I Search Packs (And So Can You, Too)

On Sunday afternoon, I was strolling through a big box store for the first time in quite awhile, searching for a nice pair of flip-flops. I figured I may as well see what was going on in the trading card aisle, and somehow convinced myself to buy a $4.99 "value pack" of the brand new 2010 Topps 206. I'm not really sure I understand this set, as the original "206" set was a tobacco card set that bore little to no resemblance to today's "vintage" product. That being said, I think I could get really into this set anyway if all of the cards were tobacco "mini" size instead of just one per pack.

In any case, I talked myself into buying the pack because the first pack I picked up clearly had a Cardinal (Matt Holliday) showing through the top of the wrapper. As I leafed through other packs to decide what else to buy, I finally noticed another pack that also had Holliday showing as well as Albert Pujols on the back. Nice luck, yeah? Let's see what else there was.

56 - Nick Markakis (I actually don't mind the design. It's fairly clear and crisp, but I still can't fully wrap my head around it. And, admittedly, the "no hats" thing is really strange.)

86 - Chris Carpenter (Whoa! Carp! This makes 3 Cardinals since I know I'm already getting 2 by peeking through the wrapper.)

222 - Tom Seaver Piedmont Mini (Minis are nice, and I can't complain about Tom Seaver.)

I would guess that Piedmont backs are the most common variety of mini as they were last year.

153 - Ryan Braun (Clearly the Topps copy writer isn't getting paid by the letter.)

190 - Kenshin Kawakami

180 - Gil Meche

221 - Albert Pujols (Albert looks really... mad.)

1 - Matt Holliday (Holliday is affectionately known as "Lego" around a certain popular Cardinals blog community because his head somewhat resembles the bald knobby head of a Lego person.)

78 - Placido Polanco Bronze (Mr. Potato Head!)

249 - Rick Ankiel (Ankiel didn't log many games in a Royals uniform and had long since been dealt to Atlanta before this set hit the streets.)

232 - Joe Saunders

15 - Mordecai Brown (If this guy wasn't so old-timey, I wouldn't have let him violate my no-Cubs images policy.)

I won't be collecting this set, but the cards look a bit nicer than expected and I'm happy to have three fewer Cardinals cards to chase.