2017 Topps Series 1 Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well and ready to celebrate 'Murica!

Tonight, MLB batters set a new mark for most home runs hit in a single month, originally set back in May of 2000.  Not to be outdone, with this post, the APTBNL writers have put up 22 posts for the month of June, the most on this here site since July of 2013!  Yes, it's not much, but it's good enough for us.

Some classic packs were put up here this past month, so let's drag everyone to the present with a retail pack of 2017 Topps Series 1!

A blaster pack was posted a few months ago, and I know Series 2 recently dropped, but I already had this scanned so here we go:

#85 - Brandon Finnegan
#74 - Brett Lawrie
#93 - Matt Joyce
#212 - Tanner Roark

Everything has been said about Series 1 already, so no need to say much more.  I also think the "border" is too big.

#143 - Nick Noonan
#Bowman-7 - Buster Posey
#222 - Cesar Hernandez
#39 - Aroldis Chapman

The Bowman Then & Now set comes 1 in 8 packs.

#125 - Yangervis Solarte
#252 - Clint Robinson
#182 - Keon Broxton
#136 - Matt Reynolds

Here are the backs...for the record, I too prefer full stats on the back:

I'm not a fan of the Twitter and Instagram (?) boxes either.  At least in the old Topps football release, the majority of players had one; I've noticed more "Topps Baseball" on cards than actual names.

Anyway, that's the pack, short and sweet.  Enjoy the weekend, and thanks for reading!

1979 Topps Baseball

The 1979 Topps Baseball set has 726 standard-sized cards   Subsets include League Leaders, Record-Breakers, Record-Holders and Team Rookie Prospects, multi-player cards featuring black and white pictures of players, sometimes even in minor league uniforms.

Long-time Kansas City Royals second baseman Frank White was in the prime of his career.

While it was great to see Ken Holtzman back with the Chicago Cubs, the results were not great.  This would be Holtzman's last season, although he would get a career-capper card in the 1980 Topps set.

The one-time phenom Clint Hurdle was still trying to establish himself.

Rich Goose Gossage was in his prime, although he would go on to pitch through 1994, before eventually being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

By the time this card was released, Bob Bailey had played his last game, ending a solid 17 year career.

Andre Thornton was entering his prime and would go on to have many more successful years with the Indians.  He is another good one who got away from the Cubs.

This is the perfect picture of the classic backup catcher.  Montgomery spent the 1970's as Carlton Fisk's backup and earned a place in my Backup Catcher Hall of Fame.

Brother of Jose and Tommy, the versatile veteran was traded to Cincinnati in midseason.

Montanez shows the classic 1st base pose.  He would be traded to the Texas Rangers (his 6th team) in midseason.

The versatile Kurt Bevacqua would have his best season in 1979.  The Topps Bubble Blowing Champ of 1976 retired after the 1975 season.

Knuckleballer Joe Niekro was in the early part of the best stretch of his career.  He would go 21-11 in 1979, finishing 2nd (to Bruce Sutter) in the Cy Young Award voting.

Veteran slugger Lee May was nearing the end of his excellent career.  He played 18 seasons, collecting over 2,000 hits, before retiring after the 1982 season.

1993 Upper Deck Denny's Grand Slam

Sometimes, people need to eat. What's wrong with getting a free prepacked baseball card with your meal? Nothing, that's what. A couple of week's ago, we took a look at 1992's offering. Here's a look at the following year.

20 - Juan Gonzalez - Juan Gone was much better known for his homer hitting prowess than his predecessor here. This time, there's plenty of border and a lot less hologram, which makes it easier to look at in a binder but is significantly less fun.

Again, no real stats to speak of, but you get a nice story. Gonzalez at the moment had the same number of career grand slams as Luis Polonia at this point. He would finish his career with 8 in total, while Polonia never hit another one.

2017 Topps Archives Baseball Retail

It's been a while! Here's a pack of the 2017 Topps Archives offering. I usually buy a hobby box of Archives every year (if not more than one) but today we will try a retail rack pack.

 18 cards per pack. Autos are 1:36. Lets see what we got!

 A Yoenis Cespedes insert and a mix of 1982 and 1992 style cards.

Here we have some cards in the 1960 Topps Style, along with another 1992 and one of the Rookie Star inserts.

Sorry for the darkness on this one. Scanner isn't working so stuck with poorly lit photo. I swear it isn't a knock on Andrew Miller for leaving the sox.

And a lucky 1:36 autograph pull with Jays legend Dave Stieb. As with all of the Archives Fan Favorites offerings it is an on-card signature.

1969 Fleer Official Stop Stamps

This pack comes to us from the 1969 Fleer Official Stop Stamps collection. Each pack comes with 18 stamps telling people what to STOP. There are 101 stamps in the set. The wrapper is very 60's, looking like a Good-n-Plenty box, if you know what that is (all pink, black, and white).

Some of the stamps just say STOP with no additional directive, but most feature things like "You Rat," "Stupid," and even "36-26-36." The last is a reference to the hourglass shape women were expected to have back in the day. Talk about your "locker room" talk. Yikes.

 Each pack also has a "SUMMONS" card upon which one was to place one of the stamps and hand out to someone:

1991 Impel Marvel Universe

I don't know much about comic books and super heroes, so I can't say too much about these cards.

I had some of the card from the 1990 series.  There were a few kids in my class collecting them and I had to get in on it.  I remember that the cards everyone wanted that year were the Ghost Rider base and any of the holograms.  Did anyone collect these 1991 cards?  Which cards were all the kids after?  Leave your comments below!

1991 Impel Marvel Universe pack

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #42 Rogue

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #42 Rogue (back)

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #78 Nebula

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #114 Avengers vs Ultron

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #45 Silver Surfer

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #132 Punisher's Arsenal

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #81 Kang

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #27 Havok

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #154 X-Factor

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #82 Blackout

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #46 Storm

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #136 Dr. Octopus's Arms

1991 Impel Marvel Universe #64 Mojo

You can follow APTBNL on twitter at @namedlater and me at @beansbcardblog.  Please take a look at and follow my personal blog, I Feel Like a Collector Again. Happy collecting!

2017 Upper Deck National Hockey Card Day Pack

I went to my local hobby store the other day and he had a selection of packs for $1 with funds raised going to a local charity.  So I picked up a couple packs each pack contains 5 cards plus a checklist with the complete 19 cards listed with the set including America's Rookies, Stars In Stripes & American Icon.  Here is what I received in the first pack.

2017 UD National Hockey Card Day Pack

Advert on one side of Checklist

Set Checklist

Dylan Larkin 

Zach Werenski

Bill Guerin

Joe Pavelski

 And the best card in the pack was this rookie guy for Toronto!

Auston Matthews

Card Back of Auston Matthews