Sunday's Are For Baseball Cards

Today I went all the way to the card show which is about a 30 minute drive just to find it closed. I was instantly disappointed, but that wasn't going to stop me. Today was a beautiful day with amazing weather. Perfect for baseball cards.

I decided to take a trip to a card shop and asked the owner what he had for boxes around $75 dollars.

He responded by saying "nothing from this year." That figures. He looked around and dug up 2 boxes, 2008 Topps Chrome and 2011 Topps Lineage.

I knew what both of these sets were like and looked closely at both boxes. The guarantee of 2 autographs and 1 relic caused me to immediately decide on 2011 Topps Lineage.

For those of you who don't know Topps Lineage is like Bunt and Archives combined. The base set is similar to Bunt, and includes current and past players. The Archives aspect is the inserts which are different designed cards from all different years.

You also get one reprint of the 1964 Topps Giants cards as your box topper. Night Owl Cards just ranked this as the most underrated set of all-time which is true, but a shame considering how amazing the reprints and originals look.

Like I said the base set reminds me of Bunt. The player choices are great and suit the style of cards well. It's nothing spectacular mind you, but it's a solid design.

Like most sets Lineage has parallels. These aren't numbered, so they're pretty easy to acquire They're the Diamond Anniversary parallels. These like the set are a tribute and celebration of Topps' 60th Anniversary.

You can also get these. They are just as common as the Diamond Anniversary. These are the Platinum Diamond parallels. I still prefer the more basic parallels, but these aren't bad.

A big part of this set are the inserts and Topps chose to feature one of it's more iconic sets as minis in this set. They're pretty common (1:4 packs) and feature a wide variety of players.

Topps even recreated these iconic rookie cards from the late 80's. They pretty much nailed it and I was very pleased to get one of Kimbrel who is having perhaps his best year yet this year for the Red Sox.

However these were by far my favorite cards. These Stand-Ups were originally in 1964 Topps and featured some iconic Hall of Famers. I managed to get cards of Bautista and Howard. These would've been great in 2011, but not so much in 2017. Still great cards though.

I know it's hard to tell, but this is a cloth sticker. They decided to include these with the Lineage design itself and I got one of my biggest collections and one of my favorite players Mike Schmidt.

But nothing could beat pulling this card. These 3D cards were in 2017 Topps Heritage as box-toppers. They were incredibly rare (1 per case), so I never got one. But thanks to Topps Lineage I have one and of Joe Mauer the cover guy of Lineage along with Mickey Mantle.

Finally onto the 2 Autographs and 1 Relic.

I had no clue who Michael Morse was in 2011, nor did I know who he was when I got this card. Turns out he's still playing for the Giants, although probably not anymore as he's hitting a dismal .194. Still it's a great autograph because pf the 1952 design and that's it.

But if Morse was underwhelming then the next card was just utterly disappointing.

My first ever redemption! 

And it's expired. I didn't even know they had redemptions back in 2011, and I've heard Topps doesn't accept expired redemptions. I'm gonna try to send them the redemption along with a letter in the mail so wish me luck. I don't even know what the card is, nor do I really care much about it. But I feel entitled to this card since the box guaranteed 2 autographs.

Oh and 1 relic as well.

The relic truly saved the day. Despite not really having the best year or tenure with the Red Sox I'm still confident that this 32 year-old Cy Young award winner can turn it around next season.

Despite getting a dismal autograph and 1 more that I may never get this box was amazing. The inserts blew me away and Price for the first time since he came to Boston saved the day. If anyone from Topps is reading this I know that you're putting less and less relics in sets. Please don't do that. I love relics and sometimes they can truly be one of the best parts of collecting.