We Did What Howie Says On That Game Show

Let me get this rolling - it's gonna take a while...

2024 Heritage is the annual tribute to one of the most popular vintage Topps designs.  (Just ask Night Owl).  1975 is also the birth year of my trading buddy and new blogger Stuart.  So, of course, this was going to be a big deal.  He said "Let's get a case!".

I said, "OK, what the hell...", even though I haven't been really into the current players since 2020.  At least the inserts will have a lot of the older guys I like.  So I ordered it.  It came in about a week.  

Two layers = 12 boxes

Unfortunately, Stuart wasn't going to be here in Maryland until June.  So we'd have to wait until he came for the shop and show tour culminating in Chantilly.  Finally mid-June came around and we could finally open the case.

Since this was an entire case, I figured we should document where the hits, etc. came out in which box and which pack within the box.  Not that many people care by this time, but it was interesting to me.  Just in case there was a pattern.

So I numbered each box - top and bottom layer in order.  I will open 1 thru 6, and Stuart will open 7 thru 12.

Each box is 24 packs - four stacks of six packs each.  

Stuart likes to open them a stack at a time.  I like to go by layers - top of each stack, then second pack, etc.  See if you think one method gave us better luck...

Stuart unwraps his first box...

And I pop the lid on mine....

As we went along ripping packs, we would take turns briefly announcing the cards we were finding.   We'd each open a pack and then listen to the other open his.   We were sort of mocking the hype of typical box breakers on YouTube, though we weren't recording.  And as we went, we gave goofy nicknames and other silly things to certain cards.

Just to spice it up a bit, since you can't watch and hear us do this, let me add some people who are good at this for other reasons.  Sorry, we're not nearly as pretty as the girls on Deal Or No Deal, but they are pros at opening cases.  :)

I'll mark each box opening with the girl and briefcase of that box number...

Box #1

Each box has some kind of box topper, either a jumbo copy of a Heritage card, or a '75 regular sized buyback card.  

First one out was the oversize local star Gunnar.  Stuart called dibs on the box toppers that weren't my player collections (seven out of 48 total boxloaders).  

First base cards we saw - Box 1 and 7.

First hit out of Box #1, Bat piece from Jose Ramirez of the Guardians.  Of course, we were just getting wound up and I forgot to write down which pack it came from.  I got the rest of them documented though.  Hit Location - Unknown

Pulled a couple white border parallels - which look really nice.  Also got one black...

...which as it turns out does not picture Hagen Danner, but Bradin Hagens.  So from then on, we announced this card as "Not Hagen Danner".

Also of note, the parallels are all marked above the card number as to what they are, but in the case of the black borders, they are marked "White Border".

Here are the final contents of Box #1.  Eight short prints (turned over), the jersey and the boxloader, the parallels (that Scherzer is a chrome /999), and the inserts.  The New Age Performers seem to be the most plentiful.  I do like the colors they used for the insert designs.  They go well with the '75 theme.  Those pink-framed Sensations and the mascot/nickname stickers are retail-only, so we didn't get any of those.

Box #7

Some of you might say "Why are you going out of order?", but it's just easier to do these as we opened them.  And it's the top box on the second stack anyway.

Stuart's first box topper was a buyback of Mike Caldwell.  I do like the Heritage buyback stamp the best of all of their various stamps, but they still put it in stupid places.  They really should come up with a better method of application.  I guess it's tough when you have to produce so many of them.

He also got two white borders and a black, but his was a chromey refractor out of 75.

He also got an image swap of Luis Matos.  

Luis Matos Hot Box!  The other white border was my guy Gunnar.

His first hit - Alcantara jersey.  It came from the top pack on the fourth (or rightmost) stack in the box.  Hit Location - Top 4th.

The rest of Box #7.  Eight short prints again, and similar quatities of the inserts.   Four "Nappy's", one or two Flashbacks, and a Then & Now.

Topps did a pretty nice job on the base cards.  There are only a few teams that look a little funky as far as the fonts, etc.  Every now and then I'd find this:

A run of three of the same color scheme back-to-back-to-back in the same pack.  But other than that, there are really no major complaints besides agreeing with the common observation that the backs are much harder to read than their original counterparts.  And I still don't know who most of these guys are....

Stay Tuned for the next few box breaks.  We get some great stuff...