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.

Going Through the Archives - 2019 Edition

It's that time, Archives is out.

I'll admit, I didn't like last years product. The designs weren't exactly my favorites and I found the cards just sort of generally boring. Plus, there were unnecessary reprints and Sandlot cards. I didn't mind the Sandlot cards, just not my thing.

Anyway, this year Archives returns with 1958, 1975, and 1993. I grabbed two jumbo packs and a blaster. I'm not going to go through things pack by pack as that would take way too long. I will say that the jumbo packs had nearly the exact same collation. Nearly half of the second pack was dupes of the first one, with cards in the exact same order. That was the same issue with last year where the some packs from the blasters were nearly identical. Now, that could've been luck of the draw as I grabbed a pack from the back and the front but I doubt it. I came across one pack in the blaster that had several of the same cards in the same order from the jumbo packs. That's definitely something that needs to be improved on.

Anyway, collation issues aside, let's see what I got.

I'll start with the 58s. One thing I never really did like about the original 1958 set is that the background is just a standard color. That's not to say I don't like the set in general, it's just not something I'm drawn to. Anyway, these are my favorites of the 58s included. I do like the fact that it's a healthy mix of retired greats and current stars. Pretty happy to get a Larry Doby card as well.

The only Reds card from either the blaster or jumbos, that being of Reds closer Raisel Iglesias. Even though the Reds playoff chances at this point are nearly shot, they've still improved a lot from the past few seasons. Iglesias this year has done his role well 26 saves out of 30 chances but his ERA needs some work at 4.16.

1975 is next. I love the color schemes of these cards, especially how bright the Andrelton Simmons card is. I do have a few 75s in my duplicate stack that are already earmarked for Night Owl.

Since I had more old school players than new players, I decided to split the 75s up. The backgrounds on these seem a bit off, especially the ones with in stadium photos. Maybe they were intentionally faded? Regardless, I still like them. Also, when was the last time you saw a Tigers pitcher Hal Newhouser card in a Topps product? Not only that, but he's shown with a bat.

The last set featured was 1993. I've always liked the 1993 Topps set as it's one of my favorites from childhood. I got several guys in Yount, Piazza, Brett, and Raines that definitely feel at home on a 1993 design. One minor nitpick is that maybe the Expos colors should be red and blue, other than that, I like these a lot.

Current guys. Carlos Santana seems really happy to be back in Cleveland after a one year sojourn to Philadelphia. They definitely hit the 1993 Draft Picks design perfectly with the Rowdy Tellez card.

Horizontal cards. Some good shots here. With the aforementioned collation issues, I think I would up with two or three of the Trea Turner card.

More Hall of Famers. With the 1993 cards, it seems as if cards of old-timerslike the Gehrig card have gone through the colorization process. To me, I think that definitely adds to the card. That also leads me into my two favorite cards I pulled...

First, we have this absolutely brilliant looking Johnny Mize card. Everything about this is great, the image, the background, the color of the picture, and the design fits perfectly. 

But my favorite base card I pulled is this truly magnificent looking Bobby Doerr card. It's a beautiful picture of Doerr admiring a hit but the background it was does it for me. This looks like a practice game of some kind on a makeshift field with the bleachers and the giant skyscraper in the background. Plus, Doerr himself looks like he's kind of jumping out of the picture. This to me just seems like something Norman Rockwell would've put together and it's absolutely stunning. Probably my pick for card of the year so far.

Now come the inserts. First these Future Star cards with Michael Kopech and Alex Rodriguez. This design was featured in 1994 Topps (a set I really enjoy). Nice to see that set get some recognition.

All-Star selection cards. I like these but I think they would fare better with some vintage stock.

Some more miscellaneous inserts. My "hit" of the break, if you want to call it that, is the Hunter Dozier blue parallel. The Kyle Hendricks card is a 1975 mini variety, and despite the Ichiro being a reprint, it makes sense as Topps is paying tribute to his career with these cards.

My favorite of the inserts though has to be these Topps Magazine cards. I never read any Topps Magazine as a kid but I'm discovering it now through old oddball cards from the magazine I'm getting in trades and through cards like this. I would like to go back and see if I can maybe find some old issues somewhere.

Overall, aside from the collation issues I mentioned, I really like this year Archives offering. It's a heck of a lot better than last year and I managed to pull two outright amazing base cards. While I did feel like a lost six bucks on a jumbo pack that was nearly all dupes, I'd say I definitely got a lot of fun and enjoyment out of this.

2019 Allen & Ginter Blaster Box

I'll come right out and say it, Allen and Ginter isn't exactly my favorite product of the year. However, after seeing the cards around the blogs, I thought it looked like a pretty good set this year. So, I bit. While at Walmart the other day, I grabbed one of the random boxes of Ginter as I figured a blaster would be enough to satisfy my interest.

I'm sure by now everyone has seen the base cards. The one thing I like about this year as opposed to previous years is that there's actually a background. It doesn't feel like the player is just floating in space. And the backgrounds are pretty colorful and unique. That's a win for me.

Toukki Toussaint looks like he's standing in front of the warehouse at Camden Yards. I like the background of the Jose Altuve card as well, looks like he's mingling with some old school players as well.

Four short prints per blaster box and I got these. Not a bad batch.

Some old school players. I really like the fact that Reggie Jackson is shown with the Angels, which is a team he's not really known for. He played for the Angels from 1982-1986, was an All-Star for three of those five seasons and finished 6th in MVP voting in the 1982 season.

More old school, this time with some Expos (Vlad and Gary Carter), then Bob Feller and one of my favorite cards in the whole blaster, a card of the original 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. I can see why they were included in the set because of the whole 150th Anniversary of MLB thing and all.

Each pack had a mini. I'll be completely honest and say that mini's aren't my thing. These will probably be going to Night Owl at some point for his A&G mini frankenset.

On to the inserts now. Each pack had some sort of insert. I really like these "Ginter Greats" inserts. 

Another cool insert, Baseball Star Signs featuring the zodiac signs of top players. I've never really delved much into astrology or sign of the zodiac but I really dig the designs of these cards. For the record, my zodiac sign is Sagittarius.

Of course, with Ginter, there are non-baseball subjects. I got two of the "Mares and Stallions" inserts. These are pretty neat.

Other inserts in the blaster. One of the "Incredible Equipment" of the Pied Piper's Pipe (kind of made me think of Roddy Piper) and one piece of the history of flight series. I would really like to put together the whole "history of flight" series.

And then there's this ... a framed mini-relic of Vladimir Guerrero. I'll be honest, I'm really thrilled to have found this!

For grabbing a random blaster from the display in Walmart and going into this just for some fun, this is probably the best blaster I could've gotten for the money. It was light on the non-baseball content but still had some, some fun inserts, and a Vlad relic. I may splurge on some more A&G this year just because I really enjoyed this. For now, this will definitely suffice on my A&G curiosity.

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?