Heritage at Big Lots and cards from CJ

 I had mentioned in my last post that I had found some fat packs of 2021 Topps Heritage at 2 of the Big Lots stores near me.  I had hoped to get some Rays and perhaps pull the Randy Arozarena Playoff Highlight card to wrap up my Rays postseason set. Let's see what I found.

Those are all of the base cards I pulled, along with some highlight cards, 2 SPs, and some guys to go in the Favorite Player binder. I already put away the rookies into my rookie binder, and put my Rays and Tigers into their box, so those didn't get shown. I was happy to pull the Mize In Action card, as that basically gives me a Mize card for every set that I've opened a pack of this year (Topps, Donruss, Opening Day, and Heritage). 

The collation was good at some times, and bad at others. I didn't pull the same 5 cards in a row like I would in a pack of Topps, but out of the 2-3 hanging boxes I've purchased and the 8-12 fat packs I've purchased of Heritage, I have already pulled triples of around 5 guys and dupes of probably 20. And the Beiber New Age Performers was a dupe. I also didn't pull the Arozarena card I was hoping for, but I think the packs were worth it, as I pulled 2 Tigers SPs, Joe Jimenez and JaCoby Jones. In addition to the Tyler Alexander SP I pulled a few months ago, that gives me 3 Tigers out of like 7 SPs that I've pulled, and all of the Tigers SPs in the set. 

That only leaves me with:

64 Spencer Turnbull

108 Miguel Cabrera In Action

256 Victor Reyes

389 Jeimer Candelario

to finish the set. 4 cards. That's not to shabby for a Heritage set, especially with the SPs finished. I'll probably complete it with some trades or by getting them online. I believe this would be the only set I've finished of Heritage, Tigers or Rays. 

Overall, I'm happy with the packs, especially considering how rare it is to see packs in the wild anymore. 

A few days ago, I also got a package in the mail from CJ of Braniac Baseball card Breaks. I've been making customs for his 1981 Detroit Tigers season simulation for a while now. A few weeks ago, the Tigers somehow traded for Reggie Jackson in his sim, and I made an '81 Topps card of Reggie as a Tiger, and I have to say that it is probably the card I am most proud of. Looks just like he played for them.

I've been doing customs for all of the guys who have been traded/signed as free agents, and it has been challenging, but fun. CJ has been paying me in real cards, and that has been great, too. 

The latest package included a card of the guy the Rays called up to replace Wily Adames, Taylor Walls, a Longo relic from 2015 Topps, a Greg Jones 2019 Bowman Chrome Refractor, and some Rays from 2020 Bowman Platinum. I really love the Platinum set if I hadn't said it already. I remember in 2011, I purchased a ton of the stuff hoping to pull a Bryce Harper. I also purchased some in 2010. I think the biggest things I pulled were a Mike Trout from 2010, a Purple Refractor of Matt Harvey from 2011, and a redemption for a Jason Heyward auto/jersey card from 2011. I really wish that they would've came out with some of the parallels back then that they have now, as I would've pulled at least a handful of them with the amount of packs I purchased of that set. The Jones, Meadows, and Proctor in the middle are base cards, and the Jones at the bottom is either a blue or purple parallel, and the Meadows at the bottom is a cracked ice one. 

The Longoria relic also kind of gives me a first. I started off blogging, and had zero Evan Longoria relices. After making trades over the years, I have at least 5 or 6, and 4 of them happen to be that 2015 Topps relic card. 

I'm not one of those collectors that goes chasing every variation or anything or tries to collect as many copies that I can of the same card, and I guess I would (maybe) consider a white and gray relic 2 different ones, but I'm ok with having 4 of the same relic card, as long as it's maybe just one card. If it starts happening with a ton of different cards, then maybe I know I have too many cards and need to either trade some to someone else or find a different hobby. But you know, I think if I happen to see this card at a show, shop, or maybe even online for a decent price, I might pick it up. I know at one point the blog Dinged Corners almost thought they had enough Barry Zito jersey cards to make an actual jersey. I don't know if I'll ever be close with the Longo card, but maybe. 

I kind of want to go to a card shop tomorrow, but ever since Sunday, I've felt like total crap. Runny nose, sore throat, coughing, ears popping. I think all these jokers deciding to lift the mask restrictions didn't realize that the masks have also prevented the common cold from spreading. I might see how I feel tomorrow. I think the box break for the 2021 Bowman Rays that I signed up for might finally happen soon. It looks like there were 3 spots open, and the listin was taken down. They do their breaks on Fridays and Saturdays, I believe, I just haven't recieved an e-mail from them to know when to watch it. Hopefully they will pull me a team set, a few Chromes, and maybe I'll get lucky with a refractor. 

That's about it for me. If you could use any of the Heritage cards, let me know, and also let me know if you found a Big Lots in your area that has cards. I'm sure the flippers will find them soon enough, but it will be nice for the little guy to find cards for a little while.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy