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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Independence Day Packs

I had a little Christmas in July celebration yesterday. The pack-ripping itch got the best of me and I ordered a few discounted 2018 blasters from Blowout Cards. Two of them were beat-up boxes of 2018 Topps Series two, which yielded these bonus packs..

I also got a couple fat packs of 2015 Prizm football, which contained a 3-card pack of Red, White, & Blue Prizms.

The regular packs contained these cards:

 I never liked Deion Sanders, but I love those old Falcons uniforms.

The Prizm parallel is always the third card.

The rookie is always the fourth/last card. No Packers in these packs :(


I don't know where Jon Pennysleeves ran off to, but I picked a pair of Panini Classics blasters because he's raved about the set. I'll wait to discuss those until he's around. 


Back to the 2018 Topps blasters. I was able to add 40 cards to my set build - and a whole bunch of tradebait inserts.

Judges, including two blue Judges. 

Future Stars, including a pair of Julio Urias.

Legends in the Making. The Washington delegation was strong here (hold that thought). I got two Michael Conforto - a blue and a black - but no base. That's kind of interesting.

1983 Topps inserts, including a pair of Sox, a blue Gary Sanchez (not SN #/d) and a black Richard Urena (SN #/d to 299.)

Another Raffy Devers, another Ohtani, and a Cutch Home Run Challenge. If it seems like I have a lot of inserts here, that's because there were either two or three in every pack. Is that normal? I always forget.

Here's the rest of the inserts. There were 13 Yankees, including all 8 Aaron Judges. Not counting those, there were still too many Yanks. Especially Gray and Chapman :/


Would you like to see what was in the two Independence Day packs at the top of this post?


Here's that manufactured patriotism in all its old glory:

Yep, I pulled two Ryan Zimmermans (Zimmermen?) And the "patch" on the second card is a little off-center. #Murica


I've got a bunch of blog posts in the works, including part two of my Christmas In July break, so whatever escapes my brain first will be posted this Saturday. 

Have a happy (and safe) Fourth of July everyone! Go watch Stranger Things!

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Card Show: Conclusion

I thought I had scanned up all of the dime box finds from Sunday's card show, but a few Topps baseball singles got separated from the pack.

I skipped over most of the recent Topps baseball cards since I've already got them covered in my collection. The exception was Update singles, like this James Jones from 2014. It would have been a nice addition to my post featuring 99 cards of players who wore #99.

This 2015 Topps Update single salutes Miguel Cabrera for hitting his 400th home run, which he accomplished on May 16, 2015. That was nearly four years ago. You'd think he would have hit his 500th by now.

It's always nice to find pre-rookie cards of established major leaguers, and I was excited to find this Trevor Williams card among the four or five 2015 Topps Pro Debut singles in the box. Not just because Williams was second on the Pirates in WAR last season; I started a Trevor PC a few years ago thanks to some impulse COMC shopping.

An even more exciting find was this rookie card of Cy Young award winner Blake Snell. The excitement was short lived, however. When I got home I noticed a significant ding on the bottom left corner I thought I had inspected it before buying..apparently not close enough.

Same for this Mark Trumbo card, also from 2016 Topps Update. I'm less bummed about this one, for obvious reasons.

This Anthony Rizzo emerged from the box unblemished. Most collectors despise this set, due to the smoke effect along the corners. It's far too noticeable on the Trumbo but it's not so bad here.

While Trevor Williams was impressive as Pittsburgh's #2 starter, Jameson Taillon led the rotation - and the entire roster - in WAR last year. This Wal-Mart exclusive insert depicts prospects in the Topps set design of their birth year. I have a Kyle Schwarber from this set that might have to be discarded; when cataloging my 2016 baseball cards I noticed a small crease in the left side.

1991 was also the year Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell made his major league debut. You'll notice that the Astros didn't wait three weeks to call Bags up to the bigs. Probably because there was no BS service time rule but also because the Astros wouldn't have saved anywhere near $30 million by holding him back.

There are very few singles from 2017 flagship that I actually like. Here's one of them.

I'd also like to take this time to point out a sports fan fallacy. Most of us who complain about exorbitant player salaries are not "pro-owner". I don't think I'm alone in saying this, but I'm fine with star players such as Chris Sale getting paid market value. What infuriates me as a Red Sox fan is overspending on the wrong players and/or short-sighted spending.

Boston has already closed the door on Craig Kimbrel because the payroll is maxed out on guys like David Price, Dustin Pedroia, and J.D. Martinez. Losing Sale and/or Xander Bogaerts just to keep Mookie Betts long-term would be a crushing blow. I actually hope JDM opts out after this season. He's a luxury; Sale is a necessity.

This concludes my dime box purchases (I think.)  

After finally summoning enough will power to walk away from the dime boxes I looped around to the other side of the room, where I found the 2018 Topps singles I was searching for (dime box guy didn't have any.)

This dealer had a two-row box full of flagship (and another, bigger box of Chrome) As I pulled out my checklist he felt the need to point out that these are not this year's Topps singles. I told him I knew that, and I was looking for '18 as I hadn't completed the set yet.

The cards were out of order and my wife was on her way back from a short shopping trip, so I only picked up 53 new cards. I might have made a bigger dent in my wantlist if I'd had more time.

While I had intended to focus on baseball cards at the baseball card show, this dealer's table was loaded with boxes of football singles. Lots of quality inserts and parallels. I quickly rifled through for some shiny parallels and players I collect; having much more money to spend than time was an odd feeling.

I considered a Dan Marino parallel #d/99 but put it back when I realized that the $7 asking price was more than half of what I'd spent at the dime boxes. However I didn't cheap out completely:

I was willing to pay $1.50 for this Jim Brown insert from 2017 Donruss...

$3 for this Jan Stenerud orange parallel (#d/25) from 2018 Panini Classics...

$5 for this Christian McCaffrey spectrum parallel (#d/100) from 2018 Panini Absolute...

$8 for this Brett Favre purple parallel (#d/149) from 2017 Panini Phoenix (not the best value compared to COMC prices, but still..)

...and $13 for this Brett Favre Golden Arms insert (#d/225) from 2016 Panini Black Gold. 

That's $30.50 for the five football cards and a TBD price for the 2018 Topps stack. The dealer only charged me $25 - so basically the McCaffrey and all 53 set fillers were free.

Not only that, the dealer (correctly) surmised that I was a Packers fan and offered me 50% off any Packers cards on the table because, as he said, "I know you're gonna keep them in your PC." Indeed I am. Unfortunately the selection wasn't that great at the front door-facing side of the table. Too much J'Mon Moore and Jonathan Franklin. 

I did find one more card to add to my Packers PC:

This Davante Adams Tools of the Trade relic was priced at $4, but it only cost me $2 -- which was cheaper than any of the 4 for $10 relics in the first dealer's box. 

Overall I spent a mere $40 on over 250 cards, some of which will be headed out to bloggers in the near future.  Didn't get any high-value cards, but it was a lot of fun to search through all of the boxes on both tables and find so many neat cards. 


Thanks for reading this three-part recap!


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Post-Christmas Post (and contest results)

This is going to be a long post because I had the day off today, so if you'd like to skip ahead to the contest winner portion of the post, I won't judge you...


I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas. Overall I'd say mine went well, but it has been an up-and-down week. Having Fridays off means I had a five-day weekend (and another one coming) but that also means I did not get my Christmas bonus before Christmas..and I did not get any notice that the office would be closed (or not) today. 

This morning I showed up to the office at 9am as per usual. The doors were locked. That's happened before, at the old office. I knocked a couple times. Peeked inside and saw that no lights were on. Two cars were parked in the parking lot, but they didn't look familiar. I stopped at the Dunkin' Donuts across the street. Waited until 9:30. No one arrived, so I went home. 

Last year on 12/26, a similar thing happened. The door was open that day, and some lights were on. Only one attorney was working (he left the firm when we moved) and said that most of the staff had scheduled to take the day off so the others were allowed to stay home, too. He apologized for not telling me, and it was the easiest working day ever. 

That's probably what the remaining attorneys decided to do last Friday, when I wasn't in. As for the Christmas bonus..one of our former attorneys was the one to hand them out (around Dec. 10) so I doubt there's one waiting for me. It's one of the reasons why I didn't go to the baseball card show when I was in Connecticut.

It was not a card-less Christmas though. My wife grabbed two packs for me while shopping for the girls, and I got a blaster from the same sister-in-law who got me some godawful junk wax last year. 

That's more like it. I had just finished cataloging my football cards on Christmas Eve, and when the Mrs. handed me a pack of baseball and a pack of hockey I was a little relieved that I could still consider myself 'done'. Not that it would take long to catalog these:

The Davon Godchaux auto appears to be a blue parallel. And unlike Des Lawrence, "Davon G." is currently on an NFL roster - though Des has a nicer signature. 

My girls aren't interested in sports (yet?) but they're young enough to giggle when I tell them I got a Butt in my box. 

The base cards are colorful, and I couldn't have asked for a better selection of players. Rodgers, Favre, Gore, Watt, Tomlinson, and Manning are all players I collect. 

Most of you who received cards on Christmas scanned or snapped a pic of your haul before you opened the packs. I considered that, but decided it wasn't enough of a 'haul'.

Here's the pack of 2018-19 Upper Deck hockey:

Yikes. No Young Guns, no Devils, and only one star player. At least I got my first pack-pulled Golden Knights card.

Thankfully, D also picked a fat pack of 2018 Topps Update baseball. Much better value here - four times more cards than UD, for less than two times the price:

My first cards of Bote and Muncy, and possibly the last card of Colon. "Big Sexy" might be on a card in 2019. Heck, he might be on a big league roster in 2019.

Plenty of star power in this pack including Acuna, Baez, Lindor, and 2500th Career K. 

Inserts, etc. There were four Athletics in the pack, including this Chapman. No Red Sox though. 

It's always nice to get cards for Christmas, but the best gift I got this year was being able to spend some time with my mom on Christmas weekend. Or seeing the joy in my girls as they ripped open dozens of LOL surprise dolls.

Or maybe it was this:

I told D this was the only thing I wanted for Christmas last year. They were very tough to find so I sorta gave up on getting one. Luckily these were not as scarce this season :)

Even though I had an unexpected day off today I didn't play this. Instead I watched my girls play with their new toys, did some shopping on COMC, and listened to the ALT 92.3 countdown.

I wasn't able to catch the entire countdown of the Top 92 Alternative Rock songs of All-time, and there doesn't seem to be a complete list posted anywhere, so I wrote down the top 25 in real time. Hope you can read my handwriting...
 

I momentarily mixed up Green Day tracks.

Some thoughts before I reveal the winner of my Guess The Second Best contest...

• This was definitely decided by listeners; the DJs (and the suits) would have picked a different Green Day track. Same for Beasties, Blink, Offspring, and Muse - though I'm psyched that any Muse track cracked the top 20. Also I'm happy that the Offspring entry was not "Come Out And Play" or "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)".
• Who are these people voting for Chumbawumba? Is that even an alternative song? I never would have considered "Tubthumping" in a million years. By that rationale I'm surprised Smash Mouth's "All-Star" wasn't ranked this high.
• There is one song in the top 25 that I have never heard before. I'm ashamed to admit it, so I won't tell you what it is.
• Evanescence is underrated. I'm not saying "Bring Me To Life" should be higher, but whenever I hear it I lament what a damn good band they are/were.
• Two Fall Out Boy songs in the top 20. Yusss!
• For a moment I thought Fuji was going to win this, since he picked "Wonderwall"...

Alas, I was wrong. Even the DJ said he was surprised Nirvana was not #1. Congrats to Night Owl, who correctly guessed "Under The Bridge" would be the closest to #2. 

Here's third-party proof that my account is correct (in case you're in disbelief it's not "..Teen Spirit") Greg, send me an e-mail with your preferences for a mix CD or cards. 


Thanks to everyone who entered. It was fun to 'talk' music with you guys. 




 

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