I've griped about this in so many words, but it's been a very difficult year for me to keep up as a collector. I've been in between jobs, making what I can, saving mostly, and...not buying a ton of new cardboard. And when I CAN go to Target, there's never any there. These TCDB trades have been scratching that itch, I've been catching up on a lot of more recent stuff, but the other part of getting new cardboard is the chance of getting the rookie in question. Obviously you collect the way you collect, and I collect the players I like, but if there's a chance to get a centerpiece card, that always helps. I remember starting out collecting in the late 2000s, getting a ton of 2008 Updates and Highlights, and that's how I've ended up with 2 Clayton Kershaw rookies, a gold parallel of an Evan Longoria rookie, and that Al Gore gimmick. And all are still integral parts of my collection.
In the last few years, I've missed out on finding big rookies of people like Julio Rodriguez, Luis Robert, Gunnar Henderson and more. Now, I've got enough Ohtani rookies to choke a commissioner, but I worry I'm gonna be missing out on what could be the next windfall. And right now that is Paul Skenes. It's worrying to me that I've been unable to find any Topps Update from 2024, and all the online suppliers have hiked up the price solely because of the Skenes factor. For the first time basically ever, I've resigned myself to just...not being able to find any Topps Update, a set that was once one of my favorites.
So I was in Target today, at the very least seeing if I could find Archives or Stadium Club or something to at least fulfill that want for newer stuff. The card aisle, as it has been, was bare. Nothing going on. A hanger box of MLS cards. Some packs of stickers. A few 2024 factory sets. Nothing. And the fact that it took me hanging around the backs of the action figure aisles to check for discounts to find a completely different card endcap, with much more options and lines of Allen and Ginter blasters, says a lot. Why wouldn't they put those up in the front? Y'know, with the sports cards??
Nevertheless, I saw the shelf of A&G blasters, amidst the other sports stuff I had no interest in, and resigned myself to it. Sure. Why not? I'm not really an A&G guy, there's too many cards that don't fit in my collection, but I'm a TCDB trader now (at TallestJord, I forgot to point that out last time), and at the very least I can offload the stuff that won't fit in binder pages.
You know the drill. 8 packs, 6 cards per pack. Every pack contains a mini and a subset. SPs are seeded 1:2, so we should get 4. There's also new chrome cards seeded 1 per I think. I don't think A&G needs chrome, but since Topps thought it'd be a good idea to overhaul Stadium Club with parallels, A&G wasn't safe.
Pack 1- Yeah, this is kinda what I expect. The HOFer/legend selection is still great, I'm always down for Roy Campanella sightings. The base design is...an understandable step for A&G. I think those first 3 years were perfectly simple and they had to keep overcomplicating things.
The Dog show subset is standard, but the 50 States mini, of Nebraska, is seeded 1:21.
Pack 2- By several metrics, a very good pack. An Elly rookie, an A&G back rookie of Heston Kjerstad, and an SP of Pablo Lopez. Also, Jason Aldean is here for some reason. I wanna know what Topps's criteria for earning a non-sport base card in Ginter is. Didn't Mark Sanford get one right after the sex scandal? If you're gonna do Aldean, I'm kinda shocked it took you this long. Like, after 'Try That In a Small Town'? The window has passed, man. Anyway, my lasting impression of Aldean is the one Mean Tweet he read that was something like 'Jason Aldean looks like his dick got caught in his sister'. Bodied.
Sister Sister is seeded 1:5. Mildly amusing idea.
Pack 3- More non-sport guys I do not care about. A Westburg rookie, that's pretty cool. We got a gold mini, that's 1:11, of the great Edgar Martinez, and a lovely card of a bee that's seeded 1:6.
Pack 4- A Ted Lasso supporting guy and a schnauzer. Gotta love A&G. Blackburn is an SP. He is also on the wrong team. A sobering reminder of how early the checklist cutoff for this product was. Carter looks awesome though. That Thomas black border is a 1:11 pack card, so that's pretty cool.
Pack 5- What do these four people have in common? None of them played in an MLB game in 2024. Clemens getting pictured as a Jay is cool and all but man I do not enjoy continuing to pull his cards. I really hope Mauricio turns out to be as good as people have said he will.
I'm spotlighting the subsets and minis cause they're both great. X'Ray'd falls 1 per blaster, and this is an extremely cool, CHROME, card of what it looks like when you x-ray a cape porcupine. They even credit the zoo that took the picture, the Oregon Zoo. That's pretty cool.
The big takeaway is the Rookie Design Variation card of Wyatt Langford. These are 1 per blaster, and Langford's one of the better names to pull. Very happy with this. It ain't Skenes, but it ain't, like, nobody.
Pack 6- At the time of pulling this was my favorite pack in the box. A Hall of Famer, a future Hall of Famer, one of my favorite current players, and one of the top rookies in the set. Merrill and Judge help justify the price. Jones is an SP, and a great, and timely, pull at that.
Pack 7- Another dog, an SP mini, a welcome Nolan Ryan, and our one-per-box chrome card of Corey Seager. I'll say this, I was so fixated on finally getting the chrome card that I didn't realize what was directly behind it..
So...I don't rip A&G often, but when I do, I have decent luck. Last time I got a blaster of A&G I pulled a Rafael Devers relic. This is also pretty nice. Austin Riley's a terrific infield bat, and one of the most crucial pieces of these Braves teams. It is a grey swatch, yes, and it is a full size relic, yes, but...it's a relic of a guy I've not only heard of, but is a star. Typically you get an auto or relic of a scrub from a retail blaster. This is not that, this is very good. So I was very happy with this. This is where I mention that a full size pattern B relic falls 1 in every 89 blasters. So that's fantastic.
Pack 8- A milder finish, but still pretty cool. Pages could be something if he figures it out. There's Riley again. Johnny Bench, in an SP, clearly is picture in a uniform from the late 60s, and my second gold mini is of Daddy Yankee. Not a huge listener of his. Me gusta la gasolina thought.
That did exactly what I wanted it to. Provided me with new cards of people I collect, some decent rookies, some trade bait, and a surprise relic I can get behind. Definitely a success. Hopefully the next time I wander into a well-stocked retail shelf I'll have luck like this as well.
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