Affordable Cards

Another crop of @flywheels Affordable Group Break Cardinals cards. 

 

The Cardinals have been a very frustrating team to watch in 2021, but that doesn't mean I've enjoyed adding new Cards cards to my collection this year. This latest group come from some of last spring's group breaks hosted by Colbey of Cardboard Collections / Affordable Group Breaks. These breaks included a nice mix of new products and old-but-still-affordable stuff.

If next year is truly the last hurrah for Topps, and all indications so far is that it will be, I'm glad that they got to pay tribute the 1986 set. That set, which lacked a lot of star power and rookies to chase, still holds a special place for me as it was my first introduction to ripping open packs. I'm significantly less excited to see the inevitable 1987 tributes next year, because it feels like they've been down that road a few times already.

There was a brief period of time where 2021 Donruss cards were available at the local Target store. This must have been before various fights across the country shut down that avenue to buy cards. I never quite got used to this design and wonder if it might end up becoming a forgotten set in the future, especially with Panini also coming up on their final season to make (logo-less) baseball cards.

I don't usually go for a lot of the foil heavy '90s sets, but 1997 Select does have a pretty good selection of nice looking cards. Panini currently owns this brand name. The future still seems to be very up in the air for all of these legacy brands.

The 1999 Pacific Invincible set is a weird one. Given the number of base cards I've seen from the set, it seems like the inserts are much more common than anything else. However, this McGwire Flash Point card is one I hadn't seen before, so I may have beaten the odds here.

Last up is an early Albert Pujols insert card. With Yadier Molina extending his contract for one final season, talk of maybe sort of bringing Albert back to St. Louis has reached more than a murmur. The storybook ending of seeing Yadi, Pujols and Waino all retire together in the Cardinals uniform certainly sounds nice, but would it mean sticking it out through yet another super frustrating season? I suppose the introduction of the DH to the National League (BOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!) would make an offer to Pujols seem much more attractive.