Late to the 2017 Topps Party

I know I'm probably the last to get his hands on some 2017 Topps. I've got a jumbo box waiting for me at my LCS, but haven't been able to make it there to pick it up yet. During release week, my entire family was pretty ill so I had no chance to even grab a retail pack or two. This week has been much more normal and I happened to be at my local Target today and I was chomping at the bit to pick out whatever my first exposure to the product was going to be. As I walked in, I was trying to decide whether to go with a blaster, hanger box, rack/value pack, or just a few loose packs. However, when I made my way over to the card aisle, I was met with an alternate option:

There were 9 or 10 of these hanging on a few pegs. Once I saw that This Kiermaier was showing on not only one, but two of the packs, I decided to go with this option. I figured, even if the packs don't yield anything exciting, at least I would be guaranteed to add a new, retail-exclusive card of one of my favorite players in the league right now. I'll admit to a bit of 'searching' in that I examined the two Kiermaier face cards so I could pick the one that appeared to have e least amount of damage on it. Truthfully, they were equally clean looking so I grabbed one and hung the other back on the pegs. Once I got home I cautiously and excitedly opened the blister packaging and removed the Kiermaier. I honestly don't remember tearing into each pack. It seemed to take all of 10 seconds to flip through the four packs. In reality, I know I did take some time to try to enjoy the experience, but the excitement of new cardboard(and a decent rip) overtook me. Let's check the highlights, shall we?

My first base card(technically, my first 2017 card was the Kiermaier insert) of 2017 was Jon Gray. For me this is the middle of the road. It could have been better and it could have been way worse! The Josh Bell was the best of the three RCs that I pulled. I had to include the pair of Tanaka cards as the best of the Yankee cardboard from the packs. I included the anaquin and the amurphy in the scan because they are two of the best photos from the four packs.

I've really been digging a lot of the team card photo selections over the past few years. Shots like these are so much better than the old school, posed, full team pictures or team leader pics that used to appear on these.

I happened to pull two of these ad cards in the four packs. I can understand the point of view that these are pointless/shameless product plugs and I would probably be none too thrilled if these

actually counted as cards, but seeing as how they are seeded in addition to the normal number of cards in the pack, they're a nice 'bonus'. As far as I'm concerned, that's a new Donnie Baseball for my collection!

Here are the best of the inserts. Besides these but not scanned, I received a 1987 Rediscover Topps buy-back common and a 5-tool Buster Posey. I too pulled the rather depressing Jo-Fer award card. That he won the comeback player of the year in the season he wasn't able to finish due to his untimely passing just re-raises all of the 'what could have been' thoughts. The mMyers and Jackie Robinson are decently designed. I like the concept of showcasing the Mother's Day/Father's Day/JR Day uniforms in their own inserts rather than only on the incredibly rare(expensive) SSP photo variations. I've read a lot of negative print about the 5-Tool design. I, for one, really love it! This would have been a moderately successful break if this was all, but fortunately the goods didn't end there.

Tucked right in the middle of the third pack I ripped was this monstrosity! For a standard relic this thing is thick with a capital 'T'. When I saw this sandwiched in the middle of the pack, I thought it was something more substantial than this. Don't get me wrong, I really thrilled with this hit. Heck, I pulled a Playoff hero relic with a slight hint of a pinstripe on the right side of the window from one of my first retail packs of the year! It makes me really look forward to picking up my jumbo box and seeing what's hidden in all of that mylar.

So there you have my first 2017 Topps experience. You've all read more than enough critique on this year's design so I'll simply leave mine at this: it's a decent design. Not great, but certainly not horrible. I'm not sure I'll go out of my way to try to complete any of the sets, but the design certainly won't keep me from busting a decent amount of series one, two, and update. In all honesty, I'm just happy to be at the beginning of a brand new collecting year! Thanks for reading.