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| This concludes my Brieday celebration. For now ;-p |
Each of the 36 packs contains one insert, leaving me with 216 base cards to complete a 200 card set. Also there's a disclaimer on the front of each pack that Packs with a special insert may contain only 3-5 cards. What does Topps consider "special"? Most likely just relics, but I was slightly less certain that I'd be able to complete a set - until I saw the odds.
There were no "special" inserts in this box. Each pack yielded exactly seven cards including one insert as advertised. Here they are:
Nine (of 20) Before Opening Day inserts. Lots of stars, lots of Red Sox, and.. Mikie Mahtook.
I pulled eleven (of 25) Mascot cards. Here's the first nine (not pictured: Rays and Rangers)
How many mascots does Cincinnati have?
I got six of the 20 cards from this insert set:
These are just called "Opening Day" on TCDB but they're numbered ODB-# on the back of the card. I'm assuming that stands for Opening Day Ballparks (or Ol' Dirty Bastard lol.)
There's that Rally Monkey again. I pulled ten of the 15 Team Traditions inserts (not pictured: Yankees Y.M.C.A.) That's 36 inserts. As advertised.
But wait! There's more!
The Dominic Smith Opening Day Stars card is insert #37. It's flimsy like a sticker but the odds on these are 1:27 so it's somehow the rarest insert I pulled. The Blue Foil parallels are my favorites by far. Mike Trout might be the best possible parallel pull other than the Ozzie Albies or Shohei Ohtani RCs.
It was a nice surprise to have 42 non-base cards, but that meant I had to hope for near-perfect collation in order to complete the set. And that's exactly what happened!
I now have 43 duplicates to trade including Ichiro, Albert Pujols, and RCs of Ohtani and Alex Verdugo. Hopefully I can swap them for some Opening Day set fillers from other years. I need 63 cards from 2015 Topps Opening Day and 14 cards from 2019 Opening Day. I'm not collecting 2016 or 2017 OD. I had my fill of those designs with flagship.
Some bonus bDay content here, as I received a couple gifts from my wife's siblings. Her older brother gave me cash, while her sister('s husband) picked out a fat pack of Upper Deck hockey cards. Before I even opened it he asked me if I got anything good.
I don't think anyone would call this a "good" pack. No inserts, no rookies, and no super stars like Crosby, MccDavid, or Ovechkin. However I did pull two Devils, one of the two Whalers cards in the set, and some great goalies including CT's Jonathan Quick. These were all new cards to my collection since I only had two series 1 singles before this pack.
D's younger brother bought me a book.
He's more of a comic book guy than I am, but I'm sure I'll enjoy this. I know my daughter will.
I had originally planned to publish this in the morning, but the fourth-longest playoff game in NHL history postponed my post. The schedule here is packed with two more topics planned for the weekend so I decided to be like baseball and have a day-night doubleheader. This is what happens when I go away for a couple weeks, the ideas come rushing out. Thank you so much for celebrating with me and reading one or both posts!
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Buy a box, get the fun of ripping the packs AND get a full set? You are living the good life.
ReplyDeleteI like the Before Opening Day Trout and Betts, but they're both ho cards. The Phanatic is the best mascot in sports, but that isn't his usual uniform. So the blue foil Trout wins this round.
ReplyDeleteHe gave you cash? Are you twelve?
Too bad you're not collecting 2013 OD. I bought a bunch of that on deep discount a few years ago. I had a ton left over (much less now though). The interesting thing about those, was how often some inserts would appear, much more often than the base card of the player that appeared on the insert!
ReplyDeleteThat 5 OT game was pure hockey joy.
ReplyDeleteThat Betts with the paddle is awesome. Guy probably excels at that sport too...
ReplyDeleteI saw the title of this post and thought it would about the Yankee Stadium roll call (which I guess is nonexistent this year). And the last post from the title I thought would be about Chewbacca.
ReplyDeletePretty cool that your wife's siblings hook you up with gifts like these. Radioactive Man looks like an interesting read.
ReplyDelete