My Favorite Cards of 2018

Okay, fine, my favorite trade package of 2018.

It's hard to pick a favorite. While I'm still catching up on trade posts from what is now considered last year (so last year), I thought I'd duck away from the trend of nominating favorites from 2018 releases. However, I'm always in search of a clever blog post name, so here we are. This big bunch of cards from A Cracked Bat was certainly among my favorite things to hit my mailbox this past year. While said blog's author Julie just announced she's quitting, I was happy to see that it was not the blog (or the hobby) that's getting the boot. There's always too much of that going around if you ask me.

Well, let's dig in. It's January, so it's official Bounceback Season. We're all hoping for a bounceback year from Carlos Martinez, who finished the season in the bullpen because he wasn't able to build up enough strength after recovering from far too many injuries to want to remember here.

My scanner was not in a bounceback mood, so it decided to make this Darrell Porter O-Pee-Chee card come out crooked. (Probably user error, to be fair.) I want to work on some of the older areas of my collections, like the '80s/oddballs and vintage Cardinals cards (to me, this is just pre-'80s) in the coming year.

Donruss pretty much invented the serial numbered chase card, and then continued to put numbered on pretty much all of their inserts until they went bankrupt or something. There are a lot of cards numbered to numbers in the thousands, like this Dmitri Young Rookie DK, but that serial stamp keeps tends to keep these things out of the dime boxes.

I was a big Luke Weaver fan, but it was frustrating to see him struggle to stay in games last season. His lack of success when he was pushed to the bullpen late in the season also didn't make a lot of sense. Hopefully, he will regroup and look more like 2017 Weaver in Arizona.

Triple Threads! Fancy stuff. It's time for Matt Carpenter's annual position change, which will see him back at the hot corner full time with the arrival of a certain slugger who swapped places with Weaver.

I was adding MLB Showdown cards to my want list the other day (I need, like, most of them!) when I thought I'd just take a glance at box prices. I figured these cards have no meaningful hits to speak of, and the "inserts" are basically just info cards for a game that no one ever plays. I was shocked to see that "booster boxes" (yes, this is technically considered a TCG/CCG) seem to go for $200-$300. I guess that's what happens when you're made by Wizards of the Coast?!)

Ozuna is a prime Bounceback Season candidate. Hopefully adding Paul Goldschmidt to the mix will take some pressure off of Ozuna at the plate.

I super love acetate cards. I hope people are casting some HOF votes for Scott Rolen.

I completed missed this Panini America's Pastime set, which must have been aimed at the high roller crowd considering that all of the base cards seem to be numbered.

Bonus Wainwright card! He's back for 2019. Have I mentioned this? (I most certainly have mentioned this.) I am hoping he ends up working in broadcasting when his career is over, because the dude is hilarious.

It's not pictured, but Julie also sent over a Topps Action Flats Mark McGwire figure from 1999. I already owned one thanks to another generous trader, but I recently discovered that the Topps cards inside are exclusive to the set. I think I am going to free the figure (and card) from its box and display it (the figure, at least) somewhere.

Finally, Julie sent me a whole mess of 2018 Topps Heritage cards for my set, because... I am still working on this set. I figured I would stop with this madness once Topps started saluting the '70s, but I haven't really decided on 2019 yet. We'll see.