Greetings...
Happy Opening Day everyone! Sure the Dodgers and Padres played a couple of games already, but today is the real deal. Spring hopes eternal and all that. May your favored team do better than expected!
The Target I occasionally work at had a separate display of rack packs in the Toy section. When I was last there, they didn't have any blaster boxes and they still don't have gravity feeders for loose packs (I wonder if Topps put the kibosh on gravity feeders). There was an empty box in the card aisle, however, so the card vendor did at least put a box of loose packs out. I also saw ads online about Mega boxes (like what they did for 2023 Topps Update) available as well, if that floats your boat.
I was going to post my first pack here for posterity, but a week or so ago my kid came back from a Target run with 2 packs, one for me and one for him. 7 bucks for 36 cards; let's see what he got:
#247 - Clay Holmes
#133 - Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds (Checklist)
For the record, my first card of 2024 was the Bryce Harper Checklist, #275.
#319 - Miguel Amaya
#108 - Jarren Duran
#317 - Starling Marte
It's been a few weeks since the release of 2024 Topps Series 1, and other than the regular, but legitimate, gripes (uninspired inserts, way too many parallels, and collation issues), it appears the blogosphere approves of this year's set.
#106 - American League Leaders (RBI)
#279 - Angels Team Card
If you tilt the card just right, you will see the team name and border shine in the light. I was in my car when I opened my pack and it was quite impressive...for a card anyway.
#35 - Adley Rutschman
#211 - Rays Team Card
#119 - Hunter Greene
That's a nice Rays team card, but I think the Randy Arozarena card has the same pose. I hope he doesn't get typecasted.
#71 - Brandon Marsh
#128 - Christopher Morel
#43 - Daulton Varsho
#195 - Dominic Canzone (RC)
My kid was quite pleased with the Future Stars look of the Christopher Morel card. The picture has to be from his walk-off against the White Sox on August 16, 2023.
#156 - Corbin Carroll
#246 - Chris Taylor
#174 - Nathaniel Lowe
Not a fan of the Rangers' City Connect uniforms.
#309 - National League Leaders (Wins)
#2 - Padres Team Card
#337 - Hayden Wesneski
As for the City Connect uniforms for the Padres, well, it's certainly different.
#213 - Camilo Doval
#12 - Bryan Woo (RC)
#12 - Bryan Woo (RC)
#201 - Miguel Cabrera
Very respectful of Topps to give a sunset card for Miguel Cabrera and not to another Hot Rookiez.
#331 - Ryan Pressly
#82 - Curtis Mead (RC)
#SB-9 - Juan Soto (Superstar Blueprint)
Time for the inserts.
There are 25 cards in the Superstar Blueprint set. I think the pack odds are 1:4. I'm not able to decipher their spreadsheet; anyone know the difference between "EA HH", "SE HH", and "NT HH"?
#SMLB-14 - Bryce Harper (Stars of MLB)
#SLMB-4 - Jordan Lawlar (Stars of MLB)
Each Rack Pack comes with 2 Stars of MLB cards. There's 30 cards total, but not every team is represented (no Rays, for example).
And yes, that is the numbering for the Lawlar card.
#104 - Connor Wong
#78 - Mark Vientos
#293 - National League Leaders (RBI)
There's 350 cards in the set this time out, so that's nice. Here's the checklist if you need it.
#126 - Phillies Team Card
#307 - Austin Hays
#227 - Jhoan Duran
It's a Duran hot pack!
#348 - Dane Dunning
#238 - Reds Team Card
Finish the pack off with another City Connect uniform. Cincinnati's isn't as bad as the others though.
Here are some backs because Opening Day:
Look at all those Miggy stats. If this was Panini, you'd get a Tigers logo and a sentence about how he's retiring. And the faces with the stat leaders is a nice touch.
Anyway, that's the pack. Not too bad, right? Enjoy Opening Day, and thanks for reading!
