Flagship Roll Call!

Before I start my All-Time Teams project I have one more recent purchase to discuss.

 

The 2019 Topps cards were in the toy aisle, away from all of the other sports cards. I was not a fan of this year's design when it was released, but I got a good head start on the series 1 set in the surplus box I bought on eBay. Supplementing that with trades helped push me over 82% completion without buying one single pack (the downside is that many of the cards have corner dings.) 

I had just 22 cards from series 2 before my Target purchase. There was a metal sign at the top of the end cap with the price list for each type of box : $2.99/pack, $9.99/hanger box, $19.99/blaster box. 

My gut reaction was to pick up a blaster - and I did. But then I did the math in my head. For $20 I'd get 99 cards - and one of those would be a 150th Anniversary manu-patch thing. There would probably be an insert in every pack, and so now we're down to maybe 90 cards for my set.

I put down the blaster. I picked up those two beat-up hanger boxes. All of the hanger boxes were dented. But there's 67 cards in each (and no manu-patch) for a total of 132 cards. Even if 16 of them are inserts that means I'm getting 116 base cards - assuming there aren't any dupes between the two boxes. 

Let's see how I did..

My favorite thing about this year's set has to be the ballpark cards. Look at that sky above Citi Field! (Bonus - the names are in proper order.)

Some more horizontal cards, including an Andrew McCutchen cameo. I don't mind horizontal cards in flagship sets because I end up sleeving every card and stashing them in boxes anyhow. Topps sets are too big to display in binders (especially now that Ultra Pro shrunk the f*cking D-ring)

Some throwback threads here. Which one is your favorite?

More notable cards, including an Ohtani rookie cup. I guess that's Tulo's sunset card.

And if Dustin Pedroia really can't play anymore then I hope this is his sunset card. I know how annoyed collectors get when someone like Jacoby Ellsbury or Scott Kazmir keep popping up in sets when they haven't played in two years. I don't want them saying that about my guy.

Another reason I bought hanger packs instead of a blaster was to try and pull a Legends variation. I don't know that they're not inserted into blaster packs, but I thought the odds might be better with a hanger pack.

No such luck. 

Here are the inserts I did pull - minus a Steven Brault rainbow parallel that didn't fit in the scan.

I have no idea who Nick Martini is but the rest of the pack is solid. I've wanted this Yount for my PC and Koufax is an unofficial PC player. Scherzer is a blue parallel.

  

The second pack only had seven inserts - which gave me false hope for a Legend or other photo variation. The Judges and Larsen will go in a stack of Yankees/vintage I'm building for Bo.

This break was a bit of letdown considering the value I got from the Score Football fat packs, but the point was to get as many set fillers as possible. On that front, I succeeded.

Of the 117 base cards in these packs I needed 110. Anything over 98 would have made me happy. I've still got a long way to go to complete this set, but series 2 is off to a good start.

While I'm at it, here's a quick roll call of my progress with the last five Topps sets, which I'll call the Flagship Five.

2019 Topps

417 haves
283 needs
700 card set

variations: none

 

2018 Topps
698 haves

2 needs* (#540 Mitch Garver, #653 Jorge Soler)
700 card set

variations: 2 (#439b Dustin Pedroia, #550b Jackie Robinson)

*plus the corrected versions of #364 (Dodgers) and #565 (Mets) 

 

2017 Topps
614 haves
86 needs
700 card set

variations: none

 

 

2016 Topps

set complete

variations: 1 (#478 Cody Asche 42 jersey)

 

2015 Topps
set complete

variations: 1 (#302 Martin Prado Gatorade shower)

I'd like to complete at least one more of these before 2020 Topps comes out In five months. 

Are any of you (still) working on these sets? Let me know what you need, I have hundreds of dupes.

Thanks for reading!



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Catching Up Before Christmas

I haven't been feeling great lately, and Christmas prep has forced me to fall behind on blogging. Over a week ago I received a very generous trade package from Matt, author of the blog Red Cardboard. A while back, Matt had offered to unload a lot of surplus inventory in exchange for some Reds oddballs. I really didn't have much to offer but Matt didn't mind. (His trade post did say "make a lopsided trade with me" or something to that effect.)

I requested some Red Sox and some 2016 Topps set fillers, but until the box arrived I had not realized just how one-sided this trade would be:

If this had been a "fair" trade, I would have been happy to receive this Big Papi manu-relic and a couple throw-ins. But there were more than a couple extra Sox in the box:

This Cy Young card takes me back - Hygrade and Woolworth All-Time Greats cards were inserted into the 9-pocket pages of the very first baseball card album I ever had, which I purchased(or was it a gift?) at a corner store next to my grandmother's house.

Moar-tiz, including my first Topps Fire baseball card. I have to admit, the gold shiny looks better in hand than I expected.

The first row are all Berger's Best inserts, including the blogosphere favorite 1956 Topps.

The Heroes of Autumn card depicts Pedro's 2004 World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, but I will never not think of the Grady Little game when I see an image of Pedro pointing to the sky. 

I should have scanned the Brock Holt horizontally because it's an awesome image, but I was lazy. Finally got me a McAvoy (which is exciting only to my in-laws) and I asked Matt for the Schwarber because the rookie birth year Topps set thing really appeals to me.


This is already a pretty solid trade package, but Matt also sent me 145 cards from 2016 Topps. Mostly series 1, since I needed too many of them to even bother making a list. A few singles turned into doubles courtesy of Gavin's big box of CDs and cards, and a few more arrived in my Secret Santa gift. That said, Matt still knocked 138 cards off my need list: 110 from series 1 and 28 from series 2. 

I'm sure you've all seen this set a thousand times so I'll just scan up some of my favorites:

Finally got my hands on this iconic card. "Joey Bats" used to be one of my favorite players, but his attitude over the past couple years has turned me off (says the big fan of Big Papi)

Speaking of great players who are jerks:

I'm (mostly) referring to Papelbon here, I loved the guy when he was on Boston but there's no denying he's a tool. Harper can be a little arrogant, but I included him here as a reminder of why "Pap" is no longer in the league. 

Not even the smoke effect can detract from these fantastic World Series photos.


And while we're on the subject of World Series winners...

That's not New Order. This is New Order:

I hope that Matt doesn't regret this trade...haha.

Hope you all have a great weekend and a Merry Christmas. If Christmas isn't your thing, Krusty's got you covered:

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A Smashing Secret Santa Gift

Red Sox Nation has been well-represented in the sports card Secret Santa exchange hosted by Matthew Scott at his blog Bob Walk The Plank. As luck would have it, I was assigned a fellow Red Sox fan to buy a gift for and a different Sox fan to buy for me.  

Matt, author of the blog Diamond Jesters, sent me some Sox cards, some set fillers, and some presents to open. (side note: I think this is the fourth or fifth Matt I've met on the baseball card blogs. Matts are more abundant than Red Sox fans!) He also included a card:

..with a very thoughtful message inside. Is everyone doing that? I didn't include a greeting card in mine; just a handwritten note akin to "Here's your Secret Santa Gift. Enjoy!" Anyhow.. Matt sent some junk wax-era Red Sox:

 

and some 2016 Topps cards I needed:

These are the "presents" he sent so I'd have something to open:

 

I'm psyched that GPKs are back on the shelves, they were a staple of my childhood. This Battle of the Bands set was new to me, and something I knew I'd enjoy. Since I'm much more familiar with 2016 Topps, I opened that first:

Another John Lackey. Figures. Which means that I only got two (more) cards I needed: Kela and Cabrera. The Tyler Chatwood in the top left corner is a shiny rainbow foil parallel thing. But for some reason the code at the bottom of the card back is the same as the base card code. Topps is so frustrating.

Now the moment you've all been waiting for...the Garbage Pail Kids. Here's pack one:

Green 'puke' parallels are one per pack. There are also 'phlegm' parallels and 'fool's gold' parallels, which are much tougher pulls. My daughter immediately recognized TV Tom, as it resembles a classic GPK character.

The Barfin' Billie card got me thinking...is there a Smashing Pumpkins card?

Yes, there is a Smashing Pumpkins card. And it was in the second pack. And it's everything I would expect it to be: angry bald Billy bashing the other Pumpkins (poor James Iha!)

This Billy Corgan card is one of my favorite next-gen GPKs - and the best pack-pulled GPK I could hope for, since this Jennifer Lawrence card was part of an online-only set of Oscar Nominees:

  

I kind of miss the original Garbage Pail Kids characters, but I have to admit it's fun to see entertainers I like (and don't like) get the GPK treatment.

Here's the rest of the pack-including Taylor Swift, Daft Punk, and Sonic Youth. Awesome!

Matt, thank you so much for this Secret Santa gift!

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All Good, Pham

This weekend I've been pulling some cards to sell on COMC in advance of their Black Friday extravaganza. I had 22 cards I definitely wanted to sell and another 6 or 7 I was on the fence about. Hoping to reach an even 30, I flipped through my 600-count box of dupes, commons, and low-end tradeables. Basically the stuff that didn't get claimed in 50/50.

What the heck could I possibly find in a commons box that would be worth the price of seller fees? 

Oh, nothing... just a photo variation SSP of St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham.

Yep, this was just sitting in my commons box because I assumed it was a dupe. Somehow I caught the Cody Asche 'Jackie Robinson Day' SP right away but not this one. There was also a DJ LeMahieu '42' variation in the box I bought, which I sent out in a 50/50 trade. I probably would have done the same with this Pham, if anyone had claimed my Cards cards. Instead it's off to COMC.

While I'm happy to have a card that will sell for much more than the price of a common, I'm frustrated with myself for not finding it sooner - and with Topps for making photo variations in the first place. This is a cool card that I would keep in my collection if it were "only" an SP like the Asche; the 42 variations sell for a couple bucks each. Why doesn't Topps save these photos for Stadium Club or another product, instead of using 2-3 pics for the same card? 

I've had some good luck this year pulling photo variations and whatnot, but I still hate them.

At least the Yankees aren't going to win another World Series this year. Which is why I'm holding on to this card until they do. It will happen. Probably next year, after they trade for Giancarlo Stanton. Or 2019, after they sign Manny Machado.

Enjoy the World Series, everyone. It might be the last Yankee-free Fall Classic for a while.


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A Target story, and a Penguin repack

Earlier today I went to Target to pick up a card for my nephew, and some bubble mailers to ship out the first wave of 50/50 trades. (If you missed that post and you'd like to claim a team/random lot, click here. Plenty of great lots still available!)

Naturally, I decided to stop by the sports card aisle and see what was on the shelves. About a minute after I got there, two boys entered the aisle and started picking through the packs. I grabbed a repack box, squeezed past them, and finished my shopping. When I arrived at the checkout lines I spotted a woman who appeared to be finished - but she wasn't leaving. She was waiting (and shouting) for her boys to finish picking out baseball cards.

While I stood behind her, seeing my younger self in these boys, their mom instructed them to hurry up and pick five "packets" because "this gentleman" is waiting. But this gentleman indicated the repack box on the conveyor belt and told her "It's ok. I collect, too."  

When the boys returned to their very attractive mom, I laughed at what was in one boy's hand. A blaster box ..and some packs "I told you to get five. Did you get five? What is this? Football? I thought you were getting baseball. Okay, fine. But you're getting in line and buying that with your own money. No, don't hand her the money like that. Unfold it first. Lord, give me the strength...."


I hope they got better cards in their "packets" than I did in my repack. 

Target didn't have any $12 or $20 baseball repacks (there were lots of football and hockey though) so I had to settle for the $8 repack - 4 packs plus 50 loose cards:

Not gonna show you what I got in these cause some of the cards might end up in 50/50 trades. Also, there wasn't anything worth showing. Trust me.

Okay, here's a few scans:

Told you there wasn't anything great in these packs. The 50 loose cards were even worse:

Sooo much junk wax. Why do I buy these repacks anyway?

Because they're fun. It would be nice if there wasn't sooo much 1989 Topps and 1988 Donruss in there, but there were a few hidden gems:

The Penguin! I hear he's popular 'round the blogosphere. My father in law told me that when he was buying boxes of 1989 Topps with his youngest son (the one who bought me three cards for my Bday) the last card they needed was Bill Bene. For some reason, thy couldn't find that card anywhere - until they found a few in their LCS and bought 'em all. 

The Canseco is an O-Pee-Chee, and there were two others in the stack. I dont think I've ever seen 1992 OPC baseball before. The gold Glenallen Hill was the only insert in there, and the Barberie makes me wish I had stayed on mission and bought a box of 1993 Upper Deck for my birthday. Those cards are so cool, especially the Marlins and Rockies.


Speaking of birthday purchases, one of the things I bought was a set of 15 giant Garbage Pail Kids cards. I took out five I wanted to keep and I'm giving the other ten to my nephew. He's had a tough time lately, going through a divorce and fighting for custody of his infant daughter. Since we grew up on GPKs I thought that these might cheer him up, and remind him of his childhood:

Maybe that's why repacks are more appealing to me than a hanger pack of Allen & Ginter. Those old junk wax cards take me back to when I was a young lad, grabbing more packs than my mom agreed to, and handing over my scrunched-up bills to buy baseball cards.. or football cards.. or Garbage Pail Kids. Or all three :-)



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