Love In The Time of Corona.

       Last Monday morning, I went to Costco and Target and it was a very quiet, uneventful trip.  Little did I know that in the next few days, going to the store would become something like a cross between old Woody Woodpecker cartoons where the women kill each other, bridal day at Filene's Basement, and the Road Warrior.  Lucky for me, I am a slight hoarder at all times and don't need soap, sanitizer, or toilet paper any time soon.  Also, I did stop in the card aisle in Target and grabbed some Heritage packs (they had no blasters) and impulsively grabbed a blaster of Star Wars Skywalker Saga cards while looking in vain for Heritage blasters.  This would prove very fortunate and unfortunate but not in the way I thought.  Kind of like how most of our weeks went.

I rarely buy single retail packs of baseball cards because I find all you ever get are base cards and maybe an odd parallel but very rarely do you ever get something of substance.  I figured since all I wanted was some examples of the Heritage, I would just grab 6 packs and go about my business.  These might have been the luckiest six packs of retail cards I ever bought.

One thing I collect in totality is Topps rookie all stars.  I love me some fancy trophies on my baseball cards and I got five of them in these six packs, including two short prints.  The two short prints I got were Pete Alonso and Vlad Guerrero Jr., the two cards I figured I'd have to pay through the nose for on eBay if I ever wanted them, and here I got them in back to back retail packs.

I even got one of the two Alonso league leader cards and three of the postseason cards.  And we are just getting started.

I got five inserts.  That's practically one per pack but it didn't quite come out that way because I got two Tom Seaver Flashbacks stuck together in one pack.  I also got another Flashbacks insert, Rod Carew, and two Then and Now cards - one of them also with Tom Seaver.  Look him up, kids, he was pretty good.  I did get one other base double in the five packs - it was Michael Conforto, a Mets player.  This never happens.  I always get doubles of San Diego Padres or Milwaukee Brewers.

There was one other Met and one other league leader card.  Not too shabby. 

I am pretty sure the 1971 set is in my top five all time designs and the Topps people really nailed the look of it.  The colors, the lower case ee cummings style names, and the random action photos - which were new in '71 - are all here.  Even the random rookie cards and odd position designations are here.  I didn't scan the backs but the backs all look right with the head photos and esoteric write ups. They even have SSPs of the OPC backs, which are some of my favorite OPC variations.  Alas, I did not get one of those.

I also love poses where the hitters are swinging and pointing the bat at your face, I got three of them in three different styles.  I saw that the Alvarez/Aquino rookie card is hot.  I am not one for hot rookies, so if anyone wants to trade for this thing, let me know.

This is the page I ended up piecing together from the five packs, I think it looks great.

I went with just about all posed shots but got a variety and the one action shot is decidedly inactive (I picked a Luke Voit action shot for the vertical example, that's on the back, the back I didn't scan).  I chose a few teams that didn't exist in 1971 just for a little timely juxtaposition.  I was thrilled with my choice to lower myself to retail packs.  I know it will never turn out this good again.  If anyone is putting the set together and has a wantlist, drop me a line and I'll see what I can fill before these go to ebay or Listia.

On the other hand, the Star Wars cards were...underwhelming.  The blaster had 10 packs and 60 cards but no indication on the outside what they looked like; this seems to be on purpose.  The design is very staid.  I prefer a little color and whimsy in my Star Wars cards and all I got here is some stars from a NASA chart or something off of a Battlestar Galactica poster. 

The photos and subjects seem to cover all eight movies, I assume this set was leading into the ninth.  All the cards are vertical and none of the captions are puns or anything.  I am falling asleep just looking at them.

I scanned a second group to continue the monotony.  Not even Natalie Portman can make these more exciting.

Though I gotta say, I do love that middle card, it is a great shot from the climax of the Force Awakens.  Lightsabers and snow, more of that please.  One out of 60 is a very bad ratio.

Each pack had a parallel base card where, oooo pinch me, they changed the color of the thrilling border to a rusty orange or a royal blue.  I suppose the blue is a slight improvement but I got two of those and eight of the rusty orange.

Seriously, the write ups on the front and backs of these cards is more boring than my write up here.

Each pack also had an insert.  These were at least a little more interesting, if slightly repetitive.

Five of them were from the Path of the Jedi set, which were almost exactly the same as the style and substance of the base cards.  I do like that Han Solo card because the highlight of the seventh movie to me was the fact that Harrison Ford didn't mail in his performance as he has in a few of the other movies he's done in his old age (I'm looking at you, Indiana Jones 4 and Blade Runner 2049). So that's 2 out of 60.

The blaster's special insert was a manu-patch and I got A Princess Leia.  I actually have a use for that card so it is staying in my collection.  I might cobble a page of these together but it will hardly find a place of honor in my Star Wars book. 

That was the other Path of the Jedi card, which looks like the other one on the other page.  The best looking card in the whole blaster was the advertisement card with that borderless shot from the first movie.  If anyone wants to use that 10% off code, be my guest.  It really had been an odd week indeed.

Allen vs. Ginter: The War To Settle The Score.

       I have not given up completely on Allen and Ginter, but let's just say the bloom is off the rose.  I, like most, fell head-over-heals in love with the stuff in 2006.  I bought 2 0r 3 boxes the first two years and built the set and sold the inserts and just couldn't get enough.  I think I only bought one box in 2008 and 2009 and didn't even get around to completing the set.  Then in 2010, I didn't buy any.  No hobby boxes, no spare packs, no blasters.  Somehow, the world kept turning.  I think I have given you a similar rant about Topps Heritage if I recall correctly.  The last few years, I have been content to pick up some here and there, usually an impulsive blaster or rack pack or two.  Now, don't get me wrong, I still love the stuff - I just get my fix in different ways. 

This year I made a slightly modified plan; I was gonna pick up my usual four pages worth via Just Commons (a website I recommend wholeheartedly).  I am a Topps completest after all, so I figured I would pick up 40 or so cards to make a page of current, vintage, sports, and non-sports.  This was an excellent plan that I had every intent to follow through on, then I found myself in the card aisle of Target.  I wasn't even looking for packs, I was looking for cheapo pages and yet somehow, a value pack of 2014 Topps Allen and Ginter found its way into my little red basket.

On the same day I bought this pack, my huge package of 134 cards arrived from Just Commons which contained my haul of 44 individually selected Allen and Ginter cards.  So let's do a slightly modified version of the ever popular Gint-a-cuffs, one where I fight with only myself and my own sad dichotomy of level-headed pragmatism and hopeless impulsive consumerism. 

The Value pack you see above contained three regular 6-card packs and a bonus pack of three exclusive mini cards, as you can see here:

I believe the exclusive minis have a different border, Topps' version of a new hat. 

Here is the page of current players I chose from Just Commons:

All of these were chosen for their color and properly aesthetic photos.  They all cost .15 cents each.

Here is the first pack from the Target Value Pack:

Okay, I guess getting inserts, SPs, and minis is certainly a plus for the packs.  Not to mention this pack has my new hero Bartolo Colon - as I have mentioned before, he has reached this status due to the fact that he is older than me, he is fatter than me, and he is pitching in the major leagues (this line never gets old).  The Donaldson here is a high number SP.  The Ford is not a vintage star I chose for their page, but the Riess is a double.  I might decide to start collecting Car-Go cards early, just in case all those Mets-Rockies trade rumors turn out to be true eventually.  The value pack cost ~$10 (with tax) so I am assigning a cost of $3 each to the packs and $1 to the bonus.  At .50 cents per card here, no matter how interesting they may be, I have to give the win to the JC selected page. 

This is the Just Commons selected page of vintage/retired players. 

I was excited when I found out the Dusty Baker card was a retired player card and not a manager card.  I snapped that one up immediately since he is not one of the usual suspects Topps uses.  Same with the Maris and the Newhouser.  The rest are definitely of the been-there-done-that variety, but it is always nice to get a Jim Palmer on the page since I usually send off my O's cards.  And I really like that picture on that Bob Feller card.  Six of these cards cost .15 cents and three of them cost .20 cents.  This page is not perfect, but I think it turned out all right.

This is pack two of the Value Pack:

There is the aforementioned Cargo again.  I was originally going to include him on my current players page but opted for Michael Cuddyer instead - a wise move it turns out.  Some people have been complaining about the write-ups on the Pastime's Pastimes cards but personally, I think they look so nice, who cares?  I will eventually be making a page of those.   That bottom three is a clean sweep of wonderfulness.  Mark Twain is an all-time favorite of mine.  Mike Piazza is my second favorite baseball player of all-time.  And Felicia Day is just too damn adorable for words, though it is odd to see her in an evening gown.  I always think of her as slightly more come-as-you-are and down to earth.  Mark, Mike, and Felicia win this one, even though as you will soon see, Ms Day is a double. 

The sports themed page from Just Commons:

Bowler, golfer, weightlifter, swimmer, CrossFit champion, wrestler, race car driver, batting stance imitator, blogger.  Okay, the last row sort of stretches to be "sporting" but I will call them "sports related" for the purposes of this page.  I am pretty enamored with that Samantha Briggs card in the middle.  Not to reveal too much about myself, but I find the idea of a woman who could throw me over her shoulder and carry me and/or throw me to be quite the turn-on.  And on the David Portnoy card, they left off the word "douche-bag" from their oddly beaming description of his career as a blogger.  Of course, I look forward to someone calling me names when I am included in the 2020 edition of Allen and Ginter.  All of these cards set me back .15 cents each.

Third and final traditional pack from the Value Pack:

Yawn.  Yawn.  Yawn.  I am certain I reject all three of those top cards for my current player page, although I can never be too bored by a dude named Jurickson Profar.  The bottom three are a little better, The World Capitals insert has a lovely picture and there is a bit of irony in a Babe Ruth mini card.  I might use that Hellickson to exchange with my created page to break up the red.  As nice as the Ruth and Rome cards are, though, I have to give the win to the created page. 

Here is the created page of non-sports personalities and such:

This one I had a ball making.  The top three Personalities are Chuck Klosterman, who wrote a great book and a bunch of good ones, Ryan Riess, who's card was chosen because of the photo, and Kevin Clancy, another blogger from Barstool who was also chosen because of the appearance of what seems to be a Ding Dong on his card (does this make it an unofficial Hostess card?).  The middle three Entertainers are The Iron Sheik, who needs no introduction to anyone who grew up in the 1980's, Kevin Smith, Jersey based film auteur who peaked early with Clerks, and Snoop Dogg - I just can't bring myself to call him Snoop Lion - heck, I just stopped calling him Snoop Doggy Dogg.  The bottom three has a combo breaker - hey it's my page - The Newsworthy are Helen Keller (whose card should be in braillle) and Buffalo Bill Cody, who has been part of Ginter before but when you are as cool as Buffalo Bill, who cares?  The combo breaker is Anthony Bourdain, because I didn't like the other Newsworthy old-timey cards I had to choose from and I like his show.  All of these cards except for one was .15 cents.  Snoop Lion set me back two dimes. 

This is the bonus pack of mini cards:

Madison Bumgarner did not have me very excited when I saw him on top, but I now see he was covering up a double dose of tremendous disappointment.  With that Wilin Rosario card along with the two Carlos Gonzalezes, somewhere in Colorado is someone who should have gotten this pack.  At .33 1/3 cents each, even with a fancy "exclusive" border, it wouldn't take much to beat this trio - the Iron Sheik could have done it all by himself.  Any of the cards from the Value Pack are available for trade if you need them.

Let's look real quick to see if I beat the odds:

The full size inserts are 1:2 so I came out ahead there at a cool three for three.  The Pastime's Pastimes and SPs are also 1:2 so I guess I'll call that even there.  Alas, no other interesting pull was in the packs, but the black bordered Piazza was a 1:10 pull however so that was a minor upset.  A mini framed oddity relic would have been both miraculous and fun to say over and over again. 

Ah, but the final nail in the coffin for the Value Pack is the "leftover" cards I picked up from Just Commons for various collections:

Part of the fun of A&G is you might happen upon a lovely lady.  Here you see three.  The middle row were all picked up for player collections, including the Mike Piazza base card and a Blue Dickey.  The bottom two are Orlando Cepeda, who is getting a hall of fame page, and a leftover from the current player page.  Since Didi Gregorius was in the same pose, the choice between him and Nick Franklin was pretty clear.  All of these except for the Piazza were only .15 a pop. 

With the 44 cards from Just Commons costing me just $6.95 and the 21 cards from the Target Value Pack costing $10.15, it is obvious my level-headed pragmatic plan was a much better idea than my impulsive consumerist pick up.  I sort of equate it with sex with your wife vs. a one night stand sex with a drunk stranger.  Lesson learned (and I won't even need a divorce lawyer*).