Busting Some Mega Boxes

I haven't seen any mention of these in the cardsphere to this point(though that doesn't mean there hasn't been any). Topps went ahead and released another one of those retail exclusives that mixes packs of a current product with packs of a new chrome parallel of said product. Similar to the Update Chrome set that has been released the last two years, there is now a 'Mega Box' version of 2017 Bowman available at your local Target(or maybe not as the case may be). I became aware of this product early last week and have been on the search ever since. When I hadn't found any by this past weekend, I did a quick eBay search and found that these boxes that are priced at $14.99 for 5 regular Bowman packs and two of the exclusive Bowman Chrome packs were easily going for $30+ per box. This week has been a bit crazy at the office, but I continued my search and it finally paid off last night on the way home. I found 5 boxes and briefly considered buying them all. Once I looked a bit closer at the boxes which were pretty banged up, I settled on the two boxes with the least amount of damage.

This is what all the hype is about. When I got home and got the kids to sleep, I quickly ripped into both boxes. Since Bowman has been out for a while now, I won't share any scans of those. I will however mention that I have picked up more Bowman than I care to admit to this year. Even after these 10 additional packs, I have yet to pull a base Aaron Judge RC from this product...just crazy. Though the box doesn't state this, each of the Chrome packs contains 5 cards instead of the standard 4. Yay, thanks for small favors Topps!

Highlights from box one included the red-hot Dodgers rookie, Cody Bellinger and the next generation Vlad. Though the scan doesn't do them justice, you can hopefully see that the pattern used is the same as was used on the Silver Pack promo cards from flagship series one. I like it pretty well(not as much as the Update Chrome pattern, but still). In fact, I have seen a similar pattern utilized many moons ago and I liked it then too. That can be a topic for a post sometime in the future. Let's get on to pack two, shall we?

Again, not too shabby. I only included 3 in this scan because the insert I pulled from the second box was a dupe of the Padres Talent Pipeline. These were nice and all, but ey weren't all that I unwrapped in the two boxes. Each box had at least one numbered/color parallel.

I was thrilled to see the Rutherford in box one. The Holmes and the Pirates Talent Pipeline were both included in the second box I opened. In case it is hard to see in the scan, all three were purple parallels and were numbered /250.

I really like these! I guess you can say I'm a sucker for the 'special' chrome issues. As much as I'd like to chase the entire set, it is unlikely I'll take that plunge due to the set size. I'm pretty sure that it is 200 cards deep. I will, however, be on the lookout for a few more boxes to break and perhaps a few specific singles(assuming I'm not lucky enough to pull the ones I'm looking for). If anyone is interested I. This product, it should be noted that there are autos inserted in these packs as well. Aside from the auto chase, Topps also slipped the first English language card of Japanese league and WBC star Shohei Otani. If any of you watched the WBC, you'd understand some of the desirability of this card. Don't believe it's a hot commodity? Check the eBay sold listings for this one...they're through the roof. Darn prospectors! I'd want a copy because I enjoyed watching him play in the tournament, but if prices hold where they are or increase at all, I'd be hard pressed not to sell if I happen to pull a copy. Man, I feel bad saying that. Oh well, I guess I'll cross that bridge if I get to it.

For those that didn't know about this, sorry if I've now set you on your own quest to find some. To those who may be like me and have been unsuccessfully searching, I hope you enjoyed the brief glimpse. Thanks for reading.

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.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Collecting Year

Alright, alright... I'm probably exaggerating quite a bit, but the 'Holiday Mega Box' part of the collecting season is upon us!

While perusing the card aisle at my local Target the other night, I happened to see this thing of beauty staring back at me(because of the contents, not because Big Papi is on the box). I wasn't even aware that the release date was near. I happily grabbed a box and brought it home. I really liked the bubble-like, sparkly design Topps put out last year and when I heard these would be done in the same way, I was thrilled! Though I'm still working on the last few I need from last year's set, it was one of my favorites of 2015. This year's offering is a 50 card set that thankfully eliminates the skip-numbering of the 2015 set. Let's get cracking!

Since I haven't been posting quickly, I actually had time to visit another Target and pick up a second box, so I'll show off all 16 cards I've pulled thus far. I decided against scanning any of the base Update since its been out for a bit. I've also already collated the cards into set-building order so there won't be any creative box vs. box comparisons or anything. Sorry about that...

Man, I really dig the way these look!

This scan was not nearly as interesting as the first one.

This was, by far, the best of the base dominated scans out of these two boxes. Two Yankees, a great Rookie Debut, and a World Series Champion are hard to beat.

Here is the final base card and the parallel and inserts. The Almora RC that's done in the x-fractor style is /99. I wasn't a huge fan of the 3000 Hits Club base cards, but these look better and the fact that I pulled Ichiro and Cobb to start may sway me to try to assemble the complete insert set. Getting back to the Almora, I'm torn. I like the x-fractor look, but it just doesn't fit the set. Last year the parallels were gold and black, numbered /99 and /50 respectively. Both were still bubble refractors and the color scheme kinda made sense. However, this year the x-fractor is /99 and the parallel that is /50 is the gold refractor(there are also regular refractors). None of the parallels sport the bubble look this year...I'm so bummed.

I've got a long way to go on this set, but I'm definitely going to piece it together. I'm sure that in the coming days and/or weeks that I'll be picking up at least a few more 'mega boxes'. 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.

More Set Needs from Madding

Here it is, almost Christmas and I'm still chipping away at more 2015 sets(or insert sets) than I've collected in he last decade combined. That's why I dig it when I get packages that help me cross numbers off my checklists. Recently, I received more cards from Cards on Cards.

I really like the retail-only All-Star Game inserts and this DeGrom helps me get one card closer. I snapped up a lot of Update his far, but until this envelope arrived, I hadn't been lucky enough to pull that Jeter insert.

These, I really love. We've got a retail-only insert teamed with throwbacks. Between Walmart and Target, there are 50 of these to track down and I'm sure gonna try. Other than the card stock not really having the 'throwback' feel to it, I don't have any complaints about any of these that I've laid eyes on. I think it's a great way to close out a collecting season that has been heavy on throwback-themed inserts.

Great stuff. Who knows, maybe if I keep getting help like this with my set needs, I might be able to complete a few more sets before the dawn of the 2016 collecting season. Thanks Madding!