Eureka! I Found Some Pizza!!!

Late last evening I was reading a post on Night Owl's blog. If you missed out, it talked about food issue cards. Almost everyone I've come across here in the cardsphere loves food issue oddballs. What excited me most about NO's post was the mention of a present day set being distributed in this way. It's true! Topps has partnered with Walmart and will be issuing three card packs of fully licensed cards along with the Walmart brand, Marketside Pizzas. Details about the set are sparse at the moment. No ideas how many cards are in the checklist, no idea what players are on the checklist, no idea how long these will be in the deli case shelves. According to Cardboard Connection, their best information is that the set is at least 24 cards deep because they have Bryce Harper at card #24. Of course, I had to venture out to see if I could track some of these down today. Walmart number 1...no luck. So I modified the plan of fun for my daughters and I to bring me into the vicinity of a second store that I could search. As I walked over to the deli area, I had little to no hope that I'd be walking away with any new Topps oddball cards today. When I got there, it looked as if my suspicion would be correct, but as I lifted a few pizzas to check the ones below, I struck gold!

Well, green, actually! I found three of these XL Supreme pizzas with the special Topps promo on them. I picked out two of the three(the box on the third was pretty torn up, so I didn't trust the contents). When I got home, I fired up the oven and cracked open these boxes.

BOOM!!! Before I continue with the excitement of ripping these plainly packaged gems, let me share some reservations about this program. I really want this promo to be a huge success! If it is, I hope that it bodes well for the possibility of other oddball card-food item tie-ins. In fact, I kinda hope that maybe Target has(or will have) its own exclusive set. Topps has been making store-exclusive inserts for years, why can't I dream that they'd do something similar with this? I can already say with certainty that I will be trying to build this entire Marketside set, regardless of how big it ends up being or how difficult it is to track down. However, after my first purchases I am worried about the manner of distribution. Why? Well, the pizza boxes are NOT sealed and the card pack is just placed in the box underneath the chilled, packaged pizza. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. I mean, we've got pack searchers in the card aisles already, it would be exceptionally easy for an unscrupulous collector to open several boxes and slide the packs into a single pizza that they intend to buy. This leaving multiple, specially marked packages without the silver-packed payoff! If the intent of the promo is to potentially bring in casual or brand new collectors deeper into the hobby or even convert non-collectors, you have to guarantee the card pack is going to be in the package. Maybe I'm just being cynical. Anyway, back to the important stuff, the contents of the silver packages.

Here is the first pack I opened. I really like the design of the set. It's mostly clean with a touch of 'Tetris' in the background. I actually like it better than the flagship design(and I'm one of the rare few that doesn't mind flagship this year). Let's take a look at the card back:

It's very simple, consisting of a short write-up about the player. Seager was the highest number card I pulled, so I venture the guess that the checklist will be at least 48 or 50 cards deep. Let's move on to pack #2.

I'm not sure I agree with the inclusion of Olivera in the set, but the other five are no-brainers for any size checklist. Each pack also includes coupons and a Topps Bunt code for a free jumbo pack within the app.

Here's what the coupons can save you. I'm not really giving away the Bunt code because both were the same and the fine print allows for 5 code redemptions per account. There you have it, a concept that I assumed was dead has made its return. What do you guys think? Is it worth the chase? Who else do you think is on the checklist? How many cards do you think are in the set? Sorry, I'll reign in the excitement. Looks like I'll be eating a LOT of pizza! Thanks for reading.