Flagship Roll Call!

Before I start my All-Time Teams project I have one more recent purchase to discuss.

 

The 2019 Topps cards were in the toy aisle, away from all of the other sports cards. I was not a fan of this year's design when it was released, but I got a good head start on the series 1 set in the surplus box I bought on eBay. Supplementing that with trades helped push me over 82% completion without buying one single pack (the downside is that many of the cards have corner dings.) 

I had just 22 cards from series 2 before my Target purchase. There was a metal sign at the top of the end cap with the price list for each type of box : $2.99/pack, $9.99/hanger box, $19.99/blaster box. 

My gut reaction was to pick up a blaster - and I did. But then I did the math in my head. For $20 I'd get 99 cards - and one of those would be a 150th Anniversary manu-patch thing. There would probably be an insert in every pack, and so now we're down to maybe 90 cards for my set.

I put down the blaster. I picked up those two beat-up hanger boxes. All of the hanger boxes were dented. But there's 67 cards in each (and no manu-patch) for a total of 132 cards. Even if 16 of them are inserts that means I'm getting 116 base cards - assuming there aren't any dupes between the two boxes. 

Let's see how I did..

My favorite thing about this year's set has to be the ballpark cards. Look at that sky above Citi Field! (Bonus - the names are in proper order.)

Some more horizontal cards, including an Andrew McCutchen cameo. I don't mind horizontal cards in flagship sets because I end up sleeving every card and stashing them in boxes anyhow. Topps sets are too big to display in binders (especially now that Ultra Pro shrunk the f*cking D-ring)

Some throwback threads here. Which one is your favorite?

More notable cards, including an Ohtani rookie cup. I guess that's Tulo's sunset card.

And if Dustin Pedroia really can't play anymore then I hope this is his sunset card. I know how annoyed collectors get when someone like Jacoby Ellsbury or Scott Kazmir keep popping up in sets when they haven't played in two years. I don't want them saying that about my guy.

Another reason I bought hanger packs instead of a blaster was to try and pull a Legends variation. I don't know that they're not inserted into blaster packs, but I thought the odds might be better with a hanger pack.

No such luck. 

Here are the inserts I did pull - minus a Steven Brault rainbow parallel that didn't fit in the scan.

I have no idea who Nick Martini is but the rest of the pack is solid. I've wanted this Yount for my PC and Koufax is an unofficial PC player. Scherzer is a blue parallel.

  

The second pack only had seven inserts - which gave me false hope for a Legend or other photo variation. The Judges and Larsen will go in a stack of Yankees/vintage I'm building for Bo.

This break was a bit of letdown considering the value I got from the Score Football fat packs, but the point was to get as many set fillers as possible. On that front, I succeeded.

Of the 117 base cards in these packs I needed 110. Anything over 98 would have made me happy. I've still got a long way to go to complete this set, but series 2 is off to a good start.

While I'm at it, here's a quick roll call of my progress with the last five Topps sets, which I'll call the Flagship Five.

2019 Topps

417 haves
283 needs
700 card set

variations: none

 

2018 Topps
698 haves

2 needs* (#540 Mitch Garver, #653 Jorge Soler)
700 card set

variations: 2 (#439b Dustin Pedroia, #550b Jackie Robinson)

*plus the corrected versions of #364 (Dodgers) and #565 (Mets) 

 

2017 Topps
614 haves
86 needs
700 card set

variations: none

 

 

2016 Topps

set complete

variations: 1 (#478 Cody Asche 42 jersey)

 

2015 Topps
set complete

variations: 1 (#302 Martin Prado Gatorade shower)

I'd like to complete at least one more of these before 2020 Topps comes out In five months. 

Are any of you (still) working on these sets? Let me know what you need, I have hundreds of dupes.

Thanks for reading!



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