Treating Myself at the Card Shop

It started with a couple packs of 2018 Topps Stadium Club, then a blaster of 2018 Topps Series 2, and finally, a dime box haul from my LCS, the same one I bought Stadium Club at, is the last of the 3 baseball card purchases I made for the 4th of July holiday.

Not only were these 3 purchases all made to celebrate an extra couple days off, but they will likely be my last card purchases until the very beginning of August. For those of you who don't know why you will at the very end of this post.

Before deciding on some packs of Stadium Club, I went through the baseball dime box at my LCS as I routinely do every time I visit the card shop. The owner restocks the box about once or twice a month, so I make sure to check it out each time I go there, and for the days where I want some cards but don't want to get sucked into what I typically spend at the baseball card show, I know my LCS will have a dime bin ready for me to search through.

First up, my very first look at the 2018 Bowman base set since I never ended up buying a blaster or even a couple packs since I'm really not big into prospects. As for the base set, they've repeated a mistake Topps made 2 years ago by cutting off part of the logo in 2018 Bowman just as they did in 2016 Topps. The base set is designed very similarly to 2017 Bowman which is not necessarily a bad thing, but they lose me when they decide that cutting off part of a team logo will look good.

Speaking of 2017, a gold Noah Syndergaard parallel made its way into the dime bin as well much to my pleasure. Syndergaard along with fellow Mets starter Jacob DeGrom is having a fantastic year despite how dismal the Mets have been. In fact, both starters have been so spectacular that the acting GM outright said that they're both up for trade. Kinda shows you where the Mets are at right now. Personally, I admire Syndergaard's consistency and would take him over DeGrom if he can stay healthy, though DeGrom does lead all of baseball currently with a 1.84 ERA 

Finding set needs hidden amongst all the other dime cards is one of the main reasons why I continue to return to my LCS even at times where I really shouldn't due to how easy it is to get sucked in and buy stuff there. I wasn't sure if I needed Rizzo or Jones, but I knew they'd either go with the 1987 inserts from last year or to the player collections. Turns out Rizzo is a need but Jones is not, so it still worked out and gave me 1 card for the set and 1 more card to boost my Adam Jones player collection.

I also stumbled upon a need for this years' 1983 insert set from 2018 Topps Series 1. I never went after any of these inserts like I did last year for the 1987 cards, so I have far fewer of the 1983 cards than I would like to. Still, I find myself slowly chipping away at the set bit by bit, and this Yoan Moncada card will truly help me out.

Bradley's recent hot streak has caused me to go for it and buy a rookie card of his that I already had purchased a while back. I know he's had a tough year, but a .277 average in the last 15 games is certainly a bright spot for the perennial Gold Glove contender. I've always said, if he can remain the defensive wizard that he is while hitting .260 or above, then nothing more could possibly be asked of him. We've seen some progress from him as of late, so we'll just have to wait and see how this season turns out.

I also discovered some shiny cards in the dime bin as well, because who doesn't love a nice refractor or parallel. Whether it be a green Bowman Platinum, a pink Donruss Optic, an absolutely awesome green parallel of Reggie Jackson made better by the sunglasses and the fact that he's on the A's, or an X-Fractor of Felix Hernandez from Topps Chrome, there were plenty of options for shiny and chrome cards in the dime bins this time around, and I'm not even showing all of them.

Speaking of shiny cards, this Ken Griffey Jr. card looks way more gold and shiny in person than it does when scanned. There's absolutely zero information about a year or set on the back, so my only clue of what this card is that it comes from the beginning of his career with the Mariners. No matter what, I'm still determined to find out what this card is.

However, there was some tough competition even for the best Ken Griffey Jr. card of the entire purchase thanks to this awesome Glove Stories card from 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen. Known for making insane catches in centerfield, Griffey is doing just that as a member of the 90's Mariners team that also had Edgar Martinez and prime Randy Johnson. How that team never won a World Series is beyond me.

One of my favorite and most respected athletes to ever play the game of baseball, Roberto Clemente is one of my favorite guys to see in the dime bins or even just at the card show in general. He's always been one of me and my dad's favorite players ever, and we jump at every chance we get to add new cards of his to the 50+ card player collection we have for him.

Now that I've reached the final card of the post, I'll use it to explain why exactly this will probably be the last purchase until the beginning of August comes around. The Don Mattingly card above does an excellent job of explaining something that I was certainly aware of but didn't truly hit me until I saw the date on Sunday. The card above is a card from the 3014 National Sports Collectors Convention. For those of you who don't know, I will be in Cleveland in just under a month to attend the 39th annual National. It's my very first time at the National and I intend to take full advantage of opportunities such as giveaways, autograph guests, and of course, whatever baseball cards come my way, and there will certainly be plenty of those. 

That's why I'm holding off on cards for a bit. I want to ensure that I have the best time possible when I go to the National for the first time. After all, it's only something I've been dreaming about for years now, and it's finally so close to happening. 

Celebrating Independence Day; Series 2 Style

Happy Independence Day everybody! I hope you're all having a nice day full of food, no work, friends, family, and of course, lots and lots of baseball games. This year, my Red Sox played in the nation's capital Washington D.C. on the 4th this year. The 11:00 am ball game is, to my knowledge, the only morning game of the year other than Patriot's Day in Boston which was rained out this year.

Additionally, I've noticed Topps' tendency to make Series 2 more of a patriotic set over the last few seasons. This includes the return of the Independence Day manufactured blaster-exclusive relics. The one I pulled ended up being Ryan Zimmerman, a guy I collect. Not too amazing but not too bad either. Topps Salute also had an Independence Day insert set last year. I'm wondering if that set has returned along with the manufactured relic cards.

Anyway, I decided to celebrate the 4th of July the right way while I spent a couple days out of town with the family. I went to the closest Walmart to the house we were staying at and I stumbled upon 1 final blaster of 2018 Topps Series 2.

101 cards later, here are the highlights of what I got. 

Clearly, most of what you get in a Topps Series 2 blaster is going to be base cards. One can expect anywhere from 1-3 insert cards per pack, but the rest is going to be base unless you get lucky and hit something like a relic or an autograph. Given how many rookies and 2nd-year players Topps includes in their flagship set now, I pulled less than 10 base cards of players I collect, and one of the players (Hanley) isn't even playing anymore. However, the various inserts I pulled more than made up for it.

First, I'll talk about a couple of parallels I pulled. The odds in Series 2 for rainbow foil are the same as the odds for gold parallels; 1:10 packs or 1 per blaster box. I was able to meet these odds for both cards as I ended up with a rainbow foil parallel of Brad Brach, an Orioles middle reliever who is rumored to be traded to a few different contenders by the trade deadline, including the Red Sox whose bullpen hasn't been too solid as of late.

The gold parallel was of Denard Span which isn't too exciting, but it is a card I feel I could sell. After all, Span is having a nice year defensively so far and has been hitting .290 ever since joining the Mariners in a trade that also sent his teammate Alex Colome to Seattle as well. 

For the inserts, I might as well start off with some returning inserts from 2018 Series 1. In particular, the retail-exclusive Legends in the Making cards. At first, I liked the design of the colors splashing together while the player is in a position to either throw the ball or swing the bat. However, I'm starting to get a little tired of the same players and the same teams being represented in this set. It was a cool concept at first, but now I'm just hoping we've seen the last of this set and that it doesn't return for Topps Chrome or Update.

I did end up with 1 blue parallel of a Legends in the Making insert. The one I ended up getting was of Christian Yelich, whose navy blue jersey on this card nearly blends perfectly with the blue parallel color above. Speaking of the blue parallel, the Series 2 version definitely appears to have way darker of a shade of blue compared to the Series 1 insert parallels. Series 1 had more of a light blue, almost sky blue as a matter of fact, but Series 2 has way darker of a shade.

Topps Salute is another set that has been included in Series 2 in addition to Series 1. Ever since its debut in 2017 Topps Series 1, I've typically associated throwback jerseys, rookies, and legends with the Topps Salute insert set. However, I've never seen Glove Work cards until now. I guess they can do a better job with them in 2018 than 2017 considering the elimination of borders gives the cards more space. Considering I don't collect Chris Taylor of Byron Buxton, I'll probably list these cards on Sportlots or trade them if anyone wants them.

On the other hand, the Aaron Judge Salute insert is one I will likely decide to hang onto due to Judge's popularity, and because it cannot really hurt to build up a nice Aaron Judge PC. My one issue with the Judge card that I don't have for the Taylor or the Buxton is the absence of an actual baseball on this Glove Work Salute card. This part of the Salute set is for sensational catches and glove work by outfielders. Well, where's the baseball on this card?

The Instant Impact inserts are another insert, along with Legends in the Making, that don't do too much for me. Both insert sets are based around relatively vague concepts; young talented players of LITM and high-impact players for the Instant Impact cards. I'll put the Al Kaline into his player collection, but the Tanaka insert is available along with the previously mentioned cards.

The 1983 insert cards are back for Series 2, and the 2 I pulled happen to commemorate various players' performances in All-Star games. For Verlander, it's his pitching performance in the '07 All-Star game while the Pujols card honors what he did in the Midsummer Classic 3 years ago in 2015. I'm not quite sure what the rest of the '83 insert set is like, or if it's all All-Star game performances. I do know that I'm a big fan of this particular concept and I love how they executed it in the style of the 1983 Topps All-Star cards.

Of course, while Cody Bellinger was the subject of the Target exclusive inserts, Aaron Judge was the man behind the Walmart exclusive cards. I for one am so sick and tired of the same 2 players being overrepresented in nearly every single card set. I'll get into my issues with that soon, but I do have to applaud the Yankee Stadium-style border at the bottom of the front of the cards which also appears at the top of the card backs. As much as I wouldn't choose Judge to get his own insert set, the card design is pretty exceptional. 

Back to my issues with Judge getting his own set. This year, Mike Trout was on the cover of Series 1 and Derek Jeter and Kris Bryant were the 2 exclusive insert set players. For Series 2, Bryce Harper is on the cover while Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge receive their own insert sets. Not only is it boring and somewhat redundant to give 1 player and entire insert set, but it's pretty annoying to over-hype the same players over and over again. What about doing this for some different players like Mookie Betts and Francisco Lindor, not just the same players we continuously see in sets non-stop.

Despite the Judge inserts not being my favorite cards that I pulled from the blaster, I must say it was pretty cool to pull blue and black insert parallels. These will also most likely be listed on Sportlots due to them being somewhat rare cards of a very popular player. I get to sell these or possibly trade them to some Yankee collector while I get either baseball cards in return or money, which I will spend on cards. It's a win-win situation. 

Finally, the Future Star inserts from the last few years of Topps Chrome have now made their way to Topps flagship and I was able to get incredibly lucky with them. They're still pretty common inserts at 1:2 packs. Still, I was able to go for even more than that by pulling 7 inserts, 4 of them being of 2nd or 3rd-year players who are expected to cement their legacy very soon, including Andrew Benintendi, a player I collect who's having a breakout year for the Red Sox.

The next few Future Stars are rookie players from this year, so Topps is taking a bit more of a gamble by declaring these 2 Future Stars than the players who already have a year or two of experience. If you don't know Willie Calhoun, he was the main prospect in the Yu Darvish to the Dodgers trade last year. Luiz Gohara has barely played this year, but his 12 ER in 15 innings pitched has no shot at making him a future star unless he gets playing time and ups his game very soon.

Oh yeah, then there's Shohei Ohtani, the final of the 7 Future Stars cards I pulled. Despite only returning from the DL yesterday after missing quite a bit of time, Ohtani is still very much valued and an extremely collectible player. This card becomes the 3rd Shohei card in my collection, coming after his 2018 Topps Series 2 base card and his sought-after Topps Heritage action-image SP.

But I'd be lying if I said the Ohtani insert was the best card of the blaster. Sorry Shohei, but there was 1 card that usurped you.

Lo and behold, my very first image variation SP ever pulled from Topps flagship, and it's of the 3-time Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer who appears to be on-pace to three-peat as the winner of the NL Cy Young award considering he's leading all of baseball currently with 174 strikeouts. Scherzer is one of the best players that I don't collect along with fellow Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber. I believe that this card could be the perfect way to begin a Scherzer player collection along with the perfect way to end the blaster and celebrate the holiday.

Picture Perfect

I think it's safe to say that I've purchased fewer retail and hobby packs this year than I have previously done in 2016 as well as 2017, and I don't really consider that a bad thing considering how much new baseball cards have changed over the last couple of years.

I went a bit overboard in 2016 in terms of the blasters as well as some hobby boxes that I bought. Gypsy Queen, Heritage, Archives, and even Series 1 and 2 seemed so collectible and so easy to spend money on without truly noticing. 

Then, 2017 came along and with it came 2 things. 1. Less desirable checklists AKA fewer players I collect and more rookies I've never heard of. 2. The cards became much scarcer at my local Target to the point where I wouldn't even bother going if, say, Allen & Ginter came out.

Despite running into bad luck in 2017, I've seen myself making more small, steady retail purchases in 2018 so far. For example, instead of going crazy for 2018 Gypsy Queen, I only bought 2 hobby packs. I never even went for 2018 Bowman and was quite minimal with Series 2. Therefore, I decided to start off the same way with 2018 Topps Stadium Club to see if I liked it enough to buy more even though I was pretty sure the answer would be yes.

I started off with 2 hobby packs of the set that I picked up on Sunday. Here's what I ended up pulling.

Pack #1

#89 Brandon Woodruff

My first impression is, like always, the set is very minimal and the camera quality is superb. I appreciate Topps not copying this design off one of Fleer's sets from a while ago which is what they did for the last 2 Stadium Club sets. I originally thought that having the player name over the team name would be tricky, but the different fonts and colors help make it work.

#91 Dustin Fowler

Even though I'm only 2 cards in, I can already see that they chose more spring training/warmup shots than they have in years past. I'm not completely opposed to these, but I generally prefer in-game shots for a set like Stadium Club which relies so heavily on photography.

#185 Jose Abreu

The Stadium Club backs for this year's set are pretty similar to what they've been each year since the revival of the brand in 2014. They include a stadium background along with a similar layout of information to what you see above. The unique thing about this years' backs are the seats which have different colors depending on the team the player is on.

#250 Mike Foltynewicz

#51 Taijuan Walker

Now, this is what I really like to see from Stadium Club. Even if the image is a little basic, there's so much space for it to stand out and the stellar camera quality is capable of elevating any image into an eye-catching card. There really is no other set like Topps Stadium Club, hence why it's been a fan-favorite for years.

#56 Jon Lester Black Foil Parallel

Okay, this is instantly going to become one of my favorite cards of the set. I mean, you never see a card of a pitcher batting in today's baseball card sets, let alone of a player I collect. Not to mention that this is one of the black foil parallels which happen to be relatively rare. Interesting how only the name and the Stadium Club logo is in black, not the team name or position.

#187 Dustin Pedroia

Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic to see a Cubs and a Red Sox card of players that I collect in my first ever pack of 2018 Topps Stadium Club. However, could someone please tell me what on earth this glove is and why it's almost larger than Dustin Pedroia?

#204 Charlie Blackmon

Pack #2

#104 Hunter Renfroe

#158 Dillon Maples

Maybe it's just me, but is it getting harder to stay on top of all the rookies in today's MLB? I mean, I do pay a fair amount of attention to the Cubs and what's going on with them and I have yet to hear anything about Dillon Maples. Either I don't watch enough baseball or Topps makes too many rookie cards. I think it's a combination of both.

#254 Jorge Alfaro

#179 Bryce Harper

Don't let the high socks distract you from the fact that Bryce Harper is hitting .216 and is currently in a position to be an NL All-Star game starter. Sometimes I really do hate fan voting. First Gary Sanchez and his sub .200 average and now this?

#106 Austin Barnes

#180 Ted Williams Sepia Parallel

I'm really upset at how this card turned out when I scanned it because when I first saw this card in person, it immediately became one of the greatest Topps Stadium Club cards I've ever seen in my life and maybe one of the greatest cards produced this decade.

#240 David Price

I'm sure whatever Price is thinking about in this photo can't be as bad as the 8 runs he gave up to the Yankees in the most important start of his Red Sox career last night as well as one of the most important games of 2018. I'm still hopeful for Price and praying that he can equal what he did years ago.

#123 Craig Kimbrel

4 Red Sox cards total including 3 in a row has culminated in a new card for the Kimbrel Collection as the last card of the 2 packs I've opened thus far. How fitting is that? An absolutely perfect way to wrap up these 2 packs and get me to buy more which I probably will.

46 Years in the Making

It is with extreme pleasure and excitement that I can finally announce that my dad and I have finally completed the 1972 Topps baseball card set after decades and decades of pursuing each and every card included in the 787-card set.

That's right, a COMC order arrived yesterday that contained the final 8 cards needed to complete my favorite set of all-time, including the overly-expensive Bobby Murcer card shown at the top of this post. To give a little backstory, my dad began collecting '72 in, well, 1972. I've been collecting the set with him ever since I started collecting baseball cards. From card shows to online purchases, we've gone to great lengths to put this set together.

Finally, the #1 goal of my card collecting goals for this year is finally complete. Additionally, I've already completed 3 goals while 3 additional goals require that I accomplish and maintain them all year. There's only 1 goal I haven't completed or begun yet, and that's to buy a Topps Now card. I'm still waiting for the right one to come along. 

As I previously stated, there were 8 cards that stood in my way of completing the set, so my dad and I decided to go for it and purchase them all for Father's Day, no matter what. They were all very high-numbered cards, all of the cards numbered #700 or greater with the exception of Bobby Murcer at #699. The purchase ended up including 2 of the in-action cards, one of which was of Tim Foli. Despite it being an in-action card, it doesn't have as much action as I'd like, though it does include a shot of Foli on the field rather than posing, so I suppose that has to count for something.

The highest numbered card that I still needed was of Mets pitcher Jim McAndrew whose card may not have been in the best shape, but it only cost me $5.25. The white border is pretty stained on this card and it has a crease in the top right, but I've never been too focused on condition. The main thing that matters to me is getting the card in the first place, and if I'm truly troubled by the condition that the card is in after I get it, then I can begin to look for an upgrade for that card. However, I doubt I'll be doing that for McAndrew here.

I've always expected and noticed that team cards are way more expensive than just a player card, and I've never truly understood why. For instance, the Orioles team card was the last team card I needed for the set. The card is listed in poor condition and has creases all over it, some more visible than others. Wanna know what this card ended up costing me? $13.24. Yep, 13 dollars for a team card that's quite damaged and is in bad condition. I guess it's not too bad when you consider that the McAndrew card was a bit inexpensive, but I still wasn't too crazy about the cost of the Orioles card. 

The 2nd and final in-action card of the purchase has far more action actually going on compared to the first one of Tim Foli. The Gene Michael in-action card shows him sliding into what looks like first base at the old Yankee Stadium. The matchup appears to be Yankees vs Twins as we can faintly see the abbreviation Minn. for Minnesota above the word Yanks on the "scoreboard" in the background. Now, THIS is what an in-action card should look like. This is a card that I'm definitely crazy about. 

Before becoming long-time manager of the Cincinnati Reds, Dusty Baker had a pretty successful 19-year career for mainly 2 teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Atlanta Braves along with brief stints with the Giants and A's. 1972 was one of Baker's best seasons when he hit .321 in 446 at-bats with 17 dingers and 76 RBI. Baker, a career .278 hitter, went on to receive MVP votes in 1972 as well, albeit very little votes. Baker's next best season would have to be 1977 when he went on to have a 30-home run season for the first time in his career. 

Going into the purchase of these 8 cards on COMC, there was only one that I knew exactly what it looked like. I've seen this Hoyt Wilhelm card on the Dodgers dozens of times in my life and have even come close to buying it once or twice. I was waiting for the right price to come along, and I feel like I got that when I picked this card up for $11. I'm okay with the price because it's one of the highest numbered cards in the '72 set (#777) and it's of a Hall of Famer for crying out loud. When considering all of that, $11 seems like a pretty good deal to me. 

I started this post with the most expensive card, Bobby Murcer. Now, the final of the 8 1972 cards left is the 2nd most expensive of the bunch.

This is the crown jewel of the entire group of cards that I ordered, and maybe one of the greatest cards in the entire 787-card set. This is Ron Cey's 1972 Rookie Stars card, one of the only rookie stars card I've ever seen that has players from both the AL and the NL on it. This card and the Murcer card took up over half the cost of the purchase, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

After all, this is 1972 Topps, my favorite baseball card set ever made and the set I've spent my entire life piecing together, and it's not just me. My dad's been working on this set for the last 46 years and I'm beyond ecstatic that we were able to finish what he started and complete the set together. 

Now, once all the excitement dies down, it'll be time to put our attention towards a new set.

1975 Topps, time to meet your match.