I Bought into the Hype

Before we get to my recent t206 purchase, be sure to head over to my buddy Nate's blog at The Bucs Stop Here to enter his latest contest. Just make your MLB predictions for the year, and you might win some free cards. And give him a follow if you don't already.

Now back to our regular programming....

A few months back Topps announced the return of the popular 206 line of cards. They were to be sold exclusively on the Topps website with card counts limited to the number of packs purchased. This isn't something I'd typically go for, but in a COVIDworld where picking up new packs of cards was few and far between, I bought into the hype.

The cards are released in ten different waves, so the two boxes I purchased were part of the first release, or Series One I suppose. The first release contains two different Dodgers (Corey Seager and Gavin Lux) though they didn't make an appearance in the boxes I opened.

First impressions: these cards are a bit too over-filtered. (A complaint I have with many current day Topps' products.) 

Now that's not to say I didn't add some cool new cardboard to my collection. You can't go wrong with a pack of cards containing Mike Trout, Mr. October, and Johnny Bench. 

Some current baseball players were also represented, including the Yankees newest and most expesive starter. The collation between the two boxes wasn't great. Of the twenty cards between the two boxes, I received dupes of Gerrit Cole and Scott Kingery. It doesn't seem like much, but that's 10% of the cards. Not insignificant.

Though these boxes can contain "surprise autographs" and rare back variations, mine didn't have 'em. Each box does promise two "Piedmont" back cards, which you can see above next to the standard back. Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't appear that these cards are numbered. I'm not sure if this is normal for a Topps online exclusive product or not.

These are enjoyable cards, but it's unlikely I'd buy packs of these again. At fifteen bucks a pack, the value just isn't there for me. I'm sure I could find the Dodgers for a fraction of what I spent on these two boxes alone. 

But hype can be hard to ignore sometimes. 

And I suppose that's how I wind up with trade bait.