2024 Topps Series 1 Rack Pack

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)

#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!

MetaZoo Kuromi's Cryptid Carnival

How about cuteness overload of gaming cards? I found this at one of random local shops while vacationing. It's obviously a gaming card set. To be honest I never played one before. MetaZoo partner up with Sanrio for this card game. I don't know the rules of this one, but let's out the 12 booster pack cards.

102 - Forest

88 - Chibi Breakfast Aliens

98 - Lightning Aura

10 - MyMelody - hey it's MyMelody. Her LP is 50 and her attack recovers 50 LP.

7 - Chibi Sam Sinclair - a foil card with 50 LP

91 - Chibi Snow Snake

40 - Kuromi - the antagonist of the card game at 40 LP. I wonder if they meant to misspell "angry" with angy"

83 - Chibi Ogopogo

66 - Cryptid Carnival Fireworks

81 - Chibi Quetza

59 - Chibi Skunk Ape

92 - Chibi Amaguq

Who plays this card game?

2023 Topps Series 1 Blaster Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  It's Leap Day and APTBNL is 4 for 4 when it comes to posting on this day!  You gotta have goals, right?

Yes, 2024 Topps is out, and yes, I found some rack packs after the part time Target gig last week.  But here's a blaster pack of 2023 Topps.

Wal-Mart has put blasters of recent product on clearance in recent months.  Obviously some are more popular than others.  I popped in a couple of weeks ago and found a few Series 1 blasters for 15 bucks each. 

This leads to a dilemma of immediate gratification.  Do you want to pay $25 for a blaster now or $15 for it a year later?  Logically you'd wait but if you see it now, why not?  And who knows if for sure they'll be on clearance a year later?

7 packs with 14 cards in a pack, plus 1 manupatch card equals 99 cards.  Here's the pack with the "Commemorative Patch Card":

#91 - Josh Naylor

#108 - Alex Cobb

The 2023 design isn't bad, but it ain't no 2024.

#252 - Austin Meadows 

#260 - Matt Chapman

Chapman is still unsigned.  After the Cubs finally resigned Cody Belllinger, he's the biggest bat still available.  It doesn't help that his agent (like Bellinger) is Scott Boras.

#165 - Jeter Downs (RC)

#221 - Rhys Hoskins

Hoskins signed with the Brewers over the off-season, while Downs is now a minor leaguer with the Yankees.

#322 - Luis Urías

#101 - Tyler Mahle

As you all know, there's 330 cards in Series 1.  Here's the checklist if you still need it.

#SMLB-24 - Pete Alonso (Stars of MLB)

#12P-18 Justin Verlander / Gerrit Cole (One-Two Punch)

As usual, the Stars of MLB come in every pack.  The One-Two Punch insert comes 1 in every 16 packs.  Gerritt is in the set twice, here with the Astros and then with his new team, the Yankees. 

#TLP-BB - Bo Bichette (Team Logo Commemorative Patch)

Here's the Patch card.  At first glance I was a bit annoyed that the logo isn't straight, but then I flipped the card over...

This ain't no regular Team Logo Patch.  The Black parallel is numbered to 299 (this is #173/299) and the pack odds are 1 in 484 packs.  Not bad.

After the initial joy of getting a parallel died down, I was still annoyed Mr. Blue Jay was looking up.

#247 - Gavin Lux

#180 - Dominic Leone

Gavin is back after missing last year with a torn ACL.  Dominic spent 2023 with the Mets, Angels, and Mariners, but not with the Giants.

#38 - Jorge Mateo

#223 - Eli Morgan 

Holy crap, only 1 rookie in the pack!

Here are the backs because discounts:

Anyway, that's the pack.  We'll get 2024 Topps up here soon enough.

Enjoy the rest of Leap Day, and thanks for reading!

1990 Confex Nasty Tricks

 Today on APTBNL, we've got a wax pack of Nasty Tricks, from 1990.

Each pack contains 6 cards, 8 stickers, and 1 stick of bubble gum. Here's an image of the back of the wrapper:

It appears as if there were 68 different individual cards in the set, and 64 different individual stickers. Underneath the flap, the text states that these were made and printed in Argentina. The copyright is for a company called Confex Inc., based in New Jersey. 

 

First up, let's look at the 6 cards.

Sheep dipping is an actual, literal thing where farmers dip their sheep in a liquid solution to keep the wool free from infestation (mites, flies, ticks, and lice).

 

Look closely, and you'll see that each card is separated into two panels, with a perforation. So even though the wax pack says "6 cards", you really get 12 wacky tricks. Good value! The cards are made of a thick, tan-colored cardboard. They're blank on the back.

The Director of the Venus Beauty Academy is Venus DeMilo. Mildly clever. As for the bottom panel, 1990 was still "peak skateboard" time, so it's understandable why this one would have been created and included in the set.

The text on the top panel seems like it would a good fit for the back of a Garbage Pail Kids sticker. And I suppose the bottom card was designed to try to fool your friends or family when you're playing Monopoly with them.

I don't know why you'd want that ID. Maybe it's meant to give to a friend. As for the Nashinul Speling Sosiety, I can appreciate that joke. 

 

I think lots of kids would have wanted quite a few of those homework exemption cards. As for the eye chart, I was searching for a joke within all those letters, but I couldn't find one.

Finally, here's a klutz training certificate, and one of my favorites of the bunch, "Intergalactic Exchange Student".

Now the stickers, which came two per sheet, and were numbered.

 

The housefly got the worst of the piece of nasty gum that was in the wax pack, as you can see.

This one has a little damage, too.

The fake ink blot is a nice touch. I might have stuck that on someone else's homework.

As for these two, I'd recommend decorating your notebook or Trapper Keeper.

So that's that. For the first time ever on APTBNL, a wax pack of Nasty Tricks from 1990!

 

Have you ever heard of this set? Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.