Weird parallels.
Retail exclusives are nothing new, but this season's Walgreen's exclusive deal with Topps was weirdly executed. There's a Walgreen's in my neighborhood, and while I can't say I frequent it even once a week, I've definitely been in there quite a few times during the baseball card year. So it was a surprise today that I ended up finding a single hanger pack on the rack for the first time this year. With the Update Series having already come and mostly gone, it was also strange that this was a Series 1 pack, but I can't really complain. I haven't seen any of this.
If this is all new to you, and there's no reason it shouldn't be, these unmarked boxes sold at Walgreen's contain special exclusive yellow parallel cards. Target and Walmart used to have something like this, and Toys 'R Us had their own incredibly overpriced parallels for awhile until they went out of business (something called Meijer took over the expensive purple parallel business.) And here we have special yellow bordered cards, because Walgreen's and, I don't know, jaundice go hand in hand?
I won't have any trouble finding a home for this one. Baez is the one Cub that I could honestly say I'd probably be a fan of if he didn't wear the dippy duds of the north side Chicago team.
Are there any Orioles fans anymore?
Rafael Devers was probably the "pull" of the pack as far as these things go.
Somebody on the street told me the Washington Nationals won the World Series and I told them to stop smoking that rock.
I never figured out to say this guy's last name.
This is probably going in the Night Owl stack.
There were a few other interesting things in the pack/box, including the requisite inserts. One of the better things about this year's Topps flagship set are these Greatest Moments/Players/Seasons inserts.
Here's another parallel, but you don't have to shop at a certain retail outlet to get one of these.
Is this some sort of ad or... what? It has a card number on the back, so I guess not. It just seems incredibly stupid to show another baseball card framed (askew) on a card and then expect people to care about it.
I'm pretty sure this guy has been almost every pack I've opened since this time of the year in 2008. I'm pretty tired of it!
These are weird because there are no Series 2 Walgreen's yellow, but then were brought back for Update and the boxes are, in fact, now marked. Quite an odd journey for these by Topps.
ReplyDeleteMy local Rite-Air is currently in the process of converting to a Walgreens. I'll have to check and see if they have any cards.
ReplyDeleteThat situation A.J. mentioned is weird for sure, and I'm still not a huge fan of retail-specific parallels. Meijer is a chain that's common up here--think of it as a much, much nicer Wal-Mart.
ReplyDeleteAs for that Rich Hill Yellow, I'll happily get in line behind Night Owl for it if he doesn't need it, please!
I didn't know that about Series 2. I think they are still listed on most checklist sites as existing, but I don't see any evidence that they actually do. Weird.
ReplyDeleteDennis - I forgot that Rich Hill was a Michigan guy, so I put it in your stack.
The Walgreens by my house had the yellow parallels in Series 1 in June/July, but a few weeks ago there was a series 2 hanger and it did not have the parallels in it, just bizarre all around.
ReplyDeleteHad no clue these yellow Walgreens parallels existed. Shame there isn't a Tatis for me to collect... but I'm now on the hunt for some A's (especially Laureano).
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