Seeking Redemption 21: Steven Matz 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic

A couple of months ago, I posted about some group breaks of 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic that I participated in. One of my hits was a redemption card for a Steven Matz Red parallel autograph. I entered the code into the Topps website, and within a few weeks I saw that it had shipped.

Here is the card, locked into the magnetic case with a Clearly Authentic-branded sticker. The Red parallels had a print run of 50 cards made, and I think mine is # 10 / 50. I am not 100% sure, since I didn't make a note of it when I scanned the card, and the scan pictured above isn't all that clear. This card probably isn't worth what I paid for the group break spot, but it's better than getting nothing at all. Matz had a tough 2017, starting and ending the season on the disabled list, with mismanagement and poor performances in between. The Mets appear to be a total circus. I wonder if that will change for 2018?

Lately, Topps has been including bonus cards with redemption shipments to increase goodwill among collectors who have to wait on their redeemed cards to arrive. It's a pretty cool move on that part of the company, and I enjoy seeing what they surprise me with. This time I got a Matt Wieters relic card from 2017 Topps Baseball Series 1. It might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but it's a nice enough card and it was free. I was actually a little surprised to see that Wieters is a four-time All-Star. I thought he'd been a little more star-crossed than that. I was also a little surprised to see that he's 31 years old. I thought he was younger. He didn't have a great year for Washington in 2017, but maybe he'll bounce back.

This redemption didn't take too long to be fulfilled, and it's cool to get a bonus card out of it. I now have only one outstanding redemption, a basketball card from Panini. It's been out there for a couple of years now, but they've never sent it and haven't responded to me when I've asked for a status or replacement. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong trees.

2017 Topps Clearly Authentic

Collectors seem to like acetate cards and autographed cards, so Topps recently came out with a product that is made up entirely of autographed acetate cards, 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic. There is one encased autograph in each box, and there are twenty boxes in a case. Most cases hold 18 cards from the regular checklist and 2 cards from the Rookie Reprint checklist. The regular checklist is made up of 82 cards of current players on this year's Topps flagship design. The Rookie Reprint checklist contains a mix of retired and current players, but reprints their rookie cards on acetate. I believe all of the Rookie Reprints and their parallels are numbered, while only parallels from the base checklist are numbered. Some of the base cards have photo variations, but I don't know if they are seeded any differently.

I'm a sucker for a card gimmick, so I went out and found the best mix of group break slots I could, trying to get the largest number of possible cards for the least amount of money. I wound up with the Phillies and Reds in one break, and the Phillies and Mets in another break. I got shut out on the Reds in the first break, but I got 4 different Phillies in the case. The only one I didn't get was Maikel Franco. First up is this Jorge Alfaro card. You can see from the scan of the back how transparent the cards are. It's a pretty cool effect, and I think they look better in person because running them through my scanner makes them blurry. It has a hard time knowing what to focus on with encased cards.

The next card I got was this Roman Quinn horizontal shot. My only real complaint about this set is that some of the autographs are faint or streaky. I think Quinn's autograph is the worst of the bunch I picked up in that regard. 

Next up out of the case was Jake Thompson. He's been bounced back and forth between the MLB and AAA levels all season, and he's had some struggles. As far as I can tell, though, he's still pretty young and has time to figure things out.

The last card for me out of that case was Aaron Nola, a pretty good pitcher for the rebuilding team. I think he has a cool signature, even if I can't see his name in it. It kind of looks to me like his signature says 'tawns.' It was pretty nice to get four cards out of a 20-card case. It would have been nice to pull a parallel or a Reds card, but I can't complain too much after getting 20% of the cards in the case from one of the cheapest slots in the break. 

In the other case, I had the Phillies and the Mets. I didn't pull any Phillies, and I didn't get any Mets until the very last card in the break. I got this redemption card for a Red parallel of Steven Matz. Matz has had a rough year, starting the season on the DL, having a rough run of games, and then going back on the DL with a season-ending elbow injury. I think that if I were a pitcher, I'd be running far away from the Mets. The Red parallels are numbered # / 50. I'll revisit this one when/if Topps successfully acquires the signed card.

For some reason I also bid on and won this Kenta Maeda Red parallel on eBay. I don't collect the Dodgers and I don't have a Maeda collection, but I went out and got this card. I must have been caught up in trying to gather some cards from the set, and threw out some bids on a bunch of auctions that were closing. This one is numbered # 43 / 50. The signature is a little faint on this one, but it's a pretty cool card.

And that's my foray into 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic. I don't anticipate chasing down much more of this product, but you never know what will happen.