Hanging 'Round My Trade Bait Pile

Figured I should add scans of the trade bait from the two hanger boxes I got last week.  I really only netted one card from both hangers - a 1960's Decade's Best '69 Mets team.  Oh well, $20 for the cause I guess.

We'll start things off with the two Chrome Turkey Reds.  Nice to get Acuña for trade bait.  (That's Alt+164 on your number pad to make the ñ)  I can never understand the logic in chromifying older style cards.  Metallize 90's designs, not the vintage stuff.  Though I guess a lot of those used foil and mirrorboard all the time anyway.

Some very popular names in these turkeys, I mean, Turkey Reds.  I think these work better as oversize cards like they were originally.  The names are too hard to read when the frames are shrunk to regulation size.  A lot of these look like the photographer took the player out to a golf course with all the trees and unmarked grass.  Those aren't baselines, they're cart paths!  At least Altuve has a stadium behind him.

Ooh, big name Yankee on useless reprint set du jour.  Moving on....

A couple more '85s for those inclined to quest for them.  I think Topps was rooting for the Astros in the post season last year.

I didn't notice the "RHYS" in the background until scanning these.  Otherwise, I actually like the look of this series.  These are #4, 5, 12, and 30.  Which lead me to say "There are frikkin' thirty of these things?!!"  Bryce Harper's original Highlights set in 2017 Update was only 20.  Looks like all the guys since then (which I've completely ignored) have had 30.  Geez, these guys only play for like a year, how do they get 30 highlights in that short time?  Hype machine in full throttle, I guess.

Anyway, if you need any of these (and any from the previous post), hit me up.

Hoping Bigger Is Better

I took the same route jumping into 2020 Topps Series 1 as I did for 2019 Update.  Bought one Jumbo box from Charm City Cards.  It's so nice to have a dealer about an hour away - I ordered on Thursday afternoon (don't tell the boss) and it showed up Friday.

Won't show the base cards, since you can see them multiple places these days.  I'm confident that I'll get a complete series out of the box.  It's been proven true by the reports I've seen so far.  One trader said they were one card short, and then found a few laying on the floor including the missing culprit.

Let's dive in.  Do you wanna see the "hits" first?  Of course you do.

Ha! Fooled ya!  While this is counted as one of the hits in the box, it's a manufactured "Sleeve patch" which should NEVER be classified as a "relic".  Hey, decent looking card item, but doesn't count as a "hit".

Speaking of deG deMoney:

deGrom hot box!  Black parallel insert.  Looks a little better than the plain one Night Owl got, but it's so dark it looks like it would fit in with this year's Heritage.  Parallel inserts are almost as annoying as fake hits, in that all they are is an insert you didn't actually get if you're trying to build them all.

Now this is an actual "hit".  Of course, it's a Rockie Rookie (hey that's fun to say) that I've never heard of, so it's trade bait.  Nice looking card with the team color theme throughout though.

But all was not lost:

YESSS!!!  I'm all in on the Nationals World Series championship stuff.  I want all the parallels to all the World Series Highlight base cards.  Never figured I'd get lucky enough to pull a jersey of them too, so I'm really happy about this, white swatch and all.  Although when I looked closer, it says right on it "Item is not from the 2019 World Series".  *sigh*  Even Topps can't find the blue jerseys from the Postseason.

Anyway, on to the shiny.  Actually got two silver packs (which were blue wrappers) in the box basically unannounced.  Pulled some nice names.

Got this guy too.  Night Owl loves his Turkey Red insert, which is arguably the same photo with the crowd left in the blurred background.  Well, he and Clayton above are going to Night Owl so he can enjoy this one too.  All I can think of is "Get a haircut!"

As for the regular '85s, I did pretty well pulling names again.  Not that I'll be after these though.  I used to dismiss the 1985 design and pure junk wax, but it's a lot cleaner than most during that time.  It's kinda grown on me.  But not enough to pursue 250 of them.

I might add the Nationals team set from these to the WS cards.  So both of these are keepers.  Matty is for another collector I know who just gathers his cards.

The Decade's Best are the one large set I might go after this time.  At least all the "award winners", "batters", "teams" and things are all in the same series.

I'm aware the insert ratios have dropped through the floor in the last couple years, so I'm only sort of OK with pulling six of these from one jumbo box, but only managed two different decades' subjects.  Not a big problem, but would have been nice to see a mixture of the eras.  That Astros card may cause a bit of controversy these days.  Anyone see the interview with AJ Hinch on MLB?

These aren't bad either, and they're only 30 cards big.  Will keep Soto either way.  Already have a request for Devers, but I'll have to see how easy they are to trade for first.

Here is my slightly oversize (3¼" x 4½") box topper Turkey Red.  At first rip, I thought I got Aroldis Chapman, but it's Matt.  Can't say I'm too familiar.  Are you interested, Fuji?

Got one of the contest cards with Mr. Retail Highlight insert set Hoskins.  Cool looking card with the layers and the throwback uni.  I can pair this with the four HHL's I got in the hanger boxes earlier for anyone who's a fan.

Topps Choice.  Which apparently means Topps chooses to reprint current players on an old design for a FOURTH incarnation.  I've run this point into the ground, but again, isn't Heritage, Archives, and this year's '85 tribute set enough?  Nope, must have a generic reprint insert set every year too.

Not to be outdone in it's uselessness, here is card #1 of the Topps NOW review inserts.  They basically say, "Here's what you missed out on, and have no chance to ever get cheaply again."

Now, the parallels.  These are the gold foils that are exclusive to jumbo boxes.  I pulled a couple of these in the first few packs and thought they might be the new incarnation of the golds, just shiny now.  But nope, these are a new flavor.  They actually look pretty nice - better than they scan.  The gold looks like gold and the blue tint isn't really there.  More in a moment...

These are the regular foils.  Astros and Sawx, par for the course.  If it was against just about any other team, I'd have felt bad for Verlander losing another postseason.

The rest of the foils were all Giants.  I can see why they might make a lot of the playoff teams, but the Giants?  Guess it's just luck of the draw.  Are you still around ArpSmith?  I got the regular Davis horizontal in the previous pack. 

These are the regular "golds".  Again with the Giants.  Yelich isn't a bad pull.  Could package this one, the Choice '91, and the shiny '85.  But look at these closer.  The "gold" is really a tan color.  The scan is actually accurate and unaltered.  Somebody got some chocolate in the peanut butter.

So that's all that came out.  You'll hear about it if I don't get a whole base set, but I probably will.  And there's a good stack of dupes, especially since the whole base contents of two hangers will be added to them.  Happy trading and let me know what you need here.

A Preview Of 2020 Products

Was perusing the listings for new products the other day, and went through most of the major products to see what I might be motivated to get into this year.  This might actually be a heavy year for me and new products.  I'll show you what I mean.

When I look at the list of products scheduled to appear in 2020, I can eliminate several immediately, just because I know they don't coincide with what I like to collect.  Right off the bat, I can strike down pretty much anything Bowman, since I have no attraction to prospect cards, any of those non-licensed Leaf and TriStar things that are also rookie-centric, and most of the high end mojo-only type of products, since I'm sure I'd pull hits from the no-name rookies from the Diamondbacks, Rays, Padres, and Rockies.  (Nothing wrong with those teams at all, but they're just not in my collecting wheelhouse.)

So we're left with this list:

Flagship Topps (& Update)
Heritage
Donruss
Opening Day
Gypsy Queen
Panini Diamond Kings
Big League
Finest
Stadium Club
Allen & Ginter
Chrome
Archives

Which ones will I Collect, Which ones lead me to Reflect and decide later, and which ones will I ultimately Reject?  Let's find out....

Flagship Topps

Mostly doing flagship so I can end on an even year.  Design is decent enough, and some of the Decade's... inserts may be interesting, at least the smaller (20-30 card) sets.  There are THREE insert sets that are 100 cards for series 1, and will probably be 250+ by the Update series.  I will not be bothering with the 1985s or Turkey Reds.  The Decade's Best may be too big to tackle too.  Just depends on how I buy this stuff.  Verdict: Collect

Topps Heritage

I'm almost disappointed that Heritage had to hit 1971 this year.  Though I've been jumping on A&G and Stadium Club the last few years pretty consistently, it'll be a nice diversion to hit Heritage for once.  Although I'm not sure how far I'll delve into it since the inserts will be exactly the same as they always are.  Then & Now, New Age Performers, News & BB flashbacks, and the Willie Mays 20 seasons.  Might be OK.  But I can't see not going for the '71 tribute.
Verdict: Collect

Panini Donruss

 

Hmmph.  Sorry Donruss.  If you can't even show me a base card in the sell sheet, I'm not interested.  I'm pretty sure they will be putting base cards in the packs, they just are too parallel-crazy and Rated Rookie Relentless that there just isn't any reason to show the crappy plain old base card.  They'll probably look like a mishmash of late 80's designs anyway.  Gotta push Rookies, Rookies, Rookies, and eyeball parallels.  Child please.  Verdict: Reject

Topps Opening Day

Normally, I'd only do Opening Day if there was a feature of it unique to the flagship set (omission of stupid foil, or a better version of the design, etc.).  Or that I've rejected the lame flagship inserts and only got the base set (like in 2018).  This year, that is not really the case.  The one motivation that I might have is some of the insert concepts.  Walk This Way!'s showing walkoffs (much better than those monstrosities in 2012), Mascots are always fun, Spring (Training) Has Sprung - an original way of showing pre-season shots, and The Lighter Side of Baseball - which should be cool, but are "limited print", so they won't be obtainable.  Verdict: Reflect

Gypsy Queen

Ever since GQ went to the pastel greens and blues (and every other clashing color) scheme a few years ago, I've been put off by it.  The 2020 version looks like they're coming back around to a classier and more refined (formal?) design theme.  I'm encouraged, but it doesn't quite draw me back in yet, especially since I think I'm doing so much otherwise already.  Keep going in this direction GQ crew, and I may be back soon.  Verdict: Reject

Panini Diamond Kings

Another one that I'm waiting to hit just the right intersection of enticing design and lack of competition.  Even though it's logoless, I've kept an eye on DK for a few seasons, but haven't pulled the trigger so far.  Will keep this on the "hopeful" list for the future.  Verdict: Reject

Topps Big League

I dove into Big League last year and liked it a lot.  Still finishing up the last few inserts and a whole bunch of the base cards.  The next incarnation has gone to a 2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee looking graphic scheme that is nice and straightforward compared to 2019's crooked stack of photos base cards, but it's lost its luster.  The other inserts contain a lot of white frames and space, and fall short of the visual richness of the other two Big League products.
Verdict: Reject

Topps Finest

The example photo was a quick "photoshop" hacking of the closest image that appears in the sell sheets for finest.  Topps did a Donruss in that they never show a base card in the promo sheet, but instead thought a Gold Refractor parallel was a more worthy illustration.  So I removed the gold color.  Finest is another product I've never bought at the box level, but have monitored for cool designs for several years.  Have yet to jump on it, and it's not happening this time either.  Verdict: Reject

Stadium Club

I've enjoyed the last couple Stadium Club releases, and will probably do some more in the future years if they keep up the quality.  Think I'll pass this time though, since, like Heritage and a few others, the format is largely the same and the current design is OK but not earth-shattering.  Again too, if I wasn't adding a couple extra sets this year, I might jump in.  Verdict: Reluctantly Reject

Allen & Ginter

A&G is quickly becoming my favorite new product.  Well, let me rephrase that.  Since I got a big box of several base sets really cheap a few years ago, and then came into another monster box of A&G and GQ from various years for peanuts, I've loved adding several different A&G sets to my wants.  There have been a few aesthetic lows in the base designs, but overall, I like the general look of this set more than any other.  And whichever team comes up with the insert concepts should be promoted and take over the decision making for all Topps products.  I wasn't really planning on getting into A&G for a third consecutive year - I had generally been hitting the even numbered years between 2014 and 2019.  But I just saw the 2020 base design in researching this post, and I am actually impressed again.  It's a bit more squarish and sharp-edged compared to the schemes they've used since 2014, which had more frills and curves, but I still like it.  It's well balanced and fills the entire space.  And the inserts are phenomenal again.  9 Ways to First Base, plus catchers and various animal and city subjects.  While not quite as inspiring as the last two issues, these keep up the level of quality and variety.  I"ll just have to see how I feel about it when it comes out late in the calendar.  Verdict: Reflect

Topps Chrome

Chrome, like Opening Day, to me is a duplication of the flagship set, only shiny.  Shiny by itself, has never been a big draw for me personally.  Only an epic design that is improved by the "metalization" would attract my money.  If they make the side graphics in all silver, these might look good.  Hard to tell from the image.  But the biggest detractor of Chrome is the price point.  For what you pay per pack and only getting around four cards, I can't justifiy it.  I'd almost have to find it in bulk and just build the base set.  Unless the price goes way down (whick I doubt because that technology has to cost something), then I'll pass.  Verdict: Reject

Topps Archives

It's too early to know which vintagey designs Archives will be using this year.  It's the only product on the list that doesn't have presale sell sheets out yet.  Probably fine, though, I've felt like Archives is redundant now that there has been Heritage for so long along with the yearly "tribute" 250+ card inserts for the late 80's set that now clog up flagship.  When they made the shortprints unattainable back several years, that turned me off and I haven't looked back.  The Fan Favorite type player autos are nice, but that's the only real draw here for me.  Verdict: Reject

So I've culled the list down to Flagship (& Update), Heritage, and maybe Opening Day and A&G.  Collecting three current sets is actually on the heavy side for me.  Last year it was four - Flagship & Update, A&G, Stadium Club, and Big League, and I haven't completely finished any of them.  2018 was F&U, A&G, and Stadium Club.  2017 was much lighter than that.  So 2020 should be a collecting year that sees a bit of a diversion over to Heritage, and possibly the last flagship set I'll build.  A&G and SC will continue to be on my radar, but I'm thinking my older wants may take more of a focus after that.

Of course, should events take a major turn - like allowing other companies licenses - I may chuck all these plans and jump into a lot more current products in the coming years.  We'll see.

Which products do you plan on building this year?  Which ones do you look forward to every season?

Inserts Into The Sky!

Back when 2017 Topps Series 1 came out, I did a post on the escalating number of inserts that have been included with the flagship set.  I just updated those charts to include the complete offerings of 2017 and 2018, and now Series 1 in 2019 Topps.

It's not getting any better.

The truth is, since my post in mid-2017, inserts have just about DOUBLED in total quantity.  Instead of inserts totaling half the base set, they have now EXCEEDED it.

                    Base                Inserts

 2015           1100                   562

2016           1000                  574

 2017           1000                 1100

 2018           1000                 1203

                                2019           1000*               1500+???*      *-projected

In the original chart, you can see that since 2008, total inserts had risen and floated at about 600 plus or minus, for several years.

The same chart, updated for the last few years, shows the explosion.  The same 600 card level is now dwarfed by the totals for 2017 & 2018.

The number of insert sets included with flagship & update have been rather steady since 2015, hovering between 20 and 25.  Topps could cut this number down a few more if they would have made the Salutes and the 80's tributes separate products like they should have been, but then the tributes would have competed directly with Archives and Heritage and become totally pointless.

The average cards per insert set has also leveled off at just over 50.  This doesn't really show the real story, though.  It's the first few largest sets that have been growing.  With a few exceptions, 100 and 150 count inserts were commonly the highest per year, with only one or two examples in a typical issue.  The last two years, the largest sets have been 250.  And in 2019, we already have one that will be at least 300.

The insanity doesn't end there, though.  Oh no, my friends.  The other development that has made the potential totals increase exponentially - INSERT PARALLELS!

In 2015 and 2016, Topps made First Home Runs and MLB Debuts - in three different colors or foils.  So a true master set may technically consist of all three colors.  This adds another 210 cards to 2015, and another 160 to 2016.  (They didn't repeat the MLB Debuts in Update.)

Then, in 2017, they added Blue, Red, Gold, and maybe even Silver as parallel sets for the inserts.  The Gold parallels were generally serial numbered to ten, so I didn't count them in this survey.  That's just way too scarce.  And the Silver only shows up once in the list on TCDB, and I haven't seen any, so I let them go too.  Blue & Red were enough to triple the numbers by themselves.

2018 even surpassed those numbers.  Blue, Black, Gold, and Red appeared.  Reds were again numbered to ten.  Golds went up to 50, and Black was /299, but from what I've seen, this is not consistent.  Some inserts sets have both blue and black unserialized parallels, like the LIM's above.

So basically if you add up all the parallels to the regular inserts, the 2017 totals go from

1100 to 1392

for the unserialized colors, and then if you add in the ones that are serialized to 299, 50, or 10 you are at a grand total of

1542

2018 starts at 1203 (again on top of only a 1000 card base set), and goes to

2846 

when you add the unnumbered parallels.  If you go for all the serialized ones too, you'd have to put together

4902 cards!

I've gotten used to storing my flagship sets and inserts in a two row shoe box.  I think I'll give up before I'd ever think about amassing the entire master set and having to put it in it's own 5000 count monster box!

And I would guess that it's just going to continue into 2019.  The numbers will probably be even larger.

But guess what?  Now Topps isn't putting as many inserts into their packs!  I don't know how the ratios compare between the same packaging for this year versus the last few, but you're going to have to buy more to get the same numbers - which have now increased again!  Whether it's boxes and packs, or just dropping cash at dealer secondary market tables, it's going to cost more to finish the Topps set.

Set collectors are in the minority.  There aren't many customers that are willing to do this.  So why is Topps bloating these out so much?  What part of the collector audience are they thinking that they're attracting by making more and more parallel inserts and making them harder to get?

I know I'm not it.

Well, maybe just for my couple collected players....

Free Samples of 2019 Series 1

Sorry, not giving them out.  Just reviewing some that I got.

Inspired by a couple first day posts about the new Topps series, and the fact that I was in the right part of town the other evening, I made a quick Target run to get a taste.  At first glance, I was on the fence about the base design, and am (still) worried about the quality and quantity of the inserts.  But luckily, I had a couple Target gift cards from some tech support I did a while back.  Those set me up for three hanger boxes, which (if I have the math right), are the best deal as far as price-per-card among the retail package offerings.  So my net cost for these was 31 cents!

My Tarzhay had three hooks of these.  Two were labeled with the Gleyber Highlights cards and one just had the Home Run contest cards line.

I wanted nothing to do with Glee boy, so I opted for three off the other hook, and I'm glad I did.

I've heard the ratios of inserts to every pack are down this year.  Then I remembered, there are no packs in these hangers.

I'm not going to scan a bunch of the base cards.  You've seen them several places already by now, I'm sure.  Not sure what the rule is for designating the first card you see in a given year.  O'Hearn was on top of the first wrapped stack, but I saw the bottom of the stack first, so Pivetta was the initial name I read.  Can we get a ruling from the commish? ;)

Best part about it - No doubles!  Three consecutive boxes on the same hook actually yielded a consistent stream of different singles!

Anyway, the parallels I pulled were all foils.  I seem to be developing a knack to pull Acuñas.  There is a nice guide page to all the different parallels here.

There he is again!  And super bonus ~ I pulled the only '84 I would have chased after, Bo Jackson!  Kershaw is a good name too.  Night Owl?

So this was a bit of an Acuña hot box...

With the base card rounding out the "trifecta".

A couple of the shameless promo cards.  "Hey kids, here's what you missed if you're all about just the superstar hype machine!  Hope you can contribute to the revenue stream this year!!"  At least there's only ten of them.  Which is in stark contrast to...

...these really decent looking 150th Anniversary tribute cards.  Unfortunately, there are, of course, 150 of them.  As if the past few years' worth of 100-100-50 insert series weren't bloated enough.  Now we have an excuse to issue them all at once!  Or, are they going to total up 450 by the end of the year?

The most horrible development this year is that there appear to be less inserts per pack(age).  But there are still a huge number of total inserts issued.  530 to be exact (thanks ArpSmith for the math and the list).  They break down like this:

150 Years of Baseball – 150 cards

’84 Topps Throwbacks – 100 cards 
(3rd annual incursion on Heritage and Archives)

Stars of the Game – 100 cards  (Annual star player worship set)

Iconic Card Reprints – 50 cards  (Annual triple redundant recycling set)

Cactus League Greats – 30 cards (retail)

Grapefruit Leage Greats – 30 cards (retail)

Evolution – 25 cards

Greatness Returns – 25 cards

Revolution of the Game – 10 cards  (Now here are some interesting subjects!)

’18 Topps Now Review – 10 cards  ('nuff said)

Now granted, they DID cut down on a few sets.  The retail spring training ones are only 30, and the last third of the list are 25 or 10 - where most of them should be.  And the total counts are down to 2008-2009 numbers, if we were talking about the WHOLE YEAR.  It is quite possible that if they repeat the '84s and add on to the 150ths or StarOTG, they may issue more total inserts than ever!  How can you justify putting less of them in packs?

(Update: Sounds like they will, in fact be issuing 150 more 150ths for series two.  And they really only reduced two insert sets by 5 cards compared to last year.)

C'mon Topps, we meant there are too many inserts TOTAL TO GET.  Not that there were TOO MANY IN A PACK!

As far as the base set goes, I'm OK with the design in general.  Some aspects are the same old thing, and some are improvements.  Most of them are somewhere in between.  Let's see what the net score is if we give points for good things and take them away for bad.

+5 for Composition - I really like that the photos "break" the design elements.  Do more of this!

+1 for League Leaders - OK, so ya got the label on the front.  It's distinctive, but still kinda blends in with all the base cards.  Every journey begins with the first step, I guess.  League leaders should be multi-player cards, period.

+2 for World Series - OK, this is better.  Nice official logo and multi-color text below the stripe.  Maybe change the standard name to a headline about the game next time.  But good job.

-1 for Last Name First - The backwards name is a little off putting, but not an OCD dealbreaker.  Maybe if they did something like this, so you read front to back instead of top to bottom.  Shades of Stadium Club.

-3 for Massive Trademark symbols -  This is totally unnecessary and just shows amateurism at PhotoShop.  It's a simple font size adjustment.  Like this...

There, aesthetically pleasing and all legal too.

Let's go ahead and throw in +2 for Good Collation - at least in the hanger boxes that I got, I didn't duplicate any cards.   Which is rare.

Plus ten and minus four comes to a net gain of six points.  So 2019 base is generally a step forward from previous years.  Still flawed and bloated, I'm probably going to fill my base set and see how easy some of the smaller inserts are, and then call it a year.  I'm not seeing too many other potential builds this year so far.