An Update From Chicago

My apologies for not posting for the last few days. I've been far busier at this year's National than I was at the 2018 event, between trips to the city, meals, and an unforgettable show. 

I don't want to reveal too much about what I've done/purchased, for I want to save almost everything for the recap posts which will begin this Sunday or Monday. 

However, I did want to write another couple of posts while I'm still in Chicago, so I thought I'd share some cards from one of the most special aspects of the show thus far; the exclusive Bowman Chrome packs from Topps.

In case you're unfamiliar with this promotion, you can take a 2018 or 2019 Topps hobby box to their booth at the show. They'll break the factory seal off your box and give you 1 or 2 (depending on the product) bonus packs with cards exclusive to The National.

These packs, in a way, are comparable to the Bowman mega box mojo packs. They're loaded with serial numbered cards and autographs of tons of players, from current rookies and veterans to prospects and even retired legends.

Some hobby box purchases (which I'll elaborate on once the recap posts begin) plus a generous collector who gave me one of his packs in exchange for me bringing his boxes to the Topps booth resulted in some epic cards for the blog today. 

After this, I'm going to hold off on cards from the show until I return home on Sunday.

The lighting in my hotel room isn't the greatest, but as you can see, the 50-card set consists of 4 groups. There are active veterans, retired stars, top prospects, and young rookies. As far as I know, the idea behind the checklist has been routine since Topps began this promotion several years back.

I never opened a pack of these cards until last year, my first time at The National. I redeemed them at the Topps booth with the box of Chrome and Allen & Ginter that my Dad and I purchased. Our greatest pull, undoubtedly, was a gold refractor (#/50) of Ronald Acuna Jr which we later had graded.

Although I don't have much experience with the promo packs, my sensational pulls from last year inspired me to wait in line for well over an hour to get my hands on these exclusive cards.

For most collectors, Vladimir Guerrero Jr is the #1 rookie on their radar, and I get that. He has the power and sheer talent to become one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history, and fans have been anticipating his MLB debut for over 3 years.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to pull his card towards the end of my Bowman Chrome pack break. I'm not huge into amassing rookie card collections, but the Vlad Jr base cards alone are going for a fair amount on eBay.

However, my top pick as far as 2019 rookies are concerned is 100% Fernando Tatis Jr, so you can imagine how stoked I was to pull not 1 but 2 rookies of his out of these Bowman Chrome packs. 

He doesn't quite have the same hype as Vlad Jr, but that can definitely be beneficial at times. Guerrero's .267 batting average leaves a little to be desired, but Tatis Jr's rookie year stats have been unbelievable. At 20 years old, he's hitting .329 with 19 homers, 45 RBI, and 14 stolen bases in fewer than 300 at-bats.

Tatis' major issue appears to be strikeouts, for he already has 95 on the year. However, he has excellent power and contact hitting, something few players have nowadays. 

Last year, I suspect Topps had some issues in the packaging department with their Bowman Chrome National cards. Many of the packs, including 1 of mine, contained all gold cards, meaning each of the 4 cards in the pack was numbered out of 50 copies.

I believe they fixed this issue in 2019, so, unfortunately, there don't appear to be any all-gold packs at The National this time around. With that being said, I still got my hands on some colored refractors, including Michael Kopech whose gold prospect card I pulled last year.

Kopech hasn't done too much in his rookie season, so the other 3 gold refractors were certainly the best of the group. Each of the players above (Casey Mize, Jo Adell, and Royce Lewis) are in the top 7 of MLB pipeline's top 100 prospects list at #2, #4, and #7 respectively. 

While I'm somewhat knowledgable regarding the top prospects, I don't make any effort to invest in or heavily research players on the top 100 prospects list. It's simply not who I am or how I collect.

However, I have no qualms about holding onto the prospect cards I pull for a couple of years until the guys start playing in the MLB. These 3, in particular, are all expected to make their big league debuts next season, so I don't mind waiting until then to decide whether to keep or sell these gold prism refractors.

Despite pulling multiple gold refractors from last year's packs, the orange prisms (#/25) evaded me completely. As a result, I got my first ever look at these gorgeous cards when I pulled 2 orange refractors of Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge, the faces of their respective franchises.

In general, I don't have much luck when it comes to orange refractors. I didn't pull one of my own until earlier this year from a hobby box that I opted not to feature on the blog. Now, I have 2 more to add to my collection.

The Altuve is nice in that the orange matches one of Houston's team colors while the Judge card is simply stunning. It seems to me that any color pairs well with Yankee pinstripes, and orange is no exception.

Lastly, I knew that this exclusive checklist had autographs, but I never really thought that I'd pull one of them myself, for the odds never seem to be in one's favor. It may not be the most valuable card in the break, but I was pleased to pull a Jose Martinez autograph, numbered out of 25, following his fabulous 2018 season with the Cardinals.

The autograph is on a sticker, not on-card, but the prism refractor makes it challenging to differentiate the 2. I can't say that Martinez would be my first choice, but an autograph is an autograph, especially since the only thing I invested in these packs was time.

Topps' exclusive Bowman Chrome National cards are beautiful as is, and the colored parallels only draw my attention even more. I'm likely going to hold onto these cards for the time being as they'll remind me of the awesome time that I've been having at the show.