Roll Out the (Card) Barrel

The expression on Jose Rijo's face pretty much equals my expression when I received my first order from Card Barrel.

With with whole pandemic going on, I was having the itch to get some cards from 2020 so I could get caught up on what I missed out on while I was on my card hiatus. 

A while back, everyone was touting the Baseballcardstore.ca site so I looked there. I just couldn't get past how difficult the site was to use, so that wasn't for me. Then, I remembered that Dimebox Nick always mentioned the site Card Barrel. So I checked them out. 

And ... WOW!

Suffice to say they checked every box I was looking for ... good selection? Yes. Easy to use site? Yes. Low prices? Yes. Fast shipping? Yes. 

My goal was to put together and order over $25 to qualify for free shipping. I ended up spending more than that. Just over a week later my cards arrived and I was very happy with the end result.

The first thing I had to start digging for was 2020 Topps. I'm definitely more of a "visual buyer" meaning I have to see what the card looks like in order for me to determine if I want to buy it, that's the one downside to Card Barrel, there are no images. But, I figured out a way around that buy having COMC open in a separate window and once I saw a card I liked, I dropped it into my Card Barrel cart.

The prices on Card Barrel are very reasonable. Most of the 2020 singles I bought were less than a dollar a piece, with many of them hovering at around 20 to 30 cents each. For less than the cost of several hanger packs or even a blaster from Target, I managed to get a ton of 2020 Series 1 singles I wanted.

I tried to run the gamut of different things as you can tell by the previous scans. Yes, I went for the Reds cards but I also grabbed some of players I like, some throwback uniform cards, and just some generally fun cards.

Horizontal cards are always really cool. So cool, in fact, I made the collage of horizontal cards my new iPad background.

I tried to get a little bit from every 2020 set released so far. Opening Day cards are really my thing but I do dig the mascot cards and the "Opening Day" card of Great American Ball Park last year is just awesome.

When I placed my order a while back, Big League had just come out and Series 2 was on it's way. I nabbed a few Big League cards and I'm definitely planning on going back for more. The Mike Moustakas card is my first of him in a Reds uniform. I had to get the David Price Dodgers card as well. 

My main draw for wanting to buy cards was to pick up Heritage singles. I grabbed 15 Heritage singles I wanted, again for less than the price of a hobby pack.

Obligatory Reds cards. 

Here's a sunset card of C.C. Sabathia and Jurickson Profar sporting the new Padres threads.

Here's a number of Stadium Club singles from last year that I missed out on. I'm a sucker for old ballparks so my favorites of these are the Nolan Ryan and the Hank Aaron.

Last bit of the 2020 cards I ordered were a few singles from the Donruss release this year. I don't mind the design all that much but they just look "meh" without logos. The Rated Rookie cards are really nice though.

This years "throwback" design was the 1986 set. I'm guessing this will be a recurring trend in the Panini products, kind of like Donruss version of Heritage. These are fine and it's nice to see Kevin Mitchell on a 2020 card. But they're nothing like the real thing from 1986. 

Speaking of which ...

I loaded up on 1986 Donruss. Why 1986 Donruss you ask? I have no earthly idea. It was just one of those 80s sets that popped in my head when I was browsing around. I will never complain of getting an Andres Galarraga Rated Rookie card for less than a dollar.

Diamond Kings? Yes please.

Random cards of random guys. One of these days I'm planning on a Donruss appreciation post. Stay tuned for that.

Whenever I try a new card site, I always like to try out their vintage selection. I meant to order a bunch of Pilots cards but I mistakenly ordered this Jim Weaver card. 

The rest of the vintage cards I ordered were actually Pilots cards. I can cross these three off my want list. Skip Lockwood was the most expensive card in my order at $2.49. All four of these cards (including the Jim Weaver card) were categorized as EX/MT on the site and I have to say I was very impressed at the condition.

I didn't just cherry pick cards from sets. Oh no, I attacked my COMC watch list too. I found several cards from there on Card Barrel for a nominal fee, such as this Bronson Arroyo card.

And these "short term stop" cards of Eddie Mathews and Scott Williamson.

And Orioles cards of ... Chris Sabo? Gosh, he looks weird in any uniform other than a Reds uniform.

And here's the Jose Rijo card from the beginning again. This isn't quite his sunset card (that's in the 2003 Topps set) but it's close. Rijo retired for good after the 2002 season after making a triumphant return to the Reds after being out with shoulder injuries for six years. It was a bright spot on some otherwise dismal teams.

My card collection has a gaping hole in it from the late 90s up through 2012. I attacked some of that as well and went after some 2001 Topps. This is a set I always liked for the neat design both front and back (of which I forgot to scan). Of course I grabbed a few Reds cards.

And some former Reds with some very strange teams ... Eric Davis with the Cardinals? Joe Oliver with the Mariners? Willie Greene played for the Cubs?

More random cards of random guys. These are cards I just couldn't pass up at all.

Remember when the Devil Rays went out and tried to purchase their way to a title by signing heavy hitters like Greg Vaughn and Fred McGriff? Yeah, that didn't work out too well did it.

Ok, finally, I also got a few cards from the 2002 Upper Deck Vintage set. I haven't fully committed to putting this set together but I am grabbing cards from it when I can so I can eventually have a starter set for if/when I commit to it. I'm also going to put this into a blog post I'm planning about 1971 Topps and all the sets that have used that design since.

So, that's my first order from Card Barrel. I'm very, very pleased with how it turned out and I'll definitely be going back and ordering again here soon. 

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?

A Sampling of Series 2

Well, I did it. I bit the bullet and bought a few packs of Series 2. Was it what I wanted to buy? Not really. I went to the card shop over Father's Day weekend since I needed some more storage supplies and while I was there I took a look at the pack selection. Most everything I was interested in (Gypsy Queen, Heritage, etc.) was about eight bucks a pack. I asked why and got back a one word answer ... Ohtani. I settled for a handful of packs of Series 2 then and a couple WWE packs (which were a complete bust), and a Pokemon pack for my five-year-old. When I got the chance to finally tear into these, I had pretty low expectations.

A few random base cards, picked mainly for the photography and the colorful aspect of the cards. I still really do like the 2018 design.

Some really cool horizontal cards. One thing I've always liked about Nationals cards are they way the pictures really stand out with their home uniforms.

A gold parallel of Taijuan Walker. If you look at this long enough then you'll notice that he kind of pops out of the background a little bit.

Four more cards ... two Reds I needed, an Andrew Benintendi Future Stars card, and Yonder Alonso who's having a pretty decent year for the upstate Indians. 

Now the inserts, got these three 1983 style All-Star cards. Not bad and I don't mind the little tribute to the 1983 set.

And a few other inserts. I really like the Throwback Jerseys insert and was even happier when it was an Adam Duvall card that I got. Also, still not a big fan of Ryan Braun but I'll be hanging onto this card for now at least.

As for Series 2 as a whole, it's pretty much everything you expect, basic card that won't break the bank, good photography, decent inserts. My one major issue this year with the flagship line is that they stopped the buybacks and the First Pitch inserts dead in their tracks. Those were some of my favorites from the past few years, especially the buybacks once I came to appreciate them. Anyway, will I be buying more Series 2? Maybe if I'm at the card shop and have the itch to get some more packs but I won't be going the retail route. I'll save that for my Hertiage, GQ, and all the other cards that get marked up at the shop.