REVIEW:2019 Topps Baseball Series 1

With January being the in the Top 5 for snowiest month in my states history, I am ready to see some signs of spring at this point. Other than some groundhog that may or may not be Nostradamus when it comes to predicting a six weeks or shorter of winter left.

With all of this years snow, my yearly anticipation for the first sign of spring with Topps release of Series 1 was even more needed.

Well, it has finally arrived and so didn't a three day stretch of 40+degree weather which was unusual but I will take it. If only it could have lasted. At least these will.

This years Series 1 celebrates 150 years of baseball with some themed inserts and parallels throughout the product. That feels almost as long as it took me to get my first of this from the product and it happened this year my friends. Let's read what that was and see my other thoughts on this highly anticipated collectors release.

 

In every hobby box of 2019 Topps Baseball Series 1 is 24 packs of 14 cards per pack. You will find either one relic or one autograph per box and boxes currently run $60.

 

I have seen mixed reviews on the base card design. For me, I like all except the name. I don't care for the last name being larger and on top of the first name. It doesn't look right to me. Other than that, design looks really good.

 

The card backs have been the most talked about when it comes to the design. A lot of collectors are big fans of the color scheme and full stats. I plan on adding all base card backs to all of my reviews this year.

There are also plenty of subsets to chase as well within the base set as always, Here they are,

 

I really like the stadium shots

 

There is a lot of baseball coverage there. All but manager cards. Come on Topps, bring em back! Put half in Series 1 and the rest in Series 2. Collectors don't mind a tad bigger base card set. Overall for this years Series 1 you can find 350 cards in the base set with veterans, rookies and stadiums.

 

As with most releases today, there are those dreaded photo Sp cards. Most of these photos are unique and fun vs their base card variations. My only problem with these is that we used to only have a few of these per product and now we are staring at 75 plus. That's way too many and it drives down their value because of it. I don't see the point of making so many Sp's. I would be happy with maybe 5-10 and making those next to impossible to find. I would also make them all legendary players.

I found two of the Sp's in my box with rockstar Charlie Blackmon (great photo by the way) and Jesus Aguilar.

 

The way you can tell if you got an Sp or SSP is looking at the bottom of the card for the CMP code and what that ends in .

• Base Cards end in #1910
• SP variations end in #1967
• SSP variations end in #1968

Let's now take a look at the parallels you can chase. I like how easy they are to spot this year because of the base card design.

 

150 parallel. Just a stamp of 150 Years on it.

 

Gold parallels numbered to 2019. Found my boy Andujar!

Rainbow Foil with once again Cano and Andujar.

 

Vintage Stock is numbered to 99 and features a rough vintage back. First time I have pulled one of these.

 

Father's Day blue parallel /50

 

And here is the start of the Andujar rainbow. Much more to go. 

Here is an overall look at the base card parallels you could find,

Purple (Meijer), Yellow (Walgreens), 150th Anniversary, Rainbow Foil, Gold /2019, Advanced Stat /150, Vintage Stock /99, Independence Day /76, Black /67, Mother's Day Pink /50, Father's Day Blue /50, Memorial Day Camo /25, Platinum 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

Next, let's take a look at the inserts. Most have the following parallels, 150th Anniversary /150, Red /10, and Platinum 1/1..

 

Topps Greatness Returns. Find 25 of these to collect.

 

150 Years Of Professional Baseball has many cards and subset within. And guess what the twist is, there are 150 cards overall to chase.

 

Evolution Of Baseball breaks down the evolution of baseball and has 25 cards in the set.

 

Iconic Card Reprints has 50 cards to chase in the set capturing the most iconic Topps lined baseball cards.

 

The fun Home Run Challenge is back! Pick out the day the person hits a homerun win a prize! I never once attempted the game last year and gave away the cards when I got them. Wonder what I will do with this one....

 

Topps Now Review set to me has grown it's course. I actually see a few collectors complaining about these now. They feel like a filler in the set. At least in my box I found Aaron Judge for my PC.

Not pictured for some reason or another are the '84 Topps baseball throwback set. I pulled roughly 7 of those. Not sure why my blog didn't want to update that on here.

That's it for inserts I pulled. There are plenty of others to chase in a variety of options for buying the product and where.

Now onto the hit of the box.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY HISTORY OF OPENING UP A SERIES 1 HOBBY BOX.....DRUMROLL.....I FOUND AN AUTOGRAPH CARD!! I can't remember how many times I have posted on here 9 out of 10 times you will find a relic and for the first time I was the one time that found an auto. This goes down in history!

 

Legacy Of Baseball autograph of Max Muncy.

Other hits to find not in my box include,

• 1984 Topps Baseball Autographs
• 150 Years of Professional Baseball Autographs
• Cactus League Legends Autographs
• Grapefruit League Greats Autographs
• Iconic Card Reprints Autographs
• Legacy of Baseball Autographs
• Legacy of Baseball Dual Autographs
• Postseason Performance Autograph
• Revolution of the Game Autographs
• Star Player Highlights Autographs
• World Series Champion Autograph
• Cut Signatures
• Major League Material Autograph
• Postseason Performance Autograph Relic
• Topps Reverence Autograph Patch
• World Series Champion Autograph Relic
• 150th Anniversary Commemorative Medallion Autograph
• 150th Anniversary Commemorative Patch Autograp
• Retro Hat Manufactured Logo Patch Autograph
• 1984 Topps Baseball Relics
• Historic Homes Relics
• In The Name Relics
• Major League Material
• Postseason Performance Relic
• World Series Champion Relic
• 150th Anniversary Commemorative Medallio
• 150th Anniversary Commemorative Patch
• Retro Hat Manufactured Logo Patch
• Sketch Cards

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I was pretty happy overall with this box with finally landing that once in a long time wait of an autograph hit, once again my only worry with the product is paying $60 for one hit and having that one hit be a single color relic. There are a few options to fix this. You can buy retail only, I prefer blasters honestly when it comes to any form of flagship. You could buy a hobby jumbo that comes with multiple hits. Or you could buy into a box break which I suggest Midwest Box Breaks when you do so.

No matter the option you choose, go buy yourself some Topps Series 1 just to get over the winter blues and get that spring feeling. And obviously, that kick off to baseball feeling.

Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to be able to add cards to the giveaway on Twitter I am hosting. Please follow me there to enter @SportCardCollec. Also follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well. 

Passing These Along

About a year ago, my mother-in-laws best friend's husband Tom passed away from Lou Gehrigs disease. I had only met him once and his wife a few times. They seemed to be very nice people and someone my mother-in-law had known forever and treated like an extended family.

Recently when she went to visit her friends, she brought back a bag for me from Tom's wife that had a bunch of NY Giants items in it. I guess she had been going through his stuff again and trying to take care of more of it and she knew how big of a fan I was so she passed them along to me. I guess she also tried to pass along some Red Sox stuff but my mother-in-law advised that wouldn't be a good idea.

I went through that bag and there was some pretty cool items within.

 

Super Bowl 42 Champions DVD. This one I had but I am intrigued by the DVD's on the left. It appears he taped in the entire game and put it on DVD. That will be a fun watch.

 

Now this will also be a great watch. Top 10 greatest Giants games. Can't wait to spend countless hours watching games I have and haven't seen.

 

Going to give this a read on the story of their super run.

 

This book covered all of the season and how they got where they were.

 

I assume he got this at a game. Pretty cool looking back on some of the players I may be missing cards of.

A few older Sports Illustrated from 1987. I was four when these came out so no way I have seen these.

I am glad to add these to my collection. A thanks to Tom's wife for thinking of me and for Tom in heaven looking over my enjoyment of these.

Have any of you had anything passed along to you before? And what?

How Do I Sort This?

My recent mail day from my Twitter buddy @NYCollects, not light bulbs this time (you can see that funny article on here by looking up @NYCollects), had me thinking when I go to sort this card, how do I do so?

This card has four players on it. All four play a big role in my Giants collection. Eli Manning I am closing in on 500 cards. Rueben Randle and Odell Beckham Jr have over 200 cards of each player and this is Beckham's rookie year. Andre Williams was a huge PC in terms of the amount of hits I have for him.

However, the way I sort things and mark things down, I can only choose one player. One. So which one do you think I should choose to add this card to the PC of? How would you sort this one?

Let me know in comments and a thanks again to @NYCollects for giving me this card for my collection. Your one good dude!

The Big Cat And His Youngin's

Over the past year I have been hoarding rookie autographs. I know most will fail and never either reach the big leagues, play in them or find a career in real estate, but that's my version of prospecting.

Just collect them all. My only stipulation, they have to be hitters. I don't do pitchers. They are the offensive lineman of baseball sad to say.

 

Raudy Read is a catcher for the Nationals. They will need some bats if Harper doesn't return. Who knows where that guy is going (if he signs on somewhere before this posts I typed this up on Saturday)

 

Kevin Kramer made his debut in September with the Pirates but didn't take the league by storm. Well, yet maybe.

 

Brent Rooker was selected 35th overall by the Twins

Pinder has shown some potential for the A's. Who knows what 2019 will bring?

Banks was drafted in the 4th round of 2016 draft by the Nationals.

Couldn't find any info on Gomez. Oh well.

Couldn't find any info on Rob either.

Brett Cumberland is now in the Orioles organization after being drafted by the Braves in the second round 76th overall. Braves traded him last year at the deadline.

Nothing on Chester could be found. Just like the Rays fans at home.

Alvarez makes up for most of the sad prospects of this group as he is one of the higher rated guys out there for the Astros. I also really like his signature for some reason.

Jesus has made the Rays 40 man roster at the end of the 2018 season. Let's see what 2019 brings!

I believe Jose Siri is on the Reds. Once again, let's see how it goes.

Since Allen was called up last year, he hit multiple walk off home runs and played really well. Hoping that carries over to this year.

Yes I know. This isn't a prospect or close to it but I loved this card from the start. I just realized today how many teams he played for. I guess he liked to travel. I will best remember him for playing with the Rockies which was in the 90's. Of course most baseball fans will remember him for his time in Montreal.

A big thanks to @jnarbles for another excellent trade. I look forward to more down the road for sure. I hope you enjoy everything I sent you as well.

*note that I also got close to 20 Derek Jeter cards in this trade as well but those are waiting for another day to be shown off*

Moon Shots

Yesterday I shared the first part of my mail day from @jnarbles, today I am sharing another small part of it. The big part will be tomorrow.

Today once again I took my focus mainly on rookies.

 

Tyler Boyd I didn't have a rookie of and this card is pretty stunning. He showed some potential last year.

 

Jamaal Williams silver prizm parallel.

 

Lamar Jackson rookie. I started chasing this guy at the end of the football season. Still searching for an autograph.

 

I only had one other Christian McCaffrey rookie, now I have two. This one looks great.

 

Added these Clint Frazier purple and aqua name variations. As with any refractors, these look better in person.

 

These were the only two Judges from @jnarbles that I didn't have. Well, now I have them. I really like the Raking Rookies.

 

And my final card from this part was this MoonShots hit with a swatch of base. Not only a great looking card but I love unique swatches. And being a Yankees card is just a bonus.

Another part knocked down in my @jnarbles mail day, one more to go and it's a big one. Stay tuned for tomorrow for the finale!

Can't Stad Ya, But Respect Ya

For weeks I watched @jnarbles have a Tom Brady rookie up for sale. Good deal to and not one person bit on it which was surprising to me. For those weeks I tried to pry it away in a trade. Well, finally I was able to do a trade for the card I wanted. Yes, I actually wanted a Tom Brady card.

Many of you know my absolute hatred of everything New England Patriots and Tom Brady, but just because I can't stand Mr. Brady, doesn't mean I don't respect him. Throw aside all of the scandals involving the team, as a player, Tom is as good as it gets. Pure talent and a winner. Well, when they aren't video taping other teams practices or deflating footballs. Sorry, had to throw that in there. Hard to admit he is a legend of the game and I want to throw up in my mouth for saying so. But, looking at the players he has around them, he turned average dudes into studs.

Once again today he finds himself in the big game, ugh, so sick of seeing them there. Okay, time to refocus on my trade. So I had to get another rookie card of the legend just because I wanted another. What can I say, I love rookie cards especially when they are of superstars.

 

So this arrived on Friday. At the time I bet nobody thought neither of these guys would turn out, well they were right about one at least. This is just one of the reasons why I don't ever trade off my rookie cards.

So Tom wasn't the only card in this mailing as we went even deeper with our trade and those I will show off over the next two days.

As for today, I have a feeling the Patriots will win, trying to hold back my throw up hold on a second, the Super Bowl. They have that underdog mentality throughout the playoffs and will for this game as the Rams are picked to win. I think the Pats should be favorites to win against a very young inexperienced in big game Rams who shouldn't even be there in the first place. Yes Saints fan I put this in there. I am hoping the Rams do win and I hope they come out with the mindset of we shouldn't be here so let's prove everyone wrong. Guess we will see.

At least this year I have a team to root for unlike last years game I didn't watch a second of. So everyone have fun watching and make good decisions after the game is over. And thanks @jnarbles for this part of the trade. 

Who do you have in the Big Game?

Blog Bat Around: Remembering A Legend

For awhile now, all of us in the blogging world knew that Wes of Area 40/Jaybarkerfan's Junk blog was retiring from blogging and collecting. He made that official on his blog this week.

With Wes always sending lots of us bloggers and even other friends his generosity and big time goodbye packages, I was thinking all week of a way to send him out on top with more than a simple goodbye. So bloggers and even Twitter followers who have had past experiences with Wes, let's do a Blog/Tweet Bat Around and each send out a personal thank you and good luck to Wes as he rides off of the blogging/collecting sunset.

Let's also do this by showing off our favorite cards that Wes has sent us/you over the years. Let's get Wes-talgic. 

 

Over they years this great guy has sent out many trade packages, surprises and contest mail days and I was on the fortunate end of a few of those. And when this guy sends out a package, he sends out a package. So much so it was really hard to show off all of my favorite cards from him in this post so I just had to recap a few so I wouldn't take up two blog screens for this post. It all does kick off with this official Jaybarkerfan autograph rookie card above.

   

I am still unsure of how he located my final piece for my Psych set, but he did and I am very thankful.

Same can be said for the final piece of my Ghostbusters autograph set.

  

This card was the biggest surprise in surprise history. My long time Rodney Hampton white whale that he somehow located and sent it to me without me knowing. He promised all along that before he completely stepped away he would find it and did.

  

He also sent me my first ever NFL shield.

  

A Umeyiora printing plate was apart of his tradeathon. One of the very few NY Giants printing plate cards I own.

  

My now best MJ card was included in one of his basketball cubes. I dig 90's inserts so, so much.

 

Just like how this Ortiz rookie was located in a baseball cube. Classic picture and design. I probably even had this card at one point but ditched some binders to my father when I moved out of my parents house for him to keep. Long since have been sold off but now I at least have this one back in hand again.

Just keep in mind again, these cards I showcased today is just a slight sliver, actually a cookie crumb, of what he sent me. Very minuscule. Like I said there was no way I could re-capture them all again. But, you can find them all by searching Wes or Jaybarkerfan on my blog and I honestly think I may have even missed posting a few NY Giants cards that never got uploaded but still will be posted on here at some point.

Wes, amigo, fellow blogger/trader and friend, I wish you all the best in hobby retirement and thank you for your kindness, generosity and friendship over the years. You are a legend and someone we all should be looking up to and following in the footsteps of. Just remember if you ever decide to come back, we will be waiting for you with open arms. Stay in touch-Matt

The Supplies Are Set!

Before I started in on this Big Sort of 2019, I had to make sure that I had the right supplies on hand so I turned to my favorite card supply place in BCW Supplies to get what I needed.

Here was what I got and what I am going to do with each.

With these Shoe House with 6 Shoe Boxes . I am going to put all of my NY Giants hits by player. I have been wanting to do this for years and make it easier for me to search for cards. Especially if I decide to post some on here that may have never been viewed here.

After buying one of these Shoe House with Boxes, I suggest checking out this instructional video on how to put one together. It can be pretty intenese otherwise lol. Well, at least for this uncoordinated blogger.

If you want to see folding directions for the Shoe House, here’s the demo.

Also needed this Card House that comes with 12 800ct boxes for my Griffey Collection. I am going to be putting them by year in these boxes and mark the years on the outside. They all will be penny sleeved and the ones with more value will be put in a safer spot. This is for general base and inserts.

Had to grab the Penny Sleeves for my Griffey Jr project and for my binder swap out project of inserts for super star players. More details on that coming up.

 These Tall Card Dividers will fit perfectly in the bigger shoe boxes above to seperate my Giants players. I use index cards for my teams and players, but for something special like this project, it gets a major upgrade.

BCW also offers 3 versions of card dividers, for other sized boxes as well. I may need to look at some for my insert project. Once again, details on that is for another time.

I suppose I got to end this article for today so I can get to tackling some of this project.

But, I am curious what you guys use for your collection in terms of supplies?