Fancy Foil Stamping

Foil-stamped fun and more from @marcbrubaker to help put the wraps on 2019. 

Topps seems to issue endless editions of its annual factory set during the summer, and one of them commemorates the All-Star game with a special stamp. I don't really know how long they've been doing this for, but I am pretty sure I've seen these before. Usually I'll end up with some sort of random parallel of some relief pitcher that I collect, maybe through a trade, or maybe through a repack box. If you're a player collector or even a team collector, buying this kind of stuff can get to be pretty spendy even if the set itself didn't cost all that much.

This is why it was terrific news that Marc Brubaker happened to come upon one of these sets and broke it up, contacting greedy team collectors like myself.

We're all probably sick to death of 2019 Topps flagship cards at this point, so I'll keep this pretty brief. I picked my top three faves of the set to scan here. The Busch Stadium wide shot reminds me of my incredibly fun first (?!) trip to St. Louis this past summer, although the ever present construction crane is missing from the backdrop in the photo. I'm going to miss Marcell Ozuna a little bit, because he seemed like a fun (but kind of weird) player. I always enjoy a baseball high five, though.

I also got to see Adam Wainwright start twice in person this year! I was pretty convinced that this was going to be his last season, but he had a pretty decent year all things considered and is back for 2020. He had pretty solid outings in both starts (at Seattle on July 3rd, and at home against the Cubs on July 30th) but didn't get credited with a so-called win in either start. The Cards won both games, however, so that's all that matters.

Marc sent other cards, including this flashy Chrome insert. I like these cards, but I'm not sure why they chose a photo of Yadi where he's clearly just witnessed something lousy. The hands are up on the head... it's probably out number 3, guys.

Also included with this generous package was a stack of 2019 Allen & Ginter needs. I have been playing and brushing up on a lot of '80s video games lately, so all I can think of is Capcom's 1942 series when I see this card. That's probably not great, is it.

There were plenty of Heritage needs to be found as well. I don't really give my set building pursuits anything close to equal time on this blog, but I had to make sure these were represented as there were a lot of them. I find it fascinating that Nixon was in charge when Earth Day was launched. I certainly wasn't aware of it until 1990, which would have been the 20th anniversary.

Finally, here's a nicely posed Kolten Wong spring training photo, complete with Delivery Dudes ad in the background. I don't think we have these Dudes around here, but I have long felt that there are entirely too many delivery companies in operation. How is anyone making money off of this?