2017-18 MVP Hockey Hobby Pack

The first product of the 2017-18 Hockey (card) season has hit shelves.  I don't understand how that happens when Upper Deck will still release more 2016-17 products, but what do it know?

MVP hockey is always the first release of the season and the most basic of all products.  There's not much to see, odds are long and players are likely not pictured with new teams.  The product typically holds no long-term value unless you hit a rookie redemption of a strong-selling rookie.

The price for the single pack that I purchased is too high for what the product is, but boxes can be had for around $40.

2017-18 MVP #194 Brandon Saad

2017-18 MVP #194 Brandon Saad (back)

The set has a very basic design and no foil.  The backs are clean and concise.  As mentioned, players are often not pictures with their current team.  Brandon Saad was traded back to the Chicago Blackhawks on June 23.

2017-18 MVP #61 Alex Killorn

2017-18 MVP #193 Jakob Silfverberg

2017-18 MVP #33 Martin Hanzal

2017-18 MVP #141 Tobias Rieder

I guess I'm not really sure if this is the front or back of the card.  The other side is the image below, but what appears as the front has the card number, information, etc.

2017-18 MVP #138 Mike Green

2017-18 MVP #146 Bryan Little

2017-18 MVP #34 Martin Jones

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!

1992 Topps Kids

At a time in our hobby when card companies were catering towards investors and shifting towards higher end products like Stadium Club and Ultra, Topps decided to produce a product marketed towards kids.  And it was marvelous...

The product was called Topps Kids, but sadly it only lasted one year.

Back in 1992, each pack sold for 35¢ and contained 7 Major League Baseball cards and one stick of bubble gum.  This was much more affordable compared to Topps' flagship product which had a suggested retail price of 55¢.

The back of the pack contains an ad for Topps Magazine along with the bubble gum ingredients.

The price wasn't the only difference between this product and their flagship product.  I thought it was cool that their marketing team decided to use a wax wrapper and include bubble gum for this product, since 1992 was the first year they complete dropped both of these items from their flagship product.

As soon as you open the pack, you can immediately see that the cards are designed for kids with the use of bright colors and cartoonish backgrounds.

The first card I pulled out of the pack was #8 Marquis Grissom:

Even the backs of the cards are colorful and fun.  At the very top is a comic that contained an interesting fact about the player featured on the card.

The middle section, known as the "Fun Box" contains word scrambles, baseball slang, baseball tips for kids, mini lessons on how to calculate baseball statistics, or even baseball card vocabulary.

At the bottom is a simplified, yet colorful version of the ballplayer's statistics.

Here's a look at the rest of my pack...

Did you know that Davis was born in Jamaica?

Did you know that Daniels had the 2nd highest on base percentage in the MLB from 1987 to 1991?

Did you know that Andy Van Slyke won four consecutive Gold Glove Awards from 1988 to 1991?  Technically... he won five, because he took home another one in 1992.

Have you ever wondered how to calculate your own winning percentage as a pitcher?  Well... now you can!

Have you ever wanted to see Knoblauch drawn as a creepy baby with facial hair and a diaper?  Yup... Topps Kids has that too.

You'll also notice that there are several different card designs within this product.  My person favorite is the one with the cartoon dugout and the portrait shot of the player.  It kind of reminds me of the 1956 Topps and late 80's Topps Big card designs.

If you ever wish you could go back to a simpler time in our hobby, then this product is for you.  There are only 130 cards in this set with absolutely no inserts, parallels, or autographs for you to chase down.

Imagine being able to build a master set of an official MLB licensed trading card set for less than the price of a blaster.

I realize the this product isn't for everyone, but I was pleasantly pleased by this product.

What about you?  What are your thoughts?

Happy Monday and sayonara!

2017 Topps Chrome Hobby Jumbo Pack

Yesterday I posted my pack of 2017 Baseball Card Day cards.  I wanted to spend the $10 to get the Mike Trout card (even though it will be selling for a quarter in about two weeks), so I picked up a pack of Topps Chrome to hit my $10 threshold.  Will I end up winning the card lottery and get an Aaron Judge before prices plummet?

To me, it's crazy to spend more than a dollar per card on something when the odds are that you will get all cards that should be in a dime box.  The things I do for the blog...

2017 Topps Chrome #113 Adam Wainwright 

2017 Topps Chrome #38 Brandon Drury

2017 Topps Chrome #62 Gregory Polanco

2017 Topps Chrome #50 Corey Seager

2017 Topps Chrome #3 Matt Holliday

2017 Topps Chrome 1987 Topps #87T13 Luke Weaver

2017 Topps Chrome Refractor #7 Jake Thompson

2017 Topps Chrome Freshman Flash #FF4 David Dahl

2017 Topps Chrome #14 Kenta Maeda

2017 Topps Chrome #135 Roman Quinn

2017 Topps Chrome #21 Yoenis Cespedes

2017 Topps Chrome #37 Jose Altuve

2017 Topps Chrome #17 Kyle Schwarber

The modern card lottery - sometimes you win, most of the time you lose.  I got my free Baseball card day pack and Mike Trout, so maybe that eases the hurt of spending $18 on this?  I could have picked up a low-grade T206 instead.  <sigh>

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 Topps National Baseball Card Day

Today was card show day but before I went, I stopped into Triple Cards (Plano, TX) since I knew they were part of the promotion.  If you're reading this you likely know the deal and how it works.  If you'd like more information, you can find it here.

I didn't end up with anything special.  Here are the cards from my pack, after a little Topps advertising.

2017 Topps National Baseball Card Day #13 Eric Hosmer

2017 Topps National Baseball Card Day #15 Orlando Arcia

2017 Topps National Baseball Card Day #10 Justin Verlander

2017 Topps National Baseball Card Day #27 Jacob DeGrom

2017 Topps National Baseball Card Day #8 Nolan Arenado

 I wanted to support the local shop, since that's the point of this promotion.  I picked up a jumbo pack of Topps Chrome so that I hit the $10 threshold and was able to pick up the Mike Trout card.

2017 Topps National Baseball Card Day #GWP-MT Mike Trout

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!

2016 German Topps Star Wars Rogue One

My son and I watched Rogue One yesterday and so when I saw these for sale at the local news shop, I had to pick one up....at 1 Euro a pack, I couldn't resist.  Manufactured by Topps Deutschland, these 5-card packs offer good value for the collector.  This 212-card set is broken up into 4 subsets.  #1-160 are the Regular Cards, cards #161-192 are the special Holo Cards, cards #193-202 are the Semi-Transparent Cards, and cards #202-212 are special Sticker Cards.  What is unique about these sets is Topps allows you to buy individual cards off of their website to help fill in holes.  The cost is €0.27, €0.58, €1.12, & €1.12 respectively, for the above categories.  The quality is good and there is a mix of German and English on the cards.  I ended up with 4 Regular Cards and 1 Special Holo Card.  Pack odds are 1:2 packs for a Holo Card, 1:6 packs for both Semi-Transparent and Sticker Cards.  Also, 1 in every 50 packs contains a Limited Jyn Erso or Director Krennic cards.  There are 4 other Limited cards you can get in various ways: Baze Malbus, Darth Vader, Cassain Andor, and the Death Star.  It looks like a fun set to chase...I'll have to keep an eye out for this stuff from The Last Jedi coming out in a few months.  Btw, I found out that the Death Star is called the Kustentruppler in German.  Give me a holler if you have any questions!