This is (Probably) It

In what's become a yearly tradition, Panini Chronicles has captivated my attention completely sucked me in. After purchasing a hobby box and a blaster in September, I made my 3rd Chronicles purchase on Friday.

While browsing through my local Target, I ventured into the sports card section and saw that they had restocked 5 of the 2019 Panini Chronicles blasters. Though I probably stated that my 1st Chronicles retail purchase would be the last, I can never seem to get enough of this set. The plethora of designs and outstanding variety makes me come back for more every time.

After deliberating for a few minutes, I grabbed the blaster all the way in the back (superstitions) and headed for self-checkout. Hopefully, some other collectors scoop up the other 4 so that I don't fork over another $20 for 23 cards.

Though the price per card is high, I maintain that, especially if you stick to retail, you can get your money back from this set. Look no further than my 1st 2019 Chronicles blaster when I walked away with 3 numbered cards plus a jersey relic.

Moreover, I'm just a huge fan of the product, particularly the 2018 and '19 releases. It's one of my favorite releases, along with Bowman's Best, and if there's a set out there that you love to rip and collect, you should pick up a blaster box or 2 if you can.

This year's blaster-exclusive set, Unparalleled, may not be as exciting as Revolution, but I've grown to appreciate these cards a little bit more. I didn't walk away with anything spectacular out of this 3-card pack, but I do love the look of Kikuchi's teal Mariners uniform with the silver/holo background.

Certified is another of the surplus of products within this year's Chronicles set that I've grown to appreciate as I've opened more packs from the set. I assume there are numbered parallels out there (as there are for most products in Chronicles), but all I've seen so far are the base and non-numbered green cards.

That said, I like that Panini chose to include non-numbered colored parallels in sets like Certified and Status this year. It seems like they made more Chronicles than in 2018, so in exchange for fewer numbered cards per blaster/hobby box, we have non-numbered versions.

I would also consider Phoenix one of the more underrated products from this year's set as well as the 2018 version. Other chrome designs like Select, Prizm, Titan, and Contenders Optic have taken away from Phoenix over the last few years, but when I take a closer look at the set, I'm actually quite fond of the cards.

Panini improved on the design from last year to 2019, and there are gorgeous serial numbered parallels that I've seen pulled in hobby box breaks. As for my blaster, I ended up with a Judge base and a Kris Bryant holo.

I struck out when it came to Vlady Jr rookie cards, but the other big names from the 2019 rookie class made appearances in this box. I find that, despite the bland design, Eloy Jimenez's Chronicles base card is quite interesting. More so than any other color, black works phenomenally well with the rest of the card.

In the time since my first Chronicles blaster, Pete Alonso became the rookie home run king with 53 dingers in 597 at-bats. I may not have pulled a serial numbered or flashy parallel of Pistol Pete, but I'll take anything I can get given how sought after his cards are right now.

Panini Chronicles hasn't been too kind to me in terms of Fernando Tatis Jr cards, for this is only my 2nd out of 1 hobby box and 2 blasters. The first one I pulled came out of the hobby box and was from the Playoff set; this time, the card is from Score.

I wish I had the same affinity for Tatis Jr as I have for Cole Tucker's Status card that seems to appear in every box, but I'll take anything I can get to add to my newest PC to go alongside Craig Kimbrel.

And to say sorry for not delivering many Tatis Jr cards, Panini gifted me another relic card in my 2nd blaster, making me 2-2. The first was a tiny Chris Archer jersey swatch from the Chronicles set, so pulling a huge red jersey relic is definitely a step up.

I don't follow the Reds, so I didn't know all that much about Peraza until I pulled this card. He didn't have all that great of a 2019 season, but it's a numbered relic (#/99), so thing's definitely could've been worse.

Hoping For a Turnaround

For the Boston Red Sox and their fans, the last 2 weeks have been rocky, to say the least. Going into last night's walk-off win over the Blue Jays, the Sox were just 3-9, an unimaginable departure from the team that won the World Series barely 5 months ago.

Although I haven't been able to watch the Red Sox as much as I'd like, I'm certain that their frustrating start to the 2019 season stems from their poor starting pitching. In fact, Boston's pitching is 3rd worst in all of Baseball at 6.32, and I figure that their starter's ERA is even worse.

Thankfully, Boston begins a 3-game series tonight against the Orioles whose 6.50 ERA is even worse than the Red Sox's. I'm also very pleased to announce that I'll be making my first trip to Fenway Park this year to watch the final game of the series this Sunday.

Hopefully, 2018 postseason hero David Price will help Boston finally bounce back from an unexpectedly rough start to this season. As for the other games, E-Rod is on the mound tonight with Rick Porcello getting the nod for Saturday's game at 1:05 PM.

I'm hoping that Thursday night's thrilling victory over the Toronto Blue Jays will inspire the batters and pitchers alike to step up their game. As the defending World Series Champions, every team is gunning for the Boston Red Sox, meaning Boston simply has to be that much better than their competition.

In a way, it was fitting that my most recent package from the team collectors arrived in the mail today. I'm finally in a place to pay more attention to the Red Sox, and I'm stoked to see them in person for the first time this year on Sunday. 

I believe this is the 3rd trade that I've completed with the team collectors, and every package that I've received thus far has been full of surprises. Autographs, relics, numbered cards, and even complete team sets have all been featured in past packages. 

Needless to say, I was thrilled when these cards arrived in the mail earlier today.

Seriously, it's impossible for me to lose faith in this team so early into the season, even if they've lost over 2 times more than they've won. 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts, although struggling with his batting average, has driven in numerous decisive runs. Similarly, Rafael Devers was responsible for Boston's victory last night with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th inning.

With dozens of Baseball card sets to collect, it's becoming increasingly difficult to stay on top of all the different releases and add those respective cards to my player collections. 

Case and point; I didn't have a single one of these cards before they came in the mail today. That Devers rookie, in particular, is the highlight of the group.

Regardless of how Garciaparra left Boston following his many years of success in Beantown, I've always been a fairly avid Nomar collector. This player collection reached gold tier status not too long ago and is currently at 112 total cards.

While the Nomar insert is more reminiscent of the late 90s and early 2000s, the Mookie Betts Isometrics card from Topps Stadium Club has more of a modern approach. 

While I understand the concept behind the insert set, I don't see how stats like runs scored and stolen bases require analytics as is conveyed through the name of the cards.

By all accounts, any package that I receive from the team collectors is extremely beneficial for my Red Sox collection. However, this trade, in particular, helped boost my Rafael Devers PC with 2 major cards. The 1st was the '83 rookie card from 2018 Topps; the 2nd is a Bowman prospect card from 2017.

According to people in the know, Devers is poised for a breakout season in 2019 following an injury-plagued first full MLB season. I've been collecting Devers for roughly 1 year now, and I have plans to purchase an autograph of his in hopes that the 22-year old will rise to the occasion in 2019.

Before we had all the refractors and insert parallels of today, the Topps Gold cards from the 1990s were one of the only options before all these other different cards were introduced. I believe I've talked about this before, but I'm not sure whether these cards inspired the gold parallels from Topps Flagship sets today.

Some of Topps Gold cards, like those from '92 and '93, are more noticeable than the ones from '94. Speaking of 1994, the Mike Greenwell card will be heading directly to the respective player collection. All the others will be added to one of my Red Sox team collection binders.

Flashforward to modern times; we have new gold parallels, serial numbered out of the year that the set is from, base refractors, and a ton of different chrome parallels from the highly-desired Topps Chrome set. As is the case with every team collectors package, a wide variety of parallels and refractors were included. 

It's pretty surreal to see the J.D. Drew Topps Chrome card and realize that the 2009 Topps Flagship design is exactly 10 years old. I suppose I still haven't completely realized that Joe Kelly is no longer a member of the Boston Red Sox. Though he had some poor performances in Boston, Kelly was an intricate part of the 2018 team's success.

Slowly yet surely, Dustin Pedroia appears to be finding his footing once again for the Red Sox after missing basically the entire 2018 season with a knee injury. At the same time, my player collection of the 2008 AL MVP award winner is approaching 100 cards, thanks to the new Pedroia cards that came with my 3rd team collectors package.

Die-cut and, specifically, 3D cards, are among some of my favorite oddball-style cards to collect. I wish that Kellogg's would partner with Topps to produce 3D cards in cereal boxes once more. Not only would they see a rise in sales, but MLB could boost their fanbase among children who might take an interest in the sport.

Plus, I'm dying to see 3D cards produced once more. These Opening Day Stars inserts are from 2014, meaning it's been too long without new 3D cards being produced.

For a split second, I thought I was seeing double when I searched through one of the stacks and saw 2 Kevin Youkilis cards from 2008 Bowman. However, it didn't take long for me to see that I had received not 1 but 2 serial numbered parallels from this set.

The first, light blue, is numbered out of 500 copies while the second, orange, is out of 250. Kevin Youkilis is among the guys whose player collections I don't get the chance to add cards to all that often. Because of that, any cards, especially serial numbered parallels, are definitely welcome. 

After all, I'll always have an opportunity to acquire new cards of Ichiro or Greg Maddux, but players like Cliff Floyd and Kevin Youkilis are an entirely different story.

With only Donruss, Fleer, Topps, and Upper Deck making up most of the Baseball cards produced this century, we've lost something that used to make Baseball card collecting incredible; oddballs. Granted, they still exist, but only in the form of some wacky parallel or, a set like 2003 Fleer Hardball.

There have been a couple attempts at Baseball-shaped cards, but Fleer pulled it off the best with this 2003 set. In fact, these cards weren't limited to merely a base set, for Fleer crafted relic cards featuring the same sort of design.

Out of the countless different cards that I've traded for with the always-generous team collectors, I would have to rate this Nomar Garciaparra relic card as one of my favorites. Featuring a design quite akin to the Hardball base set, this game-worn memorabilia card is one of the coolest takes on a relic card that I've ever seen.

In fact, it's cards like this that inspire me to continue collecting bat and jersey relic cards even if they've died down tremendously in popularity. There were some incredibly creative takes on relic cards over the years, and a lot of them are available nowadays for very short money.

Here's to another fabulous package from the team collectors and, hopefully, a turnaround for the Boston Red Sox.

Team Collectors; Round 2

If you saw my team collector's package post, you know that I recently joined an online group dedicated to boosting one's team collection. An opening for a Tier II Red Sox collector caught my attention in early January and within 2 weeks, I had my first ever team collector's package in-hand.

I've developed a routine of sorts as to how often I send out packages to be matched with an equal number of Red Sox cards in the mail. It's been about a month since my last package from the team collector's arrived in the mail, so it's looking like this will be a once a month type of thing in terms of how often I receive these packages.

While I've been collecting Red Sox cards for as long as I can remember, I've always focused my attention on adding to my player collections of certain players rather than focusing on Red Sox cards as a whole. 

Therefore, while I've amassed large player collection totals of guys like Wade Boggs and Manny Ramirez, I haven't dedicated resources towards improving my entire Red Sox collection as a whole. Through the team collectors, I'm able to change that.

Even though I haven't quite figured out how I plan on organizing my Red Sox team collection, joining this group back in January was a major step towards boosting my entire Red Sox card collection. 

The next step for me in this unfamiliar process is to develop a method or organizing these cards and create an online inventory. But first, I'll do a recap of what my 2nd team collectors trade package had in store for me. 

2015 Topps Archives may just be my favorite set of the product's history simply because of the phenomenal products featured in the checklist. 1957, 1976, and 1983 Topps are all featured in this edition of Topps Archives, and through exciting photographs and top-notch recreation of past sets, Topps was extraordinarily successful with the '15 Archives product.

The Hanley Ramirez card is a double, but the rest of these are new, likely because this set was released before I began buying retail and hobby boxes at the level that I do now. It's hard to fault this set, especially when it provides me with a new Mookie Betts card for my collection.

Even though I purchased 2 blaster boxes of 2018 Topps Big League, many of the cards throughout the 400-card checklist evaded me, including each and every one of these Red Sox cards that feature absolutely fabulous photography, especially for a low-end set. 

Though it's a tough call, I have to give Mookie the nod once again for a fabulous action shot of the reigning AL MVP making a stellar catch in right field. It's also nice to see Bradley Jr. and E-Rod in this set since Topps neglects to feature these 2 in some of their other products.

Though I've seen a few Honus Bonus cards on other blogs and YouTube channels, the Tier I Red Sox team collector provided me with my very first cards from the set, cards that are also intended to be utilized in a game of sorts. 

The glossy cards feature codes that can be scratched off on the back of each card. I suppose since these cards are from 2018, that they can no longer be used. However, if Honus Bonus returns in 2019, I could participate in this contest of sorts.

In addition to Bogaerts and Wright, I was sent a Honus Bonus card of Craig Kimbrel which will go directly into the Kimbrel Collection. By now, thanks to the 2-3 cards I received of the 2017 AL reliever of the year in this specific package, my Craig Kimbrel PC total has surpassed 120 total cards with absolutely zero duplicates.

Oh yeah, there were also a ton of parallels thrown in this package, one of my favorite types of Baseball cards to collect. Currently, when it comes to Baseball card collecting, the sheer number of different parallels is starting to get out of hand, but there's something to be said about parallel cards when done right.

Although they're some of my favorite cards to collect, because of all the different available parallel cards, I'm struggling to figure out what to do with all my Red Sox team collection cards, in particular, the parallels.

Once I figure out the proper way to organize my Red Sox team collection, I can see myself becoming a more active team collector than I currently am. Player collections, like Porcello and Martinez, will likely take priority, but any doubles or cards of non-PC guys will be welcomed into my team collection alongside cards like the Josh Reddick and John Valentin shown above.

Other than the Christmas tradition of purchasing a box of Bowman's Best, I don't usually go for too many prospect-based products simply because they don't pique my interest like they do for others. 

However, I'll gladly trade most cards from any other team in order to add to my Red Sox team collection, especially for cards as eye-catching as the Talent Pipeline insert card from last year, featuring one minor leaguer from each level of the Red Sox organization.

It doesn't matter how high or how low the numbering is, serial numbered cards are always welcome in my collection, especially if they're parallels as well, the perfect combination for a Baseball card. These 2 cards, in particular, are numbered out of 1,350 and 1,959 respectively and both feature key members of the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox team.

The 2nd team collectors package also granted me a gold refractor from Bowman Chrome, numbered out of 50, just like the first time. The last package featured Kevin Youkilis while trade #2 delivered with it a gold refractor rookie of former star reliever Daniel Bard, a parallel that appears far more orange than gold when scanned.

Both packages have also included Red Sox autographs, 3 of them to be exact. While they don't feature big name players, I'm not looking for nor am I expecting the biggest name when it comes to these autographs. Last time, I received Will Middlebrooks and Mike Napoli and was very satisfied, especially since I hadn't sent any autographs out with that trade package.

This time, the highlight of the 3 autographs was a Ryan Lavarnway auto from Bowman Sterling, an incredibly high-end set. Lavarnway is a name I recognize from the early 2010s Red Sox teams while I never knew Kelly Shoppach played in Boston, and Keury de la Cruz is not a name I'm familiar with at all.

But that's alright because when I receive a package from the team collectors, I'm looking for different cards than, say when I'm at a Baseball card show.

As far as my team collection goes, I'm looking for as many cards as possible that I don't have in my collection yet. As for the name, that comes second fiddle. 

After all, it is called a team collection for a reason.

2019 Topps By the Numbers

Now that I've finished sorting the cards from my hobby box of 2019 Topps, I can move onto a very interesting aspect of card collecting; the numbers behind the cards.

Whenever I open Baseball cards, whether it's as small as a value pack or as large as a hobby box, I instantly take notice of how many cards I pull from each team.

There's always been an element of the numbers that has intrigued me. What causes us collector's to inevitably pull dozens of cards of teams we don't care about only to miss out on the team that we collect?

With all that being said, I haven't really done an extensive count like this when opening an entire box of cards, so I decided to change it up with the release of 2019 Topps Series 1. After all the cards were pulled, I began sorting them into piles by their respective team and taking count of how many cards I pulled from each team, including base cards, parallels, inserts, and more.

For comparison's sake, I also took notice of the number of parallels, inserts, and cards of players I collect just to see how well I truly did with my hobby box of 2019 Topps Series 1.

I'll go down the list of all 30 teams, beginning with the 4 clubs tied for the #1 spot.

Boston Red Sox -15 cards

No gigantic surprise here, but nevertheless, it's awesome to have my favorite team at the top of the list, something that doesn't always happen for me. Mookie Betts' league leaders cards and the recent success of the team likely caused there to be so many Sox players on the checklist. 

Granted, the World Series cards do help, since, without the 3 that I pulled, the Red Sox would fall a few spaces down on the list.

Los Angeles Dodgers -15 cards

Another result that wasn't too surprising since the Dodgers were right up there with the Red Sox in the World Series last year and have enjoyed immense success with their 6 straight division titles. The results have made sense so far, for the best 2 teams in Baseball should have the most cards in a given set.

Washington Nationals -15 cards

The 3rd team with 15 cards was definitely the most surprising of the 4 teams on top. After all, the Nationals didn't even make the playoffs last year and didn't have any league leaders cards besides Max Scherzer or a ballpark card that I pulled, for that matter. I suppose there's no reason for this other than the fact that Topps threw a ton of Nats players into the Series 1 set.

Los Angeles Angels -15 cards

Cleveland Indians -14 cards

New York Yankees -14 cards

All 3 of those teams are clubs I'd expect to see near the top, though it is a little surprising to see the Angels all the way at the top given that I pulled 1 Trout and 3 Ohtani's, leaving 11 spots for other, lesser-known Angels players.

Toronto Blue Jays -12 cards

St. Louis Cardinals -12 cards

Chicago Cubs -12 cards

Topps seems to be constantly jumping from team to team, creating a ton of cards from that particular team throughout that time frame. For example, 2016 and 2017 saw an unbelievable number of Cubs cards being produced. Now, it appears Topps has moved back to the Yankees who are, once again, one of the best teams in Baseball.

Kansas City Royals -12 cards

Seattle Mariners -12 cards

Atlanta Braves -11 cards

San Francisco Giants -11 cards

Baltimore Orioles -11 cards

Cincinnati Reds -11 cards

It's definitely surprising to see the Atlanta Braves down so far on the list, especially since they have the same number of cards as some teams who placed 4th or 5th in their respective divisions last year, including the Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds. 

You'd think, as division champions, that I would end up with more Braves cards than I did.

Oakland Athletics -10 cards

Arizona Diamondbacks -10 cards

San Diego Padres -10 cards

Philadelphia Phillies -10 cards

Texas Rangers -10 cards

Colorado Rockies -10 cards

Detroit Tigers -10 cards

Minnesota Twins -10 cards

Chicago White Sox -10 cards

With nearly 1/3 of MLB teams falling at the 10-card mark for my hobby box break, I'd say 10 would be the average number of cards pulled for each MLB team. 

The 9 teams that ended up with 10 total cards are somewhat expected, middle of the road clubs who typically receive an average amount of spots in set checklists.

Houston Astros -9 cards

At first, when I only counted 9 Houston Astros cards, I had to double-check to make certain that I didn't miss any cards. When the count was confirmed, I was and still am incredibly shocked. Even with Alex Bregman being in Series 2, it seems almost impossible to end up with only 9 cards of the 103-win Astros in a hobby box break.

Tampa Bay Rays -9 cards

This is what I'm talking about. I ended up with the same number of Astros cards as Tampa Bay Rays cards and that's a stat I'm not used to hearing whatsoever. Albeit, Blake Snell's monster 2018 season helped the Rays by providing me with 2-3 cards of the 2018 AL Cy Young award winner.

Pittsburgh Pirates -9 cards

Miami Marlins -8 cards

Milwaukee Brewers -7 cards

Wait, I thought winning the NL Central in 2018 would mean bigger things for the Milwaukee Brewers instead of leaving me with just 7 cards in a hobby box break that delivered well over 300 total cards. 

I pulled 2 cards of the 2018 NL MVP, Christian Yelich, and that still didn't stop the Brewers from being tied for dead last on my list.

And just in case you couldn't remember what team I've yet to mention, here's the club tied with the Brewers for spot #30.

New York Mets -7 cards

Keep in mind, 2 of the 7 Mets cards that I pulled feature their immensely talented ace, Jacob deGrom.

Inserts -16 cards

There certainly aren't as many inserts as there have been in years past, but I'm someone who happens to prefer quality over quantity. If this years' insert cards happen to be an improvement over last year, which I believe they have been then I'm okay with pulling fewer insert cards compared to what I have pulled in the past.

Parallels -14 cards

While I didn't get as lucky as I would've liked with insert cards, I had some excellent luck with how many parallels I pulled, 14 of them, to be exact. Continuing with this post's theme of numbers, that's 1 parallel card for not even 2 total packs.

Players I collect -56 cards

And if there was any doubt that I wouldn't come up with many cards of players I collect, my hobby box netted over 50 cards for my player collections, consisting of both past and present players. Nearly 1/5 cards I pulled was a guy that I collect, and I'd consider that fairly impressive.

At least, as far as numbers go.