Pack of the Day 177: A Blaster of 2017 Topps Chrome Baseball

I don't remember exactly when I picked this up, but I think it may have been in August. It's a blaster of 2017 Topps Chrome, and I think it might represent my only foray into the product this year. I could also be won't about that. Things kind of run together anymore. It contained 7 packs plus a pack of Sepia parallels. 

Here is a scan of the insert and parallel odds and the No Purchase Necessary information from the side of the blaster. 

I didn't scan all of the base cards in the box. With only four cards per pack, though, I only skipped 12 of the 20 base cards in the box. There's some decent stuff here among the horizontal shots. I especially like some of the stuff going on in the background, like the signs behind Springer and Donaldson and the action going on behind Naquin. 

This box was pretty good for me when it came to Astros content, with the Springer above and Hernandez and Musgrove in this scan.

I got three regular Refractors in the box to go along with a nice Blue Masahiro Tanaka Refractor. That one is seeded 1:101 packs and is numbered # / 150. Too bad that Tyler Austin wasn't a Judge Refractor, or I could be writing this from my new private island. I kind of hope the Yankees beat the Indians, as Cleveland's pitching scares me against the Astros.

George Springer makes another appearance among the inserts, with one of the two 1987 Topps Baseball inserts I pulled. Danny Duffy is the other one. I also got a Future Stars card of Willson Contreras and a Freshman Flash insert picturing Jharel Cotton. 

The pack of Sepia parallels didn't contain much of interest to me. The most interesting thing about it was probably trying to decide whether to do two scans or just stick that Odorizzi card in the scan sideways.

That's all for this blaster. I got about what you'd expect from an average blaster box of this stuff. 

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. 

Power Girl by Bun Leung

I'm a member of quite a few Facebook groups for showing off or advertising comic art and sketch cards. That's where I discover a lot of the artists whose art winds up in my collection. Earlier this year, I bumped into artist Bun Leung's work and started following his Facebook page. That also let me to his online shop, where he's got a variety of comic and pop culture art for sale. He's even got a section of affordable art with full-size sketches under $10 in many cases.

I picked up a She-Hulk sketch from his store, but I don't think that one ever made it onto my scanner before I put it away. Then I saw a post from him on Facebook advertising a limited number of sketches available for commission. I was able to get on the list, and I asked for a sketch of Power Girl for my collection. It didn't take very long at all before he sent me a picture of the artwork and shipped it out. I'm very happy with this sketch. If you're looking for affordable work in an anime-inspired style, I'd recommend giving his shop a look or following his page and looking for commission spots to open up. 

2017 Topps National Baseball Card Day Set

August 12th was Topps' proclaimed National Baseball Card Day, and people who visited card shops on that day could get packs from a special set Topps created for the occasion. I didn't visit my local shop on that day, as my local shop is inconvenient to visit and I have a hard time justifying the markup they charge over internet prices. I also get a weird vibe from the owner that I don't like. The best thing about visiting the local shop is petting the dog, but sometimes the dog bites me.

Anyway, I bought a set of the 2017 National Baseball Card Day cards from an eBay seller. There are 30 cards in the set, one for each team in Major League Baseball. There were also stadium giveaway sets and autographs seeded randomly in packs, but I only picked up the base set. Carlos Correa was the Astros' representative in the set.

The checklist contains an assortment of veterans and rookies. I picked a few of them to scan here. Most of these guys have completed their season for the 2017, hoping for a better run next year.

The representative from the Angels, Mike Trout, wasn't available from packs. You had to spend $10 on Topps products at the card shop to get this card. I got it as part of my eBay purchase. This is a pretty neat little set. I sometimes feel guilty for shopping online instead of supporting the local shop, but maybe if I fit in better with the owner and clientele I would feel more motivated to pay the premium for their products.

A Miniature Red Singleton

I am looking forward to playoff baseball, but along with that anticipation comes the fear of the Astros' inevitable collapse. Only one fan base out of ten will be happy at the end of it all, and there are a lot of dangerous teams in the way of a Houston World Series win.

One player who won't be a part of it, win or lose, is Jon Singleton. He spent 2017 down at AA, and hasn't had an MLB at-bat since 2015. He was among the team leaders for the Corpus Christi Hooks in Runs, Home Runs, and Runs Batted In, but probably didn't do enough to earn a promotion to AAA, let alone the big-league club. He could be a replacement-level guy on a weaker roster, but there's not any room for him on the Astros after several other corner-infield/DH-type guys leapfrogged him.

I still keep plugging away at my Singleton player collection. This card comes from the 2014 Bowman Chrome Mini factory set. Each factory set came with 30 parallels of various colors, with these Red Refractors being limited to 5 copies apiece. My Singleton card is # 2 / 5.

Seeking Redemption 20: WWE Undisputed Autos

I picked up a couple of redemption cards from 2017 Topps WWE Undisputed, mostly just because I like to bid on redemption cards to see if I can score a deal.

I was kind of aiming for Cesaro and Big Cass, but I never wound up getting any of their cards. I ended up with a base autograph of Sami Zayn and a Bronze autograph parallel of Heath Slater. It didn't take too long for both cards to be made, so it was just a few weeks before I got a shipping notification.

Here is the Sami Zayn base autograph. It's numbered # 066 / 199. Zayn is a pretty fun wrestler to watch. He's got a high-energy style. I've seen him live twice in the last year. His entrance music seems to get the crowd pretty hyped up, too.

I'm not that familiar with Heath Slater, but the price was right on this autograph. It is numbered # 38 / 99.

Topps' policy lately has been to include a bonus card with most redemption shipments. In this package I got a couple of relic cards from 2015 Topps WWE Heritage. This first one features Tyler Breeze, one half of the Breezango tag team.

The other bonus card in the package was a relic card of The Miz. These aren't the most exciting relics in the world, but they were bonus cards so I can't really feel bad about them. It's cool that Topps even includes bonus cards in redemption packages.

Some WWE Hits and a Bonus from Puro Central Shop

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me. We finished up our work for the Federal fiscal year-end on Friday, so Saturday was my first day off in quite some time. In the afternoon I headed into Boise for a WWE book signing by Charlotte Flair, who was at the Barnes & Noble store autographing copies of 'Second Nature.' I had picked up my book and wristband on Friday, but once I got in line I saw that she was allowing photographs, so I had to run back out to my car and get my phone. One of the bookstore employees complimented me on my Cthulhu-inspired shirt, so that was pretty cool.

I was near the end of the line, so I had a little bit of time to wait, but it wasn't too bad. The line snaked past several discount shelves and I used the time to browse the books. Charlotte was really cool during the signing, making sure to converse and take pictures with everyone in the line. Overall it was a very cool experience, and I was glad that I decided to go. I put this picture on Twitter after I got out of the building and she re-Tweeted it, so that was pretty neat for me.

Here's the autograph I got. The employees at the store had everyone write their name on a Post-It Note so that she could personalize the autographs. The store staff were pretty helpful and personable. It made me feel a little bad for doing most of my shopping online these days.

Charlotte Flair wasn't just in town for the book signing, though, as there was a WWE Live event in Boise Saturday evening. I bought tickets soon after the event was announced, and soon after I got home from the book signing we headed for the arena. I was pretty entertained by the event, and my wife and one of my six year-olds enjoyed it a lot.

My other six year-old whined the whole time and wanted to go home, and my eight year-old was determined to have a bad time until Dolph Ziggler insulted the people of Boise and he started to get emotionally invested in the matches. I think that by the end of the show he was having an okay time. Really, the key to enjoying a wrestling show is to allow yourself to buy into the storyline and be a part of it. It's a lot more fun when you cheer for the faces and boo the heels.

Some of today's featured cards show wrestlers who appeared in last night's show. I got these from the eBay store of the now-closed Puro Central Shop, which until mid-September was one of the primary U.S. sources of Japanese wrestling cards and memorabilia. This is a 2017 Topps WWE Undisputed Green autograph of Natalya, who appeared as part of the losing team in a 6-woman Tag Team match just after the intermission last night. Carmella and Lana finished out her team, while the winning team featured Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Naomi. This Green parallel autograph is numbered # 23 / 25.

The first match of the night included Big E as part of The New Day tag team defeating a team made up of Breezango and The Usos. It was a pretty entertaining battle. I know a lot of people don't like The New Day, but those same people probably don't like anything fun. This Bronze parallel of Big E's autograph is numbered # 24 / 99.

This TJ Dillashaw relic card from 2016 Topps UFC Knockout was included in the package as a bonus, as the owner of Puro Central Shop knows I collect UFC cards. I thought this was a pretty cool gesture. This mat relic card is numbered # 106 / 188.

After the opener between The New Day and The Usos/Breezango, Chad Gable and Rusev battled it out, with Rusev eventually gaining the upper hand. The match was all right, and Rusev got soundly booed after his victory.

Next up was another Tag Team match between The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley) + Luke Harper and The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) + Erick Rowan. The crowd was on the side of the Hype Bros, and they eventually delivered a victory.

Once that match was done, Sami Zayn came out and beat Mike Kanellis. Sami Zayn seems to be incredibly popular, so the crowd was pretty excited about this one. After losing, Mike Kanellis got the microphone and complained that Mike Kanellis never loses. He demanded another match, and someone whose name I can't remember ran out and beat him up again and pinned him.

The last match before the intermission was a Fatal Four-Way match for the WWE US Belt. The participants were AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Kevin Owens, and Tye Dillinger. Most of these guys have pretty strong followings, so the crowd was pretty happy as the momentum swung between the different wrestlers. AJ Styles eventually won, and then the show went into a short break.

Following the intermission was the Women's Tag Team match between Charlotte-Becky Lynch-Naomi and Natalya-Carmella-Lana. Becky Lynch got easily the biggest response from the Boise crowd, so she's pretty popular here. Each wrestler got a little time in the spotlight during the match, and Charlotte finally closed it out with a submission victory.

One of the most entertaining matches came next, as Dolph Ziggler came out and turned the crowd against him with an insulting speech, and Bobby Roode put on quite a spectacle during his entrance. I hadn't watched many of Roode's matches previously, but he really seemed good at working the crowd. I always like it when a wrestler I've overlooked comes out and makes me a fan.

The Main Event was a bit of a dud, with Jinder Mahal defeating Shinsuke Nakamura in a battle for Mahal's WWE World Title. Mahal and the Singh Brothers riled up the crowd and made the event into kind of an India vs. the United States thing, but that didn't make a lot of sense as Nakamura is a wrestler from Japan. The crowd didn't seem to know what to do, and I thought it was awkward that, "U! S! A!" chants kept breaking out when Shinsuke Nakamura would get the upper hand. The match itself was pretty good, but the crowd never really figured things out and that really killed the energy, especially immediately following a couple of pretty exciting matches with a lot of crowd involvement.

Overall I had a great time and enjoyed most of the matches and the pageantry of the event. I hope the WWE comes back to Boise sooner rather than later, but there was a lot of empty space in the arena. I was hoping there would be a better turnout, as it would provide more motivation for them to bring more shows to the area. I did my part by attending Charlotte Flair's book signing and filling up five seats in the arena.