The Worst of the Best

In the last two weeks I've picked up a a few packs of 2018 Topps Series II. On two occasions I've bought 3 packs from a card shop (two different card shops). Each time I've gotten a "hit", although the "hits" haven't been all that great.

First up is this red relic card numbered to 25 which, if I'm reading the odds correctly, are a 1:5,232. The problem is that it's of Sonny Gray, who is having a terrible year. To make matters worse, the one color patch fills 99.9% of the space and you can barely even tell it's a patch.

In my second purchase of three packs I defied the odds once again and pulled a 1983 Topps Baseball auto at the odds of 1:1,233 packs. Another nice pull, but I've never hear of Tomas Nido. After a little research I see that Nido made his major league debut earlier this year, so we'll see how it goes.

Don't get me wrong, it was fun to pull some hits out of a couple random packs, but for me the experience of pulling them is worth more than the cards will probably ever be.

How about you, what's your worst, best pull?

Why Topps? Why?

I picked up this 2018 Topps Postseason Performance Autograph Relic of Paul Goldschmidt on eBay recently. I bought it knowing that the "game-used memorabilia item is not from the 2017 postseason". I also bought it knowing that the autograph is on a sticker.

Just because I bought it knowing its flaws, doesn't mean that I like it. I've seen multiple Postseason Performance Relic cards and Postseason Performance Autograph Relic cards of Paul Goldschmidt and almost all of them have a purple pinstripe through the jersey, so I picked this one specifically because it didn't have a pinstripe and so I can pretend that the jersey matches the jersey in the picture.

But why should I have to pretend? I get that postseason jerseys are probably hard to come by, by why make the set if you can't get them. How about using baseballs or a base, something that they could actually get and it would be from the postseason?

I paid decent money for this card, but had it featured a ball or base from the postseason I would certainly have paid double. If it contained a piece of jersey or bat that was used in the postseason I would have paid triple or more. I know some people might not think that Topps cares much about the after market price I'm willing to pay, but I think they have to care about that because it would help determine the price they could charge for boxes.

What are your thoughts on cards like this?

2018 Topps Paul Goldschmidt Inserts

I picked up a nice lot of 2018 Topps Paul Goldschmidt inserts off eBay recently. $4 shipped for 7 cards; all new to me.