2021 Topps Update Series Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  In a wink of an eye we've pushed past Halloween and into the Thanksgiving season (aka pre-Christmas).  The Braves won the World Series, that's cool, and now we wait to see if there'll be a season next year.  We're at the halfway point in the NFL, and my fantasy team is crap (but both of my wins so far are against my kid, so...life lesson?).  

In much, much longer than a wink of an eye, cards are slowly returning to retail.  I keep seeing bloggers reporting various packs at Wal-Mart, but whenever I stick my head in there, there's nothing to be found.  I've been more successful at Target, however.  The vendor was there the last time I worked and there were only 3 card bros hanging out.  You guys will see some packs from there soon enough, including Series 2, which I was going to post first, but latest and greatest, right?   

I checked out the Target by church while the boys were in Sunday School.  That Target had a box of Update.  Target replaced the no cards sign with a purchase limit.  I'm pretty sure it was 5 packs max at this store; I grabbed a couple.  Here is the better of the two:

#US69 - Adam Engel

#US94 - Jose Devers (RC)

#US156 - Ben Gamel

#US17 - Taylor Walls (RC)

330 cards are in the set, but apparently there is no card #142 and two #285's.  If you want to see the checklist, here you go.

I haven't seen too many posts in the blogosphere on Update, so maybe word got around about the set's problems,  Maybe Topps gets a pass, but I'd like to believe Topps has some time to address some problems ("Hello, problems!").

#US40 - Nomar Mazara

#US37 - Ryan Hendrix (RC)

#US216 - Michael Taylor

#US170 - Nate Pearson (Rookie Debut / RC)

There are 87 rookies in Update.  That's a lot.  Nate Pearson's Rookie Debut doesn't count as one of the rookies, but he has the Rookie logo...?

#US110 - Kolten Wong

#US149 - Travis Shaw (Orange Foil Parallel #224/299)

#TC92-47 - Bo Bichette (1992 Topps Redux Chrome)  

#T92-29 - Alex Kirilloff (1992 Topps Redux) 

The Orange Foil looks a little more like red in hand, but I can see the orange more on an angle.  The back of the pack says they come 1 in 85 packs.  Every pack comes with the 1992 Redux (50 cards in the set), but the Chromey version comes 1 in 10 packs.

The other pack I got had an All-Star insert.  Topps made the All-Stars an insert instead of mixing them in with the base set.  I prefer it this way, but also hoped that the design would be different (it looks like the base card but with the ASG logo), and for more player updates and less hot rookieez.  Also, Topps didn't use pictures from the All-Star Game for the inserts.  Maybe because the uniforms sucked? 

#US85 - Antonio Santos (RC)

#US106 - Adam Cimber

#US220 - Kyle Isbel (RC)

#US217 - Nick Madrigal (Rookie Debut / RC)

I'll say it again, all cards of submarine pitchers must show them in the middle of throwing!

Here are some backs:

The back of the 1992 Redux shows a play inside the ballpark, instead of what the stadium looks like.

Why are the 2 Brewers on their sides?  To show that the back of the card issue from last year's Update carried over to this year!  Again, no rhyme or reason as to why...most unfortunate.

Anyway, that's the pack.  Topps had more to work with this year as opposed to 2020, but there's still problems with Update.  From the lack of trading deadline transactions to random flipped card backs, maybe Topps is mailing it in...or they don't care anymore?

Thanks for reading!