2022 Topps Series 2 Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Turkey Day!  The Wifey is in Arizona with her sister for a couple of weeks, so the boys and I are making due without The Boss around.  Thanksgiving festivities are at my sister's house this year, so while waiting for go time there's enough time for a pack (the first Thanksgiving post since 2018).

I've noticed retail packs aren't as plentiful as previous years.  Don't know if Topps purposely scaled back since The Virus or if they've changed their marketing strategy (Target and Walmart exclusives), but there hasn't been a gravity feeder since the pandemic.

16 cards per pack, but it costs $3.50 a pack now.  Yikes!

#614 - Jack Mayfield

#451 - Randy Dobnak

As usual, there's 330 cards in the set.  Here's the link to the checklist if anyone needs it.

#586 - Ryan Vilade (RC)

#562 - Zac Gallen

Vilade played 3 games for Colorado in 2021 and stayed in AAA in 2022.  Not sure if that warranted a card.  

#382 - Jordan Montgomery

#428 - Patrick Sandoval

Montgomery was traded to the Cardinals for Harrison Bader, a trade which surprised many fans.  Enjoying that Angels throwback.  

#373 - Ryan Feltner (RC)

#529 - Mitch Garver

#599 - Jose Siri (RC)

Siri was sent to Tampa Bay as part of the 3-team trade that brought Trey Mancini from Baltimore to Houston (and a World Series ring).

#87TB-39 - Mitch Haniger (1987 Topps)

#SMLB-39 - Jose Abreu (Stars of the MLB)

According to the back of the pack, the 1987 insert came 1 in 8 packs.  Every pack came with a Stars insert.

#464 - San Francisco Giants Team Card

#476 - Adbert Alzolay

Yes, in hand it did seem like the Player Position font was harder to read for the horizontal cards when compared to the vertical cards.

#449 - Kolten Wong

#448 - Nick Castellanos

#465 - Baltimore Orioles Team Card

Sorry, not sure why this picture is so small.  Too bad, since those are some nice shots of Kolten and Nick.

Here are the backs, because gobble gobble:

Anyway, that's the pack, and look at the time, it's time to eat.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and thanks for reading!

2021-22 Panini Chronicles Basketball

Chronicles is certainly one of the weirder offerings by Panini, but it's also one of my favorites. This rookie-heavy set is Panini's chance to show off all of their brand names in one place, even if most of those brands didn't warrant their own sets this year. This is a pack from one of the blasters I opened recently.

59 - Scottie Barnes - Right off the bat we have a card from the Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, there's a little notch in the top of the card. Normally I would blame pack searchers, but this was inside a blaster.

21 - De'Aaron Fox - The lone non-rookie of the pack. This is also a look at the "base" Chronicles design for this year.

214 - Cade Cunningham - Cunningham was the #1 overall pick in last year's draft. Chronicles is a good way to pick up the top rookies for a relatively cheap price.

61 - Austin Reaves Pink - It's tough to tell by the scan, but this is a pink parallel as the player name is printed in pink foil.

111 - Scottie Barnes - Another Scottie Barnes? It's actually a pretty common occurrence to get the same player multiple times in the same pack.

339 - Bones Hyland - People seem to like this guy. I think his name helps a bit.

375 - Cameron Thomas - The last card shows off the XR brand. I'm not sure if I've bought a real XR card in my life.

2021 Panini Contenders Football Value Pack

Here's another 2021 NFL set that saw release during 2022. I must have purchased this jumbo sized pack back in the spring when I couldn't find any baseball cards, because that's usually the only reason I would ever dabble in football.

100 - Chase Young - Cards from the Washington Football Team years are going to be looked back at with some amusement in the future.

58 - Henry Ruggs III - Contenders is known for its rookie autographs. If you want rookie base cards, you're pretty much out of luck and will have to settle for second year cards like Ruggs here.

16 - Khalil Mack - Mack is wreaking havoc for the Chargers these days.

73 - Daniel Jones - I did fantasy football for the first time in a really long time this season and was stuck with this guy as the backup QB for a bit.

30 - Von Miller - Miller was with the Rams just about the minimal amount of time needed to get a ring before signing a long term deal with Buffalo this past offseason.

87 - Tyler Lockett

45 - James Robinson - The Jaguars are still going with that whole teal thing, I see.

3 - J.J. Watt - Like Miller, Watt is another big name defensive star that switched teams recently.

61 - DeVante Parker - There are a lot of wide receivers out there with the name DeVante in various spellings. I don't know if I could keep track of them all.

11 - Stefon Diggs - Diggs has been a big part of the resurgence of the Bills.

34 - Aaron Rodgers - Well, you know this guy...

91 - Tom Brady - ...and this guy. Sheesh.

49 - Travis Kelce - If you were to ask an average person to name a tight end in the NFL, I'm guessing Kelce's name would come up the most.

7 - LaMar Jackson - Justin Fields is starting to give Jackson a run for his money as the top rushing QB in the league.

65 - Dalvin Cook

23 - Myles Garrett - This is a very large man.

80 - Miles Sanders - Who is your favorite Myles/Miles?

37 - Jaire Alexander - I feel like I don't know much about the NFL, and yet this is one of the few players in the entire pack that I haven't heard of.

MVP-PMA - Patrick Mahomes MVP Contenders - The back of the pack is loaded with inserts.

LGD-JRI - Jerry Rice Legendary Contenders - Well, of course I've heard of this guy.

GLD-SME - Shawne Merriman Gladiators - Can't say that I'm excited to see a new card of this guy.

CM-SBA - Saquon Barkley Chain Movers Green - Finally, we hit on our hyped retail exclusive emerald parallel.

2018 Banter Toys Pikmi Pops Surprise

 

Today, we have a pack of cards featuring characters based on a "plushy lollipop surprise" toy line. IU picked these up from FiveBelow during a day of shopping with my wife. From what I could gather, Pikmi Pops Surprise are tiny plush characters that come in a plastic shell made to resemble a lollipop and collectors are "surprised" as to which one they get. The toys are actually scented. This pack of cards is based on those toys. This is the 2018 Banter Pikmi Pops Surprise Season 1 set. The set contains 117 cards, each featuring one of the pops characters. In addition to the regular issue, there are foil, glitter, holographic, scented, and "special" versions of the cards to collect.

The cards are standard 2" x 3" sturdy card stock. The fronts are simply a title (sorry forgot to take a picture), and the backs feature the characters. The backs are borderless, but are filled in with various shapes and designs for the background. In the upper left, the Pikmi Pops Surprise insignia. The upper right features the card number. The main image is a cartoon of the featured character. Above each one, a "thought bubble" displays a cute of clever saying that fits with the particular character.

First up, we have Moosh the kitten, Tiki the cow and Toogy the puppy:

To the left of each name, there is the share of an edible, which I presume is the scent one might get if the card were scented and/or the scent of the actual plush pop. The next three from the pack are Erkle the turtle, Ooky the monkey, and Kaz the squirrel:

The cards are very cute and colorful, and certainly seem to be aimed at a young female demographic, though anyone interested in colorful characters would have been enthralled with these. Next up, we have Skittle the llama, Nacho the French bulldog, and Glama the peacock. Why is Glama not the Llama??

The packs are not promised any type of collation, so we find ourselves with a duplicate in the mix. We have Kaz the squirrel (again), Chomp the lion, and Tazzle the tiger. I guess only some of the critters are afforded alliteration.

This pack has the two "inserts" mentioned on the wrapper. In this case, we have a holographic Fancy the unicorn and a gold foil Fez the bunny.

I tried to find a checklist, but was unable to come up with one for the trading card set.