Greetings...
Hope everyone is ready for the big weekend. Scroll down if you want to skip the ramblings and get to the pretty pictures.
It's been two weeks since Target announced they are temporarily stopping the sale of sports and Pokemon cards in their stores. It seemed like they were getting a handle on it by limiting the sale of the products to certain times of the week. But then
things got worse and there you go. I haven't read if Wal-Mart did the same, but
after recent news, I wouldn't be surprised. Target is still allowing online sales, but I'm sure it won't be long until you have to deal with the bots buying them all up.
Since I've been kinda sorta documenting retail's decline with my posts, I might as well document the last few retail runs:
Back on April 16th, I was at Target to catch up on some missing training courses. When I was on my way out, I noticed a fully stocked card aisle, with a sign saying blaster boxes would only be sold after 8AM on Fridays, and that there was a 3 pack limit. A fellow dad joined me while I was looking at the aisle. He remarked that he couldn't remember the last time he saw this many packs, and now had to sneak 3 packs into the cart without his wife noticing.
A week later a Target co-worker posted a picture on Facebook of people camped (as in tents were set up) outside the store. There was nothing major being released that day, so they were there for cards.
By Mother's Day weekend, Target had updated their 3 packs max policy and dropped it to 1 pack per purchase. I figured this would be it but then you all know the rest.
On a subsequent trip to Meijer, there was a sign saying all cards were being sold from the customer service counter starting at 6AM on the weekends.
The Target close to work had fully stocked their card aisle when I showed up on May 13th, so I got a rack pack of Heritage. I decided to see what the aisle looked like the following week. When I showed up before work, the store still had packs available. I guess the May 14th announcement meant the vendor would just stop stocking the aisle and just let the inventory run out. At minimum, the store had several boxes of Opening Day on the shelf so I figured they would have cards for a while.
I made runs to Target the rest of the week to get a rack pack. They still had rack packs and Opening Day packs available this past Monday, but by Tuesday, it was all gone, even the opened boxes of Opening Day; I wonder if the vendor took them back. So, here's the last pack I can buy at retail for the foreseeable future.
Six bucks for 20 cards. Here's what I got:
#229 - Chris Taylor
#320 - Dylan Moore
#54 - Michael Brantley
#330 - Yuli Gurriel
There are 500 cards in the set; cards 401 to 500 are short prints. Due to a production error (shocking!), Card 216, Cavan Biggio, wasn't printed by Topps. They say it will be printed with the High Numbers set, but who knows.
#318 - Zach Eflin
#282 - Jason Kipnis
#372 - Brandon Crawford
#160 - Jesus Luzardo
Here's the
checklist for those who are interested.
#63 - Maikel Franco
#113 - Jose Berrios (Chrome Refractor #484/572)
#127 - Hanser Alberto
#10 - Miguel Rojas (In Action)
The Chrome Refractors come 1 in 73 packs. The back of Rojas is a puzzle piece for Hank Aaron (Puzzle B).
#279 - Jeff Samardzija
#310 - Josh Bell (In Action) Puzzle D
#3 - Raisel Iglesias
#162 - Donovan Solano
The back of Bell is a puzzle piece for Harmon Killebrew (Puzzle D).
#176 - Anthony Rizzo (In Action)
#101 - Kyle Lewis
#250 - Gerrit Cole (In Action)
#377 - Anthony Santander
The back of Rizzo is a puzzle piece for Ron Santo (Puzzle A). The back of Cole is a puzzle piece for Hank Aaron (Puzzle B).
I kinda wished the puzzle pieces would all fit on a page together, but I don't know if this was how the original 1972 set was organized.
Here are some backs so you know:
Anyway, that's the pack. I haven't read too many complaints about the set, other than the short prints. I apologize for all of those non-pack associated words. Enjoy the long weekend, and thanks for reading!
