Returning from Coors and opening some Stadium Club

Late last night, I returned home from Denver. I had a good trip, taking in the HR Derby, MLB All-Star Game, and everything in between. It was a busy few days, but I was happy to return home. I'm too old to gallivanting around a city during the work week.

A couple observations:

• Literally don't care if it's BP. Guys hitting the ball 500 feet is awesome to see. It doesn't make sense seeing a ball go that far from where it started, even if it started 30 feet from him and was being thrown 40 MPH by an old guy.
• The new HR Derby format is much better than any of the old formats. I hope it stays for a while and MLB doesn't tinker.
• Coors Field has horrible concessions and had no idea how to handle a full capacity crowd. Their urinals are also small and close together.
• MLB doesn't care if you don't like the jerseys. At all. A LOT of people were wearing them and spent good money on them. They were the most common piece of game merchandise for the thousands of people walking around. Your Twitter complaint means nothing. And no, I didn't buy one. I got my son a hat and my daughter a stuffed bear.
• Once the game started, the jerseys were easy to forget about. Blue was away. White was home. Baseball was being played, despite what someone was wearing. It felt normal, especially because the AL once again won.

Moving on. One benefit to returning home - you know, besides seeing my wife and kids - is that my two blaster boxes of Stadium Club were waiting for me. It was super easy to order them from Target.com. I don't mind ordering cards to open online at all. Saves me the trip of going to the store.

I actually crushed it with Yankees. My two boxes were packed from them, from inserts to base cards to parallels to special box toppers.

I don't have much to say about Stadium Club. They are excellent looking cards with a minimalist design and exciting photos. Although some of the photos are a bit dull featuring just running or swinging, they still look sharp and crisp.

The horizontal cards are my favorite, and I would be fine if the whole set was like these. They all seemed a bit more interesting than the verticals.

And of course, there's always a mixture of legends.

As for the aforementioned Yankees, it felt like every pack I opened had a card from my favorite team. The rarest was a Giancarlo Stanton Red Triumvirate, which fall 1:192. Not bad. What's disappointing about these is how flat they are. They need some color, shine, or texture!

Beyond that, three inserts I was lucky enough to get were Superstar Duos of Aaron Judge and Stanton, a reprint of Mariano Rivera, and a Virtual Reality of Luke Voit. According to the fancy metrics on the back, over 162 games Voit would have hit 59 homers. Sure.

Here are a few more Yanks base cards. I like the Mattingly quite a bit. I received THREE base card of Clint Frazier. And then also got a black parallel of Urhsela, but not showing it. Just imagine what it looks like with a black logo.

Speaking of parallels, I got several. I don't really get the point of just changing the foil color, but there they are.

The rarest card I got was a 30th Anniversary parallel of Kenta Maeda, a 1:318 pull! Always sad when you beat the odds and pull a dud. That's a Napkin Doon quote.

Here's a few more fancy cards.

Last but not least, each blaster comes with a loose Master Photo. I didn't even know this before purchasing, so that was cool to get them. I did well with a Bellinger and a Deivi Garcia RC,

I don't regret the $40 I spend on these at all. They were fun to open, and should provide me with some great fodder for TCDB. 

Oh, and go AL.

The RC treatment

One benefit to the shortened season last year is that it made for quite a large rookie class in 2021 Topps, something I'm sure Topps was thrilled to see.

While there isn't quite a Luis Robert to chase down as of now, guys like Jo Adell, Alec Bohm, Christian Pache, and Casey Mize lead a strong Series One rookie class. One the Yankees side, we got Deivi Garcia and Albert Abreu.

However, the player I wanted most will have to wait until Series Two, I assume, as Clarke Schmidt was not yet included.

Schmidt is the Yankees #1 or #2 pitching prospect based on which list you follow. He got a taste of the Bigs last year, appearing in three games. And like any top Yankees prospect, we have already received word that he is experiencing some elbow trouble already in camp and has been shut down.

Super.

While Schmidt did not receive his flagship RC, he did receive a card with the RC logo on it. He was included as an autograph subject in the 70 Years of Baseball set. I recently won this card on eBay, as it was a bit underpriced compared to comps:

Not the ugliest insert design in 2021 Topps, although hard to imagine a guy with 6.1 innings of Major League Ball to his resume as a subject in a 70 years of baseball set.

Regardless, it's a nice addition to my Schmidt collection. I currently sit #1 on his TCDB collection list with a whopping 29 cards, although I have quite a few more that I have not formally added to the site. That number is probably actually in the 50-60 range, if I had to guess.

Interestingly enough, he did have what is a 2020 card that shows him pitching in an actual game in an empty Major League Stadium:

Kind of crazy that's not his RC, right? But I guess that's not the rule.

The cheaper brand is sometimes the Best brand

I've never shied away from the "store" or "generic" brand. Sometimes, it works out. Things like bottled water, hydrogen peroxide, cornflakes. Usually you can get away with going a little cheaper without suffering much quality.

Other items, not so much. Batteries. Ketchup. Peanut Butter. Nope. Stick with the name brand!

When it comes to prospect autographs, the name brand, and really the only brand, is Bowman Chrome.

However, there is a cheaper alternative. The store-brand Rice Krispies, if you will. And while still "Bowman," these cards run significantly less. And sometimes, they even look better. That is what Bowman's Best is all about.

I went down an eBay rabbit hole a few weeks back and picked up three prospect autographs that would have cost me significantly more if I went with the name brand BoChro. Yet, I'm a discount shopper, and am happy to have these.

The one I'm most pumped about is top Yankees pitching prospect Deivi Garcia. His Bowman Chrome is a no-go for me. Just too much. But this one? For under $10. Sign me up. Maybe I'll regret not getting the real one, but I'm happy to have this one for sure.

Garcia, as long as he stays healthy, should find his was to the Bronx this year. He's MLB Pipeline's #1 Yankee prospect right now, although Jasson Dominguez is getting ready to de-throne him.

Another guy who should move fast is lefty TJ Sikkema. He was taken 38th overall by the Yanks last June, coming from Missouri University. He only appeared in 4 pro games after a heavy college workload. MLB Pipeline has him at #16.

Last but not least, Luis Gil, MLB Pipeline's #4 Yankees prospect. The Yankees got Gil from the Twins after Jake Cave was DFA'd. It's fun to see a prospect rise this high after trading someone to make roster space.

These are good-looking cards, and all the autos are on-card. Sometimes the cheaper brand isn't a bad alternative at all. In fact, it can be the (Bowman's) best option.

Freezer Day

In elementary school, one of the items on the lunch menu at the end of the school year was "Freezer Day."

I always enjoyed buying lunch on Freezer Day because there was so many delicious items available. I was a bit too naive (aka dumb) to understand that it was literally the lunch staff's way of cleaning out everything left in the freezer from the school year. Nuggets, fries, hamburger, ziti, meatballs, steakumms. All served to unsuspecting kids so that it didn't go to waste.

Pretty gross.

And awesome.

When I was looking through my scanned folder, I just saw a bunch of cards that are leftovers. Cards that have been sitting there for the last year or so without a post to call home.

So I'm taking a mishmash of what's left in my folder and creating my own little Freezer Day on a Sunday evening.

First off, Tino has to be part of Freezer Day. I remember buying this SI for Kids card because I thought I needed it. But when it arrived, it turns out it was a dupe. That happens a lot.

This was a recent pickup because I didn't realize Pinnacle Mint had cards that were printed with a medallion, versus the physical coin that usually goes in there. I have a few of the card and coin combos, but I was surprised that this version existed.

Wrapping up the frozen Tino section, my most recent pickup. It was another instance of me complaining on Twitter about crappy shipping by a seller who charged nearly $4 and sent it in a PWE. Two in a row!

Back in the spring, I bought this card, and I'm not sure why. Probably because "cucked" is funny and this guy's last name is Kucks? Cool signature and card though.

This Tyler Wade autograph was from last winter. I think I thought Wade was going to be awesome. He's mostly been overmatched in his short Big League career, but he was a bit better down the stretch and I think he'll continue to be a useful utility guy.

Stanton relic? I think got it during the COMC Black Friday sale, along with this cool Judge Tarot and Frazier Fortune Teller. The Tarots are very very cool.

When Mariano Rivera got elected to the HOF, I bought the two Topps NOW issued cards. I guess they arrived a few weeks after the news, so I never got along to posting them.

Lastly, spring chicken is on the Freezer Day menu, with this Yankee young'un. Deivi Garcia is the most promising Yankees minor league pitcher since Luis Severino. I'm excited to see him (hopefully) debut next season. I bought this card with some leftover eBay bucks last quarter.

That should do it for this Freezer Day. Glad I could finally clean this cards out of the depths of my scanned folder.

The TCDB trades have come rolling in

First off, I use the free CamScanner app on my phone - I have for years. I just noticed they started watermarking my images. I guess they want me to actually pay for the service. I'm not endorsing them and I'm too lazy too re-scan the cards, so just a heads up that I am aware of the weird watermarks on the cards in this post.

Since I started on The Trading Card Database (TCDB) about two weeks ago, I completed four quick trades with another in transit. It was very gratifying in that fact that all four were done using PWE, and all four consisted of cards from 2019 sets (for the most party) that were just sitting in a pile in my card area. I was able to move them for cards I wanted, which is a beautiful thing.

While it usually takes a while to make a blogger-to-blogger swap, usually accumulating a stack of a certain team before sending, these transactions were all very quick and easy.

The first was with Trevor from Bump and Run Card Blog. He goes by tntcardsstg. He had the honor of not only making me my first trade offer, but walking me through the system on how to accept, update status, etc. It was a solid trade too! I sent Trevor 11 cards to help with his 2019 Topps Big League set, and here's what I got in return:

Very nice! Perfect trade of 11 cards I don't need, for a Gleyber RC, Judge insert, and a few 2019 cards.

The next trade was from rl16, who admittedly has a blog I wasn't following (but am now!) - All Cardinals All The Time. He offered me a Tino card in which I didn't have, an oddball at that from the St Louis Police! In return, he asked for NOTHING. Literally. He said "welcome to the site." What an awesome gesture!

The third trade was with herkojerko, who seems to be a very popular member. I sent him a 2019 Topps Big League But Bryce Harper and 2019 Fire JT Realmuto, and in return got some nice Yanks. Again, some nice Gleyber cards for spare change:

Lastly, the fourth trade came from another popular trader with great reviews, karsal. I sent 8 2019 Topps Archives cards and one Heritage SP, and got back a host of Yankees, include a Deivi Garcia, one of the Yankees top prospects!

Four great trades that I was happy to make! It seems to me that 2019 cards go much better than anything from the last few years, so that's a good note moving forward. I still have no idea how to use the match tool, as I want to get better about trading for Tinos I need and not just loading up on current Yankees. But for now, I'm happy with the start!

If you are on TCDB, feel free to reach out. My user name is 'thelostcollector'.