Topps Now Giancarlo Stanton Card of the Month

One of the perks of buying items directly from the Topps website is that you can earn loyalty points, which can be exchanged for things like special trading cards or coupon codes for discounts. At some point in August, I qualified for a new level in the loyalty program and chose to receive the Topps Now Card of the Month. At the time I ordered, it was a mystery as to what the card would actually feature. 

I got the card in the mail at some point, and discovered that it pictured Giancarlo Stanton and commemorated his being the 6th player in MLB history to reach 50 home runs for the season by the end of August. I like the image selected for the card, with all of the signs in the background. 

The back of the card is fairly sparse, with the card number, Stanton's name, team logo, a date, and a list of the six players to complete the feat. It's an impressive list of Mashers, although there are several names on the list that some would put an asterisk next to.

I was pretty happy with this card. Free cards are some of the best cards.

I am currently at the gas station on Fort Dix, trying to make use of the WiFi since my barracks don't have access, but the employees are mopping the floor around my feet, so I'd better cut this off and head back to my room. I guess it's a sign of dedication to my blog that I will walk a mile each way just to write up a post. 

Topps Now Players' Weekend Astros and Bonus Cards

Well, the Astros made it plenty interesting, but they managed to finally knock the Yankees off in a series where the home team won each of the 7 games. I didn't get to watch Game 7 since I am stuck in some barracks without internet for a month-long course. I'll probably miss the World Series, too, but I guess that's the price you pay for career advancement. I hope the Astros can pull it off, but the Dodgers are a formidable opponent. 

One major key to the Astros' success is their little second baseman, Jose Altuve. A huge portion of their offense runs through him and his bat. Although I mentioned his small statue above, I got pretty tired of the TV broadcasts mentioning the size difference between Altuve and Aaron Judge, along with shots of them standing next to each other. 

When MLB did their Player's Weekend promotion, Topps released team sets to commemorate the event. Part of the promotion was that players were allowed to wear nicknames on their jerseys, and the Topps' Player's Weekend sets show the nickname jerseys on the back of each card. 

Most nicknames are some variation of the player's real name, which makes sense. I go by a shortened version of my last name in most circles, because some people have a hard time pronouncing it.

I guess the Astros' uniforms for this special weekend were all right, but I'm glad this isn't their regular color scheme. I thought this was a reused photo of Reddick, but it's not. This is just the standard Josh Reddick photo pose. 

I was pretty happy with the player selection for this set, as Josh Reddick and Evan Gattis both got cards. They aren't exactly the stars or hot rookies on the team, so they don't always get included in these things. 

Part of the draw for these sets was that if the team had a 6-game win streak after the All-Star break, you got a bonus card. The Astros had two streaks, so I got two extra cards. The first card celebrates Cameron Maybin and Justin Verlander helping the team get to six in a row. 

The second card pictures Brad Peacock and Yulieski Gurriel. Pretty cool stuff. I don't know if I'll buy as many Topps Now cards in 2018 as I did this year. Keeping up with these extra sets and the Astros' playoff Now cards is hard to do. Topps released nine cards for the team's Game 7 ALCS win! If the World Series is this card crazy, I might have to give up. 

The Fun Side of Topps Now

Well, the Astros laid an egg last night, dropping a game 8-1 to the Yankees in New York. The Yankee bats came alive, the Astros seemed to have some trouble fielding the ball cleanly, and the Houston pitchers couldn't close out innings with two outs and runners on base. To take my mind off of the loss as I wait for tonight's game 4, I decided to take a look at the fun side of Topps Now, with some of the more whimsical cards I've picked up this year.

I'm kicking things off with the Astros, who held a funeral in July for Carlos Beltran's glove, since he hadn't played the field much to that point in the season. Shortly after the funeral, though, Beltran got a start in the field, and presumably the glove rose from the dead to wander the stadium again.

This next one features an animal on cardboard, which always gets me on the wagon. In this case, the animal in question is a donkey that Joey Votto promised to Zack Cozart if Cozart made the All-Star roster. Cozart made the team, and Votto bought him the donkey. I have to admit that I voted for Cozart a few times because of Votto's promise, and apparently a lot of other people did, too.

The Cozart family donkey has a name and his name is...Donald!

Named after Donald Duck, Cooper's favorite cartoon character. pic.twitter.com/ECmqVay95p

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 22, 2017

Apparently the donkey's name is now Donald, after Cozart's son's favorite cartoon character, although if the fan voting really led to the name, I'd be willing to place a bet that most fans voted for that name with other reasons in mind. I'm also a little unsure as to why the donkey on the card looks different from the donkey in the Tweet. Maybe one of them was just a placeholder?

The final card in this post features Bartolo 'Big Sexy' Colon joining many others across the country in viewing the eclipse that happened in August. My state was in the path of totality, so it was a pretty big deal around here. We went and viewed it at my dad's farm, although we only got like 99.9% totality there. After it was over, my wife said that she really wished we had gone a little further north to see the 100% eclipse. Either way, we had a pretty good time with my dad and my sister, and I was happy to have a baseball card showing the event.

Those are a few of the fun cards that Topps printed for the Topps Now program this year. The print run on the Astro card was 357 copies, there were 691 donkey cards ordered, and the eclipse card generated 450 orders. I think those numbers are higher than an average order, so there is definitely demand out there for some fun and silly cards during the season. I hope the Astros can find a spark tonight as Lance McCullers Jr. and Sonny Gray duke it out in ALCS Game 4.

Topps Now Astros Clinch AL West

I've found myself picking up quite a few Topps Now cards lately, as the Astros closed out a great regular season and began their playoff run. With the price per card being what it is, even through eBay resellers, I feel a bit bad for trying to get all of the playoff Now cards for the Astros. It seems like for each playoff win a team will get about 3 cards, and for each loss a team will get 1 card. That's a lot of cards! I know that if the Astros win the whole thing I'll be happy to have all the Now cards that chronicle the journey, but if they fall short I'll probably be kicking myself for buying in. So they'd better win it all, and in as few games as possible. They have a chance to really put the thumb down on the Yankees tonight if they can win Game 3 of the ALCS on the Yankees' field.

This Topps Now card comes from before the playoffs, commemorating the Astros' clinching of the AL West Division for the first time in a long while. They did it at home against the Mariners, behind another strong performance from newly-acquired ace Justin Verlander. The print run on this one was 341 cards. I don't know what the average print run for a Now card is these days, but this is a pretty fun one to have in the collection.

Topps Now Astros Hurricane

Every so often Topps will donate the proceeds from a particular Now card to a charitable cause, which I think is a pretty cool thing to do. I often end up buying the charity cards regardless of who appears on them, but it's even better when the card shows one of my favorite teams or players.

That was the case at the end of August, when Topps put up this card for the Hurricane Harvey relief effort in Houston. I posted about this card when it was available on the site, but I never showed the back of it. Profits from the card went to the American Red Cross, and 799 copies were ordered.

The back of the card shows a sign that told fans how to donate at the stadium, as well as a hashtag to use on social media.

The Astros have gone up 2-0 on the Yankees in the ALCS behind some strong pitching, strong defensive play, and some high-risk base-running. The long ball has figured into the series a little bit, but probably not as much as expected so far, with both games being decided by a 2-1 score. I am excited to see how the series goes now that it's moving to New York for a couple of games. I've been picking up all of the Astros-related Topps Now cards from the playoffs, and that has been a little expensive for me. Still, I hope they get through the Yankees and move on to the World Series. The postseason is a lot more exciting when your team is in it.

Topps Now Verlander Trade

I've picked up a few too many Topps Now cards over the last couple of months, partly because there have been some fun cards put out and partly because the Astros have had some success, with individual and team achievements that made the checklist. 

One of the bigger moments recently was the trade deadline acquisition of Justin Verlander from the Tigers. He hasn't lost a decision since joining Houston, and has played a key role in the team's playoff success so far, with the Astros eliminating the Red Sox in the ALDS after four games. I was at the dentist when Game 4 ended, so I didn't get to jump up and celebrate, but I was able to catch a few innings before leaving for my appointment. Pretty exciting stuff. We'll see if they can keep it up. 

Buy a Card and Help Houston

There's been a lot of news coverage about the flooding in Houston, as well as reports from a couple of fellow card bloggers who hail from that area of the world. Many folks are looking for a way to help out the victims of this natural disaster. Topps has found a way to combine baseball cardboard with the relief effort through their Topps Now program. 

This card was just listed on the Topps Now site, with proceeds from sales of the card going to the American Red Cross. Although it doesn't specify that the funds will be used specifically for Houston, it's a good bet that a large percentage of the Red Cross' focus right now is on the events in Texas. There are plenty of other ways to help out with the flood relief effort, but this one will get you a free piece of baseball cardboard alongside your donation.

When Topps released their Spring Training sets, one of the bonuses was the promise that if you bought the set of a team that was in first place at the All-Star break, you would get a free card in the mail honoring the achievement. The Astros were in first place at the time, so I got this card in the mail.

Plenty of enthusiastic Astros on this card. I hope the Astros players can overcome all of the craziness associated with the flood and give their city something to cheer about as they close out the season.

Topps Now Ultimate Card Giveaway Results

Back in February I bought some Topps Ultimate Card Giveaway code cards from Topps Series 1, and I won three 2017 Topps Now cards with the codes I entered. The cards I won were 10, 130, and 146, so I had to wait for the season's Topps Now moments to occur before I found out what players my cards would feature.

Card # 10 didn't take long, with the card being dated April 4th. This one features JaCoby Jones of the Tigers hitting his first career home run in his first Opening Day at-bat. It was his first and only MLB home run, and he has spent much of the season down at AAA. The print run on this one was 488 copies.

Card # 130 featured Phillies player Aaron Altherr, who hit his third home run in three days, a feat no Phillies player had achieved since Mike Schmidt in 1981. He's been pretty good for the team this year, but he's on the DL right now with a hamstring issue. That's pretty unfortunate. This card had 290 copies printed.

Four days later, card # 146 featured Mike Trout becoming the youngest MLB player in history to reach 150 home runs and 150 stolen bases for his career. It was nice to get at least one big name among my three winners, and Mike Trout is one of the biggest names outside of this year's hot rookies. This one had a pretty big print run, with 1,222 copies made.

I didn't do too bad with my Ultimate Card Giveaway codes. I wound up with three winners, and got a Mike Trout card and a couple of other dudes. I thought about buying some more code cards when Series 2 came out, but I never got around to it.

Josh Reddick Topps Now

Just a quick one-card post for today, as I've let the weekend kind of slip away from me. On Friday evening the boys and I picked up my nephew and headed to Firebird Raceway to watch the Nightfire Nationals drag races with my dad. It was a pretty good time, and the kids were suitably impressed by the spectacle.

One of the night's highlights was Ed "The Outlaw" Jones and his wheel-standing stagecoach. It helped that along with driving his stagecoach up and down the track on two wheels, he also handed out plenty of jelly beans to the kids in attendance.

The jet-powered dragsters were also pretty exciting, shooting flames and making plenty of noise as they shot down the track. Saturday I didn't do a whole lot as I was struck down by my allergies, but I did manage to get out and get a snowcone with my wife for a mini date night. Today we had church and I took a nap afterward, because my allergies are still bothering me.

When Topps gave Josh Reddick a Now card back in April, I had to get a copy for my collection. The Astros have had some bad luck recently, with much of the roster on the DL and the rest of the team not playing up to their early-season level. They've fallen behind the Dodgers' pace and are close to being overtaken by the Nationals in the overall standings (although Bryce Harper unfortunately left the game today after an awkward encounter with a base). They just traded for Tyler Clippard, which should help to shore up a bullpen that's been shaky lately. The print run on this Reddick card was 279 copies.

2017 Topps Now First Day Cards

Our power went out for a while this evening. Without any internet to browse, I took a nap. The nap turned into full-blown sleep, and now I am awake in the middle of the night trying to figure out how I am going to get back to sleep and get a couple more hours in before work. The lesson here is that I am terrible at time management.

We adopted a puppy from the animal shelter over the weekend, but she kept being aggressive toward our eldest boy, so we had to take her back. She was a really nice dog otherwise, but we couldn't have her acting that way toward one of the kids. There must have been a similar-looking boy in her last home that didn't treat her well. Hopefully she can find a good home without kids. Meanwhile, we have a voucher to put toward adopting a different dog in the next six months. My dog was very jealous of my wife's new dog, so he has been sulking around. Hopefully he will get along well with whatever new dog my wife winds up with, or at least be indifferent toward it.

Our twins also have been begging me for mohawks, so I finally got out the clippers and did it. One of them didn't really like his and tried to cut it off with scissors, so my wife finished the job with the clippers. Now he's bald like me. The other twin really likes his, so he'll probably have it for a while.

Now for some baseball cards. I haven't picked up a lot of Topps Now baseball cards this year, but I did get the Astros' Spring Training/Opening Day set and a couple others so far. I did want to pick up the first card of the season just to get into the baseball mood and put myself in the running for any reward Topps wanted to send out to 2017 Now buyers, so I got this Evan Longoria card highlighting the first MLB home run of the 2017 season. Longoria has been his usual pretty good self so far, but my fantasy team would like it if he could either get his average up or mash a few more home runs like Joey Gallo.

I also got this Mad Bum card that references Bumgarner's two home runs during his Opening Day start. Madison Bumgarner is a Basset Hound guy, so I am pretty much obliged to be a fan. If only he could keep the rubber side down on his motorbike.

I do wish that Topps had license to do cards for some of the more infamous moments of the baseball season as well as all of the highlights and walk-off wins. I would pay for a card of Madison Bumgarner going to the DL for his wayward dirtbike ride and the Bryce Harper / Hunter Strickland punchfest. I think I mentioned similar sentiments last year after Roughned Odor cleaned Jose Bautista's clock. It'll never happen because MLB's PR folks wouldn't stand for it, but I would pay for those cards.

Houston Astros 2017 Topps Now Road to Opening Day Team Set

Early this year, Topps rolled out the 2017 Topps Now Baseball program with a bang, releasing Spring Training sets for all 30 MLB teams. I guess the official name for the sets is Road to Opening Day. The MSRP on the 15-card sets was $50, if I recall correctly, and there were also sets available for $100 which contain one randomly-selected autograph card from the team. Anyone who purchased a Topps Now card through the Topps website in 2016 received a Mike Trout card in the mail with a coupon code for 25% off these sets. I used my 25% off code to buy the basic Astros set, the one without the autograph. In all, the print run on the Astros set was 142 autograph sets and 37 regular sets, for a total of 179 sets in the print run.

If the team you purchased is in first place in their division at the All-Star break, you get a bonus card for that. You also get a bonus card if a player on your team throws a no-hitter or hits for the cycle during the 2017 season or playoffs. I guess I've got a pretty good chance of getting a 1st-place bonus card for the Astros, since they've got an 8-game lead on the Angels and Rangers right now in the AL West. In fact, all four of the other teams in the division are clustered together, with records below .500 and 8.0-10.5 games behind Houston. A lot can happen in two months, though, so I can't be certain of the Astros holding that lead.

Like some people have mentioned in blog posts that I can't relocate at the moment, the 2017 Topps Now cards are pretty standard glossy trading cards, but the backs have a holographic sheen to them. There are some team sets with some pretty cool non-standard photos on them, like Yoenis Cespedes in one of his cars (a Polaris Slingshot, I believe), but the Astros' photos are pretty basic baseball pictures, with Evan Gattis in catcher's gear being about as exciting as it gets. It is a pretty cool card. So far, the back of the card is pretty accurate. Gattis has appeared in 25 / 39 (64.1%) of the Astros' games, splitting time between the DH and catcher positions. His stats have been pretty good, but it's got to be hard to be held out of the lineup so much.

Here are some of the other big names in the set. Dallas Keuchel has been excellent this year, and hopefully he will keep that up. Carlos Correa took a while to get going, but he's rounded into form recently. Jose Altuve has been good, as has George Springer. Alex Bregman and Yulieski Gurriel have been decent. The three signers for the Astros autograph sets are Correa, Bregman, and pitcher Joe Musgrove. I'm guessing there will be a lot more Musgrove signatures than there will be Bregman or Correa.

Here are the rest of the cards in the set. Lance McCullers has been right up there with Keuchel in carrying the pitching rotation, although Charlie Morton has more wins than McCullers does. The bullpen has been pretty good to great, with a lot of strikeouts. I was happy to get a card of Josh Reddick in an Astros uniform, as he's a guy I've been collecting for a while, since his time with the A's.

These Topps print-on-demand and online-exclusive cards are more expensive on a per-card basis than most of their traditional pack-based counterparts, but I can't help picking some of them up from time to time. I've mostly stayed away from the daily Topps Now cards this year, though, as there are just too many of them. I can't even keep up with the Astros in the set, let alone all of the other stuff that comes out. I was happy to get this team set, with cards of the new additions and the holdovers who are piloting the team to a great start so far.

The Ultimate Gamble

A few days ago, P-Town Tom of the Eamus Catuli! blog posted the results of an experiment with Topps Now code cards he purchased on eBay. These cards are inserted in packs of 2017 Topps Series 1, and each code offers a chance that you will win a Topps Now card from the 2017 season. To see how he did, click on through and have a read.

It sounded fun enough to me, so I looked at lots on eBay and found one that seemed like a pretty good deal, $8.66 shipped for 12 unused code cards. They arrived in the mail today, and I entered the codes into the Topps website.

I did pretty well with my codes, getting three winners out of my twelve tries. The 2017 Topps Now cards I won are 10, 130, and 146. I went back to the 2016 listing to see what I might have won if these were for last year.

If 2017 were 2016, I would have won:

10 - Brandon Crawford, San Francisco Giants – Brings Giants from Near No-Hitter to Walk-Off Win (Apr. 8) – Print Run 316

130 - Michael Fulmer, Detroit Tigers – Set Club Rookie Mark for Scoreless IP Streak (June 6) – Print Run 636

146 - Michael Fulmer, Detroit Tigers – Increases Scoreless IP Streak to 28 1/3 Innings with Strong Outing (June 12) – Print Run 658

Well, what are the odds of that? In the fictional world of yesteryear, I would have won two Michael Fulmer cards, along with one Brandon Crawford release. Hopefully my 2017 cards will match my player collections a little better. I've noticed that all of the redemptions I've seen so far come relatively early in the potential checklist, probably because Topps is reserving later numbers for Series 2 and maybe Update. I imagine that while Topps may not have a quota for Now cards, they probably have a general idea of which card number they expect to be at on a given date.

I might try to grab another lot or two of these over the course of the year, if I can get a good price on them. This lot turned out to be a pretty good deal, with me getting three Now cards for about the price of one.