While everyone was ripping into packs of the brand-new 2019 Stadium Club, I was opening two blasters of last year's edition. This is a trend I started with Upper Deck hockey, where I buy retail wax of the previous year's products at a discounted price. At $14.95 a box these were the most expensive cards I purchased. Let's get to the goods, pack by pack:
Box I, Pack I:
Meh. Cozart shares my birthday and Doctor K was on my wantlist, so that's something.
Box I, Pack II:
That's better. I had the Han-Ram and Godley already, but the Bo is nice and Gallo is kinda cool.
Box I, Pack III:
A pair of Sox and a Salvador Perez red parallel. Not too shabby.
Box I, Pack IV:
The Trout Special Forces is the best card by far, but Eck and X are nice additions as well.
Box I, Pack V:
Kinda meh here, too. The Elvis and Mauer are nice. Springer should have been in the next pack...
Box I, Pack VI:
...because it's very Houston-heavy here. I dig that sharp-looking Altuve insert.
Box I, Pack VII:
Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Mr. October is the highlight here. The Pham is nice. Ender Inciarte always makes me think of Minecraft. Carrasco was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Hopefully he'll be able to make a full recovery and return to the mound soon.
Box I, Pack VIII:
For some reason Sandy Alcantara is card #1 in this set (I thought the set might be alphabetical by last name but nope.) The Big Unit and Big Hurt are nice pulls. I don't know if I like the Cleveland Indians throwback jersey or not. Your thoughts?
Before I start the second box I just want to point out the fact that Topps put enough effort into the packaging that there are action photos on three of the four sides:
I might even save one of these for my small Kris Bryant collection. Anyway.. back to the cards:
Box II, Pack I:
Laser Show! This Dustin Pedroia parallel isn't the most valuable card in the break, but the fact that I got one red parallel in each box and one of those two happened to be a funny card of my favorite player, well..that's some good mojo IMO.
Box II, Pack II:
This is the most valuable card in the break. I had no idea what to make of the Mark McGwire at first; my reaction upon pulling this was "Coool! What is it?" Apparently it's a sepia parallel, inserted at a rate of 1:8 packs. So maybe it's not as rare or valuable as I thought (why didn't I get one in the first box?)
Box II, Pack III:
No, wait..this is the most valuable card in the break - not that I really care about Beckett value anymore. The Gary Sanchez Power Zone parallel is the toughest pull at 1:192 (retail) packs. It's all downhill from here, folks.
Box II, Pack IV:
Solid pack here. The Larkin was on my wantlist. The Rizzo insert has a typo on the back.
Box II, Pack V:
Quick -- name the best card in this pack. Give up? It's a trick question.
Box II, Pack VI:
Some nice photography here. I feel like TSC could have chosen a better slugger than Justin Upton for their Power Zone insert set though.
Box II, Pack VII:
I did not get enough legends in this break; I was hoping for Bob Gibson or Hank Aaron, but I'll take a Bench. McGwire doesn't really count as a legend, but it's sort of interesting that both Big Macs were the second card in their respective packs.
Box II, Pack VIII:
In the final pack we have Thor, a nice Harrison Bader RC, and a pair of Yankees. Interestingly (to me at least) the last card in the break - Matsui - is also the last card in the set.
I now have 127 of the 300 cards in the set, so I might as well take a shot at finishing this thing. if you have any extras to spare, or if you're interested in any of the inserts (aside from Altuve and Trout) drop me a comment or an email and let me know.
Thanks for reading!
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