2019 Donruss Blaster

I've had this blaster of 2019 Donruss sitting around for a while now. I actually bought it a week or so before Opening Day but due to other things, I haven't had the chance to open it until now. 

If you remember last year, I bought three packs of Donruss from the card shop and thought they were horrible. The pictures, the design, everything except the 1984 style cards was bad. Let's see if Donruss redeemed themselves this year.

Here are the base cards. As is the case with Donruss, there are no logos or nicknames. Not that I mind that too much when photos like this do their best to hide that that. The Rhys Hoskins card is a throwback uniform variation that I noticed after sorting these to be scanned. As far as the design this year goes, I don't really mind it. It's pretty simple and doesn't try to be something it's not (and doesn't have wavy lines all over the place either like last year).

Of course, there are nickname variations. These are painless enough.

The two Reds cards I got in my box. Scooter Gennett is inching closer to coming back and re-joining the team after injuring his quad right at the end of spring camp. It makes me wonder though, who will be the odd man out in the infield since Jose Iglesias has been a heck of a fill-in with both his glove and his bat, and Derek Dietrich I think may have usurped Jose Peraza as the everyday second baseman.

Here are a few of the Rated Rookies. I think there was one of these in every pack. These were literally chosen at random. Garrett Hampson is currently hitting .194/.224/.269 with Colorado and was actually optioned back to Triple-A as I write this. Kopech was 1-1 in only four games with the White Sox and will miss the entire 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery.

I think even the most ardent Donruss/Panini hater can probably find some good in the Diamond Kings cards.

Every year since Panini brought Donruss back, they've had the back end of the base set devoted to old designs. This year it's 1985, which I sort of enjoy. As a matter of fact, my favorite Donruss designs are probably from the years 1982-1987. I wonder what they'll do when they reach 1990 as they've already used it for a base set design in 2017.

As it is with Donruss, there's a boatload of parallels and the the like. The Rizzo is numbered to 484 and the design on the Ryan O'Hearn card is called "Independence Day". The back also feels like it's a vintage stock card or something.

Purple parallels! Very cool and very shiny.

Speaking of shiny, there's a four card "bonus" pack with the blasters and inside contained these super shiny cards. I think my favorite of these is the Jose Altuve "Action All-Stars" card. One thing I didn't notice until scanning these is that the Franchise Features cards have a different player on the reverse side.

And would you look at who's on the back of the Kris Bryant, that being Reds top prospect Nick Senzel, who is doing quite well for himself both at the plate and in the field. After seeing him play, I can see why the Reds released Matt Kemp.

So that's a blaster of 2019 Donruss. It's a definite improvement from last year. I like the inserts and parallels, and especially the "Action All-Stars" set.

Hang 'Em High

Trying to find Heritage of any sort this year, at least in my neck of the woods, has seemed to be pretty much impossible. Sure, I found packs at the card shop earlier in the spring when the initial batch was released but Heritage High Number ... forget it! Nay a Walmart or a Target has had any sign of it so to say I was pleasantly surprised when I found a slew of hanger boxes at a Target I don't normally go to would be a bit of an understatement.

I had a bit of extra cash on me so I pulled it off the rack, along with a jumbo pack of 17-18 O-Pee-Chee, tossed them in the cart along with the stuff I actually went to Target for (household cleaners, Halloween candy, etc) and headed home.

Since the playoff have commenced and we're neck deep in Division Series action this week, I figured there's no better time than the present to show off some of the highlights.

Everyone knows what these look like, it's 1968 Topps. I picked these particular cards to show off, well, just because commons need some love too every now and then. Plus, you can learn something. For example, did you know that the well-travelled Mat Latos was with the Blue Jays this season? I didn't. Having only appeared in three games for them this season, it's quite possible that it was one of those "blink and you miss it" type of deals. The Rizzo/Bryant card is one of those combo cards that Heritage loves to put out. 

The two most notable rookie cards from the box. 

Two new Reds cards to add to the collection. Storen was a decent arm out of the bullpen this year but went down late in the year to an elbow injury. Mesoraco split the backup duties in 2017 with Stuart Turner and made it into 56 games, the most he's played since 2014. With the Reds signing Tucker Barnhart to a 4-year deal just prior to the end of the season, one has to wonder what Meso's future with the Reds might be.

Two guys from the good Ohio team. The Indians are my pick to win it all this year. I was pulling for them last year but it seemed that I was probably the only one. I think they've got much more power this year in the lineup with Bruce and Encarnacion, both former Reds I might add. 

Apparently the hanger boxes yield one SP per box. This was sandwiched between two insert cards. 

Only two proper insert cards in the box. I like the designs on these, especially the funky background on the Ryon Healy card.

To be honest, I could've just saved the the $9.95 this cost and put it toward something I really wanted but on the flip side it was Heritage and like I mentioned, it's hard to find in these parts. If I feel like getting anymore Heritage, I think it'll be cheap singles from card shows

Opening Some Donruss on Opening Day

It's Opening Day today so it only feels natural to rip open some packs.

Since Panini relaunched the Donruss brand back in 2014, I've always enjoyed it. I've been sitting on these five packs for about three weeks now, so it's finally time to tear into them.

The design this year is reminiscent of 1990 Donruss with the name written in script at the top. Of course, since Panini doesn't have an MLB license, the team names and logos are airbrushed out but that really doesn't bother me since the photos they use usually seem to hide that fact. 

Not only are there current players but there are Hall of Famers and retired stars as well, including players you don't see a lot in Topps products like Dave Winfield and Ryne Sandberg.

Since the 2015 issue, Panini has been doing throwbacks to past designs, this year it's 1983. It's not really my favorite design but it's still neat to get these in nearly every pack.

Variations and parallels are strong with this. The Mike Trout card is one of three different versions of his card and Duke Snider is a parallel "cyan back" card although it looks more pink to me.  Have a look below.

See, pink right? Still really cool though regardless of what color you settle on it actually being.

Here are some of the inserts I pulled. Too bad for Cardinals fans that Reyes is out for the year. I really like the Rated Rookie design this year.

Numbered parallels are awesome. I'm leaning toward using these as a base to officially start my "shiny card" side project.

Oh, I got an autograph as well. I'm not exactly sure who Zack Godley is but his numbers last year with Arizona weren't exactly stellar. As usual, I really enjoy Donruss and this is no exception. I'm definitely going to get more of this as I come across it.

Hope everyone enjoys the games today! Baseball season is officially here!

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.

You've Got Mail #59: Ain't Nobody Got Time for Cardboard (aka Secret Santa 2016) - Part 2

While I'm sure everyone will be posting about the Hall of Fame inductees tonight, I'm continuing on with part 2 of my Secret Santa package. As I mentioned in the part one, Andy from Ain't Nobody Got Time for Cardboard won the draw to be my Secret Santa this past Christmas. Picking up from where I left off, here's the remainder of what Andy sent over.

No Christmas package would be complete without some of the snowflake cards from the Topps Walmart exclusive Holiday boxes. I opened one box of them myself and I though it was a pretty fun break, especially with the guaranteed relic card. I'll share my findings on that in a future post. The Cubs cards were a nice surprise that were thrown in. 

All of these were packaged together with a note that said they were part of a "parallel universe". I couldn't agree more. Of all of these through, I think the chrome Robert Stephenson card is my favorite.

While I didn't have this Barry Larkin card on my most wanted list, it was one I had my eye on here and there. I really enjoyed the 2015 Panini Contenders baseball set and was disappointed when I didn't see it make a return, although I guess it kind of did as inserts in the Elite Extra Edition set. Vintage cards like the Griffey card are always welcomed to my collection. I've got a special section in my vintage binder reserved for Reds cards just like this.

Finally, to close this out, there were some Bengals thrown in as well. While I've cut back on my Bengals collecting, I'll still welcome new cards for some of the top players. The bottom two cards are my first experience with the Gridiron Kings cards and I must say that I really enjoy them. While I'm not going to race out and buy any packs, if there are a few Bengals cards like this in bargain bins the next time I hit up a card show, I'll definitely consider picking them up.

This was an awesome secret Santa package and it went way above and beyond what I expected. Again, a big thanks to Matt at BWTP for organizing everything and thanks to Andy for the great cards.

National Baseball Card Day Recap

Apparently last Saturday there was this thing called National Baseball Card Day. My wife, son, and I had already made plans to go up to Dayton to have lunch and go shopping with some friends for the afternoon. Luckily for me, one of our friends wanted to go to Mavericks to get some comic books. I wasn't sure if they were a participating shop or not as they weren't listed on the official Topps list of participating shops but sure enough, I walked in and right on the front display case was a sign stating they were a participating shop.

I knew a free pack was involved and I also knew I had to spend at least ten dollars to get the coveted Kris Bryant card. I asked if the ten dollars had to be spent on Topps products and the owner, a nice old fellow, said technically yes but since I'm a regular customer any purchase of ten dollars or more would do. So I scanned the display cases with the baseball packs but nothing really caught my eye. However I did manage to grab a few things while I was there.

First up, these five packs of 2016-17 Upper Deck MVP hockey. I was completely unaware that this was out so I was pretty excited to see the first hockey release of the year already in stores. The last few years the design of MVP hasn't really done much for me but I needed to get above the $10 quota for the Kris Bryant card so I asked for five packs. Normally, the shop owner doesn't let people behind the counter to pick out their own packs as a way to keep people from pack searching, but he let me grab the packs I wanted since there were only a few left. I'll show off the results of the packs down the road as I've got the remainder of this month already scheduled and September and October are already set aside for Project Halloween content.

I also spotted a good selection of Starting Lineup figures with more than fair prices in another display case. I was surprised there were some hockey ones, mostly of Wayne Gretzky, along with a few others. I purchased the Gretzky figure above to go with my hockey packs simply because it was the only one that stood out to me. It doesn't hurt that it's also a Starting Lineup convention exclusive from 1999 and has him in an unfamiliar New York Rangers uniform.

So, I got free baseball cards, bought hockey packs and a Wayne Gretzky Starting Lineup figure to get over the $10 for another exclusive card. I'm not sure Topps would have been pleased with my purchases somehow. As for the National Baseball Card Day pack, here's what I got ...

As I opened the pack, my wife asked me if there were any autographs or jersey cards that you could get. I told her yes, but they were extremely hard to pull. Funny thing though, the moment I said that, I pulled this out of the pack ...

I'd say it was a pretty successful day.