No time for the $ Box? Try the Vintage box...

 ... it's much smaller. That's the situation I found myself in this morning, when I had a pleasant dream of pawing my way through somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 cards priced at 89¢, or maybe 83¢, perhaps depending on the Good Vibes I could radiate while visiting my wonderful Friendly Local Card Shop.

Alas, pawing my way through scores upon scores of Chrome Mojo Bowman cards of players who might as well just be random AI mockups since most of them will never reach the Majors and become known to Humanity, well, that is a little time-consuming. Particularly when one makes it past all that Bowman nonsense (every pose the same because photo-shopping the MLB uniform on would be too challenging with unique photographs) - only to realize I had already pawed my way through this particular 91¢ box a few weeks back, because there ain't no 84¢ box like an 87¢ box loaded with seemingly every Ken Griffey card ever made, except of course for all the expensive ones.

So that was a little deflating, with a clock ticking. 

Fortunately I remembered another box on the ever-growing shelves of wonder down at the LCS - a simple '2 row' box of "Vintage, Priced as Marked." That would be far quicker to search, and just possibly more fun, too. Let's see what happened...

I won't be labeling these sets. If you don't know them, you may have stumbled onto the wrong blog, even though I rarely post "Vintage," which is because I can very rarely purchase it, in-hand, like I could today. Such a delight.

Aurelio Rodriguez is 100% for sure my favorite 1970s Detroit Tiger. Mark Fydrich was cool and all, and listening to Al Kaline call games on the TV not long after his retirement was pretty sweet too. Ron LeFlore's life story is endearing, and then those 1978 Rookies all came up together and we know how that turned out...

But none of those will ever knock Aurelio off my pedestal. When I found this classic 70s card shot at Yankee Stadium it went in the Buy pile instantly, dinged corners and just exactly perfect 1970s centering and all. The back is perfectly readable, and that's a big part of what counts.

Aurelio is my favorite because when I was just a young lad, there was a trivia question on the Tigers ballgame every night, Ernie Harwell / radio edition. And somehow I knew an answer to a certain question was: "Aurelio Rodriguez." A result of Baseball Cards? Likely. 

And even better, this first-time caller down to my local radio station (still humans working in them, way back then) was - the first caller! And I got the question right. 

My prize was a pair of tickets to a game at far-away Tiger Stadium. This seemed of course monumental to us living in a small town in northern Michigan, but today I know the tickets probably weren't even $20 back then. My Dad heroically fathered-up and agreed to take me on the 5 hour journey to deepest Detroit, even though he never really cared for pro sports, at all.

When we had managed to find the big ole Stadium easily visible from the freeway even though the exits were confusing, managed the chaos of PARKING HERE, and made it inside, we discovered we were on the opposite side of the stadium from our ticketed seats, necessitating a long journey through the concourse.

Partway through, my Dad stopped and got my wide-eyed attention - here came a Detroit Tiger, in full uniform. For some reason a player had to traverse the concourse full of fans. As he approached, it proved to be: Aurelio Rodriguez! I was, and still am, in total awe of seeing a 100% live professional Major League Baseball Player, in full uniform, walking right past me just a few feet away.

The free seats proved to be not that great. Well underneath the upper deck, way out in the outfield, and with a post involved. Such was life in ancient Baseball stadiums.

The game itself, against the Chicago White Sox, was also anti-climactic for a First Time, Kid? It was a classic "Pitcher's Duel" with just one run scored. Although such games can be very interesting to serious Baseball fans, for a ten year old that could barely see the action, it was a little less than exciting.

But my main man, Aurelio, made several key plays at the Hot Corner along the way. And the one run? That was scored by the Detroit Tigers for a Victory - with the GWRBI knocked in by, of course, Aurelio Rodriguez.

Now that I am all grown up and I can deliberately collect Aurelio Rodriguez Baseball Cards pretty easily, well, it's time, which was marching on this morning -

Now this - is a celebration card.

All those "modern" cards with mounds of players waiting at Home Plate for the guy who just hit the Walk-Off can't hold a candle to this one.

And the star isn't even the two 70s Superstars captured together, but rather Third Base Coach Alex Grammas running to Home in victorious ecstasy.

This however is a celebration that I should kinda frown on, as it knocked out my pre-Michigan 2nd favorite team, the Pirates, out of the playoffs. But that's something I wouldn't be aware of until a couple years later and was just too young for this one. 

I also quite like the caption: "Foster's Run Decides It." We only occasionally see Playoffs cards any more in the Topps Baseball set but on "modern" versions the back of the card would pointlessly have the "line score" showing how many Runs each team scored in each inning, as a sum total of statistical information, capped off with a sentence that would say something like "George Foster's key hit in the bottom of the 9th produced a win in Game 5 for Cincinnati" even though we already knew that from the front. And all that would be surrounded by a bunch of useless white space.

This card presumes that all the Baseball Card collectors knew perfectly well what happened in the dramatic 1972 NLCS and didn't need to say anything more than the simple 4 word declarative on the front. Leaving the back to be filled with the 1972 NLCS stats for the Reds, both Hitting and Pitching. And that's how Baseball Cards commemorating a playoff series are supposed to work.

This card has a somewhat better back - the game's Box Score, though without revealing the Pitcher's key details, nor who had the RBIs, but oddly including the fielders' Put-Outs, Attempts, and Errors.

Anyhow we all see infinite amounts of Pitchers Pitching cards these days. But back in 1974, they were still just occasional highlights on the checklist, making them more dramatic. To pull an "In Action" type card from a World Series game was the most dramatic of all.

I particularly like a Pitcher Pitching card that shows the complete Pitcher, and one at this point in the delivery supplies its own visual momentum so much better than a cropped torso does.

I was of course in awe of the Oakland A's as my Baseball awareness began, so I had to have this for many reasons, that being just one. I always collect "World Series" cards whenever I can, though without shopping my way into a whole pile/binder of them, but rather just casually. Looks like I will have to get in gear on finishing off a set of 1974 postseason cards (have a few already) sooner, rather than later.

Another very casual collection is of Topps Rookie Cup cards. I would thoroughly enjoy owning a set of them all the way through the very long run of this concept, but doubt I will ever manage that, from the 20th Century at least. 2011 on is looking pretty good for this, though Topps semi-routinely boofs the requirements of their own endearing subset, which always cools my enthusiasm for these somewhat when it happens every 3rd or 4th year any more.

I am also currently quite rueing a decision to try for completing a collection of these from 2013 Heritage, started innocently enough by just putting the Cup cards on a binder page when I found one. Little did I know that the Mike Trout and Bryce Harper cards in that set were each part of the infernal Short Prints that year. Oh how I hate the product I should love the most.

But when I was a kid I thought these were great. How else were we supposed to know which of the Rookies on those few 4-way Rookie Cards back then turned out to be any good? The Cup appearing on their card the next year, that's how.

So this morning I had a comforting realization. I may not ever have the time, money, and Baseball Card prioritizing in place to make one of those full runs of Topps Rookie Cup cards, which certainly must exist. But what I can do instead, is collect one such card from all the pre-2011 sets I am not completing, which is the vast majority of them.

now I've got 66 covered, too

Do I deliberately collect Pete Rose cards? No, not really. They do sometimes appear in my hands however, usually from repacks. And, I have several saved from my youth in my "Players" box also, on the way to 9 nifty ones, eventually. He may have been a flawed Human Being, but man, that guy could Baseball.

That someday future page of Pete Rose cards isn't why I bought this one however. Amidst card after card of posed Spring Training and Yankee Stadium sideline shots, this must have been an eye popper, in the wax. As I gazed upon it, I had to wonder - is this the first "Bunt Card" ever made? Seems possible. Some day I will scroll through 71-74 Topps and find out.

I do however deliberately collect Tommy John cards, so this was a nice +1 to that still barely-off-the-ground effort. A 71 Topps fits any Player Collection perfectly, for one, and that was of course the year Action! finally appeared on the Baseball Cards, though in still very limited amounts of course.

Upon further review (well after purchase) I am quite pleased to see that he signed his name as "Thomas John" here, although his actually autographed cards produced well after his career read 'Tommy John' on them I believe.

Now this - is one of my All-Time Favorite Baseball Cards.

Though not the GOAT, mentioned because every Internet discussion must end in a declaration of GOAT-ness, by someone.

I love this card so much I own a "Topps Wall Art" version though I have been unable to frame and display it yet, in the 'man-cave'. My Man Cave is a crew-cab Pickup Truck, which is a terrible place for Baseball Cards.

And I own that piece of Art even though I am not a Dodgers fan, although they were protagonists on my first ever cards from the World Series, man, back in 1975. Those cards were incredible, to me. And of course their cards always had stars all over them, like the Reds cards, due to all the All-Stars they always had on their team, so you couldn't just put them in the bicycle spokes like you could with Bucky Dent cards. And I'm also not a fan of Steve Garvey, at all.

But this card is positively haunting; I've written about all this before, but hey. It looks a heck of a lot like Steve just Struck Out. In front of thousands and thousands of people, possibly millions more on live Television. Pretty heavy thing to play a sport with all those people watching. The blurred crowd just adds to the pathos, just exactly perfectly.

And it is the game of "base" and "ball," neither which of appear on the card. But you can't play Baseball without The Bat. Another eerie component of this card, given its prominence.

Sometimes, heck, 7 out of 10 times for the best players ever, The Bat doesn't get it done, and you shrink a little, and get stuck looking at the ground for a moment, while all those other human beings look directly at: You.

So although I already own this card, I figure a slightly worn, diamond-cut version will look just fine while a couple thumb-tacks can't really hurt it when I stick it up on a wall in an RV or something, someday. No way I could let it just sit there in the Vintage Box, priced as marked. Three bucks, in this case. Worth every penny at three times the price.

Now this one, just doesn't fit really fit in any of my collections at all, for the most part. I have zero personal connection to the Mets and have not a lot of interest in 66 Topps either. The only names I could recognize on the back were "McGraw" and "Spahn" - what? Really?

I do have an ever growing affinity for horizontal cards at least. But full floating team cards don't really appeal to me, either. I am seriously considering starting to collect all the horizontal cards from the glorious 71 Munson onwards - what fun that would be - and know full well that 55, 56, and 60 sets will never fit my financial abilities, in completion.

So why this card? I doubt I will ever see another Baseball Card that points out "10th Place" right on the front of the card. How would you like another reminder of -that- the next year when you opened a pack of cards?

Where will I put this card? I have no idea. Will it make me figure out who finished in 10th place in the A.L. in 1965? Oh, dear.

A big reason pawing through a box of 1,000+ Baseball Cards is a little slow for me is because I don't do it by looking for just certain last names, or a certain team. (The Tigers have their own big ole box at my LCS, anyway). So I can't just skip names really fast like many people would approach boxes of singles.

Even though I generally find 69 Topps on the uninteresting side, this card has a bunch of great elements, starting of course with other Baseball people (Manager?), Yankee Stadium (most likely; the Angels didn't play at Shea) again. and a not-common-at-all frontal view of the batting helmet, an unusual card element that has been popping into my 87¢ and 43¢ box scores, too, lately. The original California Angels logo is not particularly common on cards. This 1969 Topps Baseball Card absolutely destroys most of 2018 Topps Heritage.

All of those deets might have rescued this card from the Vintage, Priced As Marked box, anyway. But what really moved this one over to the little Buy pile was that ... undershirt? A future What IS That? post is very, very slowly being constructed. Was it a wind-breaker? Did anyone besides Baseball players wear these .... What IS That?, anyway?

But now, we have arrived at the station, alas. Family, is more important than Baseball Cards and my time at the LCS couldn't be stretched today. But not before one final SCORE!

 

I may not ever be able to hit a Grand Slam with 56 Topps.

But I can poke out some singles, sometimes.

Happy 250th!

Baseball Cards: The Perpetual Project

For me, one of the greatest things about Baseball Cards is their permanence. Although the game of Baseball is of course a dynamic affair, with games every day all summer long, Baseball Cards are not dynamic at all. Once you own them, they are yours to revisit whenever you wish, still the same as the last time you saw them.

This makes it very easy to just "collect" when the time is available. I don't get particularly concerned that I still need one horizontal card from 2012 Topps to make a sweet looking page of the best horizontal cards from that year. I know I will find the perfect #9 card, eventually.

Maybe, it arrived at my Baseball Card depot already. I can't entirely recall every card that arrived back in April now. That's because I have been away from home a whole bunch, but also because that wonderful "Mail Day" was to a large extent purchased the week of Thanksgiving, 2025, or at some point randomly from the week of Thanksgiving, 2024, until then.

You probably already know I am referring to a shipment of cards from COMC. I didn't even place my post "Black Friday" shipping request until early January, knowing they were far behind on such things, particularly for us cheapskates using the "bulk" rate.

I don't consider that being cheap, at all, but rather just patient. I also knew the cards would arrive while I was away from home anyway, for one, and since I had slowly purchased them all through 2025, the day of their arrival was not all that important either.

When I did finally get to open the long awaited box of cards (> 500), I barely pawed through them, just once. That was delightful, over a month ago already, but the true delight begins now, when I can finally start using the contents of the box to complete checklists and enshrine the treasures in my wonderful flip books of Baseball memories, i.e. my card binders.

An odd thing about COMC shipments is that cards from a given checklist are not grouped together as one might expect when buying cards via eBay or Sportlots. And that's not because you might buy them at different times, but rather because of the workings of their item #s, I presume anyway. It's when the card gets initially processed at COMC that seems to determine the order in the box when it arrives.

This makes a box of cards from COMC a fairly random affair, which makes (for me) a fairly enjoyable way to get re-acquainted with my purchase decisions.

So I thought I would reach into the middle of the box and then scan whatever 9 cards appear from that point. I will also use this as a way to decide what checklist to work on first, after I sort them all out into their actual sets. 

This post will then be my casual project priority list for the next few weeks, when I am not absorbing all those cheap cards from the Dollar Box sale down at my LCS. And, after I finish pulling > 500 little slips of paper from each and every penny sleeve; the unenjoyable part of receiving a COMC shipment. Uggh.

That first card up there at the top of the page might not look familiar to you if you have completed the 2024 Heritage set. Jonah Heim's #22 card has an entirely different image on the Chrome card with that same card #. But this is not an official "Image Variation." For whatever reason, a whole bunch of the cards in the infernal "Short Print" part of the checklist have different photos on the front. So, loving all things 1975 Topps, I knew I would be collecting those, too.

This card has a serious demerit there on the front - the stamped serial number. I positively despise seeing this on the front of any card. But, I love 1975 Topps. So I try to avert my eyes as best I can from that part. Sigh.

2019 Topps insert

What a weird Baseball Card. I'm not seeing any evidence of the game of Baseball on there, aside from the word "Baseball" in the 150 Years logo.

In 2019 Topps there were 3 sets of "Greatest" inserts, for "Players," "Seasons," and "Moments." At the time I declined to collect them, as it seemed Topps had bowed to complaints on the print run of inserts, and these were not common pulls. If you purchased 2019 Topps in packages, you would certainly see them some, but you wouldn't end up with very many. I, unfortunately, as it turned out, sent mine in to COMC to sell.

I call that unfortunate because I later decided to collect just the "Moments" portion of the checklist, knowing that any list of Baseball 50 Greatest Moments would of course be subjective, but possibly less tied to deciding on what 'made the checklist' based on who Topps currently had card production rights with. And I also figured that there would be no way a "Greatest Moment" in 150 Years of Baseball could just randomly include a Rookie Card card, the way the "Greatest Players" checklist did. That proved otherwise, I have learned since, but I'll revisit that right here, with you, some future day when I have this checklist complete.

What a weird Baseball Card though. I figure I should show you the back to further illustrate the weirdness -

Although I did not know this fact about the history of the Topps company, it sure feels weird to highlight as a Greatest Moment of 150 Years of Baseball. But Topps does like to celebrate itself, and maybe it figured it couldn't make any more Baseball Cards about 1952 Topps. I do have I think 2 other checklists under collection construction about the history of Topps. But, this card - weird.

2023 Topps "Orange Cracked Ice"

I think a huge amount of collectors are burned out on the huge amount of parallels any more. That's just a function of the high print runs of sets like the Topps Baseball set. No one wants a boring "base pack" without a feel good "valuable" card it it. All those parallels means times are good, in Baseball Cards. So I am OK with it in Topps Baseball despite despising them in many other sets.

And some parallels, I do like. I pulled one of these /299 parallels from a pack, also an Arizona Diamondback, and decided I quite like these. Just enough to want to assemble a 9 card page of them. I suspect I gravitated to the Diamondbacks parallel because they play indoors, making all of their cards seem like Night Cards, even when they aren't. But somehow, they work extra well for this goofy parallel.

Speaking of goofiness (same as weird? dunno), I realized I had to share the back of this card with you, also:

This card is a serial #'d card. It is #266/299. But you can't see that, because the serial number stamping is in the black ink there to the left of the card #. The only out-of-the-way place anywhere on the back of the card. It is stamped in gold ink, so you can eventually read it if you angle the card some. Why can't Topps do all of the stamping with a little location concern like this?

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces

This is my first card from this small set. I discovered it while Black Friday shopping to create a small Reggie Jackson collection, as I realized it would go well with my small Bob Gibson collection, which goes well with the book the two of them created ("60 Feet, 6 Inches" - recommended here a few times over the years).

These are actual paintings, not photos. And the cards are on a nice faux-canvas stock. I might investigate this set a little more, next Black Friday.

I also still have to decide if I might just make a 9 card collection all of Baseball Cards commemorating Reggie in the 1977 World Series, like that one.

2024 Topps 1989 Topps 35th Anniversary insert

Hey, an "It" card in my hands for a change, as "PCA" is having another "breakout" season. On Baseball Cards, he broke out big-time last fall as the cover player for 2025 Topps Update. And here this savvy investor picked up his Rookie Card card for 60¢ or so - but could now sell it for $2! Woot woot!

Really, I just wanted it for a few pages of 1989 Topps memories, in crisp 21st century digital production quality. I love the dirt being kicked up by his right shoe in particular, and the cropping of his left shoe in the bottom left corner is also just exactly perfect. Quite looking forward to that day of page-making.

2021 Big League "Art of the Game" insert

I like "art cards" though not always. These 2021 inserts made my good list. I can't recall how big the checklist is, but odds are good I will just collect the 9 I like looking at the most. There are a number of Rookies on the checklist (surprise!), and some of their illustrations I like even though they didn't 'stick' in Major League Baseball for very long. So maybe I will make a page of just the Rooks. They look better that way, sometimes.

Or, maybe I bought this card because I liked that the illustrator included Mr. Redlegs there, and I collect his more memorable appearances on cardboard. We'll see.

2013 Topps Update insert

Despite my love of the 2013 Topps set, I am still not quite complete with finishing a "Master Set" for the 3 series. But I am getting closer with each year's big ole COMC box...

2023 Topps 1988 35th Anniversary insert

I am also looking forward to assembling some pages of 21st century quality 1988 Topps Baseball Cards. But I probably bought this one for a through-the-years effort of Miggy cards.

2021 Opening Day insert

What a pleasant design, and checklist this one is. Clean, bright, well-constructed. And for once, there is -zero- way a Rookie can sneak on to it. These cards are scattered all through this COMC shipment, but I still have about 20% of it to complete. One of those perpetual projects that is probably more fun to work on slowly. I will probably make this the first card in the first pile for the necessary sorting project, but a post of these is a year or three out.

Meanwhile this big ole box of Baseball Cards will be the perfect accompaniment to some Free Time. Happy Summer!!!

Half-off in the $ Box? C'mon Down! (10 cards #15)

Almost certainly the best thing in life for me this month is a wonderful sale down at my excellent LCS - 50% off for cards in the Dollar Box, & the 50¢ Box too!

They've got about seven of the fiddy cent boxes, and another 4-5 of what is now a good old-timey Quarter Box. Inflation is banished! Happy Times are here again!

I've only made it all the way through 3 boxes so far, but there are still 11 days left in the month, so I shall return. Let's check out some of the loot...

Why I selected it: I normally -never- Bowman. But I would like to create a nifty 9 card page of Brandon Inge cards, and that would be a little better if it is all cards that aren't from the Topps Baseball set, where Inge will be in with each team set anyway. Plus I wanted a little reminder that he started out as a Catcher - just like Kyle Schwarber - and I need to pick up a card illustrating that, one-uhh-these-days.

Only in Michigan (or maybe Lynchburg, VA) would this card land in a $ Box, but my actual net cost here is about 43¢ or so. How cool is that?

Why I selected it: Remember Aristides Aquino? Nobody else does, perhaps not even Pepperidge Farm, at this point. But back in 2020, that guy made more checklists than ... Yordan Alvarez.

This expedition to the LCS, my first in my hometown this year and only my 2nd Baseball Card shopping trip in all of the year 2026, was not long after Alvarez hit 2 Home Runs - in the 1st inning! So snagging a crisp seeming possible 2026 MVP for just 43¢ seemed a no-brainer at the time. Turns out, the tiny white corner smidgen that means value = $0 is present.

Fortunately upon further review I noticed this card will fit ab-fab perfectly in my HICKORY collection.

Why I selected it: Who doesn't love a classic mis-cut? That's where this card will be headed - a page of examples of Baseball Card production perfection.

Several other things on this card might have lead it to my little pile of treasures that morning. I can almost see what is possibly the Padres original shoulder patch there, so I will certainly need to find a better example of that.

I also tend to have a soft spot for posed cards where the player looks scared of the photographer, like he might be able to cut him from the roster or something. And I do particularly like perfect "Blue Sky" cards, which seem kind of blah-blah, until you try to deliberately find another one.

The real luck of finding this card didn't appear until I brought it home, where, yeah, I read the back - which seems to indicate Arcia was converted from a Major League Pitcher to a Major League Infielder. This surely needs investigating, and perhaps a correctly cut copy of this card, too.

Why I selected it: This should be obvious. Every Ohtani card is worth $100 now, so 43¢ to $100 seems like it would be a crime to just leave all that money in the $ Box, OR the fiddy cent Box. Plus since it is likely to be the only card ever made (we can hope) with both Shohei Ohtani AND Ken Griffey Jr. - on the same Baseball Card! - that it's probably worth $200, easy money.

Plus the goofy graphical illustration of the lighting making Shohei seemingly The Natural, or the Chosen One, or whatever the heck is going on with that, made me laugh, and also made me make a mental note to see if the other cards from this 2026 Series One insert (I think?) have the same over-the-top graphic, or does just the Ohtani card look like this? And what's up with the PROFILES typography? Did Ken pick that?

Why I selected it: OK, confession time. I never learned to skateboard. I went straight to BMX bikes instead. But I do know who Tony Hawk is and I expect I can pretty simply double my 43¢ investment here easily enough on COMC. Because I definitely did that easily enough when Tony Hawk was first on a First Pitch card, some ten years ago already. And until I get around to sending this card somewhere, I will definitely be admiring a First Pitch card where it looks the honoree really can pitch a Baseball, for a change.

Why I selected it: This card went onto the pile because I like Mookie Betts cards. I was also confused by how the letters "EO" could appear on a Dodgers card, so that seemed intriguing. And Mookie has a goofy look on his face. And and Mookie's move to Shortstop late in his career is yet another crowning achievement in that career - most players leave Shortstop near the beginning of their careers. (A large portion of MLB players started out at Short because it is the most athletically demanding position requiring the best athletes - thus the ones most likely to become Pros later). And and and that unusual olde English D on the cap - what's up with this? The last time I saw that was on the "cover" of 2024 Heritage High Numbers, though I think I did finally pull a Dodgers card with this surprising departure from classic LA. I didn't know what the card was, as it takes a bit of time to go though a box of several thousand Baseball Cards, and I'm sure I didn't expect to find mass quantities of extra cheap Dollar Box cards when I left home that morning. On the next card in the box is where I figured out what the Betts card is...

Why I selected it: Hey, those are stars on these inserts. I like stars on Baseball Cards, and I don't mean the players. It's a natural, winning combo.

The team color being used for the stars made a certain duhh-huhh idea click: turn the card over, dummy. 

These are the 2026 Stars of MLB inserts, which only appear in retail packaging formats - something I missed out on for 2026 Topps Baseball Series One. This still quite astounds me - it's early summer and I already can't purchase the first portion of the Topps Baseball set. Was it like that in olden times? Maybe it was. New Series! and all that.

Be that as it may, that Witt card would also look great on a page of Powder Blue inserts - can't recall KC sporting the Powder on the batting helmets too. Maybe I will need another copy of this card for that page. I know I will definitely be collecting 9, or 18, or maybe 27 of these snazzy inserts. Unless they get too loaded up with failed Rookies in the further series of 26 Topps, which is of course quite likely. But there are more $ Boxes left to pillage, so

Why I selected it: Sometimes, while I am scrounging around in the spare change box, I buy cards I don't even like. I'm fine with Tarik Skubal's 2026 Topps Baseball card, and already have a normal copy of this card.

But I had to figure out just W T F here with the "FL" pattern on the card, making it a parallel. It is not numbered on the back. Are we now going to just print random letter combinations on the cards in the never-ending quest for MOAR parallels? 

It would almost appear so. The "FL" pattern makes this a "Spring Training" parallel, referring to the state of Florida. 15 teams of course then instead have an "AZ" pattern on their "Spring Training" parallel. Dance, junkies, dance.

Why I selected it: Hope springs eternal in Baseball, and Tigers fans have high hopes for this young Pitcher. I thought I did pull a copy in my small LCS purchase of 26 Series One back in February, but for Tigers Rookies I always want a 2nd copy of the RC or the more rare Tigers Rookie Debut card.

Plus, those socks! Best Olde English D socks card since a Matt Boyd card a few years back, and he's a Cub now. So with Team Socks right square in the exact center of the Baseball Card, this card will certainly hold down Detroit's spot in the Team Socks collection. You don't have a Team Socks collection, too? Why not?

Those socks will certainly help me remember Troy Melton 4 years now, after his career is over. Hope I'm wrong on that, but the game of Baseball today just seems every day like it is all just an "IL" lottery rather than a game of skill; Melton has barely pitched this year and was a late scratch the day he was due to return from the IL. He is supposed to pitch tomorrow, as I type. We'll see.

Why I selected it: Need it. I knew I hadn't pulled a copy of this one.

Has there ever been a Rookie-of-the-Year Cy Young Award winner MVP? I know there hasn't. Few things get fans riled up like making a Pitcher an MVP instead of that year's Home Run King (boring). And Misiorowski is pitching in the GOAT's League, so there is no way he is winning MVP. But the other hardware is certainly in "the chat" for this exciting young player.

I quite like his Rookie Card there. Nice sunlit card, really shows off his beanpole frame, maybe even foreshadows something with the eye being drawn to his elbow, even if not his actual Pitching elbow. Well done, Topps.

A day after I purchased this top-notch RC, "The Miz" pitched a one Hit Shutout. So that worked out well.

I follow the Brewers almost as closely as the Tigers, though usually not until later in the summer, when I start working over in Wisco. I sure do miss my Uecker broadcasts. This seems like it will be a great year to put together a Brewers Team Set. Don't get me started on how hard it is to just purchase one, down at the Baseball Card store - where these days Fanatics sends all the 30 teams to stores in the middle of nowhere, so I can only pick from Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Mariners Team Sets and the store never has Tigers or Brewers Team Sets. So, so stupid.

Anyhow, this Rookie Card will be a great memento to memorialize Misiorowski's exciting career four years from now, afterwards. I just hope he makes it to October, 2026. Please?

Bonus Round

Why I selected it: OK, another confession: I already own a copy of this card. Although I haven't finished placing the beautiful (on the front) 2024 Heritage sets into beautiful binder pages, I know I don't need this one.

So what gives? More confession: I expect this card is worth a bit more than 43¢, so...maybe that will help me leverage a couple of the infernal Heritage Short Prints or something, somehow.

Two days after I inve$ted in that Yamamoto RC, he pitched a One Hit Shutout, just missing a Perfect Game.

So, if you'd like me to juice the career of your favorite young Pitcher with a 2020s RC, send me a couple quarters and I'll see what I can find, down at the Dollar Box.

My last pack of Baseball Cards?

 

No, I am not quitting Baseball Cards, new, or old. I do however sometimes feel that Baseball Cards are quitting me. This is one of those times.

I can't shake the feeling that this "pack" shown above is the last "pack" I might ever be able to purchase.

I have always preferred absorbing Baseball Cards one "pack" at a time. And by "pack" I mean the single small package of a dozen or so cards, generally sold from a box holding a few dozen "packs."

Now, I can -almost- no longer purchase the classic "pack." The "pack" shown above is a 'Hobby' "pack," as designated by the illuminati-esque capital-H logo that says 'Hobby Edition' in the circle there (I had to use a magnifier to read it). 

I purchased the pack at my always friendly LCS this afternoon, some 6 days after the official Street Date for Series 2 of the 2026 Topps Baseball set. The shop received their S2 boxes several days late this year.

When some Baseball Card products release, my LCS will open a box and sell single packs from it. But once that box is emptied, "packs" are no longer sold there, from brand new Baseball Cards anyway. 

Elsewhere, single "packs" aren't really sold either. For about 10 years or so, I could purchase one "pack" at a time from my local Big Box store known as Meijer. That Michigan based chain is most known to Baseball Card collectors as the source of 'Meijer Purple' parallels, which arrived in a 'blister' that included the one parallel card and one retail "pack" of S1, S2, or Update, albeit with occasional hiccups in whether Update had Purples created for it.

Last year, the 'Meijer Purple' ceased to exist, in favor of another parallel called the 'Meijer Tinsel Foil.' I suspect that probably further hurt sales of the blister packs, which had obviously been in decline for some time. I say that because the blister packs with the single "pack" just sat on the shelves by the dozens, sometimes with multiple years available. Meanwhile various repack products routinely included the purple parallels, which indicate they went back to the distributor to be opened for use in repack products.

So when the blisters with the single "pack" didn't appear for 2026 Series One, I wasn't completely surprised, and knew I would probably have just this one last chance to buy a cheap single "pack" of Topps Baseball Cards, a routine activity for me ever since I was 8 years old. 

Topps still manufactures single "packs" of Baseball Cards - they arrive in what is called a "Display" or "Retail" box. This year they feature 14 cards, in boxes of 20 "packs." But I know of no retail store that still uses these to sell a "pack" of Baseball Cards. Target stores did for a time into the 2010s, but I haven't seen that packaging format at Target in many years now. Elsewhere, perhaps these can still be seen "in the wild," I suppose. But I don't expect to see the classic individual "pack" of Baseball Cards, ever again, unless I am able to visit a cooperative Local Card Shop right close to release time, which isn't always easy for me to do.

Ironically, as part of the very same purchase today, I also obtained a 'fat' / 'cello' / 'rack' / 'hanger' pack of 2026 Topps Series One Baseball Cards at my very same LCS. They sell a lot of retail Topps Baseball Card formats, but they aren't allowed to sell them until a certain number of weeks after the Street Date for the product. And they never obtain the display/retail box with single packs, either.

You may have noticed the single pack I scanned way back up there wasn't exactly cheap either. $8.75 for 12 Baseball Cards. Whereas the 'fat' "pack" I purchased at the same time was just $8 for 36 Baseball Cards. That's the price of Lottery Tickets, essentially, as a 'Hobby' "pack" has a higher chance of hitting an autograph from a young man in his early 20s who is destined to soon have a Major League career of Pitching just 39 innings or so. That is surely worth paying 3x retail prices, isn't it?

It was a great package of S1, too. A bunch of the League Leader cards I wanted, several Tigers, including Tarik Skubal, and also a Paul Skenes card - both Cy Young winners in the same package. I also pulled Houston's Hunter Brown while he was pitching tonight, a Baseball Card experience I always appreciate. The 3 inserts were also very good - I hadn't seen 2026 Stars of MLB insert yet (better than 2025), because that was my first (and last?) taste of 26 S1 retail...

I purchased the fat pack of Series One today because it is probably my last chance to open some Series One this year. I purchased a small stack of Hobby packs back on release day for S1 in February, then got real real busy at work. And before I knew it, 2026 Topps Series One pretty much sold out, everywhere. Sure, I could still order some. But I just like to purchase a few Baseball Cards with my groceries, a "pack" or two a week keeps me happy. 

That is no more. 2026 Heritage is no longer for sale, either. Until Series Two has rolled along, the grocery stores I frequent pretty much had no Baseball Cards for sale. During Baseball season. Massive piles of every other kind of trading card imaginable, but no Baseball Cards. During Baseball season.

So, I am not optimistic about my future of simply enjoying Baesball Cards whenever I buy groceries. I guess that's now just too much to ask of Life, and this always ever more Dollar obsessed Hobby. I will still purchase brand new Baseball Cards, when I see them. But how often will I see them?

Ok, ok, I can't wait any more either. What will be my last (?) First Card from a single retail "pack" of Baseball Cards?

Bummer. I just ripped the foil wrapper on my last "pack" of Baseball Cards. I collect the wrappers, too. Or, did.

I am live-blogging the results here. Sorry, no pop-up What Not store to offer these incredibly valuable collectibles for sale. You'll have to go find your Lottery Tickets on your own. Good luck.

Now, let's take a look...

Yay!

A player I really like.

A cool image, always nice to see something unique, rather than it being used by Topps for some limited edition card instead.

Kwan is having an uncharacteristic poor season; I hope he gets over what is nagging at him. I can't say I am all that optimistic about the Guardians' chances later this season after they got swept at home by the Evil Empire last week. I root for all the teams in the Central Divisions, the AAAA League that loyally keeps Baseball working on the coasts, where it matters.

At least I will remember that card, easily. Onwards...

another easily memorable card

...of a player not playing this year, oops. (PED suspension, followed by injury)

I do like the 2026 horizontals; this design is growing on me much more than 2025 ever did.

another small victory

I quite like the Future Stars cards this year

I collect them, every year

&, I just finished listening to the Tigers-Astros game

this is why I buy brand new Baseball Cards

to see what the players look like

A Series Two standard - a sort-of journeyman, sort-of backup Catcher

a lot of complete Baseball players in 2026 Topps Baseball,

seems to me - not a torso-after-torso-after-torso set. Good.

'nothin but net?

I thought I was looking at a Basketball Card there upon first glance

I'm not sure what Lourdes is doing there in that image as he approaches third base, but I suspect it might be against the Unwritten Rules perhaps. Maybe this is OK if Arizona's dug-out is on the third base side of the field at home, so his ... gesture? ... is for his teammates. 'Cuz otherwise I would expect some chirping.

This card is quite a contrast to a bunch of cards I saw this afternoon as I delightfully lost myself in some Dollar Boxes at the LCS. Those were absolutely loaded with various Bowman and Bowman Chrome cards, 'cuz Baseball Cards are all about Prospect Baseball Cards. Those Bowman sets were so jammed with Batters Batting and Pitchers Pitching - and almost zero other images - I bet the Fanatics Baseball Card miners assigned to Bowman production must sometimes fall asleep at their workstations. Am glad to see this image diversity in 2026 Topps Baseball. Let's hope the roll continues -

who? more Series Two, that's who

Just as I babble about a Hitters Hitting card I immediately hit one. This card gave me huge flashbacks to all those Bowman cards this afternoon, but for a different reason - in those cards I kept seeing a Detroit Tigers card of a player I had never heard of, last name of Massey. I hate it when I see a Baseball Card of my favorite team and I can't even figure out who it is on the card. Thus I don't Bowman, bro.

You can't stop Series Two.

You can only hope to contain it.

the Baseball Card gods are smiling on this last "pack"

the best "packs" have a card from your favorite team in it

luckily for the Topps Baseball Card miner creating up-to-date Baseball Cards via software wizardry, the Tigers had #59 available for Valdez to wear this year, too

bonus points for this being the 2nd card in the "pack" to be from tonight's game

I love Baseball Cards

two leg-kick cards in a row

how cool is that?

I'm slowly falling into a Hunter Greene collection, maybe. That's probably more because I keep finding him on cards I want for various themes; he was a Dollar Box score just this afternoon for a "None More Red" collection you will see here, some day. Dig the red glove on this card, too.

But, yeah, I read the backs...on this Baseball Card I learned that Hunter Greene already has 500 strike-outs, and here I haven't even got his Rookie Card onto a binder page yet. So many Baseball Cards, so little time.

And your 2004 Major League Leader in Hits was...

ain't no insert like a Series Two insert,

I'll just say that

Cesar Izturis, batting for the Dodgers, was 10th in Hits in 2004

bet you didn't know that

Central Division hot pack!

who needs all those famous Baseball Players from the coasts

I've got Series Two Baseball Cards to entertain me

if you are thinking this card might depict a Home Run trot,

well you had always best read the backs,

which confirms the suspicion by talking up Wallner's Homers

well played, Topps

plus, I gots me some Canadia!

They are Central-division located, kinda-sorta,

so a Central-division team kinda-sorta finally made the World Series again

Great Lakes division? 

works for me

the back of this card really didn't work out for the Topps Card Back writer

it has Jays manager John Schneider declaring:

"Tony is going to be huge for us."

sorry, Jays

Santander (as with Johan Rojas) hasn't played this year. For me, this card is a perfect example of something that is really nagging at me about the game of Baseball: Veterans are becoming pointless to hire. To succeed in the game today, human bodies must be so perfectly fine tuned to perfection that they then can't handle regular athletic activity. Mike Trout and Kris Bryant are the poster children for this problem, amongst 2010s stars. On the Tigers we are seeing this now with Gleyber Torres; a great re-signing who really lengthens their line-up - when he can play. Which is not often, any more. Gonna need more Bowman cards, sigh.

nothing says 'fallen-hot-prospect-now-just-good-everyday-player' 

quite like moving to Series Two

Well I certainly won't forget my last pack of Topps Baseball Cards. That's just how my brain (mostly) works, sometimes. Blogging about cards does help in that regard. I hope you enjoyed them, and I hope the retail businesses of the world, or, more specifically, northern Michigan, somehow, somewhere, step up and bring back a single pack of Baseball Cards for me to purchase. Please?