A Splash of Snowflakes

I got a call from my dad about a month ago asking for opinions on cards. He was in the Wal-Mart card aisle, looking for something to break open and send along my way. He ultimately decided on two blaster boxes of 2018 Topps Update Holiday Snowflake.

To be honest, I had never even heard of the Holiday Snowflake set, but it sounded intriguing. I figured it was probably the same set as Topps Update with some snowflake graphics, which ended up being the case. Seeing as I never picked up any Update, however, I figured it would be fun. The snowflakes aren’t too intrusive, and when combined with great photography, they can make for a great card. Just check out that Beltre above.

Baseball, of course, is predominately a summer sport, and the juxtaposition of snowflakes and baseball players is a bit odd. In the baseball world, winter is typically reserved for a flurry of blockbuster trades and players signings, but that hasn’t been the case over the past two off-seasons, just ask Manny Machado (who, in case you haven’t heard, is still on the market). This is one of my first cards featuring Machado as a Dodgers and likely one of my last, especially with Corey Seager back in the fold after missing most of 2018 with Tommy John surgery.

Speaking of Seager, what a magnificent action shot.

I started my 2019 my officially closing the door on my Matt Kemp PC, but I think this may still find its way to Kemp’s binder in my closet. Topps sure does find a ton of shots of Kemp smiling.

As my dad ripped through the packs, we both remarked about the terrific parity in the pair of blasters. Each blaster contained 100 cards (10 packs of 10 cards), totaling 200 cards between the boxes. When all was said and done, we managed only 9 doubles. Not bad.

I’ve long been a fan of Shohei Ohtani, and I was excited about the possibility of pulling one of his rookie cards. The final pack held the cardboard of 2019’s hit two-way phenom and now so do I.

To make things better, each blaster box had a guaranteed hit, useful when recouping the price of the box or adding to a list of trade bait.

We managed a “only” pair of relics from a couple of All-Stars. Not bad.

It was a great pair of boxes overall and a fun time breaking the boxes across the country with my dad.