Early Look at Some Topps

After reading a blog post or two about folks finding some Topps on the retail shelves a few days early, I decided to try my luck before heading in to work this morning.

I was only able to find a few jumbo rack packs and a box of looseys. Since I'll have a Jumbo box in hand on Thursday this week, I decided to try to show some restraint and just went with one rack pack and one loose pack from the top of the fresh box. I opened the rack pack first.

I decided to not show off all of the cards from the two packs, but I had to show this Doolittle. He was the first 2016 card of the year for me.

As far as base goes, I was a bit underwhelmed by the contents of the rack pack. I only got one Yankee and no former Bulls. I was fortunate to pull the Bryant. It's not often I recall seeing the rookie cup and the Future Stars designation on the same card. Maybe I'm just not recalling correctly. I kinda like Mookie Betts despite him playing in Boston.

Here are the best of the horizontals. Harper and Arenado are two favorites even though I'm not actively seeking them out. I really dig the Houston team card with the flag in the background, and I thought it was a pretty decent action shot with the Wrigley ivy on that Maybin.

As usual, there was a block of inserts in the middle of the rack pack. I'm not sold on the design of the Back-To-Back insert. Kinda looks like an incomplete 'beaming up' to the Enterprise. First Pitch inserts return and will likely be one of my favorites of series one, just like last year. The last one there is an MLB Debut of Josh Donaldson. I honk I'll like this one too as it's similar to last year's 1st Home Run set. Overall, I was not overly impressed with the rack pack. I like the design a little bit, but feel like it will either grow on me or begin to wear on my last nerve. I may have my answer to which way it will go by the time I finish ripping my Jumbo box on Thursday night.

Now on to the loosey. I was immediately feeling better about the purchase because the last card in the pack as I opened it and slid the stack out was the Greg Bird RC. It's a shame he's having shoulder surgery and will miss the entire season. I was hoping to see an increased role for him this year after impressing in limited duty at the tail end of 2015. When I flipped the stack over, I saw something hick in the middle and the Conforto was on top. I knew it was gonna be a good pack. I closed my eyes and pulled the cards from behind the thick card to the front so I wouldn't uncover whatever the thick card was until the end of the pack. When I did, the Delino Deshields Jr. was the next card I saw. It was a pretty mundane photo, but it was my second Future Stars. Now, on to the horizontals.

Yes! I pulled a World Series Highlight! I may not be a Royals fan, but it really like the Cueto photo here. The Rusney Castillo is from the Perspectives insert. I love the view of Fenway behind him, but the way they added his name to the front of the card is really difficult to get used to. There's the 'hit'! Yet another Yu Darvish jersey relic. This marks the second Darvish that I've pulled out of the past two years of Topps flagship. I think last year's was from series 2. Too bad I'm not a Rangers fan. I guess it's a good thing I was able to join JBF's Super Traders group recently. I'm pretty sure that both Darvish relics will be headed to Play at the Plate in the near future(if he needs 'em).

Well, there you have my first taste of 2016 product! Turns out that the combo of getting these before my shift started and not opening them until it was over helped these packs act like a sufficient appetizer for my jumbo box main course later this week. Thanks for reading! Good luck to all of you out there as you find and open your first packs/blasters/boxes of 2016. I can't wait to read all about them!