A Steal of a Retail Deal (continued)

As I mentioned in my last post, I scored a whale of a deal on some packs. I'll save explaining the details again but suffice to say, four of these packs ended up being free thanks to coupons. The rest, however, were not and I had to fork out $2.99 for each pack of six cards. Also, is it just me or has Mike Trout been the cover person on every Topps product this year, save for Heritage? Regardless, I'm excited to tear into some GQ as I enjoy it every year.

Keeping with tradition, my first card of Gypsy Queen, Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies. I'm not sure how I feel exactly about the design this year. It feels kind of like the design from last year although a simple GQ logo has replaced Gypsy Queen. The border color is the same so it feels kind of bland. Still, better than Donruss this year although of the four Topps products I've sampled this year, I'd kind of put this near the bottom.

One thing I do like about GQ is the fact that it's more kind of art based. I always like to find cards in GQ where the colors just pop, like these. The old school yellow uniforms of the Pirates and the home whites of the Orioles. 

A few random cards of Dansby Swanson and Yoan Moncada. 

Speaking of cards that just pop with color, I love the way the red just pops on these cards and I really dig that Twins uniform.

Now for some inserts, first there are these Fortune Teller inserts. These are ok, I guess.

And these tarot card style inserts. These have a really different texture and feel of anything else in the pack.

Oh yeah, my best card of the eight packs ... my first Shohei Ohtani card! While I know I'll never be able to afford high dollar cards of his, I'll settle for base cards and inserts.

I'm not sure if I'll be picking any more of this up unless I can find singles for a decent price (as in like living in a dime or quarter box). It's decent this year but I think the design as I mentioned is a bit bland, however, I will say that my expectations are high every year for the design as I expect it to be as good as 2015 and nothing yet has come close to it.

2018 Topps: The "Wave" of the Future

I'll admit it, I may have gone a bit overboard on 2018 Topps.

However, in order to stretch the cash my wife fronted me as a Valentine's Day present, I had to make the most of it so I got as much as I could so I could get a nice sampling. I bought five loose packs, the last two fat packs on the rack, and a blaster box. I'll break down the highlights the same way. First the loose packs, 

Here's my first card of the year, Tyler Flowers of the Braves. As far as the design goes, I think I like it more in person than I did from the scans and pictures of it I saw on other blogs. It's a nice full-bleed photo and the graphics at the bottom are clean and simple and the team logo looks as if it's either surfing a wave or going down a water slide. I definitely dig it and if Topps can keep the design for the base set clean like this every year, all will be good.

Here's a few former Reds who are Reds no longer, of these Todd Frazier has changed teams, going from the Yankees to the Mets and re-uniting with former Reds teammate Jay Bruce.

Speaking of Reds, here's a few current ones. I pulled three of the Billy Hamilton cards so the dupes will be going in the trade box.

The horizontal cards are really neat and work a lot better than they did the previous two years. I picked these because they had the best photography and I love the way the A's green and gold just pops on these cards.

A few more base cards, again picked mainly for photography than anything else. I dig the throwback Giants uniform on Christian Arroyo though.

There were also inserts, lots of inserts. I can't say I'm exactly thrilled with the insert sets this year although the 1983 style cards are pretty neat. It looks like buybacks and the first pitch inserts have sadly been dropped.

Moving on now to the fat packs (or jumbo packs, whatever you prefer to call them), here's a few guys  who are now on new teams, Cutch with the Giants and Cozy with the Angels.

A few more cards with nice photos.

More nice horizontal cards. I was pretty hyped to pull an Ian Happ card considering he's a University of Cincinnati product. 

More current Reds. Tyler Mahle was a nice late season call-up for the Reds last year and did so well that he's a candidate for a rotation spot this year in spring training. He was one of the few bright spots of the Reds pitching staff last year.

The first foil parallel of the break and it's Dellin Betances of the Yankees.

Two of the hottest young stars in the game currently, Rhys Hoskins and Dansby Swanson. I would've been happy just getting these out of the fat pack but then came this ...

The much heralded card #1 of the set, Aaron Judge. I'd say just based on those last three cards alone, the fat packs were more than worth it.

Finally, the blaster. I've shown a lot of base cards so far but here are a few of my favorites of the 10-pack blaster. 

Two foil parallels and a gold parallel were found as well. I really like the way the gold cards stand out this year.

More inserts. I'm not really sure what the point is of the Opening Day cards, maybe they should've just been left for the Opening Day product itself.

I'm not down on these Jeter inserts as much as most people are it seems. Sure, Jeter isn't exactly someone I actively collect but still, these are nice cards in person. However, I know a few Yankee collectors that might appreciate these more.

More of the 1983 style cards. I can't really get enough of these.

And here's the guaranteed commemorative patch card. Manu-relics for me are pretty cool and I've got a few in my collection. For blasters and retail, I think they're fine but they shouldn't be included in hobby boxes and count as a "hit". Anyway, I won't really complain about in being an Evan Longoria card either as he's one of the better players from the list.

So that's my first experience with 2018 Topps. It was fun to break into these but after a while, the buzz wore off. I'll probably buy a few packs here and there at the card shop if there's nothing interesting and I feel the need to buy something to rip. As I mentioned, I'm not exactly thrilled with the insert sets except the 1983 cards but overall the base card design is really nice, the photography is good and everything feels fresh and new.

Going Platinum

The family and I stopped by Meijer, a local grocery chain, a couple weeks ago to grab some odds and ends. Them being the only other retailer around here that stocks cards, I made a gander through the card section as usual. Normally, their prices are a few dollars more than everyone else but I found this jumbo pack of last year's Bowman Platinum on the rack for a mere $3.49. It's not something I would normally get but at that price, I couldn't pass it up. After we got home and got the groceries put away, I ripped into it.

The pack proclaims there will be five "top prospects insert cards" per pack. Obviously, these are not them. These are the main base cards and are pretty sharp looking to be honest.

Two more base cards and a Victor Robles "Platinum Presence" insert card.

Gleyber Torres is another insert card, this time from the "Next Generation Prospects" insert set. The top prospect cards the pack promised starts off with two Braves prospects in Toussaint and Dansby Swanson, who I guess at this rate can't really be categorized as a prospect anymore. Sorry Braves collectors, I'm holding on to these.

The final three cards and the only player from this batch I've heard of is Billy McKinney.

Only 12 cards in the pack but the design and overall quality of the cards definitely made up for the lack of quantity. For the price, this was a pretty fun quick rip. Would I have bought this at regular price? More than likely not. However, it definitely pays to look at the bargain rack in the card aisle, just proves to show you never know what you'll find.

Rediscovering My Heritage

I just noticed I haven't posted anything for nearly a week. There's a perfectly reasonable excuse for that however. Last weekend from Saturday through Tuesday, the family and I were on vacation in North Carolina visiting the in-laws (my wife's mom, dad, brothers, and sister). We left our house early on Saturday morning about 2:30 and made it there about noon, only stopping for gas and restroom breaks.

The first night we were there, we headed to Walmart to get some supplies for making a massive bolognese style lasagna the next day and a few other things. While we were there, I had a feeling it would be my only opportunity on the trip to get cards. I took a gander at the card aisle for Heritage and found there was only one hanger box and one jumbo pack left on the shelf. Naturally, I had to get them. 

A few days later, Tuesday to be exact, we left early in the morning again about 4:30 and headed home, just clipping the edge of the winter mega-storm that reeked havoc in the Northeast as we drove through the Virginia foothills and the West Virginia mountains. We got home about 3:00. The next day, I couldn't resist and cracked into them. I started with the hanger box.

First though, I want to talk about the design of each package. The hanger box has some really fun artwork on it with the green and the brown background and the design really grabs you. However, the the jumbo pack seems kind of bland with the generic pitcher and just the word "baseball" really big on it. So, definitely points go to the hanger box with the design element. Anyway, let's crack this open.

The first card of Heritage this year is Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals. My first impression is that these are really nice. Yes, as is standard with Heritage, there are lot of posed shots but I'm ok with that. The other thing is that these are based on the 1968 design, which I like a lot.

Look at that! I got a Dansby Swanson rookie card! Mind you, it's just the base card, not the variation but still, it's Dansby Swanson.

A couple other nice horizontal cards. I was really pulling for Cleveland last year but I happy for the Cubs. Maybe this year the Tribe can get back to the Series and win it all. Anyway, the World Series card is really cool because it's black and white and definitely has an old school, 60s feel to it. 

The thing I like about Heritage is that it provides lots of things to look for besides just hits and inserts. Case in point, this Jameson Taillon card. While it may look like just any unassuming card from the front, on the back it's a high numbered short print. It was the only short print or variation type card I received in either the hanger box or jumbo pack.

Here's the lone insert that came in the hanger box, a Kris Bryant New Age Performers insert. I like the orange, kind of funky background on it.

That's the highlights of the hanger box, time to move on to the jumbo pack.

This is a 1968 game style insert with Almedys Diaz. The one issue I have with these is that it's hard to read the players name with just the autograph on it. Other that that, it was nice surprise to pull this out.

I had a bit more luck pulling Reds out of the jumbo pack than I did the hanger box. Even though all the experts are picking the Reds to be dead last this year, I'm trying to stay positive and hope they won't be all that bad, especially with young stars like Jose Peraza ready to play every day and breathe new life to the team. The pitching will still be a bit suspect I think, but the bullpen definitely has improved. 

A few more cards, including another Indians card (if you include the World Series card) and another All-Star card.

Overall, I'm very pleased with Heritage this year and I'm planning on picking up on some more packs at the card shop eventually, perhaps even this weekend as I'll be going there after the big Nutter Center card show. I'm trying to lay off buying retail packs but this was an exception since I couldn't make it to the local shop in North Carolina and was a nice sampling of a fun product.

Happiness is a Box of 2016 Donruss

Along with the box of Ghostbusters cards I reviewed a few weeks ago, there was also a box of 2016 Donruss that came along with them. I opened a few packs back in the spring, pulled 3 hits out of four packs, and was really blown away at how great the cards were, even for a logo-less product. While this won't be a super thorough review like the Ghostbusters cards, there were still lots of highlights to be had.

Everyone has probably seen the base cards for this by now as it was the first release of the year from Panini. There's a healthy mix of current players, up and coming players, and retired starts, not to mention the San Diego Chicken. Even with the fact that there are no logos or team names on the cards, these are still some pretty good shots and Panini did a fairly decent job of hiding the fact that there are no names or logos.

Like they did last year, there are some throwback cards, this time from 1982 Donruss. It seemed like there was one in every pack. I really like the Rickey Henderson cards of him, well literally, stealing bases.

Now here comes the fun stuff, the inserts! I haven't seen the Masters of the Game inserts talked about a lot, if at all, but I really like these two cards. They have that artistic look like Diamond Kings and have a really nice design to boot.

There are photo variations although, unlike Topps, you can actually pick out the variations without having to consult some sort of online repository. The photo variations have a nickname, such as the case of the Ken Griffey Jr. card above, or some sort of note like "NL ROY" or something to that effect. I was expecting more than one of the pink parallel cards and for what they are, they're okay but not really my thing.

Rookies were plentiful and these are three of the best that I pulled. I like how the Rated Rookies are a different design from the base set but the "Rookies" subset seems like overkill.

Now we're getting into the good stuff. First up these 82 parallels of some sort. The design on the Prince Fielder card looks like the ink blotches from one of those visions tests while the Donaldson has some sort of 80s zebra print thing going one. The Elite Dominator and the Elite Series cards are one per box inserts. While I like the Elite Series DeGrom card, it feels almost unnecessary as Panini does the Elite cards as one of their late season releases.

Ok, now the very good stuff. This Dansby Swanson parallel is numbered out of 400Swanson was flipped to Atlanta last winter as part of the ridiculous Shelby Miller trade. When all is said and done, I think Atlanta will come out the winner as Miller has been a complete disaster for Arizona.

Speaking of Arizona, the hits from the desert continue with this Peter O'Brien autographed jersey card. I really like the concept of this series with jersey pieces and signatures from up and coming players. The patch itself is no small piece either which makes it that much better.

This must be some sort of Diamondbacks hot box! First the Dansby numbered card, then the O'Brien autograph jersey card, now this Archie Bradley jersey card. For lack of a better term, this is the "base" card design as there are different versions of these in both red and green (each of which are numbered). The design on this is a bit dark and I personally think this card would have benefited from a jersey swatch from a color other than black. 

Nola is one of the top pitching prospects for the Phillies and when I pulled this out I was pretty happy. You can't really tell from the scan but it's numbered as well, even though it's a sticker autograph, which really doesn't bother me as it blends in pretty well with the white. I like the blue background and the general design a lot on this. 

Here's another jersey card set that I think is pretty cool where it's a jersey piece from a team of a current player, in this case Jake Arrietta being represented as a member of the Orioles. This is my first Orioles hit I've had in a long time and I'll gladly take it, especially since he's one of the best pitchers in the National League, well at least until he cooled off recently.

I'm not sure this card could be classified as a hit but I'm going to put it in that bucket anyway. This is a test proof card of Alex Rodriguez numbered 9/10 as this is apparently the magenta version. There are other versions of the test proof cards in cyan, black, and yellow. Needless to say, I was pretty happy to pull this out of the next to last pack when I broke into the box. This sucker went right into a top loader.

Overall, I would say this was a really good product to tear into. You get a lot of stuff, be it numbered cards, hits, inserts, and base cards, as evidenced by the picture below. Whatever you're into, I don't think you could go wrong with this. It's moderately priced too. Counting the A-Rod test proof card, I pulled five hits out of a box that guaranteed three.