Cards on Cards: 5 on the 5: 2010 Topps Opening Day

Sunday, February 28, 2010

5 on the 5: 2010 Topps Opening Day

I made two rather embarrassing baseball card purchases today, but I'm not ready to call this one the most embarrassing. As much as there is to dislike about the Opening Day set overall, I was disappointed when it was cancelled last year. Call me a sucker for variations on the same basic design. I wanted to see what color they might choose for the border. This year, it seems that they have chosen the exact same color as the border, which is disappointing. The other oddness that others have already uncovered is that Topps apparently saved all of its Photoshop work for the Opening Day set, which is unusual. Anyway, I won't go so far as to collect this set or anything, but I will collect the Cardinals. Besides, at 99 cents a pack, you have to at least appreciate that this is about as close as you can get these days to picking up a pack for some loose pocket change.

Pack 1:

93 - Josh Beckett

87 - Mat Latos (There are now two "Mats" in the majors. That's alarming.)

215 - Chris Pettit (Whoever he is, I seem to get his cards like crazy.)

8 of 10 - Chipper Jones Where'd You Go, Bazooka Joe? (Topps seemed to make a serious effort at coming up with some of the most bafflingly bad insert set names this year.)

109 - Akinori Iwamura (Here's one of the Photoshopped cards. The photo could double as one of the "not licensed" photos that plague the unlicensed Upper Deck set this year.)

82 - Jeff Francoeur

55 - Brett Anderson

Pack 2:

77 - Josh Hamilton

208 - Drew Stubbs

8 - Johnny Cueto

TTS18 - David Wright ToppsTown Stars (Free code! The ToppsTown inserts are only in 1 out of 3 packs apparently, and look completely different from the base set version.)

174 - Derek Jeter

146 - Jimmy Rollins

160 - Grady Sizemore

- Topps Attax code

Pack 3:

89 - Roy Halladay (I know this card has been seen elsewhere, but this is definitely an example of lousy Photoshopping.)

53 - David DeJesus

2 - Derrek Lee

M23 - Rangers Captain Mascot (Mascot cards are inserts this time around? Wait... the Rangers mascot is actually called "Rangers Captain"? I don't know what to say about that.)

40 - Kenshin Kawakami

155 - Jake Peavy

164 - Kosuke Fukudome

Pack 4:

113 - Carlos Delgado

216 - Daniel McCutchen

12 - Cristian Guzman Light Blue Parallel 1818/2010 (I actually really like these, and by now you all probably know how I feel about serial numbered cards. I just wish this was a player I liked. I think this set would have worked better with blue borders, but they would have had to choose another color for the serial numbered parallels.)