Finding Gold in a Burlap Sack

On the hunt for a Bellinger rookie, I purchased a hanger box of 2017 Topps Heritage High Number.  I have his Topps Chrome rookie, which won't cut it.  I much prefer the design of Heritage of regular Topps. 

No Bellinger cards were found.  Instead, I found a few other nice rookie cards and one amazing non-rookie.

Asuaje, along with Manny Margot and others, was acquired from the Red Sox in the 2015 offseason in exchange for Craig Kimbrel.  He was promoted from AAA at the end of June this season and became a fixture at 2nd base.  He didn't much for power with only 4 home runs and 14 doubles in 89 games.  However, he had a respectable .270 batting average and .334 on-base percentage.  Asuaje also played well defensively this year.

Starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery pitched his way onto the Yankees' ALDS roster after going 9-7 with a 3.88 ERA this season.  He was a back-end starter this year and I doubt he will make a start in this first round.  Tanaka pitches Game 3 and I'd be shocked if Severino does not start Game 4.  Corey Kluber is scheduled to start Game 5 for the Indians so the Yankees might send Gray back out on the mound.

One of these cards is not like the other.  Actually, I'm not so sure.  Vogelbach is obviously Photoshopped into Safeco Field.  At first glance I thought Haniger's background was legit but now I'm not so certain.  Even if it is, the background looks much more realistic than Vogelbach's.

Haniger started off the year red hot, slashing .342/.447/1.054 through 21 games.  That was until he suffered an abdominal injury.  Upon his return, showed little signs of life, slashing .203/.303/.618 through 37 games.

Haniger suffered another injury, this time taking a Jacob DeGrom pitch to the face.  After coming back from that injury, he posted a slash line of .318/.344/.923 for 38 games.  A weird turn of events if you ask me.

Vogelbach on the other hand, he doesn't have a good excuse for his limited performance in the big leagues.  Granted he has a grand total of 44 plate appearances in the majors.  Sample size beware.  Still, it's clear the Mariners do not consider him a long-term solution at 1st base.  

I really like the look of these playing card inserts.  Trey Mancini is rightfully overlooked due to the likes of Judge and Bellinger but he was still a solid contributor for the Orioles. 

Finally, we have a non-rookie card that is something beyond what I would ever expect to pull from a retail box...

An on-card patch autograph of the likely 2017 AL Cy Young award winner, Corey Kluber.  The card is serial numbered 1 out of 25, which is even better.  There is something nice looking about having serial number 1.  The jersey stripe is also well appreciated.  Looking at the checklist for this insert set, I could have only done better by pulling a Derek Jeter. 

I'd normally be disappointed about not getting a Bellinger rookie but I think the Kluber autograph is a nice consolation prize.

Looking at Alternatives to Topps: 2017 Donruss

While the release of Topps Series 1 is an exciting time because it means the start of baseball card season, I was not excited about the design of this year's Topps.  There are some inconsistent design elements and the colored backs come off too strong.  After I bought a couple packs that I promptly traded away, I decided I would pass on opening any more flagship this year.  I'll buy a factory set at the end of the year to satisfy my need to collect the full set.

When I saw a preview of 2017 Donruss, I knew this would be a good alternative for me this year. The design is very similar to last years Donruss football, a design I regarded highly.  If there is any main competitor to flagship Topps, Donruss would have to be it.  

Retail boxes have started to pop up so I bought a blaster to see if this will satisfy my desire for a good base set. Only seven packs with eight cards per pack, which is about half of what would be in a Topps blaster box. Although there is one guaranteed autograph or memorabilia card so that is a step above Topps' guaranteed manufactured relics.  

Pack #1

I wish the base design had full colored borders like the football but I still like the overall design. The gray backs look fine to me as not everything needs a blast of color.  

If there is one downside to this set it's that a lot of the photos feature similar poses.  Perhaps Panini does this because it is easier to Photoshop out the logos.  From what I have seen of this year's Topps flagship, their photo choices have some variation.  

With the stark white borders and similar photos, I'm going to dispense with showing off the rest of the base cards I opened.   

Name variation

This is a name plate variation so it's worth showing off.  I had to look up the story behind the nickname "Hakuna Machado" and it's actually rather clever.  It's based off the Lion King and the Orioles even made a song featuring his nickname.  I encourage you to watch it only because it's this kind of thing that reminds me how fun baseball is off the field.  

1983 Throwback design

These cards are a throwback to the 1983 Donruss design.  I have no nostalgia for 1983 Donruss (I wasn't even born yet) so these cards don't sway me one way or another.  The design is faithful to the old 1983 design.  These inserts came two to a pack for each pack so I'm not going to bother showing them all off.  You've seen them once and you've seen them enough.

Pack #2

70 - Anthony Rizzo
84 - Francisco Lindor
127 - Starlin Castro
174 - Wilson Ramos
179 - Duke Snider

I like that Panini will included retired players in their base sets.

1983 Throwback - Paul Goldschmidt & Mookie Betts

I lied above.  Here's two more of the 1983 retros.  I scanned these two before I decided to stop scanning them all.  Now you won't see any more of these cards.

The Rated Rookie subset, which is a standard Donruss inclusion.

Pack #3

54 - Mark Trumbo
96 - Michael Fulmer
112 - Adrian Gonzalez
186 - Pete Rose
195 - Carlos Gonzalez

1983 Throwbacks - Corey Kluber & Albert Pujols

This is from The Rookies insert.  I miss the days when the Astros were bottom feeders in the AL West.  Give the Mariners their chance to win the West!

Pack #4

85 - Jose Ramirez
100 - Evan Gattis
142 - Johnny Cueto
162 - Elvis Andrus
167 - Aaron Sanchez

1983 Throwbacks - Pedro Martinez & Evan Longoria

SN# 29/210

This is a Season Stat Line parallel from the 1983 throwbacks.  All of the serial numbers from this insert are from the stat represented.  In this case, Robin Yount had 210 hits in 1982, so the card is numbered out of 210. Clever

Pack #5

46 - Paul Goldschmidt

55 - Chris Davis

88 - Tyler Naquin

151 - Randal Grichuk

159 - Cole Hammels

1983 Throwbacks - Robinson Cano & Brian Dozier

Another Donruss staple, the Diamond Kings subset.

Pack #6

73 - Jon Lester

116 - Giancarlo Stanton

130 - Marcus Semien

165 - Josh Donaldson

169 - Troy Tulowitzki

1983 Throwbacks - Ozzie Smith & Josh Donaldson

SN# 871/999

Since Panini has the license to USA Baseball, it only makes sense that they would include players from the national team.  Hiura is a junior at UC Irvine and is projected as a high first round draft pick. I couldn't find any up to date stats on his current season but at the end of February he was hitting .444/.515/1.074 with five doubles and 15 RBIs in seven games.

I don't track college baseball prospects but I think I'll keep my eye on him now that I have his card.  

Pack #7

71 - Ben Zobrist

113 - Christian Yelich

128 - Masahiro Tanaka

170 - Jose Bautista

191 - Wade Boggs

1983 Throwback - Joe Morgan & Brooks Robinson

Last but not least, the guaranteed hit of the box.  I was certain I would pull a relic as the guaranteed hits are typically not the autographs.  This is a nice piece of purple jersey, a sight for sore eyes blinded by white jersey relics.  I don't think I have any Rockies relics, either.

Looking at the back, Panini says this is "player-used" material, which is code for "the player wore it for 10 seconds at Panini's request then took the jersey off."  Oh well, I guess game-used was too much to ask.  I still like the card.

A solid effort from Panini and this year's base design is an improvement over last year.  I love the USA Baseball insert and the Season Stat Line parallel.  I don't expect this to be a set I chase this year but I'll likely pick up another box.  There were no duplicates in this box, which is always a plus.

Falling for More Retail Basketball

Old habits die hard.  Basketball was my favorite sport growing up yet I have only faint interest in the sport now.  Even so, I want to follow the sport and continue my basketball collection.  Due to the dark cloud the NBA left over the city of Seattle when the Sonics left, I can't in good conscience become an NBA fan.

I try to resist the urge but sometimes I falter.  I'll allow myself the sporadic retail packs and nothing more. 

My Fred Meyer had a lone box of 2016-17 Panini Prestige so I had buy two packs to see how the design looks.

Here is a breakdown of my two packs, with six cards per pack:

Pack #1

 

Only two names I recognize here: Draymond Green and Marc Gasol.  Like I said, I don't really follow the sport.  

I like the base card design for its simplicity and full-framed photo.  The rookie card of Beasley has the design elements switched so I wonder if that's consistent between all the rookie cards.  

Rookie Class - Crystal Parallel

One insert in the first pack and it is an excellent card.  Not necessary due to the player as Ingram has failed to "wow" the league this year.  I just like the way the card is designed.  It's a tough card to scan as it's a rainbow foil with crystal pattern (similar to the cracked ice cards) embossed in the card. Furthermore, Ingram's head is in the background of the card, which does not show up at all in this scan.

Pack #2

Only four base cards in my second pack, with two rookies.  I like that kind of collation.  I was also right about the design being switched for rookies and veterans.  I recognize Jrue Holiday and Arron Afflalo from their days of playing with UCLA in the then PAC-10.  

 

Your look at the back of the base cards.  Standard Panini fare with the repeating image and single year stats.  I like how Panini at least color shaded the back image.

C'mon Panini, you couldn't feature Ewing during his time as Supersonic?  I kid, Ewing was on his last legs when he played in Seattle.  Although if I were to ever create an all-time Sonics binder, he would absolutely be in there.

I think this is the Acetate insert.  The card between the top and bottom banners is actually clear, with the exception of the Knicks logo and Porzingis.  The crowd in the background is also translucent.  It's a neat looking card and it might actually be my first acetate card.  

For retail packs, I'm impressed that there was a pack for two insert cards.  I expected only one.  The base design is okay but the inserts were the attraction for me.  I might consider buying another pack or two hoping for another interesting insert.

Winning the Retail Lottery

I recently brought home the last of my old boxes from my dad's house. One of the boxes contained my 6th grade yearbook.  Looking at my likes and dislikes section next to my name you could tell I was a basketball fan.  My likes included "Rodman, Bulls" whereas my dislikes were "LA Lakers, doing homework."

Nowadays, my interest in basketball (at least at the professional level) is all but gone.  Other than checking in on some players from my alma maters and seeing if the OKC Thunder are still title-less, I don't follow the sport.

That doesn't stop me from opening card packs, however.  My grocery store happened to have two untouched boxes of 2016-17 Panini Prizm. 

The boxes said they contained 1 autograph or memorabilia card on average so feeling the itch for some new wax, I grabbed three packs from the top box.  Amidst some base and prizm parallel cards was a gold parallel autograph of Patrick Patterson numbered out of 10! This was without a doubt my best retail pull ever.  

Patterson was the 14th overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.  He's not an all-star but he appears to be a decent player.  

The next night I was at the store again.  The two Prizm boxes remained virtually untouched.  Since I pulled what was likely the only auto out of the first box, I went for the second box hoping for some more luck.  This time I only grabbed two packs.  

One of the packs contained a teal wave parallel of Ben Simmons, numbered out of 25!  I knew that Ben Simmons was a big deal, being the #1 pick in the overall draft and signing an exclusive autograph deal with Upper Deck.  I didn't realize that his cards were so highly sought after.  On top of the parallel, I pulled his base rookie in the next pack.

Word came down Friday that Simmons is officially out for the rest of the season due to his foot injury.  He never played a regular season game this year.  With all the hype it will be interesting to see how well Simmons plays next year.  

A few days go by and I'm at the store again.  I had to check my boxes of Prizm and they were still rather full.  It's not too surprising as the Seattle area is mainly a football town with a lesser interest in the Mariners.  

I grabbed four more packs, two from each box.  This time I pulled another teal wave parallel! Another SN25 parallel! Kent Bazemore is not a big name but still a big pull!

I never thought I would have gotten so excited about basketball cards.  I couldn't believe my luck with all the great cards.  For now, these are my best retail pulls and will be hard to beat!

A Tale of Two Packs

I've seen quite a bit Prizm, watching people chase the pink parallels in the retail only $50 boxes (and only 20 cards in the box!!).  I'm not interested in chasing retail color but with Topps Chrome Football out of the picture this year, Prizm appears to have taken over as the shiny replacement.  

Prizm retail finally made it to my grocery store so I decided to buy a couple packs to see what the fuss is about.  Even though I think the base design is rather bland, the shine on the cards does look nice.  With only 4 cards per pack, at $3 per pack, the value is not there.  

I haven't figured out the trick to scanning the base cards so my apologies for the inconsistent scans.  

Pack 1

Starting off nicely with a competent quarterback.  Other than last week against the Broncos where he completed only 30% of his passes with no touchdowns, Mariota had nice stretch of three games.  He had completed over 65% of his passes with at least two touchdowns.  

I have Blount on my fantasy football team so I've been happy about his play this year.  Last Monday he topped 1000 yards rushing and tied the Patriots' single season rushing touchdown record.  I have no doubt he will break that record.

As much as I hated the Cowboys during the '90s (who the hell declared them "America's Team?") I can't deny that Emmitt Smith was an excellent player.  I'll always happily had a Hall of Famer to my collection.  

The last card of the pack was a rookie prizm/refractor.  Even though he's struggled since the first few weeks of the season, getting a rookie card of the 2nd overall draft pick is still pretty sweet.  

Pack 2

Starting off the second pack with an average receiver.  Nothing to be excited about here.  

Who? I seriously have no idea.  This year he has rushed for a total of 34 years so that's probably why I don't know his name.  

The Jets cut Amaro all the way back in September.  The Jets haven't exactly been a model of success this season so to be cut from the Jets says a lot.  

I love seeing a Packers card the week after they beat up on the Seahawks.  As far as I can tell, Davis has had little to no impact so far this year.  This makes this a dud of a rookie card.

I could convince myself that I opened my money's worth with pack 1.  With pack 2 though...ouch. No card was noteworthy.  I know that not every pack can be a winner but these two packs were total opposites.  Despite the popularity of Prizm, I will be spending my money elsewhere as I'm not too excited about this set.  

An Absolute Storm

Rain isn't anything new during the fall in Seattle.  The rain is actually welcomed and looked forward to by some (crazy) people around here.  I can understand that after a usually brief, hot summer people are ready to put on their Ken Bone sweaters and hunker down indoors.  To actually cheer the return of rain though is unforgivable in my book.  It's rainy here 9 months out of the year, can't you just let the rest of us enjoy the sun?

Today is the start of the first big storm of the year.  It's been pouring all day instead of our usual drizzle.  Did you know that more rain falls in New York City than it does in Seattle?  It's true.

Forecasters are predicting an historic storm this weekend with high winds and flood warnings all across the region.  Thankfully, I live at the top of a hill so I shouldn't have any worries about the rain. The wind is a different story as it could very likely knock out the power.

To prepare me in the event of a power loss, I headed to the store to pick some supplies such as candles, batteries, dry goods, and of course, cards.  I also bought a couple nice 3-inch D-ring binders to use for my PC binder and my completed set binder.  I didn't think there would be any new releases to pick up but I did see packs of 2016 Panini Absolute Football.  

I initially passed over Absolute in the grocery store because I thought I had already purchased a pack or two.  However, after checking my collection on the Trading Card Database I realized I never bought any this year.  I decided to rectify that mistake by picking up a fat pack.  

With most foil cards, the scans never do the cards justice.  I never quite know how to adjust the scans to make cards look better.  Take my word though, these are slick looking cards.  All the lettering is gold foil and the surface of the cards is also foil.  Shine on, Absolute.

My pack was very QB heavy, with 8 base cards out of 18.  I wouldn't mind except I was stuck with Sam Bradford instead of Carson Wentz. No Seahawks cards, either.  Fooey.

Two non-base out of the pack.  The first was a blue, retail only parallel. It's a rookie parallel as well, which is a plus.  

The second is a cool idea for an insert, Unsung Heroes.  Presumably, these are cards of players who wouldn't otherwise have their own cards.  Although if they are considered heroes, then they probably deserved their own base card in the first place.  You can sort of see the rainbow refractor in the scan so at least these guys are getting extra special treatment.  

Will these cards do me any good in the storm?  You bet they won't but at least when the power kicks back on, I'll have something shiny to look at.

Box Break for the People: 2014 Topps Update Baseball

I think I've done 1 or 2 blaster breaks for the blog, either explicitly or not.  And I'll probably keep buying them  As such, I've decided to turn blaster breaks into a specific feature.  Every good blog needs named features, right?

Even though not everyone has a local card shop they can visit, they surely have a Target or a Wal-Mart nearby.  Hence, anyone can get one of these blaster boxes, making these breaks "for the people." I wanted to create a catchier title rather than a simple title like "blaster break."  

Today's box break is an EXTREME VALUE!  Seriously, that's what the sticker said on the box.  This just isn't any box, it's a blaster of 2014 Topps Update.  I was drawn to this box for a few reasons.  The price (discounted to only $13), the inclusion of a World Series patch card, the availability of All-Star Game cards, and that I haven't opened any 2014 Topps packs.

With 10 packs and 1 patch card, let's see what the blaster holds:

Pack 1

I picked this card because the image is unique and well timed.  Figueroa himself has bounced around the league since his debut in 2014.  I think this image might be from the May 23, 2014 game against the Red Sox when he batted in the winning (and only) run.  He didn't really do much else of note in 2014.

Wainwright had a solid year in 2014 going 20-9 with a 2.38 ERA.

The All-Star Game cards, which were just what I was hoping to get.

Pack 2

Normally Seth Smith would be a card I would quickly pass over but he's a Mariner now.  As such, I was give him is proper due and acknowledge him on the blog.  He's a decent hitter who can provide some pop and get on base.

I liked that some of the rookie cards also included the debut date.

Pack 3

Having previously lived in New England, I still root for Boston teams although they don't take precedence over Seattle teams.  The Ortiz mini replicates a 1989 design.  However, I'm bothered by the fact that this card uses a stat line from 2006.  That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works. 

It's a Trout card so I have to give my obligatory "Fuck Mike Trout."  Notwithstanding Trout, I still like the card. 

Pack 4

A pink card, huh?  Oh it's serial numbered to 50?  Sweet pull! And I've heard of Morneau before! These pink parallels run one every 253 packs.  I'm not ready to call this box a success but I'm getting there.

This card made me wonder how many cards out there haven't been pulled?  This box is 2 years old and there are only 50 of these cards in existence.  I image there has to be rarer cards that have never seen the light of day.  Of course the catch 22 is that we won't know what cards haven't been pulled.

Sadly, Taveras died in a car accident after the season ended in 2014.

Pack 5

Ellsbury got a lot of heat from Beantown after he left the Red Sox and signed with the Yankees.  Dude got paid though so good for him.

Springer is certainly impressing so far in his young career.  

Your 2016 Home Run Derby champion.

Pack 6

Pack 7

One of the few Cal Ripken Jr. cards I have in my collection.  That's not acceptable.

2014 was Seager's only year as an all-star so this is a great card to pull.

Pack 8

It's a numbered parallel, which I'm a sucker for, so I have to include it.  That makes 2 serial numbered cards out of this box.  

I would not normally highlight a Yankee but pulling this card was fortuitous as you'll soon see below.

  

I highlight this card because look at that kick! I am not that flexible.

Pack 9

I picked this red foil insert because....

Pack 10

..I pulled the base card in the same pack.  What are the odds?

I still wish there was a Topps Now for the Odor/Bautista punch.

Won the Rookie of the Year award in 2014.

Patch

The included patch is none other than Mariano Rivera.  I thought it was interesting that I pulled the Rivera World Series Heroes insert and patch card in the same box.

This was a great break overall considering the cost.  Two numbered parallels, one manufactured memorabilia, two current Mariners, and several All-Star Game cards.