My National Baseball Card Day Experience

I know I'm late to the party, but I'm finally getting around to writing about my NBCD haul from this past Saturday. I've been excited to see so many fellow bloggers that were able to participate and have enjoyed reading about everyone's experience. I truly hope that this becomes an annual event from Topps. In the days leading up to the big day, I did my homework about the rules and had a plan to maximize my returns. I convinced my wife to come out to the shop with me along with my daughters. I figured this would net me four packs since I was certain that hey wouldn't give one out for my 8 month old. I also planned to snag a few jumbo packs of Topps Chrome to get me over the $20 mark. Somewhere I thought I had read that there would be a limit of 2 Bryant cards per purchase. We arrived at the shop about 15 minutes after they opened and I was surprised to find we were the only customers in the store. I joked with the sole employee a out the lack of a rush and he curtly replied to me that they had just opened. When I tried to explain I figured there might be a bunch of people out for NBCD, he shrugged his shoulders and said 'yeah, well...' and he kept sorting whatever he was sorting. I inquired about the shop's rules for the day instead of assuming that my plan would go the way I thought it would. Boy, am I glad I did that... He laid a single pack on the counter(telling me it was one free pack per person) and told me that the Bryant and the one-touch case were available with a $10 purchase. I asked if there was a limit and if there were particular products that qualified. He snapped at me that it was one Bryant per person and it must be brand new Topps Baseball. I grabbed a single jumbo Chrome pack and walked around the counter to pay. He told me the total and I paid. At this point, my two oldest daughters were standing next to me at he register and my wife was a few feet away pushing the 8minth old in her stroller. He bagged the Chrome pack and handed me a copy of the Bryant and reached back for the one-touch. I opened it and put the Bryant in it to protect it while in transit. At that point, he was done with us. So, I began asking my daughters(loudly) if they were going to ask the man for their pack of cards. They were being shy and my comment did nothing to move the guy to hand them a few additional packs. I ended up having to explicitly ask him if they could get packs too. He said 'yeah...'with a deep sigh and said one per child. He placed two more packs on the counter as my wife walked up behind us pushing the stroller. He guy just went about his business and I decided to just walk out instead of pushing for a pack for my wife as well. I mean, after all, I didn't want to seem greedy. Honestly, I was a bit perturbed by he whole experience, but I appreciated that we were able to participate in the day's festivities. It wasn't until I had read so many others' experiences that were so much more positive that I really got frustrated by the whole thing. So, I'm sorry that you've read my rant because had I been able to write this post on Saturday as I intended, it would have read completely different. Well, let's get to the purpose of the day shall we? Free cardboard!!! I had  shrewdly set aside some non-sports packs that I knew my daughters would like to rip so hat I could trade for their NBCD packs since neither of them are into sports cards(yet).

Pack one:

This was the first one he put on the counter, so I guess it was technically 'my' pack. Nothing Earth shattering for me in here, but I really like the design and there are some seriously heavy hitters(and pitchers) in there.

Pack two:

For me, a little less wow overall, but at least there's former Durham Bull Evan Longoria and an Arenado in here.

Pack three:

It was probably my favorite of the three packs. Lindor is solid, I kinda collect Sale, it's always nice to pull an Arrieta these days, and I was thrilled that Ichiro was in the middle of the pack. So, no disappointment at not pulling an auto and I was happy there were no dupes.

There's my purchase necessary card which I'll definitely need since I'm going to try to complete the set. Btw, if anyone out there has any that don't fit into your collection, I'd love the chance to make a trade for them. Send me a message and help me finish this set if you're interested.

The jumbo pack of Chrome was just frosting on the 'free pack' cake.

A Maeda RC and that Mazara insert were nice ways to start things off. I honestly would have been happy if they were the best pulls to come out of the pack.

That's a Hamels refractor, an Escobar prism-y refractor, and the refractor parallel of the Eickhoff rookie auto(#/499). That some pretty decent frosting! Here's looking forward to NBCD 2017!!! Thanks for weathering the early post rant and thanks for reading.