Secret Santa: Uncovered

Roughly a month ago, I signed up to participate in A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts' secret Santa. This event marks the first time I've participated in some sort of holiday exchange since I began blogging back in August of 2017.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my secret Santa package as I speak, so it should arrive at its recipient by the middle/end of the upcoming week. As for the cards that I received, I didn't think too much about that part until a package arrived earlier today.

As it turns out, my package is from The Bucs Stop Here. Right off the bat, I have to thank Nate from the blog for sending a wide assortment of excellent cards, which I'll get to in a minute and Jon for organizing the exchange.

I hadn't even looked at a single card Nate sent me before I found a thoughtful note attached, explaining a little about his collecting habits and what the package entails. The secret Santa has already helped me make a connection, so I'm very appreciative of that.

Now, let's get to the contents of this exchange.

Even if I hadn't read his note, I can certainly tell that Nate took a close examination of both my want list and player collection tiers list while putting together this package of cards. There were several team bags, labeled with corresponding parts of my collection, the first of which was "want list +
Kimbrel."

Inside the bag, I found a few needs from my A&G frankenset, including the Daniel Bard and Luis Severino cards above from 2011 and 2019 Ginter respectively. I also came across some new additions to the Kimbrel Collection, like Topps Chrome Update.

Speaking of chrome cards, from the contents of the package and his blog, I think Nate's a pretty big fan of these sets. The majority of the cards he sent my way are chrome cards that also feature players that I collect, a win-win situation if you ask me.

3 of the cards in the image above (Goldy, Sale, and Kimbrel) will go to their respective PCs whereas the Kershaw insert will end up in my 2018 Topps Chrome master set binder.

I dedicated a whole post to these 150 Years of Baseball chrome inserts a month or so ago, so it's nice to see that a few, most notably Ozzie Smith, were sent my way. In fact, I'd never seen this card until it showed up on my doorstep in a bubble mailer.

When I first purchased and pulled these cards from packs, I considered completing the insert set; I soon came to the conclusion, however, that these cards were better off as parts of player collections than all together in a set, so I opted for the former of the 2 choices.

The selection wasn't limited to just Topps products, however. Panini was also represented by a couple of parallels from the 2018 Donruss Optic set: an Andrew Benintendi holo and a J.D. Martinez pink, another couple of awesome additions to my player collections.

Speaking of PCs, each bag of player collection additions was labeled based on what tier the player is a member of, a sign that Nate truly took his time to look over my want list and tiers. For example, while Benintendi was in the silver tier bag (50+ cards), Martinez was in the bronze (50> cards).

Big Papi, on the other hand, is a member of the platinum tier. That is, I have 200 or more cards of the, hopefully, future Hall of Famer. While I have the base version of Ortiz's 2017 Topps Chrome card, I did not have any of the refractors until today, so I was incredibly pleased to find the prism version in one of Nate's team bags.

I'm also a huge fan of serial numbered cards, and I'll take any opportunity to add them to my player collections for the right price. Acquiring them in trades is even better, for they present me with the opportunity to acquire cards that otherwise wouldn't be available to me.

It appears that Chris Sale will be healthy by the time Spring Training rolls around in 2020. Hopefully, he can become the pitcher he was in the first half of 2017, the year this blue chrome refractor is from because when he's at his best, Sale's a top 5 pitcher in the game.

Finally, a couple of Vladimir Guerrero relics, one of my favorite players and type of card to collect. The decline in the popularity of the relic card only helps lower the prices and increase the availability of these cards, for the most part.

Whether he's on the Expos or Angels, I love collecting Vlad Sr. relics and have amassed a respectable collection of them. Now, I can add an Angels' jersey relic and an All-Star game warm-up uniform card to my collection, thanks to Nate

Everyone go check out his blog, and thanks again for the awesome package, Nate. It's much appreciated.

Best Insert of the Year?

A set that I usually skip out on upon its release each year, Topps Chrome Update takes most of the rookie and All-Star game cards from the base Update set and prints them on gorgeous chrome card stock. Then, they add a couple of insert sets, refractors, and autographs to the mix, releasing the product as a retail-exclusive.

The promise of adding chrome rookie cards from this year's class to my collection intrigued me to test the waters with this release, but the 150 Years of Baseball inserts captivated my attention, even more as quite possibly my favorite part of this set.

Though they weren't the only inserts to be featured in Chrome Update, both the checklist and photography behind this simple set give it a ton of appeal. In Series 1, 2, and Update, I didn't think much of these inserts other than the fact that they'd be great additions to my player collections.

The chrome design, however, elevates these cards to the point where they rank as some of my favorite cards of 2019. The refractor finish on these beautiful cards looks terrific, even more so in-hand rather than in a scanned image.

Just like the standard inserts, the chrome cards pay homage to the greatest players, moments, and seasons in Baseball history with a checklist of ~25 cards. The insert sets from Series 1, 2, and Update, on the other hand, featured much larger checklist sizes, some as high as 150 cards.

The Chrome Update set, however, consists primarily of retired players so that the most noteworthy aspects of Baseball history are showcased. Whereas Update featured players like Alex Bregman and Dwight Gooden, Chrome Update sticks to HOF legends like Cal Ripken Jr and Rickey Henderson.

Another benefit of having the checklist be mostly retired players is that I can add these gorgeous cards to my player collections, though I might want to build the insert set and keep them all together instead.

From gold tier PCs like George Brett to recently-created ones like Tony Gwynn, the set features a wide range of Baseball's brightest stars. I have not, however, found a checklist for 2019 Topps Chrome Update, so I have no clue who's in this set aside from the handful of players whose cards I pulled.

The beauty of this set, moreover, is that the images could be from present-day, the early decades of the 20th century, or any year in-between. Simply put, Topps did an excellent job with this entire set, so much so that I was able to justify the $20 per mega box of 28 cards.

Hank Aaron's card, for instance, looks like something you'd see out of Stadium Club. The background, on the other hand, features a player wearing the #4, though I can't tell if there's another number after it that the photo cropped out.

Assuming that the player does wear #4, it's probably Danny O'Connell or Red Schoendienst, for they were the only Milwaukee Braves players to wear #4 during Aaron's career before the team relocated to Atlanta in 1966.

One of the first 150 Years chrome inserts that I pulled was Mike Trout, presumably the only active player on the checklist. For a while, it was his card that captivated me more so than any of the others. 

There's just something so special about how this refractor looks in person and how the rainbow shines and pairs with his red home uniform. 

At this point, given his accomplishments and stat line, it's far from a hot take to declare Trout one of the game's greatest players, though he has more work to do if he wants to keep climbing the list.

As much as I absolutely love the Mike Trout card, Babe Ruth's greatest moments insert may go down as my favorite card of 2019. The black and white photo, in person, with the chrome refractor finish, is truly indescribable. I almost have to take a picture of the card to showcase just how beautiful it is.

I'm not sure whether Topps has used this photo of Ruth in the past, but even if they have, they did an excellent job of repurposing the image for this card. 

Upon pulling this card out of one of the packs, I concluded that the 150 Years of Baseball insert from 2019 Topps Chrome Update can sufficiently rank as one of the greatest insert sets of the year.

The Ruth insert, moreover, might just be my pick for the card of the year.

My Initial Thoughts on 2019 Topps

With the release date of Series 1 just 2 days away, the 2019 Baseball card collecting season is almost underway, bringing with it a wave of new set designs, including Topps' most popular set, Series 1.

I usually stay away from Series 2 because it's released around the same time as preferred products such as Allen & Ginter and Stadium Club, but Series 1 is a completely different story. After going roughly 2 months without an affordable product being released, Topps kicks off the new collecting year with a product that has continuously featured a wide variety of base cards, inserts, and parallels.

I can't say for sure what I think of the set design until I have the cards in person, but the product certainly appears to be better than 2016 and 2017 and if nothing else, more exciting than 2018 Topps. 

The team name and position are a bit too small for me, and I'm not too crazy about the players' last name being above their first name. It just doesn't make sense. However, a preview of card #1, Ronald Acuña Jr, on Topps' Instagram, revealed that the card backs could feature a career's worth of stats, not just from the past few seasons.

First and foremost, borders are (half) back. With a design fairly reminiscent of the 1982 Topps set, the borders cover roughly half of the card. Thanks to the return of borders for the first time since 2015, we're able to have much better parallels for not just Topps Flagship, but Topps Chrome as well.

One of my major issues with 2018 Topps was how the parallels and refractors seemed to block almost the entire background on every card. This time, it looks as if the parallels are designed so they don't take anything away from the rest of the card.

One of the major promotions that Topps appears to be running in 2019 is the 150th anniversary of Professional Baseball. With Aaron Judge and Babe Ruth sharing the cover of Series 1, Topps seems to be bridging the gap between old and new with the Series 1 set. 

I'm not sure if the gold stamp and the gold Topps logo are the only differences between the 150th-anniversary parallels and the base cards, but I am certain that Topps will have to do better in order for me to be impressed with their efforts in this product.

Side note, but I'm really excited about ballparks being included within the 2019 Topps base checklist. This idea was tested out in the 2018 Topps Big League set, and I was instantly a big fan since it's been far too long without ballpark cards in sets. Forget some random rookie pitcher from the Padres, let's see a card of Wrigley Field for a change.

For the 3rd year in a row, Topps will be featuring another one of their previous sets, once again from the 1980s, as a giant insert set that will likely be stretched out across Series 1, Series 2, Chrome, and Update. 

I didn't have a problem with 1987 Topps going into 2017 nor did I with 1983 Topps last season, but something about the redundant and unnecessarily-large insert sets took away from my enjoyment of the original product. Hopefully, Topps doesn't ruin the incredible product that is 1984 Topps for me in their 2019 sets.

I don't really know anything about some of Topps' Series 1 insert sets like Greatness Returns, but I'm just happy that we're finally rid of Topps Salute. As if 1 giant, continuous insert set wasn't enough, Topps Salute featured mediocre designs and truly lacked personality. I'll take a few of these smaller insert sets over a gigantic Salute set any day of the week.

As I previously stated, Topps' main promotion for their 2019 Series 1 set is the 150th anniversary of Professional Baseball. In addition to the 150th-anniversary parallels, there's a humongous, 150-card insert set that's divided into 3 groups, featuring the Greatest Moments, Greatest Players, and the Greatest Seasons in MLB history.

Based on the brief glance I took at the insert set, it appears to feature a ton of Red Sox and Yankees players. Shocking, I know. I'm not sure if each of the cards will look like the Greatest Moments Jackie Robinson card above, but I'm more excited for the card backs and what's being said about the moment, player, or season rather than the insert set design.

New releases are always fun, but when it's Topps Series 1, the first set of the year, there's an added sense of excitement. With only 2 days to go until release day, I'm excited to see what these cards end up looking like in-person before I can truly assess what I think of 2019 Topps.