March Loot

The latest @thelootlocker installment came with a big hit. 

I'm going with an abbreviated version this time around as two of the packs of my latest Loot Locker were my first two 2016 Topps Heritage packs. I always make it a point to collect this set, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of ink to spill (or keys to smack) about it as the year goes on.

No inserts were to be found, but I snagged an SP out of each pack. It seems like King Felix is always an SP.

Hopefully Odubel is a good player, for the Phillies sake anyway. I never understand the criteria used for selecting which 75 cards get the short print treatment. Are the Phillies sticking to a solid rebuild plan or is Ryan Howard beating up all the kids and taking their lunch money?

The 2015 Bowman Chrome pack proved to be fruitful, as it produced a big money card from (confusingly) 2014. And by big money, I mean... holy crap, I could sell this thing on eBay for $80-$100 apparently! As most of you know by now, I'm not really in this thing for the money and a fellow blogger got excited about this card and sent me something that is a good fit for my collection. More on that later.

I want to talk about putting cards from 2014 in 2015 products, though. This just feels really gimmicky to me. I know they've done similar things with Kris Bryant and Carlos Correa lately, but it just feels off. I get that Topps gets excited about a young player who is succeeding out of the gate and wants to make sure they have ample time to get things signed on card (I know this is good) and get the requisite "hits" out there, but there's got to be some other way they can do this. And when you hold things back like Topps held these back for another year, you have to wonder how many of these things were actually printed. This card is the refractor version, but it's not like it's serial numbered. Someone smarter than me about Bowman rookie autos can feel free to chime in.

Back to my favorite thing in Loot Lockers, my 2015 Bowman's Best pack was... well... the best. I pulled a green Miguel Cabrera refractor, numbered to 99. This will make some Tigers fan that I trade with happy, I am willing to bet.

This is a Mirror Image insert, and these guys are both brothers and teammates. They're not identical twins, however, because that would be a very small insert set concept.

Finally, here's a shiny Tulo refractor for Erin's collection. He's on one of my fantasy teams this year, so I'm hoping this is the year he doesn't lose an appendage as is his usual M.O.