After wrestling with the decision that many other Topps Heritage collectors do at this time of year, especially in these "You're Gonna Get Topps and You're Gonna Like It" times, I did the only logical thing I could possible do. I bought a box. More specifically, I found a blaster for $15 at the monthly card show. It comes with the downside of not getting a special red or blue bordered card that you would get in a blaster from Walmart or Target, but it had one very curious bright spot...
Pack 1:
260 - Drew Stubbs - Here's my first Heritage card of the year. I didn't know that Stubbs has a new team. So here's the thing about the cards and where I finally decided just to go for the set once again this year. They look nice. They look so nice, in fact, that I realized that they are basically Allen & Ginter cards with a design inspired by 1964 Topps. I can't complain about that. I'm just lamenting the fall of the classic thick and chewy dark cardboard cards that we'll likely never see again.
205 - Howie Kendrick - Don't tell Topps, but Howie prefers to be called Howard these days.
85 - Todd Frazier
71 - Carlos Gomez
244 - Jon Jay - First Cardinal!
461 - Marco Scutaro - I can live with Scutaro's follicly challenged dome because it's an SP.
HC4 - Yadier Molina Chrome Purple Refractor - Yeah! Wait, what? Purple? It's not serial numbered, so history tells me that it's probably not rare. I also shouldn't get too excited about this card because I'm going to need another one for myself.
198 - Gavin Floyd
416 - Paul Maholm
Pack 2:
110 - Mark Trumbo
350 - Matt Cain
256 - Torii Hunter
100 - Robinson Cano - Congrats are due to the Dominican Republic on their impressive WBC run, by the way.
330 - Johnny Cueto
NAP-DW - David Wright New Age Performers - I'm a big fan of this design, I must say. I know there are about 35,325 David Wright collectors out there for some reason. Sorry, I have to keep this.
HC9 - Ian Kinsler Chrome Purple Refractor - Huh. I guess these are one per pack for some reason? I am not turning up much information through Google searches except that it's happened to other people, too, and it may be some sort of "hot box" situation. I don't know how I feel about this. They look amazing, but I don't consider Chromed up anything to be in the spirit of why I collect these silly sets.
45 - Brandon Phillips
327 - Heath Bell
Pack 3:
234 - Adeiny Hechavarria / Tyson Brummett Rookie Stars
9 - Braun / Stanton / Bruce / LaRoche NL HR Leaders
147 - Kyle Lohse - Has anyone signed Lohse yet?
370 - Bud Norris
201 - Manny Machado / Dylan Bundy Rookie Stars - I have to admit that I know next to nothing about this year's rookie class, but I keep hearing that people are excited about this card in particular.
HC52 - CC Sabathia Chrome Refractor (002 / 564) - Wow, this refractor business is getting crazy. The Yankees don't seem to be terribly popular among people I trade with, which has resulted in a huge glut of their cards in my boxes. Has anyone had luck with simply selling Yankees cards? The wrapper tells me that this is a 1:42 pack pull, if Topps is believed. I honestly don't know why anyone would believe them, considering how many disclaimers about virtually everything they put on their stuff, but it's nice of them to at least provide some hypothetical odds. Upper Deck gave that up years before their license expired.
HC18 - Matt Cain Chrome Purple Refractor
24 - Anibal Sanchez
406 - Jaime Garcia - More Cardinals! I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a healthy and productive 2013 for this lefty.
Pack 4:
294 - Liam Hendriks
62 - Starling Marte
243 - Darin Ruf / Tyler Cloyd Rookie Stars - These sound like fake player names one of my old baseball video games made up.
3 - Gonzalez / Dickey / Cueto / Lynn NL Pitching Leaders - 5 Cardinals cards in 4 packs! Yes, I consider a quarter of a Cardinal card a full Cardinal card.
273 - Matt Moore
MM-TR - Teddy Wins First Presidential Mascot Race Memorable Moments - You have got to be kidding me. Wow.
HC27 - Matt Kemp Chrome Purple Refactor - This looks nice, but Kemp has other opinions.
246 - Josh Hamilton
396 - Jeff Karstens
Pack 5:
358 - Casey Kotchman
250 - Prince Fielder
12 - Cabrera / Hamilton / Encarnacion AL RBI Leaders - Not pictured? Josh Willingham, who had the exact same number of RBI as Edwin Encarnacion! I would be pretty ticked if I was a Twins fan.
277 - Seth Smith
42 - Tommy Milone - A's cards are purple for some reason. 1964 made no sense.
476 - Yovani Gallardo - The Cardinals have owned Gallardo recently, even as he's continued to be one of the better pitchers in the NL Central.
HC32 - Jay Bruce Chrome Purple Refractor
197 - Mark Buehrle
187 - Tyler Clippard
Pack 6:
145 - David DeJesus
228 - Jason Vargas
55 - Brett Lawrie
351 - Matt Thornton
343 - Daniel Nava
214 - Jean Segura - Snooooze.
HC45 - Troy Tulowitzki Chrome Purple Refractor - Yeah! There we go! I'm awake now.
40 - Carlos Beltran - Beltran's Puerto Rico team came up just a bit short, especially on the offensive side.
400 - Kris Medlen
Pack 7:
288 - Logan Morrison
190 - Derek Jeter
220 - Matt Garza
93 - Christian Friedrich
206 - Huston Street
460 - Ryan Braun - Is it okay to hate Ryan Braun? I hate Ryan Braun. I hope he falls into a bucket of piss someday.
HC52 - CC Sabathia Chrome Purple Refractor - Oh, this guy again.
155 - Will Middlebrooks / David Ortiz Red Sox Sockers
78 - Mike Napoli - Napoli is still pictured with the Rangers because it took forever for his deal to go through.
Pack 8:
157 - Charlie Manuel
98 - Quintin Berry
213 - Michael Morse
272 - Matt Joyce
160 - David Freese - That makes 7 Cardinals by my count. Nice box!
NF-WF - 1964 World's Fair News Flashback - I guess this is better than a 2012 Teddy Roosevelt costume.
HC98 - Darin Ruf / Tyler Cloyd Rookie Stars Chrome Purple Refractor - These guys again.
398 - Jeurys Familia / Collin McHugh Rookie Stars
135 - Domonic Brown
So that's it. I may hang on to the purple refractors for a bit longer to see exactly how difficult they are to find, but there's a good chance I won't keep any of the ones that don't fit into my player or team collections. I am putting this set together and don't believe I have any doubles yet, but I will start listing the stuff I have for trade when the time comes.
Not that you don't think of me when Dodgers pop up, but as soon as you decide to let go of that Kemp, I'd sure like it.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yup, that's a Heritage hot box, 2013 style. I've seen 4 or 5 of these purple-in-every-pack boxes on internets so far.
By the way, of all colors, why purple? It really does not look good on the Heritage.
Happy to take these Yankees off your hands if you like !
ReplyDelete^^ I was going to say, Jeroen is your CC Sabathia trade guy. I can vouch for him as an excellent trader.
ReplyDeleteNO - do you have any of the purples? In-hand, they're fantastic.
I'm glad to see someone else got a purple refractor hot box. I found one in the form of a 2012 Topps Chrome blatser, also discounted - except in that, every card was a purple refractor except for what would normally be a refractor.
I've got some '13 Heritage I want to unload. I'll send you an email
ReplyDeleteThat is a good Cardinals haul! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI've bought several packs just for the heck of it and since I'm not planning on building the set, perhaps I can help you out. Let me know when you have a list ready of what you need.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I just pulled a hand numbered Cardinals mini (Allen Craig) today from a retail pack so go find me some Braves to trade!
yankees stuff goes pretty good on Listia...
ReplyDeleteAh, too much purple for me.
ReplyDeleteSince you're going to trade these, set the Kins aside for me if you don't mind.
ReplyDelete