2021 Topps and 2 pwe’s

Well today is one of those special kind of days for me that happens every year where I kind of have it marked on my mental calendar. Kind of like (at least for me) Opening Day, January 2 with the holidays finally getting a break at work, and the premier of Big Brother. That’s right, this years’ Topps set has finally come out. I’m a big Topps guy. I guess probably because of luck. When I started busting packs in 1992, Topps was really the only thing that the retail places I visited had. Don’t get me wrong, I purchased packs of Donruss, Pinnacle, and even Upper Deck that year, but for me, the Topps cards just looked better. Every year, the Topps design just looked better to me. As I got older, I started realizing that the cards came out near the start of baseball season (although I could’ve swore that one year the new cards were out around New Years Day). As the ‘90’s were coming to an end, I would wait until the day the new Topps cards were released, and head to Wal-Mart and get them. 

It has been sort of like that over the past 20 years, with a few trips to my LCS in Lakeland and stops at Target during lunch breaks, but I have been able to get the newest Topps cards on their release date just about every year. This year, however, presented a challenge. 

With the flippers going crazy, I didn’t even bother trying Target or Wally World. I called my LCS here in DeLand, and they didn’t order any yet (why?!!!). I remembered a card shop in Orange City, about 10 minutes away, which I had actually got some new cards at a few years ago. I called them, and sure enough, they had them. 

I drove over there today, and was able to pick up 2 packs. They were outrageous at 6 bucks each, but I figured it would be hard to find in the wild. I figure I’ll just get a few packs and wait for the set to come out in July. So my first 2021 Topps card:

Nothing special, but at least it’s not a Yankee.

That’s the 2 packs worth.  No Tigers, but happy to get  Ray.  Definitely a Reds hot pack with 4. I found the Angels combo card a little strange.  The bar that the words are in is way different looking than the base cards. Just a little strange.

So they also had some quarter boxes there, and I had a few hours to kill, so I dug through 3 or 4 of them.  Found some nice Rays, Tigers, PC guys, a few rookies, and of course another Arozarena rookie.  With Randy, I think it was the perfect storm.  Had he got got a little earlier in the season, I think all of his Cardinals cards would’ve been recognized by the flippers.  Fortunately for me, he kind of snuck up on everyone in October, and I was able to nab a bunch of his cards out of quarter bins.  I’m pretty stoked about those Draft Pick cards.  There were more guys in there like Asa Lacy, and I might just have to go back and pick out the rest of the set. I’m still happy with my first Torkelson card and if that Dominguez guy does turn out to be Mantle, then I’ll at least have one of his rookie cards.  I’d rather have him bust and be out what I paid for it since he’s a Yankee. 

That’s it from the card shop. And just for the record, I think I got the backs pretty darn close. Just needed to slash in a different direction and not change the color background. 

A few days ago, I got 2 pwe’s from John of Johnny’s Trading Spot. Inside were some Rays I needed, and some Paul DeJong’s. I feel lucky to get one of those Topps UK cards, as well as the Holiday Arozarena. I’ve been going through my binders lately putting new cards in, and I have a decent stack of cards to send out once the project is done, and that includes some Braves for John. Thanks for the cards, buddy. 

Happy 2021 Topps release day!  I hope everyone who wants some can get their hands on packs and get some nice cards. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy