2015 Topps WWE Heritage Blaster Box

It's Royal Rumble weekend! So to celebrate, let's do a few wrestling related things. First up, this blaster box of 2015 Topps WWE Heritage that I got for Christmas. We get 7 packs plus one relic card (that I hope is actually someone decent). Let's jump in the ring ...

The 2015 Heritage design is based on the 1985 Topps baseball design, which I've always liked. Undertaker is still around wrestling on a part-time basis and Harper, Ambrose, and Rollins are three of my current favorites right now. Ambrose, especially, since he's from Cincinnati and I've seen him wrestle live numerous times from the time he debuted in the area with the now defunct HWA.

This box had two black-framed parallels included. I know there are other parallels in the set as well, as I picked up a Finn Balor silver bordered parallel at a card show back in November.

Here's a good batch of legends that were included in the packs.

One of the insert sets is NXT Called Up and here's the best of the batch that I got.

One of the other insert sets is the Rookie of the Year cards, again here's the best of the batch. I noticed that in the 2016 Topps Archives previews, they use this same design for their #1 Draft Pick cards.

Ok, as for the bonus relic card, we have ...

... a Wade Barrett turnbuckle relic card numbered 23/25. Not bad, I could've done worse as I fully expected someone like Darren Young or Jack Swagger. 

This was a pretty fun break and a neat product and I'll probably be going after any singles or cheap relics I can find from this. 

A Blaster Box of 2015 Allen & Ginter

I'm getting to the end of the Christmas goodies finally and I decided to polish everything off this weekend. First thing I tore into was this blaster of Allen & Ginter. I got some free Ginter cards from the card shop back in the fall and enjoyed those, but I've never actually ripped into any.

First things first, the minis. I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of the minis, mainly because I have no good way to store them. However, there are a few cool ones out there. This blaster had one mini per pack and I ended up with three different kinds as shown above. The standard one is on the left (Johnny Cueto), the one in the middle is some sort of parallel, and the Micah Johnson is call the "Ginter back" since it doesn't have the stats on it. And yes, I actually had to research all of this because Ginter likes to be difficult.

I like the Appomattox Court House card mainly due to the historical significance, and the fact that I majored in history in college. The California Island card is neat mainly because I learned that when the original maps were drawn that everyone thought there was a strait running through there. I can definitely say I learned something new when opening this blaster.

As far as inserts go, I'd say my favorite of the A&G insert sets is the Staring Points, mainly because it features players from their original team and half the time, it's teams I'd forgotten they had played for. A prime example here is Anthony Rizzo. I'd forgotten all about his stint in San Diego. The Kluber card next to it will be going toward my new Indians collection when I finally decide to get that organized.

As for actual base cards, here are the highlights. Among the things that drives me nuts about Ginter is some non-baseball people they include. Mike Mills I'll accept as I enjoy some of R.E.M.'s music and I don't mind some of the actors and baseball related people they include but some of the other people like surfers, activists, comedians, and sportswriters seems like nothing but filler.

Here's a few more of the base cards I pulled. Pulling two nice rookies like Pederson and Soler is always good. Most of these base cards will be going in my 2015 binder.

So, will I buy another blaster of A&G? Probably not unless Target has them on a super discount, but I will pick up any singles I'm interested in.

You've Got Mail #8: Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum

I had some extra Falcons cards recently so I offered them up to noted Falcon fanatic Jeff of Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum. He and I worked out a trade (unfortunately no bubblegum was discussed) and I received a nice package from him right before Thanksgiving.

Let's start with some 2015 Stadium Club! This gold parallel of Luis Gonzalez going crazy after winning the World Series is tremendous.

A few nice horizontals, including a Devin Mesoraco cameo on the Dilson Herrera card.

One of the main reasons I'm putting together this year's Stadium Club set is the photography and the simplicity of the design. Here, Dalton Pompey surveys a homer while Zach Britton makes some friends.

It was nice to see that Jeff included these as well. I'm a sucker for pre-1970s players on modern cards. The Griffey definitely knocks off one of the major cards I needed for this set.

Closing out the Stadium Club portion with three more nice cards. All of these should put a nice dent in my checklist.

Stadium Club wasn't the only thing included though, Jeff also threw in some Reds and Bengals cards.

Starting off the Reds portion was this nice mini of Joey Votto. I like the 87 Topps design on this.

These are the first mascot cards I've ever added to my collection. I just need Mr. Redlegs to complete the trio.

A few more Barry Larkin additions to the collection. As a kid, I always thought the Post Cereal cards looked weird without the logo on the uniform. Still, it's always nice when I get these in a trade pack as they seem hard to come by.

A few more random Reds cards to close out that portion featuring Todd Coffey (like the drink, only not spelt the same), Griffey Jr. doing some batting practice, Billy Hamilton seemingly floating in mid-air and a sideways Zack Cozart.

Finally, on to the Bengals portion and starting off with some very nice Score cards of Jeremy Hill and A.J. Green, two guys who have really contributed to the Bengals success this year.

Another Jeremy Hill card and my first Bengals team card!!

Here's the rest of the Bengals portion with some older names that I recognize (Jeff Blake, Darnay Scott, Boomer Esiason) and some I don't (Eric Ball, Kevin Walker).

Thanks for the trade Jeff! I really appreciate you sending these my way.

The Nutter Center Sports Card Show - Part 1: The Journey and The Experience

Last weekend I managed to get out to a card show for the first time in well over a year. The monthly show at Wright State University's Nutter Center was happening so I made the 50-minute trek up to the large arena on the northeast side of Dayton to check it out.

Pulling up to the arena without any major events going on was pretty strange. I followed the signs to the show off the main road which led me around to the back of the building, through an entrance that I never knew existed, and down a hallway to the back part of the gym where the show was being held. The gym was partitioned off by curtains and while doing my shopping, the sounds of a girls basketball practice could be heard on the other side of the curtain.

The show itself was small, with only about 45 tables, which is plenty for me as I tend to feel overwhelmed and out of place at larger shows. I walked in and was greeted by Dan, who has been promoting the show since 1992, who I had made arrangements with the week before to take some photos at the show. We chatted for a bit, he mentioned it was an average dealer turnout and he had a few people cancel on him. He handed me my ticket for a door prize and I went off to hopefully score some good deals.

The show featured a little bit of everything, from brand new sealed wax to vintage and everything in between. There were lots of dime and quarter boxes to be had and you best believe that I went through more than a few of those with a fine tooth comb. Pretty much every dealer seemed genuinely happy to be there and was very friendly, which goes a long way in my book. Since the show was so small, I made sure to stop and check out every table.

I spent just over two hours at this show and I can definitely say that this was one of the more enjoyable card shows I've been too. At some of the larger shows I've been to in the past, I've felt pressured by more than a few dealers while looking at their table. Here I felt none of that, just a bunch of friendly cardboard enthusiasts like myself getting together on a late fall Saturday morning and having a good time. After all, that's all that you can ask for, right?

As for what I bought, here's a sneak peak ...

Somehow the Topps Update pack I just posted about snuck its way into the photo. Otherwise, this was a very nice haul. A closer look at the cards themselves are coming up later this week so stay tuned!

2015 Topps Update Retail Pack

Quick post tonight as it's late and I need to get to bed but I finally decided to jump on the Topps Update bandwagon and take a gamble on a retail pack. I'm not really expecting much out of this so I might as well just dive right in.

The best card I pulled out of the whole batch, this Anthony Rizzo throwback. I really dig these and might end up trying to locate more of them but it's low on my list right now.

I've heard a lot about Brock Holt so it was nice to get this. Here's hoping he's able to contribute nicely in Boston in 2016.

The two best rookies from the pack, Addison Russell and Steven Matz. Matz made his MLB debut against the Reds in June and completely overmatched them.

All-star cards! This is a subset I probably will end up putting together since the game was in Cincy and I think it'd be pretty nice to have the set to remember it by.

More All-Star goodies! Will the real Darren O'Day please stand up?

I consider Home Run Derby cards to be part of the All-Star set as well.

Finally, the inserts. My favorite one here is Wille Mays in a Mets uniform as you don't see much of that these days. Not a big fan of the Whatever Works insert set though, just something about it strikes me as cheesy.

I wouldn't say this pack was a bust, but it wasn't great either. I haven't gotten too deep into Update to really make a fair judgement one way or the other but it's not bad ... and yes, I do plan to get one of the holiday mega-boxes and maybe another retail pack of it.

Side rant: if you look closely at the top right corner of the Darren O'Day card from above, you'll see it's been dinged! This happened to a few other cards as well, including the aforementioned Steven Matz card. This is what happens when a retail pack doesn't want to cooperate and open properly. Grrrr.