2019 Topps... Because I can't Not

I have resolved to get back to card blogging. Once a week, I'll post. 

(let's see how long this lasts)

Anyway, there's no time like the present to get back into the swing of things as the new 2019 Topps cards were released this past week. I was involved in a Jumbo case break with my team collectors group, which yielded me about five full team sets and a handful of inserts. 

It was a kinda-underwhelming return from a case break, but I did get some very nice Christian Yelich additions - including a HR Challenge card (I picked April 1 again the Reds).

As for this year's set... I kinda like the design. It's mostly clean-looking, save for that stupid pock-marking or whatever you'd call around the lower edges of the image. I like the color swoop and I REALLY like the backside, to which full stats have mercifully returned. 

I also picked up a blaster (off Amazon, off all places) just for the fun of it. 

99 cards (BUT AN AUTO AIN'T ONE)? Is that more than years before? I've seen that Topps has jumped the retail price of their packs from $2 to $3, but has also added a few more cards per pack. Does it all wash in the end? Who cares?

I opened that heavy bastard first, the manu-patch pack, which officially makes it my first card of 2019...

Not bad. I still mostly think that manu-patches are dumber than relics and I really don't care at all for relics, but it's a nice, bright card of a legend. It would be the highlight, sadly, of the box. 

There have been a lot of complaints about collation so far with Topps 2019, but I didn't see much of that in my box. I won't bother to recap the base cards, but I did find a few nice inserts. 

I dig that Khris Davis in the 1984 design. I really like these 35th anniversary inserts and I liked them last year too. However, I'm not at all looking forward to next year, assuming they'll dust off the 1985 design - which I've always hated. 

My favorite card of the box by far was this very pretty Henry Aaron Grapefruit League Legends. I liked the idea of a Spring Training-themed set, and I do admit that these cards look pretty nice, but my gripe was that - except with recent photos - you can't really tell if these are actually Spring Training shots or not. But the Aaron does tell a nice story on the back, about how Henry got his shot in the Majors after Bobby Thomson broke his ankle sliding into second. Aaron stopped in and hit a homer in his first ST game. So, it's nice to some copy on the back to tie the theme together. 

The same goes in a way for these cards - part of whatever they call the 2019 sets that generically depict retired players and reprint old Topps cards. These concepts are SOOOOOOOOO tired. Just let it go, Topps. Or take it a new direction. Oh! How about a "Never had a Card" insert set so I can finally get a proper Ron Rightnowar card? Or reprint some NEW stuff for once? Stuff your 1975 Younts in sack... I want a glossy, new take on the 1990 Chuck Crim. SURPRISE ME, TOPPS!!!

Oh, hey, here's a surprise... an ad card for Topps now. Depicting a card that probably cost about $800 when it was issued. And note that it isn't even a picture of the actual card, but just the mock-up they put on the website. Well, at least the back probably talks about the card a bit, how many they sold... OH, maybe it goes int the process of actually getting these signed. That'd be interesting... do they send a guy with a platinum suitcase to the Angels Stadium to get these scribbled on? Well, let's flip 'er over and take a...

...oh, of course. It's a copy-paste from the ABOUT tab on the ToppsNow website. Yippee. 

I also snagged this. Anyone have a suggestion for when Oz might go deep?

I probably won't build the 2019 set. I've done a lot of set-building over the past few years and I've grown a little tired of it. Even though I like the design, I dunno, it just doesn't feel like there is anything in it for me. Perhaps I'll do some rando packs throughout the year and then pick up a hand-collated set for the price of a couple of blasters in the fall.

So please forgive me as this blogging has made me weary. I am have grown too unaccustomed to the practice.