Pack of the Day 188: Two Collector Boxes of 2018 Topps Fire

I was in Target the other day, and I saw that they had Collector Boxes of the new Target-exclusive 2018 Topps Fire Baseball on the shelf. I had to give it a try.

Each box has 20 packs with 6 cards per pack. There are 2 hits promised per box, with one of those hits guaranteed to be an autograph. The store had 3 boxes on the shelf. I bought one, then went back a couple of days later and saw that one was still left, so I bought it, too.

Here are the pack odds and NPN information from the box. There are several tiers of parallel, 6 different insert sets, and a number of autograph and relic sets.

The pack design mimics the box design, with Kris Bryant being chosen as the cover boy for this product.

The base cards are certainly colorful. There are 200 cards in the base set, with a mix of stars, rookies, and retired players. In the first box I pulled 99 / 200 base cards, and in the second box I pulled 96 / 200 base cards. Even with perfect collation, you're not going to get a full base set out of two boxes.

While I did not get doubles within either of the boxes, nearly every base card in the second box was a duplicate from the first box, so now I've got 102 / 200 in the base set and a whole lot of doubles. That was kind of disappointing.

There are a number of parallels in the set. My first box yielded 8 parallels. The most common are the Flame parallels, falling at 1:4 packs. They are not numbered. The Billy Hamilton and Miguel Andujar cards are Orange parallels, which are numbered # / 299 and fall 1:13 packs. The Victor Arano card comes from the Green parallel set, numbered # / 199 and falling 1:19 packs.

The second box game me 9 parallels, with five Flame parallels, Orange # / 299 parallels of Bob Feller and Cody Bellinger, a Green # / 199 parallel of Noah Syndergaard, and a Purple parallel of Ralph Kiner. The Purple parallels are numbered # / 99 and fall 1:39 packs.

The Cannons insert highlights players with strong arms. Most of the inserts in the product are seeded 1:14 packs, so you'll get either one or two from each insert in each box.

Fired Up features players who are stars. It's a pretty colorful set. If you like Yankees, this product is good for you. Most teams have 20-30 names on the total checklist, but the Yankees have 39 cards in the checklist. The only other team with more than 30 is the Cardinals at 32. The Blue Jays and Rangers bring up the rear, with 3 and 5 mentions in the checklist respectively. Other teams with less than 10 cards in the checklist are the Brewers and Padres, with 9 each. 

Flamethrowers features (mostly) pitchers who are known for throwing the ball hard. The back of the card lists the pitcher's average fastball velocity. Chapman and Syndergaard have appropriately gaudy numbers, but I don't know if Greinke's 91 mph heat really moves the needle here.

Hot Starts inserts feature players who had a good start to the 2018 season.

These cards are called Golden Sledgehammer on the packaging, but the card numbers have a 'PP' prefix and the checklist on Cardboard Connection lists this insert as being called Power Producers. Either way, this set shows off players who hit the ball hard.

The last insert is Speed Demons, a checklist full of players who are known for being fast. Billy Hamilton shows up here, along with guys like Elvis Andrus, Jose Altuve, and Dee Gordon.

The first hit from my first box was a basic relic card of Dominic Smith. He hasn't exactly been setting the league on fire.

The second hit of the box was more impressive, a dual autograph of Oakland's Matt duo, Olson and Chapman. Between the two of them, they've got 10.6 WAR so far in 2018. The card is numbered # 07 / 20, and dual autographs fall 1:4,559 packs, or once every 228 boxes.

The first hit out of the second box was a base autograph of Paul Blackburn, another Oakland player. He's on the 60-day DL with elbow trouble, so he's not quite having the season he'd like to have. Base autographs are a 1:29 pack pull.

The second hit of the box was another tough pull, and a bonus autograph to boot. It's a Fire Autograph Patch card of Royals catcher Salvador Perez. He's been injured recently, but is still having a decent year, and has been on the All-Star squad for 6 straight seasons. This card is numbered # 09 / 25, and these are a 1:518 pack pull, or once in every 26 boxes.

Outside of all the base doubles, these were a pretty fun break. I feel like you get a decent value in a box for your money, compared to products at a similar price point. The card design is fun, and there are plenty of shiny parallels and inserts.

April 2018 Loot Locker

I ordered another Loot Locker in April, again going for the Triple Play Baseball locker, which costs a little more than the All-Star Baseball locker and less than the Grand Slam Walk Off Baseball locker. The All-Star and Triple Play lockers have different amounts of the same products, while the Grand Slam has higher-end stuff. There are also basketball, football, and hockey versions.

As usual, the cards ship in a 400-count card box with Loot Locker branding stickers attached.

Here is what I got in my box of stuff. There were also a few pieces of candy, but I ate them before I took this picture. Every Loot Locker contains a package of Ultra Pro supplies, usually around 10 top loaders and some penny sleeves. One in five lockers contains a bonus hit of some kind, and mine was one of the lucky ones this month. It's a pretty decent hit, too, a 2015 Bowman Chrome Purple Refractor autograph of Wilmer Difo. He's been a fairly regular player for the Nationals this year, backing up second, third, shortstop, and center field. He even had a Topps Now card a couple of days ago, with a walk-off single to claim a victory over the Phillies. The card is numbered out of # / 250, and looks to be a $10-15 card on eBay. Pretty good stuff!

The packs for the month are two packs of 2018 Panini Diamond Kings, two packs of 2011 Bowman Platinum, and one pack of 2018 Topps Gypsy Queen. As usual, I like to break down the cost of the packs to see what kind of value I'm getting for my money. I couldn't find a lot of 2011 Bowman Platinum for sale, but I did find enough information to suit my needs. To come up with my numbers, I price hobby boxes on online card shops, divide by the number of packs in a box, and multiply by the number of packs in the locker. It may not reflect exactly Loot Locker's costs, but it kind of reflects what I'd be spending if I made the unlikely journey to my local card shop. I round the numbers, so some of the final math is off by a bit. Here are the numbers I came up with:

2011 Bowman Platinum: $113.33/box / 20 packs = $5.67/pack x 2 packs = $11.33

2018 Panini Diamond Kings: $75.95/box / 12 packs = $6.33/pack x 2 packs = $12.66

2018 Topps Gypsy Queen: $174.95/box / 24 packs = $7.29/pack x 1 pack = $7.29

$11.33 + $12.66 + $7.29 = $31.28

That's a pretty good value for $30 + $5 shipping, especially with the card supplies and the bonus hit. The last two lockers I priced out came in at $26.32 and $28.64, so this one was significantly higher.

Here are a couple of the key base cards from the 2011 Bowman Platinum packs. Giancarlo (Mike) Stanton is heating up in New York (bad news for my Astros), and Miguel Cabrera is breaking down but probably has the numbers and accolades to get into the Hall of Fame.

I did pull some doubles from my Platinum packs, in the form of Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins. First world problems, right?

One of the Bowman Platinum packs also contained a hit, this bat relic autograph card of Juan Miranda. It is numbered # 0704 / 1166, and features a guy who played in parts of four seasons with the Yankees and Diamondbacks. His last season in MLB was 2011.

I pulled another hit out of Diamond Kings, an Original Materials dual relic of Miguel Andujar. Justin Verlander represented the Astros in my packs, and I also got a Sepia variation of Aaron Judge, last year's Shohei Ohtani. Today was Tony Gwynn's birthday. He would have been 58, but he passed away in 2014. He blamed a chewing tobacco habit for the cancer that eventually took his life, and it looks like he may have a cheek full of chew in that photo.

The Gypsy Queen pack contained another Astro, Dallas Keuchel, and a Missing Nameplate parallel of Mike Trout. The Missing Nameplate cards are some of the more common parallels out there, but Mike Trout is still a big name to pull any parallel of.

This was a pretty solid Loot Locker for me. The pack mix was a good value, and I did pretty well as far as pulling some good stuff from my packs. The packs for May's Loot Lockers are all 2018 releases, with Diamond Kings, Donruss, and Bowman making appearances. I've just ordered mine for the month, as that's a pretty good mix of products. I'd like to see more Topps stuff because I like logos, but I doubt we'll see too much more until stuff like Series 2 and Allen & Ginter drop.

Pack of the Day 185: Two Blasters of 2018 Topps Heritage

Since my 2018 BBM True Heart Japanese Women's Wrestling post isn't getting written as fast as I anticipated, here's something else I got recently. Like many card collectors, I've been visiting the local retail establishments, hoping for a taste of 2018 Topps Heritage. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much stock at all in my local stores. There were a few rack packs and hanger boxes in my local Target for a day or two, but I haven't seen a blaster box in the wild yet. I finally resorted to searching online for them. I happened to check eBay on a day when there was a coupon for 20% off any purchase of $25 or more, so I ordered a couple of blasters from a reseller. After the coupon, the total cost was under the retail price, including shipping. I have also been watching this Wal-Mart link, as you can order them from the big box store and they will ship for free as long as you order two or more blasters. I ordered three that way, but they haven't arrived yet. They go in and out of stock all the time, though, so you just have to keep looking. I figure retail is gonna be the only way to build this set for most of us, as hobby boxes have been selling in the $120-125 range lately. That's close to double what I'd want to spend on one. So that's my philosophy on Heritage at the moment. Here are some of the highlights from my two eBay blasters of the product.

I'll start things off with a nice sunset card of Carlos Beltran, who retired on top as a World Series Champion.

I photographed a selection of base cards that I liked. You'll obviously see a lot of Astros here, as well as some notable names or (subjectively) cool pictures. I included Carlos Asuaje because I saw him play in person several times while I was in San Diego for work last year.

Here are some more nice base cards from the blasters. Some years I don't like Heritage as much as others, but 2018 is a year that I enjoy. I'll be trying to build the full base set this year, although I am going to go the easy route and buy the short-prints outright.

Speaking of short-prints, I pulled five of them between the two blasters. The Chris Davis card is a Chrome parallel, numbered # 588 / 999. Blasters contain 8 packs, and the Chrome cards are a 1:35 pack pull, or about one in every 4-5 blasters. Short-prints are 1:3 packs, so 5 is about what you'd expect from 16 packs.

These decals are the Wal-Mart exclusive for this year, and I got a couple of decent names for mine. It looks like you get one of these per blaster.

Here are all the vertical inserts I pulled. They've got varying pull ratios. I think I like the New Age Performers best. I'd probably like the Deckle-Edge inserts better, but they've been done many times over the last few years.

I also got a horizontal insert, with this Then & Now card featuring a couple of all-time great pitchers.

I even lucked out and pulled a hit from this break, an autograph of Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader, who is one of the guys contending for the team's last bench spot this season. Heritage has nice-looking autographs, and at 1:375 packs they are hard to find in retail. They're hard to find in Hobby boxes, too, so I still think retail is the better bet for set collectors unless Hobby prices drop a whole bunch.

Pack of the Day 179: A Blaster of 2017 Topps Archives

Well, the Astros pulled it off and put the Dodgers away in Game 7 of a tight World Series. I was able to watch the game since I didn't have to be up all that early this morning, and it was really nice to see my favorite team celebrate their franchise's first title. 

I picked up this blaster of 2017 Topps Archives several months ago, probably soon after the product released. I don't even really remember what I pulled from it at this point, so it's like I get to break it open again!

The side of the box has all of the odds on it. The NPN contest expired a couple of months ago, so that information isn't of much use to anyone. 

I pulled a couple of Astros among the base cards, Evan Gattis and Ken Giles. I also got Frank Thomas showing off the 'big body-little head' look and Johnny Cueto showing his bubble gum bubble skills. 

My horizontal pulls included two of the Astros' playoff heroes, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve. I also got some nice-looking cards of pitchers and a manager. I wish today's card sets included more manager cards. 

Among my inserts there was another Astro hero, wearing the uniform if his previous team. Justin Verlander was a huge part of the Astros' playoff run, and I don't think they would have won the title without making the move to acquire him.

My other inserts included some other guys, too. I don't really care one way or the other about Jeter, so the whole insert set devoted to him doesn't do anything for me. 

The final scan from this blaster break shows the blaster-exclusive coins I pulled. I did all right on them, getting Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge. At the time I opened this blaster, I looked up the Judge coin on eBay and it was selling for about half the price of a blaster.

I like the idea of the Archives product, but nearly every time I open some of it, I come away wishing there was a little more in each box. 

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.