Card Blogger Goes Against The Grain (Story Continued On D-6)

One of the things that I can do for now since I decided I don't have to do a blog on a daily basis or close to it as I have the last couple years is I don't have to scrape for content unless I feel people think I have abandoned my blog.  I'm not posting today for that reason, but it allowed me to do something that doesn't force me to keep up with the Joneses.  When I saw the design of the 2017 Topps set, I wasn't impressed. In fact the 2016 set didn't appeal to me much at first either but I did eventually buy cards.  So far in 2017, I have not bought a current baseball product.  It's refreshing because I can wait until the set is all out and probably go to Just Commons and scoop up the Royals cards I want and a few other guys cheaper or about the same cost of spending on a full blaster box with maybe 10 cards I really want and 60 or so that I could do without.

Having said that, I still get urges to get some cards, and on a recent trip to Walmart, I wanted to get some cards.  Ideally I've been looking for a blaster of the 2017 Donruss NASCAR set, but my local Walmart hasn't stocked it yet, and I am doubting they ever do.  Maybe they will clearance them later this year and they will finally stock them.  So instead I had a choice- 2017 Topps baseball, whatever hockey or basketball they have, or last years baseball.  Nothing really interested me, and last years baseball boxes weren't marked down yet so I didn't want to risk get more doubles of Topps cards.  I held tight against my word of essentially boycotting the 2017 set (as well as the Opening Day and similar looking sets, I'll decide later if I want Archives or any other Topps sets), and got a box of 2016 Topps.

2016 Topps Holiday Pack that is.  Now full disclaimer, when I first started seeing these cards pop up on Listia, I thought these were cards inserted as bonus cards into the 2016 Topps base set for some Holiday bonus to get folks to buy more sets.  I wasn't aware they made a full set of these cards that look like they have snowflakes on them.  When I saw they had a box for sale I really didn't want them, but I wanted something, so I got them.

Let's take a look at some of what I got.

On one hand, I can say I have a Trevor Story rookie card.  However he's had 4,997 rookie cards in 2016, and that's just from Topps alone.  I'm glad I have one of them, but just because they release a card with him on it in his rookie year, it doesn't mean its a rookie.  Then again, most of that only really matters if I plan to sell the card at some point, and right now, I don't.

As for the other cards, I couldn't do a Holiday set without posting a Matt Holliday card even if I'm not a big fan of his.  Same goes for David Ortiz, but I am a fan of his, so it was nice to get.  The Kinsler card will go into my Mizzou collection, so that was a nice grab, as was the Shelby Miller which I have a small collection of.  I think or at least hope he will bounce back this year after a rough 2016.  Lastly is a Royals card, one of Lorenzo Cain.  The problem though I spotted immediately was while he is the focus of the card, he is in the background.  I know the Rangers catcher is blurred a bit and Cain is clear as day, but why choose that photo when he isn't even fully shown?  I mean the least Topps could do was spend an extra 10 bucks to a freelance photographer to get a better shot.  I think what makes it worse on this card is the snowflakes take a lot of the focus out of the rest of the photo and it is pretty obvious.  If there were no name or logo and you had to guess which player was featured on the card, I'd imagine over 60% would say the catcher, and they would be right in assuming that.  Oh well, I got a Royals card, that's all that matters.

BAM!  Another A-Rod to add to my collection.  I'm okay with card collector's hating A-Rod, that means I can get some of his cards for cheap.  Sure he's not the nicest guy, but he admitted his mistakes, and I'm over that.  I do think the Yankees kind of screwed him over last year, but he was declining so oh well.  I'm glad I can add this to my collection.  I'm also happy to add the Strasburg, Verlander, and McCutchen cards to my collection.  All three are guys that I collect if I get, but don't go out of my way to get.  The Jose Bautista card I was happy to get as well, but I can't say I'm his biggest fan.  I can say though that I believe he follows me on twitter, so there's that. 

One guy I would be super happy to have follow me on twitter is Eric Hosmer.  He's had a hot spring and it worries me a little.  Scott Boras is his agent and this is Eric's free agency year and they want a big contract.  I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it, but the Royals look to implode after the next year or two so all the money they have they need to use on as many players as possible to stay and if Hosmer gets the money he wants, guys like Moose, Cain, and others will likely have to go.  I understand its just business, but at the same time, what the point of having a 200 million dollar player when there is so little talent on the rest of the field to get them to win.  Depending on the day, I wish they let him sign elsewhere (or trade him) so they can free up that money for the other players, but I also know it doesn't guarantee those other players will stay either.  If I had to guess, I would say the Royals will either entertain trade talks for him at mid season, or will try unsuccessfully to get him to resign at the end of the year.  Best case scenario is both sides will realize how much the city wants him to stay and will work out a great deal benefiting both sides.  SUPER BEST CASE SCENARIO is Hosmer firing Scott Boras (who I think also represents Mike Moustakas) and works out a deal that benefits him, but doesn't throttle the Royals too bad.

Here is some more keepers for my collection, mostly guys that I don't collect but I would like to at least have one card of them.  I do collect Prince Fielder, so that wasn't a bad one to pull.  I also was glad to pull the Bartolo Colon since its amazing how good he is at his age.  The Smith and Rodon cards I kept because I like to keep some of the younger guys in case they really break out and I can easily start a collection.  This isn't the last of Rodon on this post.

Here is more cards I pulled, and I think its a stellar collection.  The top row aren't guys I really collect with exception of David Wright for some reason, but I still wanted to keep these cards.  The bottom row is guys I do collect, with exception to Matt Harvey.  I think if I had to pick a favorite National League team, I would way its the Mets, so pulling so many isn't really a bad thing.  Though the trio of Cardinals I pulled is better to me.  While I don't like Yadi, I needed a card of his for my binder (I have other Yadi cards but they don't merit inclusion into the binders).  As for Carlos Martinez, I have high hopes for him and try to collect whatever I can within reason (i.e. whatever I pull or find dirt cheap).  I also had high hopes for Oscar Taveras and Kolten Wong though, so hopefully CarMa pans out (though Oscar I think still would have been a superstar, and Kolten, well, I hope he is successful).

The reason I collect Jaime Garcia is interesting but not at the same time.  I'm only a fan of his and collect his card because a few years ago I bought a repack box and pull an autograph card of him.  It was when he was in the minors still, and since then I've been a fan.  I'm not sure if I've ever watched him pitch a game, but I love to hear when he does well, or as of late, when he's not injured.

So speaking of Carlos Rodon....

I pulled a random relic card that at some point Carlos Rodon touched.  Sure I was promised one in the box, and at least its a guy that has potential and not a guy I hate (yet... I mean he is on a rival team), but how excited can I be at a piece of cloth that has no importance other than a guy wore it at some point but most likely not in any meaningful instance?

Having said all that, here is the card along with others I pulled.

Don't get me wrong, its a nice relic card, and I'm glad its not a plain white card, but still, It has no significance other than he wore it at random.  Now what Topps should have done is bought the scraps from all the jersey's Chis Sale cut up last year and made a "What Might Have Been" relic set and inserted them into 2017 packs.  That would have been something.

As for these other cards, you might notice a slight difference from these and the other cards I've been showing.  These are some sort of parallel set that came one in every two packs or something.  Not that I didn't care, but I wasn't expecting much from these cards, but was happy to pull Once Royals Zack Greinke and Jake Odorizzi.  It was also nice to get a rookie in Taillon, and also Matt Duffy.  However I also got another Trevor Story (another rookie!) which is pretty nice.  I could have done a lot worse on these cards, but I think I did good.

Overall was the box worth it?  Well, it was new product for me so every card I pulled would be first time cards, and I don't hate the design, so that's a bonus.  I kept my word and didn't buy 2017, so that's good.  I can't say I have buyer's remorse over getting these, but I do wish I had gotten another Royal or two.  I have no real desire to build this set, but it was still fun to open.  If I had to do it all over again I probably would have bought these, but I don't see myself buying anymore unless they are discounted.  If I go back and have an urge to get some cards, I most likely will buy a random pack or two of 2016 (as long as they have them) or got to Dollar Tree to get some repacks.

So that wraps it up for today, I hope you enjoyed reading.  I have scanned some other cards I've gotten recently and in the next couple days I should be getting an order from Dave and Adam's that should get some good posts.  I haven't bought from them since I started this blog, but did order from them just before I started and if you look in my archive I did a post on Ninja Turtle cards I opened, and I got those from them.  Don't have high hopes for the posts, its not new product, and to be honest I didn't buy them to blog about, but I will once I open them.  If I remember I might even record it just so I can post a video to Youtube since I haven't in a long time.  Anyways, time to go, I hope everyone has a great night.