Retail Sampler: Diamond Kings

The last of my retail breaks following an inability to find any Series 2 at Walmart locations.

The only option at the store was a single hanger box. I guess that's as good as anything.

And the first card out is Dom DiMaggio.Even if the image does get over-used in Panini releases, it is nice to get a name that doesn't get overused by Topps.

The DiMaggio was followed up by 9 more base cards. They may not have a license, but I can't imagine finding cards of Shoeless Joe in a Topps release at any point in the near future. Your typical Diamond Kings mix of legends and current players. Only Schilling and Foxx are Topps semi-regulars in this mix.

Here's the box-promised red parallel. While it doesn't really go with a Tony Gwynn card, it is still a pretty nice looking entry.

The side of the box also promises a blue parallel. And here that is.

This, however, was certainly not promised by the box. In fact, I assumed that there was no chance there would be a hit in the only box remaining on the hangers, with them having been carefully weighed by some sneaky searcher. But, when I open the box and looked at the cello wrapper inside, it was obvious one card was thicker than the rest, coming it at almost 6 cards worth. I guess if it is going to contain a patch, it should be. He's kinda constrained by the sticker, but he does have a nice looking autograph.

This insert portion of the pack ends with a T206 inspired DK206 insert. 

A few more base cards. Nice to get a new Bo Bichette for the Jays PC.

The box ends with a pair of All-Time Diamond Kings, bringing the vibe from the 92/93 releases. Sandberg was a DK in 1993, and I would have been amused had these reused that image, albeit with the logos out. 

Shoeless Joe, Bo Bichette and an auto/patch? That's a great retail break, even if it obviously wasn't the norm.

There you have it!

Mailbag: Baseball

Here's the baseball content from the bubblers!

This is the oddest of the bunch, a card from one of Kerry's Free Card Fridays. I just thought it would go nicely with the Northern Lights card out of 15-16 Champ's.

And I can place it in Principal Skinner's kitchen and he'd be none the wiser.

I've never seen Utz on this side of the border (or even heard of the company), so this food-issue DeGrom is a nice add to my Mets binders.

There were a lot more Mets stuff here (a theme for both envelopes, and both the Mets and Jays) but here's a scanner bed worth of them. I really should have replaced that McNeil with the Donruss "Polar Bear" variant. Thankfully for the Mets PC, that one was far more common than the Topps one.

For some reason, these Vlad Jr inserts were Target exclusives. I say "For some reason", since wouldn't these be a better exclusive for Walmart, which actually exists in Canada?

And here's your Jays sampler. The Ed-wing!

As with the Cards on Cards mailer, I'm starting the recap of the TMV envelope with the oddball. Does this Larry Walker go into my Expos PC? Or my Cancon PC? Or did I hose things up completely by not including it in my hockey recap?
Either way, we've got a pair of Hall of Famers meeting on this card.

It might not be a Diamond Kings card, but this Bonilla is close enough.

 

Here's a numbered salute to the '86 squad. Hernandez is great and all, but I might have used Series MVP Ray Knight instead. That's still a minor beef for a great card.

The TMV Mets Sampler.

And the Jays Sampler.

With a bonus of some swatches and slivers to go along with it.

That only leaves football! Next post!

GQ Sampler

This will probably be the extent of my 2020 GQ breaking.

Pack 1:

At least it is a solid start for the Jays PC, opening with a card for it. If I tend to think that the first card I see from a set influences my feel for it, then I guess I might be breaking more of it than I first thought.

Pack 2:

Here's another pack leading off with a Jays card. Kay came to the Jays in the trade that sent Stroman to the Mets.

Pack 3:

While I didn't get a super rare pull in this retail sampler like I did with the Opening Day, I still did get a sorta rare insert with this blue parallel (1:55). Not a indigo parallel - those are something different. In addition to different shades, the indigos are /250, while the blues are /150. I guess Topps pick-a-parallel colour wheel ended up on the same spot for these.

I might as well show you the back of this one as well. At least the numbering design isn't at the microscopic level it was for the past few years.

Pack 4:

Your parallels. The blahest of the pack in terms of content.

But there you have it!

Another box of Chronicles - Part 2

Here's the end of this box:

Pack 4:

Getting the final non-hit pack out of the weigh early. But no complaints with a new Cavan Biggio card fro the the Jays collection. I really seemed to be an Eloy Jimenez magnet with this stuff, but never landed an auto of his from it (although I already had one from Heritage Minors).

Pack 5:

3 Padres cards, including a hit, certainly make this a Padres hot pack! This also the second time in this box where the final two cards in the pack were of the same player.

Pack 6:

That's three straight Mookie Betts cards, and as you might suspect, the big head one is my favourite of the bunch. That Aaron Judge looks really nice with the green crusade background (/50), and there's the final auto as well on one of the more interesting designs in the product with Kramer. That's a gold /25 parallel as well.

And there you have it!

Another box of Chronicles - Part 1

With the football version of this product dropping this month, why not bust a box of the baseball version in anticipation of it? I'll probably end up doing at least a box of the football, since the basketball will continue to be priced insanely for this year's releases.

Pack 1:

Well, what a nice start for the ol' team collection. 2 Vlads, one being a hit, and an Alonso. That Mondesi is a pretty nice looking photo as well, barely noticing the lack of logo on it.

Pack 2:

There's one of the non-hit packs, but at least there is a shiny Spectra card in there. Austin Riley isn't a bad player to get a /99 parallel out of.

Pack 3:

Sure, there's an autograph in there (Meisinger appears not to have any Topps cards yet), but I gotta give that nice shiny Alonso /199 the nod as the best card in the box. While I have yet to land an autograph of his, I've landed some really nice numbered parallels from my breaks of this.

That's 3 packs. 3 more tomorrow!

Opening some Opening Day

2020's Opening Day might be unknown at this point, but there's always time for opening some new product.

The box promises an extra, exclusive Jays card per three packs. I guess this is my first opening Day card for the season then. These parallels are exclusives to Canadian Walmarts, and I guess this rookie is the one you want to pull.

Kershaw was the first pack-pulled card from the set. This does set a theme for the break through, as Jays and Dodgers were the most common teams in the packs.

But first, here's the only Mets card in the packs.

But I'll shift back to Toronto for the first Jays card of the packs.

And the Jays were also represented among the inserts, specifically this one that saluted the actual 2019 opening.

My favourite photo in the packs was this beautiful Matt Carpenter.

If photos that you'll likely see in Series 2 are more your thing, here's my favourite among those with this casual Robles catch.

Back to the inserts, here's a Traditions card. Interestingly, this pack also had the Aaron Judge base card. Yay, collation!

Sticker!

But this here was actually a pretty big hit for the packs. The Walk this Way insert, which commemorates walk-off homers, falls at a rate of 1:369 packs, so they're pretty rare pulls. As one can tell by the jersey, this would be the Dodgers walk-off homer on Jackie Robinson Day, making it one of the more perfectly timed walk-offs from last season as well.

And there you have it!

When In Doubt: Chronicles

Sometimes, it is good to have a box worth of busted cards around when you don't just want to post a single card, but don't want to get to verbose. So, here's another box worth of my favourite 2019 product.

Pack 1:

While sometimes you might see two cards from the same design in a single pack, this might be the first time I've received three. But, they are all different parallels, with Vlad being the base design, Kieboom being a holo parallel, and Tucker being the hyper parallel /299. There's also the first of the two Spectra cards that appear in packs without hits.

Pack 2:

And, there's the first hit. Eventually. The gold parallels are /99 in that set. A big head Score card? Those are always welcome. The Chavis is another Hyper parallel, and like with Crusade is /299.

Pack 3:

The first actual auto is of Michael Perez, a catcher for Tampa. I hadn't heard of him aside from cardboard appearances. Apparently he was supposed to see more time than he got behind the plate last season, prior to Travis D'Arnaud signing and living up to his original potential.

Pack 4:

That's really what I like to see with a relic card with multiple windows. Three different designs for a relic. Two plain swatches, albeit different colours, and a pinstripe. Not a lot of variety in terms of teams, with 3 White Sox and 2 Angels cards in the pack.

Pack 5:

And there's the final hit. And another Chicago-intensive pack. But we've also got Vlad showing up again, and Ruby Wave /199 of Tatis, so not bad at all.

Pack 6:

That's a nice way to end it - a Pete Alonso hot pack with both a numbered and non-numbered card. That hot pink of Arraez is also numbered, being /75.

Not bad at all, even if I would have preferred not going back to back boxes with a redemption.