2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic

I handpicked this pack of cards out of a plastic bin on the dirty floor of a card show for $1. That's where you find the good stuff, folks.

11 - Carl Yastrzemski - If you haven't read it, the Cardboard Gods book is an excellent read. Yaz gets a lot of love in that book. Cardboard Gods was one of the first handful of baseball card blogs I ever read and I would consider it one of my influences, even if it doesn't come out at all in the slightest in my own writing.

32 - Gary Carter - The black & white photo look seems weird on a guy I got to see play on color TV in my lifetime.

22 - Don Newcombe - The bronze foil just brings these cards down a few pegs, unfortunately.

86 - Ted Williams - Splendid.

Since you were patient and made it this far, here's a quick peek at the back of one of the cards. You're welcome.

2013 Topps Update Retail

Let's go in the way back machine a couple years.  A pack from one of those Christmas Megaboxes that had those exclusive Chrome update packs.

This guy was pretty hat in 2013.  Oh what a couple years and a bad attitude will do.  Still not a bad way to start off the pack.

I got one of those 71 mini's.  Not sure why Topps decided to switch the mini's in the set up from the '72s.

Oh look at this.  A gold card.  And a gold card of this year's newest MLB award of the NL's Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Mark Melancon.

2015 Topps Update Series

This year's version of the Topps Update Series is their biggest ever, at 400 cards. If you combine the 3 Topps flagship sets this season, that makes 1100 (non-parallel, non-insert, non-variation) cards to collect. That's a lot of cards!

US328 - Brandon Morrow - This hard thrower has gone from the bullpen to the rotation and back and has had some rough injury luck. Then again, he's a pitcher.

US331 - Orlando Calixte - Calixte has 3 big league plate appearances to his name.

US352 - Jose Reyes - It made some sense that the Rockies finally dealt their star Troy Tulowitzki away this past season, but it was a bizarre move to take the 13-year vet Reyes in return.

US112 - Conor Gillaspie - Not the same person as Cole Gillespie, not that I'll ever remember that.

H-76 - Hank Aaron Highlight of the Year - I owe cards to several Braves fans at this point, so I won't have trouble finding a home for this.

US212 - Scott Carroll Pink (47/50) - It's pink! It's a 31 year old pitcher I've never heard of. Oh well.

US115 - Stephen Vogt All-Star - Nothing against Vogt, who has played infinitely more Major League Baseball games than I have and is probably a fine upstanding citizen, but it feels more and more like All-Star Game nods are being handed out like participation ribbons these days.

US194 - Chris Rearick / Cory Mazzoni Rookie Combos - Some guys, I don't know? I do kind of like that they're bringing back the dual rookie card concept. It reminds me of Fleer in the '80s.

US323 - Joc Pederson Home Run Derby - You could say that Pederson fell into the classic post-Derby slump last season after a strong performance, but things were trending downward for him before All-Star week even started.

US329 - J.D. Martinez All-Star Game - Underrated player who had a monster season last year. The Astros let him get away for some reason.

US272 - Matt Duffy - Future Star.

US89 - Kendall Graveman - You know it's only a matter of time before this guy is working at a cemetary.

2015 Topps Heritage Minor League

 I'm not a huge prospector or minor league collector, but I will go out of my way to put together a Brewers minor league team set for my collection.  The one thing I do love about the minor's is the team names and logos.  Let's have a look.

First up my lone Brewers prospect.  From the team from Appleton Wisconsin.

No insert in this pack, but I did end up with a parallel.

Oh and I did end up with a guy who made it to the majors this year.

Topps Heritage High Number

Here's a pack of Heritage Series 2..err I mean High Number.  If you opened any of the regular Heritage you already know the drill.  Based on the 1966 design with all the quirks from the set.  I'm not sure if this set had the gum stain parallels or not and I'm too lazy right know to look it up, it was a dumb parallel anyways in my opinion.  I bought this pack specifically to show on here so...let's look at the 9 cards I got.

First up is the devil card!

I will say the pack was loaded with rookies.  Here's my one insert.

Meh.