Opening Day Came Early

Yes, I realize the MLB Opening Day is still 16 days away, but tonight I was fortunate to find some Topps Opening Day on the eve of its official release. However, when I saw the blasters on my local Target's shelves, I almost decide to pass on picking one up. I always enjoy OD, primarily for he inserts but almost as much for the price point. Here's a look at what was staring back at me from the card aisle:

Notice anything that seems off? Opening Day has always been $9.99 for a blaster of 10 packs. I was ready to spend that much for my cardboard fix, but as much as I like the product there isn't anywhere near $20 entertainment value for me in it. I'm not sure what made me carry a box to one of those price scanners, but I did. Fortunately, the bar code scanner at $9.99 like always. So, that learned, I snagged a box and was on my way.

First up, a look at some of the interesting base cards. The Banda and Thames were some of the most unique photos in the bunch. It's not surprising. I always tend to enjoy the horizontals. I included DeJong simply because of the Rookie Cup. Ozuna and Solarte are Topps Photoshop specials - AKA touched up photos of them in their new unis. I had to include the Andujar since I pulled it. Sorry all of you non-Yankee fans out there.

The OD blue parallels really pop this year! I'm looking forward to tracking down some of the Yankees of this variety. As always(and stated on the box) OD is packed with inserts. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the Before Opening Day set that is making its debut this season, but I do love those mascots! I hear they not only have mascot autos, but auto/relics as well this year.

It hurts me to see Chris Sale in a BoSox uniform, but that National Anthem insert is really nice...and a tough pull at 1:286 packs! The Opening Day insert keeps with the anthemic vibes, highlighting more pre-game festivities. Perhaps the insert I was most looking forward to, Team Traditions & Celebrations was the set I was most disappointed in(so far). This one boasts a 'rookie card' of The Freeze from Atlanta, Yankees Old Timer's Day, Sweet Caroline in Boston, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame in Chicago. As you can see, I'm stuck with a bunch of paper K's, a parade I didn't know existed, and the dang Rally Monkey. I was shut out of those inserts I was really anticipating in addition to an obtainable Ohtani RC and a photoshopped Stanton in a Yankees jersey. Oh well, I guess that just gives me an excuse to pick up some more of this to continue that hunt. Thanks for reading.

What Are the Odds? Opening Day Edition

While I was out hunting for baseball card filled boxes of pizza, I happened to stop by the Walmart card aisle as well. There was a single, lonely jumbo pack of Opening Day hanging on one of the pegs. What could I do? I mean, I couldn't leave it there all alone, so I added it to the rest of the stuff in my cart. I actually kinda forgot about it in all of my excitement about opening the food-issue packs and posting about them. Since the dust had settled by the time I woke up this morning, I decided to go ahead and bust that lonely pack.

I didn't find any super interesting base cards that I didn't already write about so let's skip to a few of the inserts. I'm not a big fan of the Heavy Hitters insert, but I was still pretty happy to pull a Schwarber. I have a few others from this set and I kinda thought there was a printing defect on the bottom edge, directly below the second 't' in 'Hitters', but every card I've pulled from the set has he same mark in that same spot. I guess it's an intended part of the design. I do like the Striking Distance insert and was thrilled to pull this Ichiro. Apparently there is a second Ichiro in this set that I have to track down(focused on career SB). I was pretty bummed that I didn't pull another Superstar Celebration in this pack. Instead, I found my first Opening Day Stars. To say the least, I am not impressed. Historically, I love this insert because they have been done in much the same way as the Kellogg's issues of the past, but this year, these are supposed to be stickers? Other than the stock being a bit lighter than the rest of the cards, I wouldn't be able to identify these as stickers. Maybe if I tried to peel it, but I'm not going to attempt that. As I flipped through the pack, I thought that wrapped up the insert portion of the pack. Upon closer examination, I was wrong. Initially, there was another card that kinda stuck to the back of the Stars card...

I couldn't believe my eyes! In years past, I've hardly had the luck to pull more than a few of the regular mascot cards. In fact, after opening a blaster and a few other jumbo packs, I had only pulled the two mascots I highlighted in my blaster post. All of a sudden, I pulled an auto?!? From a pack of Opening Day? Wow, it's a heck of an auto too! I like that it is made to look like a law print. When the disbelief wore off a bit, I couldn't help but wonder what the odds on that pull were.

The odds are a whopping 1:287 jumbo packs! I was almost twice as likely to pull either a relic or a player auto instead if this awesome mascot signature. Its monetary value may never reflect the difficulty in pulling it, but for now, it's a welcome addition to my growing mascot collection. Thanks for reading, I think it's time for a snack...pizza anyone?

Checking Out Some Opening Day Before Opening Day - The Rest

MLB returns with live, regular season action on April 4th, but Topps Opening Day went live earlier this week. In past years, I have only picked up a handful of packs here or there. Yesterday was the first time in my collecting career that I decided to buy a blaster of the stuff. It's not a bad deal really, 11 packs with 7 cards in each for $9.99.

Let's dig in.

These two perfectly illustrate how the brand can both improve and ruin cards from series one. The Bryant gains from the loss of the foil on the Future Stars designation across the top of the card. However, the iconic 'bat flip' card loses effect since Topps decided to crop the pic closer. I think that the zoomed out view on the series one card carries more emotion and weight. This version seems more sterile somehow. Maybe it's just me... Moving on to a few of the series two 'preview' cards.

We have Betances rocking the porn 'stache and looking a bit like Cuba Gooding. I'm extremely disappointed in the Sanchez RC. It's pretty tough to tell in the scan, but it is an extremely low quality, pixelated photo. You're kidding me, right Topps? Couldn't afford a better pic? Raul Mondesi Jr gets his first RC after making his MLB debut in the Fall Classic and Addison Russell gets a pretty awesome Future Stars card of his own.

Next up, some horizontal 'preview' cards. Decent action shots of Wong, Shields, and Cain. The Cain is the best of this bunch because I'm pretty sure that that play at the plate was an important moment in the World Series.

Now, let's move on to some inserts. The Mascots make their return. I'm always happy to pull any of those. I like the concept of the Striking Distance insert and it's actually executed fairly well. I like that the milestone within reach is actually listed on the card front. I'm also digging the concept of the Alternate Reality set which showcases players wearing their team's alternate unis. I am a tad perplexed with some of the inserts though. Across the OD base set, the Topps logo is not done in foil and it looks great. On some of the insert sets, the logo is foiled and I don't think it fits well. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but I think the logos would look better if they were done in the same manner as the base set.

The Superstar Celebrations insert is my favorite of the group this year, bar none. I think I may actually try to put it together for the first time. The Keuchel is my favorite of these from this blaster even if it does highlight his gem against the Yankees in the AL Wild Card game last season. The Reddick is a close second just because he has the double whammy of the pie in the face and the Gatorade shower going on in that pic.

I only pulled one blue foil parallel in the blaster, and once I saw it, I was in love! It's my second favorite card pulled. These are really nice in hand. Once again, they're not serial numbered, but they're probably my favorite parallel of this year's design. I think the blue will really work well once I track down some of the Yankees.

As usual, you're not going to pull any Earth shattering stuff in here, but this was a really fun blaster to rip. I may end up busting another one or two of these before all is said and done. Thanks for reading.