The New Season is Almost Upon Us!

As we sit on the eve of a new MLB season, hope springs eternal. It's the time of year when fans of every team can still have hope for a playoff run to culminate in a World Series Championship(no matter how unlikely it may be). I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I have this exact feeling about the Yankees this season. It's an exciting time to be a fan of that team from the Bronx. The addition of Giancarlo Stanton via offseason trade is one reason of course, but the team is also stocked with young, homegrown talent. In fact, my hope is that this year will be the dawning of a brand new 'Core Four'. Much like Jeter, Posada, Pettite, and Rivera were just coming into their own in the mid '90's, there are currently four youngsters that are establishing themselves as some of the best players in the league.

First, the starting pitcher:

Sevy had quite the season last year. He logged just shy of 300 innings, won 14 games, registered 230 K's, and finished among the league leaders in ERA. I was beyond fortunate to pull this blue parallel of his Chrome RC auto from a discounted retail hanger I found at Walmart a few months back. The auto is on card and one of the cleaner looking examples I've seen.

Next up, we've got the relief pitcher:

Betances came up through the Yankees system and began making an impact as a setup man, much like Mariano Rivera. Dellin had a brief opportunity as the closer, but has taken the backseat to Chapman since his return from the Cubs. Even back in the setup role, Betances has been pretty dominant. I picked this blue Chrome RC auto up a few years ago before he really had his breakout season. I really love the Yankee Stadium facade in the background. I feel like it makes for quite an iconic RC.

Lastly, we've got the backstop and the humble superstar in the making.

These guys aren't Jeter and Posada, but they sure have been fun to watch over the past two seasons. It should be really interesting to see these two continue to develop over the next few years. This is perhaps my best pull of the year thus far. I was in my local Target and there was a single hanger box of Heritage left sitting behind a few blasters of Series 1. When I opened the cello pack inside, I was a bit bummed that there wasn't a Deckle edge insert in the stack of cards. However, when I reached the middle of the stack, this card was peeking out at me. At the time I didn't know the details about these parallels(except that I really like the gold stamp). I thought they were serial numbers, but when I flipped it over, there was no numbering to be found. After a bit of research I found that they have a print run of only 25 copies.

So, therein lies my hope(s). Not only that the current group of young guys can sustain a high level of play like their predecessors, but also that this year is the beginning of their success. After all, the original Core Four made their initial playoff debut as a wild card in 1995, didn't make it to the World Series that year, and won their first championship as a group the next year. Hmmm, the Core Four Redux team was a wild card entry into last season's playoffs...perhaps history does repeat itself. I guess we will see in about 8 months. Thanks for reading.

A Heritage Pick-Me-Up

The past week and a half has been exceptionally difficult at work. It has been both physically and emotionally exhausting. I was looking for a boost so I hit up the local Target on Monday, hoping that there was a chance I'd find some Heritage on the shelf a few days early. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. After another long day yesterday, I decided to try one more time before release day. When I got to the card aisle, I didn't see anything at first glance. As I began to stare at what was there to make a decision on something to settle for, I saw it...a few hanger boxes! I grabbed two of the four that were there and hit the road.

I'm digging the package design on these! Let's check some of my favorites.

I like the cool checklists with player pics and the retro rookie cups are pretty awesome. I chose the Montgomery not only because he is a Yankee, but I think it's great that you can see a bit of the facade of George M. Steinbrenner stadium in Tampa.

Here are a few rookies and a high number SP. I am thinking of beginning a PC of Jose Pirela. I liked him when he was in the Yankees system and was lucky enough to meet him and get an IP auto at the Triple A All-Star festivities in Durham a few years back.

These are probably my favorites of the bunch so far. I'm not an Astros fan, but I love playoff/World Series highlights and these are done really well.

Lastly, I found one of these Deckle edge insert in each hanger. As you may already know, I am a sucker for these and am still trying to complete the original 1969 issue. Inserts like these have twice popped up in Archives over the past 5 years and I am slowly working on putting those sets together(needs will be posted on my set page shortly). These are even better in my opinion, though for reasons that some may really dislike them. They are not faithful to the original set in two significant ways. First, they are full size and not 'mini'. Second, they are done on vintage, thick stock. I'm probably in the minority, but I'm not going to get hung up on those differences. I like these and will definitely be working on putting together the full 30 card set. 

Sadly, I didn't pull any of the All-Star subset. I'm looking forward to seeing those. Since it's officially release day, I think I'll go out and try to find a few loose or fat packs that I can use my coupon(from my series one blaster). Good luck to anyone out there searching for some to rip, I hope you find product on the shelves and pull some great cardboard! Thanks for reading my brief thoughts.

Sneak Peek at 2017 Heritage

About a week ago, I finally picked up my Topps Series one jumbo box and the associated silver packs. It was so much fun ripping those packs, but as has been the story with much of what is going on in my collecting life over the last few months, I haven't scanned/written up said fun. At any rate, since I just busted my first real look at Flagship, my internal product release calendar was way off. Subsequently, when I walked into my local Target while on my lunch break today, I had no clue that I was going to see new product staring back at me from the shelves of the card aisle. I was looking for one of the Topps blister packs that had four packs and one of the 'fielding award' cards(I hoped to find one with Brett Gardner) or another Road to WrestleMania jumbo packs. Instead I found this:

Heritage was on the shelf a day early! As an added bonus, my hanger box had this stuck to the front of it:

That will be important later. I probably wouldn't have grabbed a loose pack of Topps since they were all clearly searched. Hey, a free pack is a free pack so I picked one from the gravity feed box and hoped that it would at least have one of the 1987-themed inserts. More on this in a bit. Let's take a brief look at what came out of the Heritage hanger box.

First things first, here are a few of the more interesting of the plain old base cards. I chose to show Duffy since he is with the Rays now and there really wasn't much other competition for 'interesting' or 'exciting'. Obviously, I chose Bartolo so everyone could see him in all his airbrushed Braves glory. I added Kershaw because he's one of the best pitchers in the game right now and there wasn't much other competition for 'interesting' or 'exciting'. Sounds like there's an echo in here, but that's what the contents of this hanger box had me thinking over and over.

I will say that I like the All-Topps(AS) subset. I pulled five total from this portion of the base set. These were my three favorites of the bunch(Kershaw and Scherzer not shown).

The Russell is a High Number SP. To top all, it looks as though the 1968 Game set makes a return this year in two distinct forms. The Manny in the middle is part of a 30 card set while the Jake Thompson RC is from a 15 card, Target-exclusive set that focuses on 2017 rookies. Topps decided to borrow from a different 'Game-like' set by making the regular set with blue backs and the rookie set with red backs. Though not historically accurate, I think it's a really nice and easy way to distinguish between the two while giving a nod to the 1951 set. Man, it looks like I'm going to have 45 more 'Game' cards to track down. I haven't even finished the set from that time they put these in Archives...

Anyway, let's move on to the loose pack of Flagship. As I flipped through the stack, I was mostly underwhelmed at first glance.

These were my highlights. I was thrilled to pull the Judge RC and I was indeed fortunate enough to pull one of the 1987's(a need at that). Almost immediately it occurred to me that guy in the middle didn't look the way I remembered seeing him while recently busting my jumbo box. A quick glance at the code on the back confirmed my hope/suspicion that I had just pulled the SSP photo variation of Mr. MVP/World Series Champ, Kris Bryant. Those fall at a whopping 1:566 packs and I pulled one of the most popular guys on the series one variation checklist! Unbelievable! I think my adrenalin is still pumping. Guess those pack searchers at my local Target couldn't pick out all of the good stuff. That was one heck of a free pack! Thanks for reading.

2016 Heritage Inserts Actually Worth Collecting

I haven't collected(or should I say attempted to collect) a Heritage set since the very first set was released back in 2001. There is just too many SPs and if I want to get crazy about it(and I totally would) too many variations to chase down. Add to that, the inserts have basically been the same for the last 15 years and there isn't much reason for me to do much more than grab a few packs(or blasters or hanger boxes) each year. However, lost amid the early scramble to identify and catalog this year's crop of errors and variations(made more difficult since they all have the same code printed on the card back) are two retail only inserts that pay tribute to two 1967 test issues that were never formally released. Check out this article for more info on those.

On the left, the Target-exclusive Stand-Ups insert consists of 15 modern day stars. The Discs set on the left can be found in Walmart packs and it shares the same checklist as the Stand-Ups. For me, these designs are far superior to the standard inserts found in Heritage and the fact that they pay homage to cards that never were is what pushes them over the top. If anyone in the cardsphere has any of these lying around that need a good home, I'm your guy. At the current moment, what you see is what I've got so I'm a long way from finishing either of these sets. You gotta start somewhere though, right? Thanks for reading.

A Card Fit For Veteran's Day

I wanted to take a moment out of the normal blog content to say that I hope everyone had a great Veteran's Day. I'm not going to get on my soapbox about how much this holiday means to me and my family, so I'll just skip to a card that is fit for today's celebration of our country's veterans.

I pulled this from a box of 2001 Heritage. At first, my younger self thought of selling or trading it, but I'm glad that I never did. Like many, I feel there is a huge lack of variety/originality when it comes to the types of relic cards that are available. This truly stands as on of the most unique cards in my collection. The only downside is that the patch of uniform did not belong to Mays. It's still pretty interesting that it is a 'war-worn uniform' though. Plus, it's the only Mays card I have that depicts his service time. In fact, I'm not sure if there are any others and if so, how many. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Busting Some Heritage High Numbers

I've been trying my best this past week to catch up on my trade posts. Until this past week, I had been hesitant to even post two trades on consecutive days, but my last four posts(and 5 of the last 6) have been written to highlight great trade packages. Looking at that made me realize that I needed to mix things up a bit(or perhaps I just used that as an excuse). So, while I was out at my local Target today, I grabbed 2 jumbo packs(or whatever they're calling them now).

I had previously opened two hanger boxes which I hadn't written about so this wasn't my first experience opening the product. Here are the highlights of pack number one.

Starting off is one of my favorite Rays players, Steven Souza Jr. I scanned the Sizemore because he's in a Rays uniform. He actually played alright after they signed him to a minor league deal. Who would have thought that would be the case when the Phillies designated him for assignment and released him earlier this summer? The Caleb Joseph was a random selection.

These were the three best rookies of the pack. Not much to say about them. No SP in the pack. To this point, it was a pretty weak pack.

This insert helped a bit. Two of the Mets young stars on a decent looking insert. Not bad, but this pack still needed something to make me feel like I at least got my money's worth.

There it is! A Heritage Chrome refractor of a highly touted rookie. The only drawback is that it is a Red Sox... Oh well, shiny and #/599 trumps any dislike for the team. That's the end of the pack one highlights. Let's see if pack two can be even better.

The three best veteran cards lose out in this one. I may have gotten a Yankee, but I really don't want Drew to be on the team so it doesn't beat out the Souza. Boxberger is a favorite former Bulls player and Phelps used to be a guy I liked when he was still in pinstripes. Overall, the Souza and the Sizemore/Rays combo beat out Boxberger.

The rookie card battle was won by these guys from pack two, solely on the shoulders of the Orlando RC. He hasn't been a standout, but his presence in the top three here is enough to beat the other pack's top three. The start of pack two was much like pack one, the base cards left much to be desired. Once again, no SP to be found and once again I was looking for something to salvage the pack.

This was my first Award Winners insert. I like the design and I got a pretty good player too. Still, Clayton was not enough to save the pack alone.

This Abreu bat relic sure did a good job salvaging the pack! I was bummed that there were no SP's to be found and that the base cards, both veteran and rookies left something to be desired. The inserts and 'hits' certainly made this 'retail therapy' session worthwhile though.

Fortunately, the hanger boxes turned up a few great base cards(though still no SP's).

I'm happy to have this Mahtook rookie. I've enjoyed watching him play in Durham over the past few seasons. I hope he sticks with the Rays and ends up being a fixture in their outfield for years to come.

Here's one of the many youngsters that made their Pinstripe debuts this season. I can only hope that the youth movement will be the beginning of another Core Four-type situation.

Lastly, here's one of the only big rookies from the set that didn't end up on the SP checklist.

Nacho Average Group Break - Heritage Style

Chris at Nachos Grande has opened my eyes to the wonders of the group break. Here we are a little more than halfway through March and I've already participated in both of his 2015 breaks. I've really enjoyed the concept and I've been fairly lucky with the results so far. This second time around, the break consisted of a case of 2015 Heritage and a 'bonus' box of 2004 Clubhouse Collection which promised hits-a-plenty.

Once again, Chris included some extra Yankees stuff along with the goods from the break. The most notable this time around was my second Topps Chipz. This A-Rod joins CC in the Chipz collection. I'm not sure I'll ever bust any packs of these on my own, but they are certainly interesting and welcome break/trade acquisitions.

I'm not going to post scans of the entire team(which I received at least four or five times over), but will focus on a few of my favorites. Unfortunately there were exactly zero Yankees in the SP high numbers this year. Really Topps, zero? I know that with the retirement of Derek Jeter, the Yankees don't really have much in the way of a hobby superstar, but some teams out there had 4 or 5 SP's. You'd think there could be a little more equitable distribution, at least one SP per team. OK, rant over. I really like the 'classic' poses on the Gardner and Nova. It certainly doesn't hurt to see the famous Yankee Stadium facade behind them. They are probably two of my top five current favorite players on the team. I include the Girardi because it's so rare to see a manager's card in today's hobby. I think these should be a staple in Flagship, but that's just this guy's opinion.

Three more pitchers from the set. The old school 'All-Star Rookie' cups on the Betances and the Tanaka are great! As I've previously written, I have high hopes that Pineda can have a productive, if not dominant, season. 

I really like the team cards, but I think they should have come up with alternate captions or left them off completely for the teams that didn't finish first or second in their division. It is definitely strange to see a celebratory team photo with the words 5th Place ________ Division. Even though the Yankees didn't make the playoffs, at least 2nd place in the division doesn't look too bad. The 2015 Rookie Stars is my favorite of the Yankee base cards from this set. I was hoping that Jose Pirela would get a rookie card when Topps series one was released. He played really well for the Triple A Scranton Railriders and earned a September call-up during which he hit pretty well in limited at bats. I got to meet him at the Triple A All-Star autograph session held in Durham this past season. He was a really nice guy. I had hoped that he would have a real chance to earn either the starting SS or 2B role this season, but with the addition of Didi Gregorius and the re-signing of Steven Drew(no idea what they were thinking), it looks unlikely that Pirela will get much of a shot. After the loss of the Captain, this should be a prime opportunity to give a shot to some of their younger guys like Pirela and Rob Refsnyder.

As we move on to the non-base card part of the program, I was lucky enough to land one of the box topper advertising panels. Even though this will be difficult to display, I love adding stuff like this to the collection.

The design of the New Age Performers is solid year after year. I landed three copies of this Tanaka so if there is anyone out there looking for a copy, I can send one your way.

I know they don't really fit with the 'vintage' theme of Heritage, but I think the Chrome and refractor parallels are great. I was lucky that this refractor of Ellsbury came out of the case. It's numbered out of 599 and is shiny, sparkly goodness! It probably would have been the card of the break for me if it hadn't been for the next lucky pull.

It's a piece of a bat from the Captain!!! It's not numbered, but it was awesome to see this card come from one of the boxes. That would have been a good enough break. A solid haul, nothing spectacular or super rare, but I would have been happy with it.

Fortunately, Chris pulled a Yankee hit from the box of Clubhouse. Granted, he's not a very memorable Yankee, but Ruben Sierra played for a long time and put up some respectable numbers over his career. It seems he was playing almost as far back as I remember watching games(almost). I was very happy to get this card. It's way better than not getting any hit from that box. It was truly some icing on what was already a pretty decent break from my perspective.

Once again, huge thanks to Chris for putting in all of the work to plan and host this break! I hope to join another one sometime soon.

Would the Blaster Be Worth It?

I've been out of commission for the past few days, but I'm ready to get back in the game. I'll pick up where I left off. I did, in fact, head right back to the local Target the day after I was able to pick up the previously posted jumbo pack. When I arrived, there was no Heritage on the shelves. I had seen the guy getting ready to put the stock out while I was in the store less than 24 hours before and I knew they wouldn't have sold out. So, I wandered over to the customer service desk and actually saw the guy that was stocking the day before. I pulled out the $5 Topps coupon and asked the guy if they had any of it in stock. He said 'yeah I put that out yesterday, it should be in the card aisle.' When I told him I had checked there, he walked over there with me and said ' if we have any, it would be right here...' When he saw none on the shelf, he told me that he remembered that they didn't have any room and that's why he didn't finish putting that stock out the day before. So, he unlocked a cabinet below the register right next to the card aisle and pulled out the box with all of the Heritage jumbos, hangers, and blasters. He asked if I wanted to grab one now since they did have it. I said yes, and he grabbed one random blaster.

Why did I go through the trouble of asking? Well, I knew it had been there, I saw it. I had my heart set on breaking a blaster, THAT day and I really didn't want to drive around to other Targets to find a box to use my coupon on. 

Why did I go through the trouble of writing all of that for you? Well, for those who have hopes of finding the new product of the day and keep searching Target day after day, wondering if it has appeared on the shelves yet, maybe the reason the store doesn't have it on the shelves is because they didn't have space. Maybe you'll have luck if you go through the trouble of asking. Now, on to the contents of the box.

First, I was apprehensive because I didn't get to choose the box, but it wasn't going to argue with the guy who just grabbed a box and locked the rest away. I just wanted to get out if there and rip some packs. So, even with the $5 off, I did kind of wonder if the contents would be worth the trouble and cost.

The first couple packs only provided a few league leaders and a flashback insert to speak of. Somewhere in the middle, things got a bit better, but we'll get to that.

I pulled only one of the Target exclusive Nolan Ryan inserts and one more New Age Performer. The Abreu is not anything super special, I just like the old school Rookie Cup.

I hit the high number SP odds on the head and pulled these three. I was not terribly thrilled, but then again, there are no Yankees on the SP checklist this year, but would it have been too much to actually pull a player I even had a remote interest in? Apparently it was. However, I have no reason to complain because of these two:

The Hamilton is the refractor version, numbered 168/566. Then, I pulled the auto. I realize how difficult it is to pull autos out of this stuff, and I have had some recent success pulling one from some loose packs of the 2014 set. Come on though! I love baseball history and I haven't heard of this guy. Nor had I heard of the subject of my 2014 auto pull. I've researched the bespectacled Kreutzer and he really didn't have much going for him. I really have no idea how Topps is coming up with candidates to include in their Real Ones auto sets. But hey, pulling an auto is pulling an auto. This on is going to be up for grabs though. If anyone out there has any interest in it, let me know. I'm sure we could work out a deal. In the long run, I may not have pulled many keepers, but that blaster was certainly worth it!

First Heritage of the Year

It was a long day at work yesterday, but I had to pick up a few items at the local Target before going home. As I always do, I stopped by the card aisle. Much to my surprise, I saw a few of these packs hanging out! I was shocked, especially since I had to wait until almost a week after the release date for this Target to have series one. I really wanted to pick up a blaster, but I figured I might as well wait until today to get one since I can start using my $5 off coupon I got out of the series one Target blaster. So, once I got home, I ripped into the pack to get my first taste of this year's Heritage! Here are the highlights of the 20 cards.

I really like the kind of player Mookie Betts seems to be, so I won't hold it against him that he plays for Boston. After all, his location isn't his fault. I've got the Yankees in the Nachos Grande Heritage group break, so for the first time, I didn't want to pull any Yankees, but it is cool to see the first card with Didi in a Yanks uni. Gotta love that airbrush! Insert 1 of 2 - a Cutch New Age Performer. An interesting design and a great player.

More airbrush! First cards of Miley w/ the BoSox and Shelby Miller w/ the Braves. Hey, didn't that last guy pitch pretty well in the World Series last year?

I like the dual-player rookie cards. I'm probably the only one that feels that way, but that's OK. You've gotta love insert 2 of 2. Koufax and Kershaw! I'm not a Dodgers fan, but I really like this card. I don't really see anything terribly original in this design, but this is the first combo of these two that I have in the collection. 

Overall impressions are solid. This is about what I've come to expect(and what I like about) from Heritage, year after year. I'm definitely looking forward to snagging that blaster a bit later on today!

Last Series 1 Packs

Note: before I officially begin this post, let me start by saying that I have Nacho Grande's group break of series one to partially thank for jump starting my decision to complete the set this year. Chris has announced his next group break which will involve 2015 Topps Heritage and a bonus box of hit-laden product. There are still a bunch of great teams left to be claimed. Do yourself a favor and go here to check out the details. It's a LOT of fun to be involved in one of his breaks! C'mon, you know you want to...

Okay, public service announcement complete.

I've been out of the 'Hobby' aspect of collecting for a while since I do t really have a local card shop that I can frequent. I was searching for some info about series one last week and I came upon the following promo poster:

I quickly searched the attached list of shops that were participating in the promotion. I found one that's about a two hour drive from my house and called them hoping that I'd be able to get my hands on a pack. Fortunately, they still had a few redemption cards, so I hopped in the car and made the drive. 

Once I arrived, they didn't have much product left in stock. I grabbed their last jumbo pack and four out of eight of the hobby packs they had left. Once I made the purchase, they handed me the redemption card with my receipt.

It's been really difficult, but I've saved the packs because I wanted to open everything together once I was able to pick up the Spring Fever pack. This week I made the drive back out to pick it up. As an aside, there happened to be a Toys R Us close to the shop, so I stopped in to see if they had any of the blisters that had the purple parallels and picked up their last two. Here is what I plan to be the last pack purchases of series one this year(if I can control my impulses).

My intent was to make these packs last for a few days, but that idea went out the window as I was opening the first pack. It seems I have gained the control that I can have packs sitting in the house unopened, but once I start, all restraint goes out the window. Here is the haul.

I could have done much worse on the purple parallels from Toys R Us. The corners are even in pretty good condition. I like these much better than in past seasons, but they still need to be distributed differently. A separate pack(preferably with more than 3 cards) would be a good start because just putting them in the blister pack isn't cutting it. I'll be holding on to the Mitchell and Kiermaier, but I think the Corcino and the Chapman will be heading to a new home very soon.

Two pretty decent parallels. I certainly could have done much worse in this area. The LL card is a keeper for sure.

I think I'm going to try to put together the Robbed insert set, so pulling this Gomez was a good thing. Unfortunately, no autograph in my Spring Fever promo pack. However, the five regular cards I pulled from it couldn't have been much better. I really like these and if the checklist wasn't 50 cards, I might actually try to build it, but for now I think that's unlikely. Maybe I'll just hunt down a few other singles and leave it at that. I also did really well in pulling base cards still needed for my set. I got my needed cards number down to 39 from 80. I'm almost there. 

So, there you have the highlights of what I plan to be my last series one packs of 2015. I hope I can manage to control those impulses.