exciting cards. I liked last year's Heritage a lot and the few years before that as well, but these just strike me as bland. Nothing against 1967 Topps, which these cards were based off of, but it's just not that great of a design.

A few more to wrap this up. The Astros card is probably the best of this little batch.

Sorry if I sounded like a grumpy old man in the post (which normally I'm not ... and I'm not even old!), it's just that I'm not impressed with Heritage at all this year. At least I can say I sampled it now I can move on to other stuff I like such as Gypsy Queen, Donruss, Diamond Kings, and perhaps some Bowman. 

Now get off my lawn.

You've Got Mail #26: Play at the Plate

To help kick off the #Supertrader festivities, the co-chair of this wacky little group, Brian from Play at the Plate, broke into a box of UD Ultimate Collection and shared his findings with the group. My stuff from the break showed up in a nice little PWE along with some friends to accompany them on the journey.

My haul from the UD Ultimate Collection break. This is my first experience with that particular brand at it's pretty cool. I'm pretty happy that I got a Homer Bailey RC autograph.

Some 2008 UD Documentary cards. In theory, this is a good idea and I give Upper Deck credit for thinking outside of the box but I can't imagine anyone putting the set together of who knows how many cards. No wonder this was a one and done product.

Brian also threw in a nice assortment of Bengals cards for my Bengals binder. The nice thing about doing this blog is that not only has my Reds collection ballooned to epic proportions, but my Bengals collection has seen a nice sizable bump as well.

Thanks to Brian for the great PWE and for busting the box of Ultimate Collection for the group!

You've Got Mail #25: Cards on Cards

Being involved with the #Supertraders group is a wonderful thing as random packages from people I've never traded with before just show up on my doorstep. That was the case with this package from Kerry over at Cards on Cards, he dropped a huge flat rate mailer of Reds on me that amounted to a stack of cards about 3-4 inches tall.

I'll start with these cards from 2014 ... or is it 2013? I think it's 2014 but I can never keep it straight since the 2013 and 2014 cards look nearly identical. I think I've shown the Frazier card before but I'll show it again here as it's definitely one of my favorite cards of his. I like the Cingrani "Future Stars" card and it's from the Opening Day series. My one gripe with that series is that they're the same cards as the flagship set, just with an Opening Day stamp on them.

More Arroyo cards for my growing PC of his. Pretty sure this is the 850th time (ok, I may be exaggerating there) that I've shown that 2014 Heritage card but, wow, do I really like that design!

More Heritage cards! I've been completely unimpressed by 2016 Heritage so I'll be on the lookout for older Heritage cards for now.

Something tells me that Kerry opened a lot of Heritage over the past few years. 2012 Heritage is one of the packs I bought when I first got back into collecting so I've got a soft spot for it. I enjoyed last year's version more than I thought I would.

Hey! There's some Joey Votto cards! He's gotten off to a miserable start this year (then again pretty much every hitter in the Reds line-up has) but I have faith he'll turn in around.

I'm really hoping that Mesoraco has a nice rebound year, perhaps he could be an All-Star again like he was in 2014. I'll have to admit, that All-Star card is pretty awesome.

Robert Stephenson is the top pitching prospect the Reds have and has made a few spots starts so far this year as the Reds have tried to put together a rotation consisting of duct tape and chicken wire right now. In the two starts he's had, he's won both and looked incredibly sharp just the other night against the Rockies.

As much as I love newer cards, nothing makes me happier than getting cards from the 80s and 90s in trade packages. Going backwards in chronological order we've got the mid-90s, followed by 1989/1990 and finally some 1989 Score. I saw a box of 1989 Score stuffed on a 2 for 15 junk wax shelf at the local card shop and I'm half tempted to take them up on that deal.

Here's a few random Reds. Jesse Winker is the top outfield prospect for the Reds and is currently at Triple-A Louisville honing his craft, although at the rate the Reds are hitting and pit of awfulness that has been left field the past few years, I wouldn't be surprised to see him called up sometime in the summer. Hopefully, he'll be able to provide some stability to that spot. Speaking of stability, Hal Morris held that spot down for about 8 years and provided solid hitting and good defense. After he left, then there was a gaping hole there until Joey Votto took over.

Here's a few discs and circular items that were sent over. The Buddy Bell Jiffy Pop disc suddenly makes me want some popcorn.

Finally, there are these First Home Run insert cards. I'm not sure what the white version is but I think these cards are pretty cool and commemorate a nice moment in a players career. It also reminds people of teams that players used to be with, for example, I don't think a lot of people realize that Encarnacion used to be with the Reds.

Thanks Kerry for the awesome cards! You're on my list for returns so I'll get something out to you when I get some more sorting done.

You've Got Mail #24: Infield Fly Rule

From way out west arrived a package from Adam K of Infield Fly Rule, the friendly, mile-high Rockies representative in the Super Traders group. He had dropped a huge priority mail box on me back when the Super Traders group was first launched and sent this as a supplemental package a few weeks later.

Some 89 Donruss starts this off. I always kind of enjoyed this set as it didn't have a bland feel like some of the mid to late 80s Donruss sets. 

Speaking of bland, here's one of my least favorite 80s sets, 1988 Donruss. However, these two cards are definitely acceptable. Getting a Dave Concepcion card from this late in his career is very nice.

Spuds!! Any Chris Sabo cards are good cards!

As much as 1991 Donruss is lauded and ignored by most people, I actually enjoy it. Seeing cards from this set brings me back to being a kid and opening my first pack of cards, which was a rack pack of 1991 Donruss to be exact.

Some 1989 Topps and three big cogs in the 1990 World Champions, Jose Rijo, Barry Larkin, and Tom Browning. Rijo and Browning were the top two starters in the rotation that year.

Adam also remembered that I collect the Expos. I think my favorites here are the Randy Johnson and the Moises Alou cards. It's rare that I come across cards of Johnson as an Expo so I'll gladly take them when available.

Thanks for the cards Adam and thanks everyone for reading. Another trade post coming up in a few days!

You've Got Mail #23: Cardboard Collection

I have 18 drafts sitting on my blog currently, 10 of which are trade posts including this one. As I mentioned a few posts back, I'm planning on getting through these so I can get my drafts folder down to a manageable level.

This particular trade arrived back in early March (yes, that's how far behind I am on trade posts) from Colbey of Cardboard Collection and had all kinds of neat stuff inside.

I'll start with this. This Joe Morgan manu-relic is really cool (it's also really, really thick). I wasn't expecting this at all.

Here's another nice card, a framed Gypsy Queen parallel of Johnny Bench. I love getting cool Bench cards in trades and this definitely ranks up there with the better Bench cards in my collection.

From one catcher to another, here's a Devin Mesoraco RC that appears to be some sort of burnt orange foil version (or perhaps that's just how the card scanned in). The background just makes Mesoraco pop off the card.

Some inserts cards from Topps sets from earlier this decade of Tom Seaver and George Foster. These two were on the late 70s Reds teams that not many people talk about today. Foster had a monster season in 1977 and Seaver had a number of good seasons with the Reds into the early 80s.

Some more framed parallels, this time Todd Frazier and Jay Bruce. Frazier now belongs to the White Sox and it's still strange to see him in that uniform. Bruce was nearly shipped off to Toronto at the beginning of spring training but is still with the team and is having a nice start to the season.

O-Pee-Chee! You can never go wrong with these! Look how young Johnny Cueto looks too! He looks like a kid fresh off a high school diamond.

Some Heritage. I can always dig Heritage, plus it's a Raisel Iglesias rookie card! He should be one of the best spots of the Reds rotation this year and he pitched a heck of a game as the emergency Opening Day starter.

Wrapping up the Reds portion of with some Panini Cooperstown. I've definitely become a fan of this set. I think it's the best set you can do without the licensing, especially considering a lot of the pre-war players that are included.

Moving on to football, there was a good smattering of Bengals cards. These were the highlights. I like the Geno Atkins card from the Topps Valor set

Finally, I'll cap this trade post off with some wrestling cards. It's rare that I get wrestling cards in a trade as collectors are few and far between so I got really excited when these showed up. The Heritage cards are a throwback to their debut card set but I really, really liked the WWE Platinum set that the top four cards are from. I could have scanned the whole batch, but these were the best.

Thanks for the great trade Colbey! I know you said you didn't want anything in return but I'm setting aside Panthers cards for you as I come across them to eventually send as a token of thanks.

You've Got Mail #22: Bump & Run Cards

I haven't been at this card blogging thing for a year yet and already new bloggers are reaching out to me to set up trades. That's exactly what Trevor of the recently conceived Bump and Run Cards football card blog did. While I didn't necessarily have much in the way of his needs, I asked if he would be interested in taking all the unwanted football cards I have since I'm not much of a football collector except for Bengals cards and a few others here and there. He agreed and I received a nice little mailer from him.

Bronson Arroyo is a guy I always like when he played for the Reds. Over the offseason, he was really close to returning but chose to sign with Washington and play for Dusty Baker instead. Can't say I blame him, Washington has a really good chance to make the playoffs, while the Reds are going nowhere fast. Regardless, since I've added him as a PC guy to my list, I've been getting some nice cards. Pretty sure I have multiple copies of the Heritage card now but it's all good!

One of the odd things I like to collect as it relates to the Reds is Big Red Machine players post-machine. A prime example are these Tony Perez cards. The first card of him "in action" is from his days in Boston, the next is him with the Phillies. Seeing Perez in any uniform through aside from the Reds is still really strange.

Hey look! More Hal Morris cards! Always nice to get more of his stuff!

These Leaf Metal cards I had no prior knowledge of but they are really cool. Yeah, they went overboard with the foil (it's the 90s, everything went overboard!) but still, these are some pretty cool cards and fill in a nice hole in my Reds collection.

We close on a nice variety of stuff. From The Cobra to Eric Davis, Reggie Sanders to Juan Francisco, there's a little bit here of everything, including what looks to be an IP auto of Keith Glauber. Really hard to pick a favorite in this batch.

Thanks for the trade Trevor and good luck with your blog. I've got some unwanted football cards ready to go out when I get to the post office in a few weeks that you will hopefully enjoy.