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. 

A Final Visit to my LCS

Several weeks ago, I dropped by the LCS near my work. Detailed here by Zippy Zappy at Torren' Up Cards, Chameleon Cards & Comics was a 10-minute walk from my office and around the corner from Topps' headquarters. Unfortunately, the landlord decided to hike up the rent, and they had no option but to close--their last day was March 30th. 

Of course, this was beyond disappointing, especially since I had only recently discovered this LCS and it was by far the best NYC has to offer. Their unfortunate demise, however, resulted in a ton of cheap cards, something my frugality certainly appreciated. 

There wasn't a whole lot left by the time I made it into the store, but they still had several boxes of Series 1 hanging around. I had most of the Dodgers out of the set by this point, but it's not often I get to rip hobby packs for a buck each. (I'm still chasing a pair of Dodgers to finish up the Series One set.)

I bought close to twenty packs of Flagship, though I didn't pull anything staggering. This Robin Yount '84 is one of those 150th Anniversary parallels, meaning it's numbered to 150 (I think). Not bad. 

I failed to pull any short prints or #'d parallels other than that Yount, but I did get a Yoan Moncada relic. Not very exciting. Maybe he'll finally break out this year and I can flip it to help pay off student loans. A man can dream, right?

While ripping those packs, I noticed a pack of the Topps Silver promo set hanging out behind the register. I asked the clerk about it, and he said it was mine for five bucks. Sign me up!

The silver packs feature shiny chromium "mojo" cards, and the 50-card set list features current and past stars. Each pack includes four cards, and there is a decent shot at pulling some autos and numbered cards. Of course, as a big fan of the '84 design and a bigger fan of chromium/shiny/refractory cards, I was thrilled to rip the pack. 

This pack netted me the Mike Trout at the top of this post, as well as the sweet green parallel of Kyle Schwarber you see above. It's #'d /99 and will surely make a Cubs fan happy. 

The shop happened to have three more packs, so I bought those, too. 

A great mix of all-time greats (Henderson, Ripken, Mattingly), productive veterans (Posey, Altuve, Yelich) and young studs (Soto, Baez). 

These are some of the coolest cards I've ever seen, and the chromium finish really makes the colors pop. I'm hoping to get these on a scanner soon because my phone's camera is certainly not doing these cards justice. 

Despite the brilliance of the card fronts, the backs are slightly disappointing. Every card comes with the same boilerplate description of the 1984 set (which, fine I guess) but I was hoping Topps would do more to individualize these cards.  

While I walked away from the shop with a ton of great new shiny cardboard, this Ohtani takes the cake. I've been following Ohtani's career for nearly six years now, hoping for the longest time that the two-way phenom would sign with the Dodgers last year. And though he signed with the wrong Southern California team, it's hard not to root for the guy. I've been considering starting an Ohtani PC, though his cards are quite pricy, so I've been hesitant to jump in. 

I was considering collecting the entire set but decided against it. I plan on holding on to the Ohtani, but the rest of these are fair game for anyone that wants to trade out there. 

I only dropped by Chameleon Cards & Comics a handful of times, but I'm sad to see them go. For the city that claims to have it all, it's quite the wasteland for solid card shops. I'm glad I was able to stop in one last time.