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.

A Steal of a Retail Deal (Part 1)

I told myself I was going to stop buying stuff just to review on the blog. Well, that kind of went out the window with this purchase. Over the Easter weekend, Target had a whale of a deal on cards. Blaster were on sale for $16.99 each and hanger boxes were on sale for $8.49 each. Also, on the Cartwheel app there was a $10 off a $50 purchase coupon and there was a free pack coupon on each blaster of Heritage. To go along with this, my mom got me a $75 Target gift card as an Easter gift.

Naturally, I had to take advantage of this rare sale. I had come in search of some Gypsy Queen but they were well stocked with Heritage. I settled for eight packs of Gypsy Queen (four of which came out to be free thanks to the $10 off coupon and the free pack coupon on the blaster), one Heritage blaster, and two Heritage hanger boxes. Grand total for all this? About $48.

I'll focus on the Heritage cards here and share the Gypsy Queen cards in a follow-up post. I can't remember which cards came out of the blaster or the hangers so I've just sort of mixed and matched here.

First off, before I get to the cards, I wanted to take a moment and comment on the Heritage pack design itself. Since I'd yet to open any actual packs of Heritage this year, this was my first glimpse at what the pack itself looks like. I have to say, I kind of dig it.

I'm going to try and show cards of players I don't think I showed on my initial round of Heritage. I can't guarantee though there won't be repeats. 

Yay! Rookie Cup cards! It may just be me but I kind of think the Rookie Cups fit better on Heritage than on flagship.

Nice to see that the Mariners finally signed Ichiro. 

When Strasburg was a rookie, I had club seat tickets for a Reds game to see him against Johnny Cueto. That was quite the game.

Between the hangers and the blaster, I got four short prints (including two Lonnie Chisenhall cards). I'd forgotten completely about Brandon Phillips' stint with the Angels last year. 

The lone Reds card I got that wasn't already a duplicate and it's one of the baseball flashbacks insert. 

And here are the Target exclusive inserts. I think that Rhys Hoskins might be a duplicate but I'll have to go through my Phillies cards to make sure.

While these weren't the best boxes and I didn't get any variations, it was still a fun rip. I think I'm good on Heritage now probably until High Numbers comes out this fall. If I want any more singles or inserts, I'll probably dig for them at card shows or the like.

Chasing Down Heritage

I have a love/hate relationship with Topps Heritage. I love it because it's a fun set with classic designs and fun inserts. I hate it because it's always so blasted hard to find, especially when there's a hot rookie like Aaron Judge last year or Shohei Otani this year. Sure, I could go the easy route and go to the card shop and pay $4.79 a pack or I could just check out Target to see what they have. I chose Target (but I did stop at the card shop for an unrelated matter and bought some Donruss packs, more on those to come in a future post).

Since we were out and about by the local mega-mall, we had to stop at Target next door to it while we were there anyway. I peeked at the card section. Nothing, zilch, zero in the way of Heritage. As fate would have it, though, we actually had to stop at our local Target on the way home to pick-up an online order that was ready sooner than expected. Before picking up the order, I just had to look at the cards. They had a huge display of Heritage hanger boxes, but no loose packs or blasters. I bought two hanger boxes (as two of those pretty much equates to a blaster in terms of quantity and price) along with a blaster of Opening Day.

My first Heritage card of the year, Jean Segura of the Seattle Mariners. I'm making it a point to show off the first card of every 2018 product I open, be it baseball or otherwise, so I can do a fun little 2018 wrap-up post with them at the end of the year (that's if I remember to do so). Anyway, I like these cards ... a lot. The pictures are nice and crisp, it's a fun design just like the 1969 set, and the backs are super fun too. I'm definitely going to get more of this as I see fit.

Here's a pair of Dodgers pitchers that I know Night Owl is probably fond of. I think my first Maeda card from last year came from Heritage as well. 

Here's a trio of players I tend to enjoy collecting. The Carlos Beltran card is a nice sunset card as I don't think he had a card in Series 1, but I could be wrong. Alonso is a former Reds prospect who's finally broken out and shown the power that everyone knew he had. This past offseason, he signed with Cleveland and joined Edwin Encarnacion to form a nice power hitting duo up on the shores of Lake Erie.

Two of the biggest names in the game and the Giancarlo Stanton Yankees card that everyone is talking about. I found this to be a bit interesting as well and I'll explain why shortly.

Four Reds cards between the two boxes. Iggy's glove looks bigger than it should be.

I like this card simply because of the colorfulness of the Washington uniform. I've found that most of the uniforms featured on these cards are the regular home whites, not that that's a bad thing, so when an alternate top sneaks in, it's a welcome sight.

Each hanger box also provided one short print card. I think Kenley Jansen was a short print last year as well. I checked the microscopic code numbers on the backs of the cards as well and I didn't get any action variations, color swaps, or anything like that. 

I was absolutely thrilled when I saw these checklists because, honestly, when was the last time you saw an honest, old-school style checklist? These are just things of beauty.

Of course, there are the multi-player rookie cards. I find it curious that Topps gave Rafael Devers the rookie cup and stuffed it onto a multi-player card. Why not just give him a card all to himself with the rookie cup?

I always like the flashbacks inserts in Heritage, both the baseball and the news ones. The New Age Performers inserts never really did much for me, but this year's design is kind of fun and funky.

Remember what I mentioned earlier about the Yankees Stanton card being a curiosity? Well, here's my point. The All-Star card shown here of Stanton uses the exact same picture (minus the airbrushed uniform) and proclaims him as a Marlin, not a Yankee. While I see the point to doing this because it's an All-Star card, Topps maybe should have tried to keep him listed with one team or the other.

This picture is the stack of cards that came out of the second hanger box, and look, what's that I spy in the middle there?

Why it's a Giancarlo Stanton relic card! Again, as with the All-Star card, this card proclaims him as a member of the Marlins and we have the exact same photo as the base card. Hey, I'm not complaining. It's a hit from a retail hanger box and I never ... repeat, never ... have that kind of luck and if I do, it's usually not a name of this caliber.

So, overall, do I like 2018 Topps Heritage? Yes. As with any product, there's good and there's bad but so far, I haven't really found much to complain about. The 1969 design is a fun design, the pictures are much better and don't look as grainy as some past issues, and there are full-fledged, honest-to-God checklists! So far, this is my favorite product of the year.

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

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.