2018 Topps Heritage High Number Hanger Box

I'll be honest, I'm not looking forward to Heritage as much this year as I was the last few years. The past two years, Topps has done well with both the 1968 design (2017) and the 1969 design (2018) and those happen to be two of my favorite 60s sets as well. So when I opened the package that Ryan from the Sumo Cards blog sent over and pulled this out, I was pretty excited. I won't show every card, but here are some highlights.

Todd Frazier was a great third baseman for the Reds and him winning the 2015 Home Run Derby when the Reds hosted the All-Star Game that year. Despite the Reds having to trade him off, I still enjoy watching him play when the Mets are on MLB Network so therefore I still get his cards. Speaking of fun players, you can't forget about Bartolo Colon, who is pretty much ageless. To my knowledge, he hasn't signed a contract with anyone for 2019 but is the last active major leaguer to have both played for the Expos and to have played in the 1990s.

Here are a couple interesting specimens. Miles Mikolas came from out of nowhere last season to lead the lead the NL with 18 wins and a .818 winning percentage. This was after he was out of the majors for four years and had appeared in 37 games total with the Padres and Rangers from 2012-2014. He finished 6th in Cy Young voting and made the All-Star Team last year. Gift Ngoepe is the first major leaguer from South Africa and made it into 13 games with the Blue Jays last year. He's currently in camp with the Phillies as a non-roster invitee.

I found it interesting that the photos in both of these Giants cards were taken at sunset. 

There were also a few cool inserts starting with this Ichiro. I'm glad to see he was featured as a member of the Mariners.

Also, there's this Freddie Freeman deckle edge style insert. This I really dig with the black and white photo. I always hear about insert sets like this and the Topps Super style inserts in Archives a few years back but I never pull any. I'm pretty happy to have this.

All in all, a pretty standard hanger box of cards but still it's Topps Heritage and I'm not going to complain too much.

Damn

Damn.

That's what my wife said when a rather large box from P-Town Tom landed on my doorstep a few weeks ago. It was warned by Tom ahead of time that this would include a load of junk wax and while it did, I'll try to spare you most of that (1990 Donruss, 1989 Topps, etc.) aside from a few interesting cards I pulled out to share. I'll take a break from the yard sale cards and show some of the highlights. The main point of this will be to touch on some of the more cool stuff that was included in the box. 

First off, some oddballs. I gave a recap of the K-Mart cards in my last post but Jimmy Dean produced a handful of different sets from 1991-1993, including this Barry Larkin card from the initial offering. From what I can remember, these were found in boxes of frozen breakfast sandwiches. The set itself was a 25-card set with the top stars of the day.

One of my new favorite things is getting cards from the early to mid-80s, especially for Reds players I'm not familiar with like Sheldon Burnside, who is featured on the 1981 Fleer card. That's a set I really don't have a whole lot of and doesn't seem to pop up in singles bins very often. I do see 1981 Donruss but not much of 1981 Fleer (or 1981 Topps for that matter). 

1982 Topps! I'm still waiting to get some time to dig through the box of 1982 cards I have. Probably at some point too I might start building the set but not sure. Despite the fact that Concepcion and Soto were holdovers from the 1970s Reds teams, the 1982 team was the only team in Reds history to lose 100 games (61-101) although this year's squad is in contention to be the second team to do that.

Speaking of Reds from the 1970s, there were some unexpected vintage cards which are always appreciated. 

Here's something I was really excited to find ... a 1986 Donruss Paul O'Neill rookie card. This is a card I didn't know I was searching for until I actually had it in my hands after pulling it out of the box. After looking it up, it appears this is his only official rookie card, aside from a 1986 Fleer card that he shares with Kal Daniels. O'Neill's first Topps card didn't show up until 1988.

Here's a bunch of miscellaneous cards that really don't fit any other group. First there are some cool 1953 reprints and then a handful of early 90s stuff.

Early 2000s stuff is something I don't have a lot of either. I've always like both of these Topps sets, especially the 2000 one which came in right around the time that I started to fall out of collecting. The last actual set I remember getting cards from when my initial foray into collecting ended was the 2001 Topps set and so getting cards from this time is really something cool, especially when it's late career Barry Larkin cards like this.

The background on these Metal cards are pretty cool.

A couple of the 60 Years inserts from the 2011 set. 

And finally, a few newer base cards, including two Todd Frazier cards, one 2011 RC and one 2013 with the Rookie cup on it.

Of course, being the multi-faceted team collector that I am, Tom sent over a boatload of Indians cards as well. Here's some more vintage, including Fred Kendall with both a serious mustache and a serious catching glove. Paul Dade looks unimpressed.

I mentioned 1981 Topps earlier and here are a couple Indians from that set, pitcher Wayne Garland, who kid of looks like my friends dad, and first baseman and future Tribe manager Mike Hargrove. The highlight of the Indians season that year was hosting the All-Star game, which turned out to be the first baseball related thing that happened after the mid-season strike was settled.

More 1982 Topps. 

There were also a nice dozen of 1980 Topps cards from the Indians, only one of which was a duplicate. Among these, a few interesting notes. First, look at the Rick Manning card and tell me that isn't the exact same picture on his 1982 card from above. Also, note the card of David Clyde, which just also happens to be his sunset card. Clyde was a pitching phenom for his hometown Rangers that flamed out after the 1974 season. He pitched one game for Texas in 1975, injured his shoulder, and didn't resurface in the majors until 1978 with Cleveland, with whom he spent the 1978 and 1979 seasons and then was out of the majors again. 

Some mid-80s fun. I'm curious what pipe that is behind Broderick Perkins.

As with the Reds cards, I also tried to skip over the majority of the junk wax cards but I couldn't resist showing these off. I always forget about Jeff Shaw but he was a pretty decent closer for the Reds and Indians. However, the one card that got me here was the manager card of John Hart, who managed the Indians for a whole 19 games at the end of the 1989 season but was the general manager for the Indians run of dominance over the AL Central in the 90s.

More of the Metal Universe cards. I like how the backgrounds are different on these compared to the Reds cards as they definitely have a more industrial feel, for lack of a better term. 

And now, to put a bow on this mega box from Tom, a few Indians randoms including a team card from 2011 Topps, a Sandy Alomar Jr All-Star Heroes card, and Jim Thome enjoying a refreshing bottle of water, which is what I need after going through all these cards. I appreciate Tom sending these over and I hope it helped him clear out some room in his collection. I know it definitely filled some holes in mine.

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!

You've Got Mail #46: The Lost Collector

It's November! Consider yourself lucky that you survived Halloween. I myself may have overdone it a bit on the pumpkin spice and sugar intake but I had fun anyway. I hope everyone enjoyed Project Halloween, it'll be back in some form next year not sure exactly how though. Anyway, with Halloween officially over and done with until next year, it's time to dig back into what built this place to begin with and that is cards ... and lots of them.

I'm sitting on a bunch of trade packages that I need to recap and I'll try to do them in the order they were receieved. I'll start with this package from A.J., the mind behind the Lost Collector (and a guest on Beckett Radio back in the late summer). He dropped a bubble mailer full of Reds cards on me right about the beginning of September. Since I was already committed to Halloween and fall content, I had to sit on this until I started covering cards again, which just happens to be now.

I remember opening a lot of packs of Collector's Choice when I was a kid, mainly because it was only about a dollar a pack and even I, being in middle school at the time, could afford that. I always liked this design because of the different illustrations for the positions on the bottom left and the stripes reminded me of notebook paper. Jose Rijo didn't pitch much for the Reds in the mid-90s after injuring his elbow, but he sure appeared on lots of cards doing random things like toting a Super Soaker and sporting these crazy shades. Jeff Brantley is now a TV and radio broadcaster for the Reds. I remember when the Reds signed him as a free agent in 1994, it made the Reds bullpen incredibly solid and helped take them to the 1995 NLCS.

1998 Score is another product I have fond memories of opening. I remember for Christmas that year my aunt and uncle bought me some sort of retail pack that had about 10-12 packs in it. Ever since then, it seems like it's incredibly hard to find stuff from this period at card shows. I always liked mid to late 90s Score, the photography is always pretty solid and the designs were fairly catchy.

Let's move on to a couple of sets I don't remember, that being 1998 Donruss and 1997 Stadium Club. I really like the design of the Donruss and I might have to start looking for more of these to grab. Not a big fan of the Stadium Club design but it gives me new cards of Pete Schourek and Dave Burba who anchored the Reds staff from 1995-1997, so I won't complain too much.

Moving from the 1990s into the 2000s now, this is where my collection lacks a lot. Bob Boone managed the Reds from 2001-2003 and had a 190-238 record to show for it. Of course, the teams he had didn't exactly set the world on fire and his first season out of the gate was a disastrous 66-96 season. During that time though, the Reds did have a few good players, Sean Casey being one of them. It's nice to add this card to my Casey collection. The Phillips card is a nice early Reds card of his. Now the Reds want to deal him to free up salary room since his contract is up after next season.

This next batch has a bunch of pitchers that I'd forgotten about, so let's do a little Reds career recap of each one:

Jung Bong --- Appeared in three whole games for the Reds in 2004

Luke Hudson --- Played parts of three seasons (2002, 2004, 2005) in Cincinnati, mostly as a starter. Compiled a 17-18 record and a 5.11 ERA during his Reds career.

Jimmy Haynes --- Finished up his career with the Reds from 2002-2004, started the first game in Great American Ballpark.

Hey Topps, how about more Topps Total with fun designs and obscure players please!

Moving on to more recent cards ... Jay Bruce really struggled after his trade to the Mets back in August. It'd be nice to see him back in a Reds uniform sometime but I don't think that will ever happen. That card though reminds me of something from the 90s with all the colors. Another person who the Reds sent off in a trade for prospects was Todd Frazier. He's done pretty well for the White Sox this year and hopefully he can sustain is momentum. These are guys I'll still collect, no matter what team they play for. Speaking of prospects, John Lamb really couldn't find his footing, being part of the Springfield tire fire that was Reds pitching this year. I'm hoping that he can get more seasoning down in the minors and get whatever affliction that causes him to never win games fixed.

Now the two gems of the package. First this framed Allen & Ginter relic card. I'm not a big Ginter person, but if I can find cheap singles of players I like I'll snatch them up. I'm not sure what part of uniform this relic came from but it's definitely unique. It's grey mostly with some tinges of blue, so perhaps its from a road uniform.

Then there was this, an extremely well loved Johnny Wyrostek card. You can tell someone really cherished this as at one point it got ripped apart and a kind soul hastily put it back together with tape. The tape has faded over time and has now become part of the card itself. It definitely gives this card some character and oh if it could talk, what a story it would tell.

Card Show Report Pt. 1: A Sampling of 2016

For a Father's Day present, my wife let me have my choice of card shows to go to. There were three happening in June, one on June 4th at the Wright State Nutter Center, and two on Father's Day weekend itself, with a small show at a local card shop on that Saturday and a large 75-table show the next day in a northern suburb of Cincinnati. I weighed all options.

I've been to the Nutter Center show before and while not big, it's not small either and I know what to expect, especially since the layout is pretty spacious. The show at the card shop I've been meaning to go to every time they have one but I'm not one to enjoy people crammed in a tiny space sorting through mounds of cards which I imagine it to be. Speaking of lots of people, the large show isn't my style and it's big wheelers and dealers with tons of tables in a large hotel ballroom. In the end, I opted to go back to the Nutter Center show as it's quiet, spread out, and relaxed ... exactly my style.

While the pickings were pretty slim and dime and quarter boxes seemed to be non-existent at most tables, I was able to find a number of good things by doing some digging. Enough, in fact, to break up my findings through four posts. For this portion, I took a page out of Dimebox Nick's playbook and picked up 2016 singles on the cheap in the bargain bins.

I grabbed a bunch of 2016 Series 1, Gypsy Queen, and a handful of Archives singles from one dealer who had boxes and boxes of 2016 base cards for a dime a piece. The person next to him had loads of singles from Diamond Kings and across the gym, another person had loads of Archives singles.

Diamond Kings

I'll start with Diamond Kings as it's the only Panini product I found singles of. Only one person had these so I cleaned up with them. You'll see a trend on some of these products where I gravitated to the older retired stars than current players and that's especially true with this. The thing for me with Diamond Kings is that you feel like you're getting a high end product but not at a high-end price. Sure, the packs themselves are about $7 each and that's just above what all of these cost in one deal.

Nothing but legends on this page. I think it's really cool that not only are the usual suspects included like Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby, but there are others like Frank Chance and Harry Breechen who get little to no cardboard love from Topps. The only downside is that since Panini can't use team names, I have no idea if Hornsby is in a Cardinals uniform or Browns uniform. If I had to guess, I'd say Browns.

Because the backs are important too, these are equally as great. Sure, it's the same photo but there's also a brief bio, which is helpful for those who might not be as familiar with those from baseball's early days

I grabbed the Henie Groh card simply because it was a Reds card. Jake Daubert I grabbed because he played for the Reds on the 1919 World Series team and had a pretty solid career with both the Reds and Dodgers. The thing I really like about seeing dead ball stars on these cards is the fact that Panini doesn't need to airbrush out team logos on uniforms. 

Some more old timers and handful of current players. Lamb has really struggled in the Reds rotation as of late and may risk losing his spot once Homer Bailey comes back from the DL. Waldrop has been a handy player off the bench when needed. However, I consider the fact that I got Nap Lajoie, Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, and Kyle Schwarber cards without getting taken to the cleaners a really nice bonus.

The last page of Diamond Kings and some really awesome inserts! Both of these black insert sets are absolutely gorgeous but my favorite has to be the Nap Lajoie card. You may also notice that there's another Frank Chance base card. No, I didn't scan it twice, I accidentally bought two copies. Oh well, I can think of a few Cubs collectors that could use it. 

Gypsy Queen

I generally don't buy packs and boxes of Gypsy Queen just because it's out of my budget. Sure, I might grab a few packs here and there if I have extra cash and I feel like splurging on some packs at $5.99 each but otherwise I'll just pick up the cards I like. I really enjoyed last year's design and wasn't too thrilled when I saw this years cards. However, the more I saw it, the more I liked it. All of these cards cost exactly a dime a piece.

First page up and it's all Reds. I believe this is the Reds team set (minus short prints which I'll get to in a minute) and I'm pretty have I got all of these for under a buck. The cards with Votto, Mesoraco, and Bruce in the red jersey just absolutely pop.

I also grabbed current players that I like along with a few Indians cards I found in the box as well. I had to grab the Ichiro since he's probably going to hit 3,000 hits this year. 

A few more card from the Gypsy Queen dime box. I still dig getting Todd Frazier stuff and I find it super odd still to see him in a White Sox uniform.

This was the only card I bought out of a display case the whole show and I snagged it for a mere $2. The picture on this card is just great and you can't really go wrong with a Johnny Bench card for two bucks.

Flagship/Series 1

When the details of Series 1 along with the card design was released last fall, I got pretty excited as it looked like Topps was at least thinking out of the box in terms of design. When these were released however, it wasn't received well at all by most. I personally don't mind the design, it stands out and I'll be able to pick it out unlike 2013 and 2014 which are very, very similar and I still can't tell apart unless I look at the backs.

There were a ton of commons that I thumbed through but I did manage to find some gems, especially the Noah Syndergaard and Kris Bryant cards which I thought would have been quickly snatched up by someone. 

The middle row of this I call the "fun row" just because of how entertaining these cards are. The Royal World Series victory photo, Huston Street getting doused by water, and the Orioles being generally overjoyed. Not to be forgotten either is the Johnny Cueto card with him celebrating. Good for him to get a ring in Kansas City last year.

Archives

Now the star of the show ... Archives. Much like Gypsy Queen, I avoid buying packs and boxes of Archives because the last few years Topps jacked up the price with the Major League cards and Will Ferrell cards in the product. This year it's Bull Durham which seems to have brought the price down to earth somewhat. The movie does nothing for me so I didn't bother with any of the cards from that part of it. I grabbed a few of these from the dime box guy and the rest from another person across the gym who had loads of singles. I think I spent about $7 combined from both vendors on these and there are a lot!

I'm sure by now everyone has seen some of these cards multiple times on multiple blogs but cards like Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Andres Galarraga haven't gotten much love from the cardsphere. The 1991 style cards pretty much steal the show here.

I saw the Gaylord Perry card on someone's blog right before this show and my first thought was "I've got to have that!". I love the old school 70s Indians logo coupled with the red uniform. It's a beautiful card. Not to be outdone, Satchel Paige peering over at someone while next to a brick wall just spells trouble.

No 1991s on this page but one thing to notice, especially on the 1953 style cards, is the difference in logos. Use the Tony Perez and the Billy Hamilton card as examples and you'll see what I mean. It's the little things that make some of these cards that much better.

Get ready for a plethora of 1991 style cards as this page and the next page are nothing but that. I didn't scan the back of either these or the 1979 cards but everyone knows they have full stats on the back. That's really awesome and reminds me that Eddie Mathews had a cameo for the Astros or that Andre Dawson played for the Marlins. Again, the little things. By the way, look how vibrant the Carlos Gonzalez card is!

The photography on these makes me wish they would do stuff like this for Heritage instead of dull posed shots on pretty much every card. Again, the old school logos for the old school players is awesome.

The final four Archives cards. Really cool to get Peraza in a Reds uniform finally.

That's it for the first part of the card show report. Settle in, there's lot more good stuff to come!