02 February 2016

Pack of the Day 122: The First Cards of the Year - 2016 Topps Series 1 Hanger Box


Some of my posts recently have had a pretty negative tone, discussing my problems with eBay transactions and my ongoing bad experience with the Topps redemption replacement program. Now it's time for something a little more positive; the first new cards of 2016! I stopped at Target on the way home today and they had the new 2016 Topps Baseball Series 1 cards on the card shelves. I selected a hanger box from the pegs and brought it home with me. And the first card of 2016 is:


Matt Kemp of the San Diego Padres! I guess it could be worse. The picture is all right. I am still warming up to the design. I think I would prefer that the photographs look a little more natural. I like the look of the team logos in the lower corner. I'm glad that the card fronts feature both team names and player positions. The card numbers look a little better in person, but I like them to be darker than they are. Those are my initial impressions of the set. 


I didn't scan all of the cards in the box. I have to leave some surprises for other people to find. Noah Syndergaard's card just about got pulled off the scanner by that heavy trophy at the bottom of his card and all that foil at the top. Jayson Werth had a run-in with the law last year, but his beard game is on point. I'll pretty much always scan a Max Scherzer card, I didn't realize that Jarrod Saltalamacchia had moved to Arizona. Maybe I knew it at some point last year, but as of today I didn't remember it.


That Kris Bryant guy is pretty popular, or so I've heard. He gets a little trophy and some foil across the top of his card, too. Gattis remains among my favorite Astros. They won't be catching many people by surprise this year, so hopefully Houston can live up to last year's promise.


There are celebration shots in this year's set, with this hanger box producing a photo of Huston Street getting an involuntary shower.


There are some decent horizontal cards in the set, with Melvin Upton Jr. and Jay Bruce standing out among the cards I got. I like seeing two Astros on that League Leaders card. The inserts in the pack kick off with that Rusney Castillo card, which I believe comes from the Perspectives set.


The other inserts I got are a Yu Darvish MLB Debut card, a Warren Spahn Amazing Milestones card, a Garrett Jones card from the Pressed Into Service set which highlights position players who have been called on to pitch in games, an Addison Russell from the 100 Years at Wrigley insert, a Roger Clemens from the Berger's Best checklist, and a Rainbow Foil parallel of Adam LaRoche. I was mildly disappointed that I didn't get a First Pitch insert, but there will be plenty of opportunity to get some of those this year. So far the inserts that interest me most are First Pitch and Pressed Into Service. The others I probably won't bother too much with.

That does it for this Pack of the Day post. I imagine there will be plenty of 2016 Topps up on the blogosphere over the next week. I like the cards well enough, and this hanger box made a nice start to the new collecting year.

19 comments:

  1. Lucky pull on the LaRoche... hopefully I get one in my box on Thursday!

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  2. Bryant, Arrieta and Russell in the same pack?? Why can't I ever pull like that!

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    Replies
    1. Jason Hammel was in there, too, but I didn't scan his card.

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    2. Ditto! This set does look good.

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  3. Cardboard Connection got the pictures switched around. My copy has the base card code on the back. You got me excited there for a minute. I was getting ready to turn in my resignation at work tomorrow morning.

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  4. Liking that Saltalamacchia card - a Coors Field cameo!

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    1. Saltalamacchia found his way onto a couple of my fantasy baseball teams over the years, so I usually at least take note of his cards when I come across them. Also, his last name seems ridiculously long.

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  5. I pulled two Puig variations from 2013 Topps that sold for about $175 between the two of them (one from a Hobby box and one from a retail rack pack). Not quite retirement money, but a decent payday.

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  6. I'm terrible with variation cards. So much so that if I'm opening a Topps product I have the variant list up on cardboard connection at the same time.

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    1. I try to check the codes on the back as soon as I open the cards to see if any are different.

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  7. Replies
    1. It wasn't bad. I could have done with fewer Dodgers and Mets in the box, but even with that it was a pretty good look at the new set. I'd like to get a look at some of the parallels in-hand.

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  8. The Castillo is a great looking card. Like the view of Fenway

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    1. The Perspectives cards are pretty cool. I go back and forth on whether or not I like the giant words embedded in the photos.

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  9. "I think I would prefer that the photographs look a little more natural." I couldn't agree more. The Thor card and the Street card look way overdone by the art department.

    Anyone know why there's a 100 year Wrigley Field set? The 100th Anniversary was in 2014, which seems a little out of place in 2016. Not that I'm complaining, because that's one insert I'm out to get!

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    1. I am in favor of less photo manipulation on the Topps base set. They can add all the vintage filters they want to Gypsy Queen and they can get as futuristic as they want with inserts or the flagship border design or Bowman stuff, but for me the base Topps set needs to be pretty vanilla as far as the photos go.

      I don't know why. I guess it's a matter of how you interpret the timeline and name of the insert. It barely registered with me, because the Cubs aren't on the list of teams I really follow.

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  10. LaRoche (regular) was my first card this time. I think this set will be called the 'killer mist' set because of the artsy fog effect in the two corners.
    I never believe that I'll pull any of the variations. It's so bad that I may even have a couple lying in my duplicates boxes and don't even know it. At least now they tell you about the codes.

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    Replies
    1. The fog is kind of weird. I think it's mostly there to serve as a place to identify parallels. I've probably got a variation or two tucked away somewhere, but I try to check the codes on the backs as I open the packs. Usually the variation cards are packed in the center with the rest of the inserts, so I also try to look for out-of-place base cards as I shuffle through a pack.

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