I sit surrounded by stacks of new cardboard, ripped wrappers and a certain emptiness from a bust gone bad. Two jumbo boxes of crap I wouldn't use to line a litter box. Behold the glorious contents of 2017 Topps Flagship's TWO Jumbo boxes!
BUYBACKS
Let's get these out of the way: Twins, Mariners -silver. Pirates red. Others bronze.
MLB ANCHORS and THEN AND NOW
Corey Seager? Has it really been so very long?
I enjoy the MLB Network and once collected Sean Casey but don't have any desire to save these cards. There are auto versions out there too. Congrats to those who pull a Lowell or Amsinger.
SALUTE
This insert series consists of 100 cards with various special designations on front. Backs are all numbered beginning with the letter S - which really just means Stupid. Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day - nothing in the player photos depicts any relationship to the label slapped on the bottom of the card front. The blurb on the card reverse attempts to make a relevant connection to the special day or event. The poorly designed insert series along with its parallels does not create an exciting chase scenario for this collector.
FIRST PITCH
A popular series for other collectors. Can someone tell us what John Goodman is doing there? Bowling? What's with the fingers on his chin?
I know who the real tool is...
Now a word from our sponsor:
Out of ideas to market reprints?
GOLD
More irrelevant with each passing release
FOIL
Attractive parallel. It can happen.
NEGATIVE
Nothing positive to add here.
1987
I struggle when anything 80s/90s is considered classic or vintage. One of my least favorite Topps designs is now a golden oldie.
HOW ABOUT THOSE RELICS AND MANU-PATCHES?
Yes, this is where it all pays off. Eh no. I'll keep Harper for now.
AUTOS
Criminy! Seriously Topps? Who wouldn't be thrilled with a couple of pitcher autos? The smudged signature just made Nola a 1/1.
Topps has a hobby shop loyalty program to encourage a purchase from your LCS. You'll receive one silver pack per hobby box or two packs per jumbo box purchased. Each pack contains four 87 style refractor cards with parallels and autos at random. My purchase gave me four packs - 16 chances to pull a card for my PCs. Ripken and Swanson will hang with me for now.
Two boxes=1000 cards. I have a few extra Tigers now and these were added to my collection:
There was something new to these boxes - collation. I managed one complete Series One set and am 27 cards short of a second. Some sense of humor you have there Topps with your ugly little design. Another nod to Topps' funnybone - this card was pulled by a gentleman from a FB group I follow.:
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| photo by John Peterson |
This doesn't appear to be photoshopped. Perhaps someone at Topps thought it would be entertaining to slip this into production. If this card is real, I'm not the only Molitor collector who'll want it! If it's real, I hope there are hundreds - thousands more out there - any player! There are at least two on Ebay. Does the Panini/Donruss Company know? I harbor a secret desire to see this slip bite licensed Topps in the backside. I'm a terrible person. No make that bitter. So are the joys of rediscovering Topps!
Wow, the prices on those two Donruss auctions are unreal. Sorry your two boxes didn't net you anything that made you want to jump up and down.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit like gambling. Had I pulled a Topps stamped Donruss card, oh it would have been worth every penny. Absolutely the worst boxes I've ever opened.
DeleteIt's unfortunate that your boxes turned out so poorly, I don't know if it will make you feel any better or not, but this is by far the most entertaining review I've ever read.
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts are def worth more than a Penny Sleeve. ;) Such a great blog title! I do find solace in sarcasm. If it results in a snicker, my time has been worth it. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
DeleteThis doesn't give me hope for the Jumbo box I have waiting for me at my LCS. I'm honestly looking more forward to the two silver packs than anything. May try to piece together that set, we shall see. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your spoils! Do share - and good luck!
DeleteBoy, Topps really doesn't want to have to make anything make sense. Then & Now cards? Hey, let's throw some second year guys in! Five Tool player insert? How about including pitchers? People won't care! Yeesh.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I will defend them slightly...the pictures on the Salute cards for holidays DO connect to the theme. MLB makes all the teams wear special unis for those days now, and the pictures show those uniforms. The team names and numbers are pink for Mother's Day, light blue for Father's Day, and camo for Memorial Day. I'm sure that makes it much better...not, but it's something.
Donruss cards with Rediscover Topps stamps is just what they deserve for filling their packs with junk wax buybacks!
I pulled out the magnifying glass and did discover a tiny ribbon on jerseys for Mother/Father Day. I stand corrected. The camo look has become a regular feature on so many jerseys, it went unnoticed. Thanks for sharing this info. You are right though, my feelings didn't change much. ;) The Donruss cards - funniest thing I've seen in a long time! Thanks for reading Brett!
DeleteI did see that Donruss reissued cardcon Facebook too. What are young with your extra cards? I like that Carlos Carrasco rainbow foil and would be interested in other Indians cards.
ReplyDeleteI think the blogosphere has been looking for an Indians fan! Email me acrackedbat at gmail dot com.
DeleteI sent an email to you.
DeleteThank you for sharing your two jumbo boxes on the blog... since there's a good chance I'll never actually bust any boxes of this product. I'm glad you were able to complete one set while adding some Tigers to your collection. That photo on the 1986 Larry McWilliams is pretty sweet. There were some pretty amazing action shots in that set. The Darvish manufactured patch and Gray patch were awesome too!
ReplyDeletethanks Fuji! i believe in sharing my pain. Guess I need to find an A's fan who will give these cards a home. ;) Gray's patch is pretty sweet.
DeleteI'm lukewarm towards 2017 Topps. I don't hate it, but there sure doesn't seem to be anything overly exciting about it. The Rediscover Topps/Donruss mashup has to be one of the more fascinating developments I've seen in recent hobby history. I really don't know how Topps could come up with a good explanation for that one.
ReplyDeleteNIck, I agree completely with your thoughts regarding the backs. I like career stats. DISLIKE the attempts to brings cards into our tech-laden times. Do we need to know twitter handles? I'm sure there were CBers back in the 70s who never gave thought to having their info put on cardboard for future generations to mock. The Toppsruss mashup is one of great entertainment - i want one of those cards! Wonder how many boxes I'd have to bust???
Deletethis reminds me of the terrible 2015 Jumbo box you opened ! I guess those are just plain bad...but it seems like collation is better on Jumbo than on the rest
ReplyDeleteKevin - that was just mean. I'd put 2015 behind me. There you go, throwing it out there as a reminder to all who stumble across these words - Julie doesn't learn from her mistakes! ;)
DeleteI had an Aaron Nola hot box with my blaster. He must have 90,000 cards in this set.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite insert was by far the 5 tool set. The then and now cards are terrible. I'm using trades and eBay to accumulate the rest of the Pirates. Autos included I think I can get them all for less than a price of a box.
No Nola is a good Nola. Tools aren't too bad, colorful at least. You get my Pirates stash!
DeleteYour pain is our gain, at least reading the post was enjoyable! Sorry for the lousy break.
ReplyDeleteYes, pain is sweeter shared. Thanks for stopping by Brian!
DeleteEnjoyed the post, that Molitor is definitely unique. I have seen a few of these pulled out 2017 Topps, curious as to how they end up with the Donruss cards in there. Good conversation piece.
ReplyDeleteGreat to meet you Mr. Snort! I'll be checking out your blog! I believe someone in Topps' production line thought it would be funny to slip a few into the foil stamper-machine-thingy. If so, said person will likely be unemployed in the very near future. Great hobby story at the very least. Thanks for reading and commenting!
DeleteGuess they ran out of Topps issues to put in their "Fill a box for a dollar" buyback sourcing program and had to use Donruss to fill the space.
ReplyDeleteMy buyback was ... a 1987!
for a whole dollar? too funny! buybacks must be stopped! what better way to muck it up than to slip in another brand?!
DeleteThat is actually pretty hilarious. I guess all those overproduction sets just blend together a bit.
ReplyDeletefun stuff! can't wait to hear the backstory!
DeleteJust catching up now, of course...and let me say that I am glad I decided to join a case break with Crackin' Wax rather than trying to go out into the wilderness and scavenge for these cards. It's a pretty underwhelming release overall.
ReplyDeleteWise choice Tony! case breaks haven't worked well for me. this could have been the exception. too late now. I will throw my money at GQ next!
DeleteJulie, LOVE the blog...been a Tigers fan since 1967, and college ting baseball cards almost as long.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading more posts... #Go Tigers
Awesome to meet you John! Maybe we can trade Tigers down the road! So glad you commented! I've been a Tiger fan too for many years, but no where nearly as long as you! You have roots!
DeleteThere are some things I really like about 2017 Topps, but the value compared to the cost just is not there for me. The Sonny Gray patch is the first relic I've seen that wasn't just a plain swatch so that is nice. I know a huge Gray collector on FB that would love that. That Donruss card makes me laugh. As a kid I remember pulling cards from a different brand out of a pack. At this point I don't remember the specifics now though.
ReplyDeleteThe Donruss card is the best thing from Topps 2017. Someone will or may have already, lost the head over that prank. You mention FB - would that be the KIR page by any chance? It's a good-looking patch card.
DeleteToo bad the Jumbos weren't a little more exciting. These days I only break Topps if I am going for a set. I still like the buybacks... even if there is a chance at a short print (Donruss).
ReplyDeleteNice post!
i'll learn - so I says to myself... sigh.
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