System Update Required

I finally found some cards out in the wild! 

While I was at the local Walmart a week or so ago, I decided to take a look at the card section. I'd set myself up for disappointment as every single time I've looked at a card aisle be it at Walmart, Target, or even Meijer, the shelves are completely bare (or there's loads of hockey cards which no one can be bothered with). This time though, I was surprised! There was exactly one blaster of Topps Update and one blaster of Topps WWE Finest. I was tempted to get the WWE cards but settled on the blaster of Update.

I didn't care if the box was awesome or if was a bust, I was just so excited to finally find cards in the wild again and open some packs!

I won't go pack by pack but I'll show some of my favorites and just some general neat cards. Starting off, here's the obligatory Reds lot. The Eric Davis card you'll see in an upcoming post about my most recent Card Barrel order from the holidays. The most curious card in the here is Matt Davidson, who became a footnote in Reds history on Opening Day to be the first-ever Reds DH on Opening Day.

Rangers cards that have the "Inaugural Season" logo. I heard about a a whole kerfuffle about there only being one Rangers card or something like that in Series 1 last year. Not sure if it had anything to do with the "Inaugural Season" logo or uniform change or something

One of my absolute favorite things about both Flagship/Update are the stats on the back. I especially love it when I get cards from players like these two who have been around forever. I mean, look how small the stat lines are on Rich Hill's card. You'd need a magnifying glass to see it.

Nothing special about these cards. I just thought they were neat, especially Bartolo Colon. It's not often that you see a player noted as a "free agent" on a card.

These guys look weird in these uniforms. 

With there being no All-Star Game and no Home Run Derby this year, Topps included images from ASGs and Derbys past. I actually kind of like these. The Mike Trout is from the 2015 game in Cincinnati and I wonder if there are others. I'm still also working on putting together all the All-Star Game and Derby cards from 2015 Update.

Here are some parallels. I think the blue ones are Wal-Mart exclusives.

Each pack had a Turkey Red card. The action ones are nice but I just find the posed shot ones boring.

Inserts were prevalent. I've been meaning to get some of those "Decades Best" cards.

I was really excited that this Turkey Red Chrome Derek Jeter card came out of the box. Getting cool inserts like this is honestly pretty rare for me when I get blaster boxes.

The same pack that held the Turkey Red Chrome card also held this nice foil parallel as well. If you're keeping track, that's two nice Derek Jeter cards in the same pack. Those were definitely worth the price of admission here.

Lastly, as is the usual case with blasters there's some sort of manu-relic. This time is a collectible coin card of some sort. The honestly looks better in person that it does here. The problem is that these things are about the size of a brick in thickness (ok, maybe not but they are super thick) so finding something to put this in will be a bit of an issue.

Overall though, I enjoyed this blaster a lot. I got a lot of fun cards, had a blast opening a few packs, and was pretty happy overall. I'm looking forward to the 2021 cards coming out soon and if I find a blaster or some retail packs in the wild, I'll grab those.

Five Packs of Gypsy Queen

Remember about a month ago when I said that I got five packs of Gypsy Queen from the card shop? Well, I'm finally now getting around to opening those. Since these were the last five packs in the box, I'm not expecting much from these except to have fun while opening some packs.

By now, everyone knows what GQ looks like. I picked up a number of singles for a dime each at the card show back in the spring. I can't remember what I showed off then but here's some of the more interesting base cards from the five packs.

Four Reds cards. Let's see where these guys are now .... Tanner Roark was traded to the A's at the trade deadline as he was the odd man out (and a free agent after the season) after the Reds acquired Trevor Bauer, Luis Castillo was one of two Reds in the All-Star Game, Scott Schebler has spent pretty much the whole year in Triple-A Louisville and is currently on their injured list, Barnhart is back as the everyday catcher after being outplayed by back-up catcher Curt Casali (who is due back from injury soon).

Insert cards. I like all four of these and I was pretty happy to get an Ohtani insert.

Whoa! Didn't expect this! Nothing better than getting an autograph card of the reigning National League MVP Christian Yelich. I tried looking this card up on COMC to see what it was selling for just for the heck of it but there were no listings for it. Regardless, I'm hanging on to this and it will be going into a penny sleeve and top loader shortly.

So that's the highlights of five packs of Gypsy Queen. I'd say between the inserts, the Yelich auto, and  some fun base cards, I did pretty well. Next time I'm at the card shop, maybe I'll take another gamble and grab the last packs from an empty box.

Opening Day Scan Dump

I was cleaning up my card corner the other day and came across this box of Opening Day I forgot I bought. It's the jumbo box variety and has the red parallels so that's a dead giveaway it came from Target. I had some time and ripped into it. While I didn't find anything groundbreaking, I did come away with some keepers and a few neat things. This will be pretty scan heavy and I guess could qualify as a "scan dump" and will also probably be quite brief.

Red parallels ... keeping most of these although I might send the Merrifield off to Dime Box Nick. Not sure yet.

Scenes of Opening Day. I was pretty happy to get the Reds card, even though it mentions last year's Opening Day was a rain-out.

Mascot cards are always fun!

Other inserts, parallels, etc. The "150 Years of Fun" cards are interesting but not really my thing, although I'm keeping the Aaron and the Carter pictured.

Reds and Indians highlights.

The best horizontal cards of the box. 

And lots of fun base cards. 

So that's the highlights from a box of Opening Day I'd forgotten about. Like I mentioned earlier, quick and painless, right?

You've Got Mail #73: Baseball Every Night

Just a quick post today as it's July 4th weekend.

Recently, I participated in my first group break. The ever cordial Peter of Baseball Every Night offered up a team break for $3 per slot. He needed to fill a few slots right at the end so I jumped in and claimed the Indians since the Reds were already claimed. Once the break filled up, the box was broken, and a few short days later a baggie full of Indians showed up in my mailbox.

A rainbow of uniform colors here, gray, blue, and white. I think my favorite of the batch it the all white home threads. Base cards are pretty much the story here, nothing much new or exciting from series 1. 

Some nice horizontal cards. The Roberto Perez card looks like it might be a photo from the World Series. The photo on the Corey Kluber card reminds me of how it was playing the old World Series Baseball game on Sega Genesis, with the view from the catcher and the batter barely in frame.

My lone insert card from the break, a 1987 Topps buyback of Brett Butler. Definitely a cool card and I think it might be my only card of him as an Indian.

Thanks for hosting the break Peter! If you ever do another one, I'll gladly jump in.