2015 Topps - Second pack

The second of three packs I bought a few days ago. The good news, no dups!

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that the cards are cheaper than they've been since 2009. The past few years I've been paying about 20 cents/card for retail. In 2010 and 2011, Topps was going at 26 cents/card, which was quite a price hike from 2009 (the last year Topps had any serious competition) when the price was 17 cents/card. The cards I bought so far this year have been about 16 cents/card.

The first base running card. Good photo in a horizontal card.

The first League Leaders card. Kluber, Scherzer and Weaver all won 18 games last year.

The first parallel card I pulled. Topps Gold features gold foil this year, on the upper part of the border, the players name, the Topps logo and those mystifying little circles. It's also the first World Series subset card I pulled.

This is from the 30-card insert "Baseball History". The cards come in pairs. The 12A card is the Space Shuttle Columbia. The connection may be that the shuttle was first launched in 1981. The connection between the other cards in the set isn't as clear.

 This is a 15-card insert set featuring people other than a President throwing out a ceremonial first pitch. I hope I'm as spry as Ms McKee when I'm 105.

The man with perhaps the longest last name in the history of baseball. Topps had to reduce the font size on the front and back to fit his name on the card.

The "Future Stars" subset is back. Silver foil is used for the lettering.

I also got this in the pack which caused the alarm to go off as I was leaving the store. I was immediately surrounded by the crack Target security staff and hustled off to a small room...

Actually, nothing happened, which is usually happens when the alarm goes off. And as usual, I completely ignored it and walked calmly to my car.

2015 Topps - First pack

I stopped in Target yesterday for my first attempt to find 2015 Topps and pay dirt!

Target had rack boxes and loose packs. I also stopped in Walmart but no luck there.

The first thing I noted on the box is that it didn't say anything about exclusive Target cards. Maybe there will be something in the blaster boxes (assuming there will be blaster boxes).

So here's the first cards I got, in the order they came out of the pack.

I've been calling for non-white borders on Topps cards for years. This isn't quite what I expected. I'm not sure what the border is supposed to be. Marble? Dirt? Crumpled paper?  Whatever, I like it. I was also hoping for a photo on the back. Maybe next year.

At first I though that the pattern was different on each card but I think it's the same pattern on each.

I like the how the team logo is sort of like an epicenter of some seismic event. There are also three rows of tiny circles underneath the team name and some curvy lines in the bottom border.

In in the use of a secondary color, like on this card, and different shading in the pattern is what, at first glance, makes the pattern on each card look unique. It was around this card that I noticed something else. The only foil on the card is the Topps logo. I have not really liked Topps use of foil on the card fronts for years. Just the logo is fine.

The first subset card. This is sort of like a team leaders card which Topps hasn't had since 2011. Nice touch including the team record. I imagine this is some sort of composite photo.

Like the Hayward card above, Topps uses both team colors (here yellow and black) in the border. Although the yellow looks more orange to me. I also like nice large card numbers on the back. My aged eyes appreciate the easy readability.

First rookie card. The rookie logo remains the same. This is the first card I've seen of this guy so I have no idea who he is. His card stats don't tell me much. 0-4 last year in 13 games. Pretty good ERA at least.

First insert card. baseballcardpedia.com says this is a "Highlight of the Year" card. There are 30 of them.

With this card I noticed that the back of the card has the same border scheme as the front, with the colored border fading to a mottled gray, only at the bottom instead of the top. Those little circles are there as well, just under the stats on the left. What is that supposed to be?

With the A's card above and this one, we start to see some variations in the color scheme. This is also the first card I pulled of a play rather than a pitcher or a batter.

OK, I get it, he's a Dodger. Could this card be any more blue?

And, finally, Hunter Pence sticking out his tongue.

By the way, here's the wrapper.

Note what it says at the bottom "Packs with an insert may contain between 2 and 11 fewer cards". Are there really packs with just a single insert card in them?

Batman never played baseball

As far as I can tell, anyway. But there were two guys whose first and middle names were Bruce Wayne who played baseball.

And they both played for the 1986 Reading Phillies single A club in 1986.

And of course, neither of them were batmen, they were both pitchers.

7-years a'blogging

That's right, it's the 7th anniversary of my first blog post, on February 3, 2008.  You can see it here. If you don't feel like going there, this is the sole card I posted that day.

My favorite baseball card, Mike Schmidt's rookie card. Acquired in 2005, for about $40, I claimed then that it was the most I'd ever spent for a baseball card. That actually wasn't true. It was the second most I'd ever paid for a card.  I'd forgotten about this card, bought in 1999, which holds the record at $46.

It's a 1999 SP Signature Autograph and remains the only Schmidt auto card I have.

This is my 1,395th post, meaning I've made about 200 posts a year.  I'm on a pace this year to make 288 posts. That would be my most prolific year ever. Thanks to everyone who reads the blog. This would be worth doing if I was just talking to myself.