OD OG

As I mentioned yesterday, I got a box of 2018 Opening Day. Simply because a French (well, THE French) online dealer had a box for $30, and it's always nice not to pay customs and shipping fees. I like this year's design. It wouldn't make me want to buy a box of flagship, but it's a major improvement compared to the past couple of years.

I actually did quite well, as far as that product goes. I just wanted to add a few cards to my various Pcs and check out some players in their new uniforms along with their stats from last year (yeah, I tend to get my baseball knowledge off the backs of cards, it keeps me from spending way too much time on Fangraphs), but ended up getting a tad more.

The one semi-annoying thing is that for some weird reason I got 199 out of 200 cards from the base set. I'm only missing card #1, and that's Kershaw. Weird collation technique.

It doesn't look too impressive like that, but it's actually a really tough pull, as the odds are 1:4951. 3 times scarcer than a mascot auto. But way less sought after, of course. Still a fun card to have, though looking at the card, I have no idea what part of the fabric it is.

Those are seeded 1:9, and it's always nice to get a Trout and a Seager. The Encarnacion National Anthem is also somewhat tougher to pull than the usual OD inserts, at 1:286

Yay, mascots !

And finally, of course, this year's poster boy. I've watch him pitch a few times and have to admit that he's pretty exciting (and seems like a likeable guy). I do not, at all, understand how his cards can fetch such high prices (supply and demand, I know, but in that case people seem to speculate when prices are at the highest. Just seems weird to me. I guess it shows how we react to consumerism when we want something right now). This opening day card, for example, sells for $6 to $10. The base card. Of Opening Day. This is way beyond crazy. But hey, it gets people talking about the hobby and maybe card makers can get creative again.
Maybe.

Straight from the 70s to the 90s

Last week I received my cardbarrel order (I won't be showing it because I'm lazy, but I added a bunch of Baerga and Beltre cards to my collection, so that made me happy), and today it was my Comc order's turn to show up in my mailbox (plus a box of 2018 Opening day I got from a French retailer for $30, which is very cheap by my standards). I've got to say that even though I was disappointed that their rates for their mailbox service have gone through the roof, I have to admit that they've been much faster at sending out international packages. I used to have to wait 4 to 6 weeks, and now it's only about a two week wait. 

I concentrated on 3 topics : 70's cards picked from Night Owl's top 100, Blue Jays inserts from the mid 90s and 93 UD inserts to try and complete the master set.

What a perfect group of 7 cards. The Pat Corrales card informs me that he was included in the trade for Luis Aparicio, another one of my PC. Everything comes together. Those last 3 cards are all majestic in their own very special way.

 Turns out I already had the Will Clark and Justice 5th Anniversary. I really need to get my act together. I completed the base set (except for the Jeter RC, but that can wait) and am only missing a dozen inserts (including a bunch of checklist and header cards I don't care that much for) along of course with those very tough to find Highlight cards.

I'm starting to have a very solid Joe Carter collection. I can't be missing that many of his cards, besides impossible to find parallels and very scarce inserts. All of those here look great (someone, somewhere, actually spent more than 3 minutes thinking them up, unlike what we see today), and that Leaf is a preview.

Robbie ! Pacific!!

Those Hot Gloves inserts are impossible not to love. I also really like that Heading for the Hall insert, which is the most expensive card in the lot along with the Reggie Jackson (ie around 2$). Molitor was, indeed, headed for the hall, but not in a Blue Jays uniform.

Aaaah, the (in)famous Leaf signature series cards. This has to be my tenth of the series. Great to be able to pick those obscure names for cheap twenty years later.

I like adding Cruz Jr cards because they remind me of how popular he was around 1998, when I got the Internet for the first time and started trading on AOL. He didn't stay popular very long...But at least, like another favorite of mine, Andrew Jones, I can find him in all the cool late 90s inserts and get them at fair prices now.