Dipping back into buying some 2018 cards

It was a very slow summer for me for buying 2018 cards for a few reasons. First and foremost, my Target just never restocked 2018 cards. After flagship, I found a blaster of GQ and then never found anything new after that.

But that wasn't the only reason. I just wasn't inspired by very many 2018 releases. I'm not sure why. Maybe I got Aaron Judge'd last year and was tired of trying to keep up with all of the releases. Also I just feel like each set is the same year after year, and that gets a little tiring. I end up just accumulating without being overly excited about the cards.

Anyhow, two weeks ago I went to a different Target with my son. We were out running errands so tried a different location. They did have a much better selection of cards, and I found one lonely Chrome Update Mega Box, as well as a hanger of 2018 Update.

Side note, the term Mega Box does not make sense to me. 28 cards (7 packs of 4 cards) do not need to be in such a giant box. I'm not a conscious save-the-environment type of person, but the size of this box, and all blasters really, are so over the top for the contents inside.

Despite the usual buyer's remorse after buying retail, I still managed to pull some great cards. 28 cards of Chrome for $20 is pretty dumb, but at least there's a strong rookie class this year. Here are some of the highlights:

I was very happy to get the Gleyber RC from Chrome, as it's my first pack-pulled Torres. I didn't get Ohtani, but did well with Soto and Acuna for sure. Those guys are studs.

Also, it feels like Hoskins has been around forever, so weird to still be getting his RCs still.

This Bryce Harper card is very awesome. It must look event better as a Refractor. I really wish the Yankees would open up their large checkbook and sign Harper. I prefer him to Machado. I would also really relish all the whiny "Harper and the Yankees are made for each other" or "now I can hate the Yankees even more" freezing cold takes and tweets. It would be awesome. But it's not going to happen.

Lastly, these International Affair cards fall 1:2 and are very nice. I don't understand the premise of the set at all, but the cards look great and I was very happy to get a Judge. Probably the second nicest insert set after the 1983 Chrome Refractors.

As for the hanger box, nothing specular, but a solid break for $10. I prefer these to blasters since you get about the same amount of cards, but the 72-card brick is less fun to open. Basically you have about 35 cards on top, the inserts all stuck together in the middle, then all of the horizontal cards pack together as well. Kind of weird and unexciting.

I managed two Torres cards this time, which is great. I guess neither is his true flagship RC because of the 2018 Series 2 SP (which I don't have....GRRR). The debut card of him coming out of the dugout is great. And the AS card isn't a shot of him from the game, as he didn't play due to injury.

Stanton was the card on top of the bricks, and I love cards of trade deadline acquisitions.

I got a nice Ohtani!

And a great looking Bo Jackson.

The Bruce Harper cards come 2 per hanger at Target. The design is a little too political for me, but I get it. Washington DC.

That's it. Overall, I did ok with the break given the players I got, but I still think I should have spent the $30 on something else. But I always feel like that after buying retail.

Queen for a day

On Friday night, after a particularly stressful end of the week of work, I skipped out to Target after the kids went to bed. Saturday was the first day of tee ball, and I hadn’t bought my little guy an aluminum bat.

I went straight to sporting goods, which is basically an aisle near, but not in, the toy section and found a bat. No sense going to Dick’s and spending at least $30 for tee ball. Nope, a Rawlings at $14.99 will do. He had a few good rips during batting practice the next day and kept talking about how powerful his bat is. Pretty cool.

As one might expect, after I found the bat I just happened to take the long way to cash register and just happened to pass the card aisle. Quite a coincidence.

There really wasn’t much there except loose packs of Opening Day and two blasters of Gypsy Queen. I figured there wouldn’t be any Heritage, and I was right. Still, I hadn’t bought any retail since flagship, so snagged one of the blasters of GQ.

For someone with next to no luck within retail, I think I did ok! The first pack I opened was the back of parallels, which I guess are purplish? I’m not really sure. The best of the group was this Goldy.

In pack #2, these two cards were back to back.

I was really happy to get an Ohtani, of course. I’ll probably hang onto it, although it probably would have paid for the blaster.

As for the Devers, of course I get a Red Sox. But as many have noted, these cards are very awesome. Does anyone want to swap this for a Yankees tarot? If not, I’m sure this will end up with one of my Red Sox friends.

The next pack had this (odds 1:68), which is cool because I NEVER pull autographs. This is going to Zippy Zappy. The card was backwards in the pack, and I really hoped for Ohtani when I turned it around. Still cool to get some ink though.

In the next pack was my lone Yankees, Mr. Sanchez.

Lastly, I didn’t notice either of these until I was scanning the cards above. The codes are the same so they didn’t stick out when I did a code-check. Not bad pulls with the no nameplate Giolito and the logo swap Kimbrel. 

Overall, I gotta say it was a decent blaster, and a pretty fun rip. These cards are really nice, and I definitely think are one of the best products I’ve seen in a while between the base card design and attractive inserts.