Sterling & Platinum

This week's cracked wax from @CrackinWax features only the shiniest on this #CrackinWaxMailDay 

Bowman Sterling is one of the latest Topps brands to be revived for these card-thirsty years. I believe the short-lived brand name was actually revived in 2019, but I completely missed the boat on those. It's not one of those products that gives you a lot bang (i.e. cards) for your buck. Instead, it promises the other kind of bang that some collectors enjoy. Still, I wanted to at least sample the stuff, because I really can't always help myself. I ended up grabbing a spot o' Sterling in one of the latest Crackin' Wax box breaks, along with a few other things.

I just ended up with the two base cards for my team, but this Kwang-Hyun Kim card could someday be a nice rookie card in my collection with the way people... what, okay, fine, it's a pitcher. Apparently nobody likes pitchers. It's weird to learn this so late in my (baseball card) life. What do you cash-blowing people have against pitchers? They're important dudes!
 

I can only really tell the different years of Topps Gold Label apart from their player selection, so I know that this is from 2016 because it features Stephen Piscotty and an RC logo. Otherwise, I really have no idea what the difference is between this and the last few years of this set. It always looks nice, though.

I just checked the numbers today thanks to a Night Owl tweet, and it turns out that this is my 805th unique Ozzie Smith card. He still has a ways to go to catch that pesky Pujols in my collection, but at least the number of Pujols Cardinals cards still being produced has dwindled over the years. Of course, I expect this trend to reverse itself not long after Albert retires.

It's never one of my favorite releases, but I just couldn't resist another Bowman Platinum break. This time I landed an auto of the Cardinals catcher of the future, Andrew Knizner. Of course, we all know what happened to the last guy who we said was the catcher of the future.

I'm not sure that Yadi is going anywhere right now. I'm knocking on wood, of course.