Blaster Madness #10: 2019 Bowman Mega Box (Target Exclusive)

Twitter sometimes fools me. I see so many great cards being pulled from certain products with such frequency, I tend to start believing that every box must have a huge hit inside. Then I start drooling and making plans to get my hands on the product.

Such was the case with 2019 Bowman Mega Boxes. Each box had two packs of exclusive mojo refractors, and it seemed like everyone on Twitter pulled a Wander Franco auto in it. So when I saw a shelf full of Mega Boxes in a recent trip to Target, I decided to grab four. I told myself this was simply like buying four blasters since they were the same price. In a cruel twist of fate, I received a call from my boss as I walked out of the store to let me know that the project I was working on was being squashed and I was being laid off.

These boxes better pay off. Things aren't starting so well.

The fist box offered up an auto! Could it be Wander???

Of course not. I don't have that kind of luck. Instead, I pull an auto of Blaze Alexander. Interesting name, terrible signature.

The second box had no autos, but did offer up a bit of color:

A purple refractor of Lyon Richardson. I don't know anything about the guy, but color is better than base.

The third box was similar: no auto, but color:

A gold refractor of Ryan McKenna.

The fourth box had nothing in it, other than a base Wander. I guess I should count that as a win.

So I went home, head hanging low, accepting the defeat thrown to me by the cardboard gods.

Once I got home, I decided to sort the cards and enter the keepers into the Trading Card Database. On second look, that Wander looked a bit different...

Holy goodness, it's a super-short print! As I mentioned, I just lost my job, so let's see how much this guy is going for (after all, I have a tuition payment due soon)...I look it up and nearly pee myself in excitement. This card is selling well. I put mine on eBay and it sells within minutes!

What about you? Did you have any luck with the Mega Boxes?

Blaster Madness #9: 2019 Stadium Club, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, I went back to Walmart and grabbed another blaster of 2019 Stadium Club. I also decided to grab a fat pack, just to see how those are packed out.

In retrospect, I should have stuck with the fat pack. The blaster was absolute garbage, with nearly every card being a duplicate from one of my first two blasters. So this post is just looking at the fat pack.

With that being said, there were only three cards to really talk about in the fat pack. First up:

These sepia parallels feel cheaper in this year's set. Maybe it's because they have a much larger print run, or maybe it's because there is far too much red in the toning...or maybe it's both...but I'm not a big fan. Still, this was in the pack. It isn't nearly as impressive as the next card.

The photography for this set. This is card #1, and it is so very deserving. This one happens to be the black foil parallel. It's a keeper.

Lastly, the odds of an autograph were stacked against me...

...especially an autograph numbered to 25. This is the black foil parallel of the Chance Adams rookie auto. Still, that signature has to be entered into the "Worst Signature of the Year" race. But, it's a low-numbered auto. I'll take it.

So there you have it, the best three cards from my fatpack. Anybody else have any retail mojo lately?

Blaster Madness #8: 2019 Topps Stadium Club

When this yer's version of Stadium Club debuted, y Twitter timeline was flooded with images from the set. As usual, Stadium Club offers the best overall photography of any set Topps offers, and this year did not disappoint. I made my way to Walmart to grab a couple of blasters a couple of days ago. Let's see how I did.

As I mentioned, the photography is second-to-none.

When sorting through my cards, I initially thought this was Babe Ruth. The photo definitely makes on think of the Great Bambino. Such a beautiful card.

However, this is the card that I fell in love with. This might be my favorite card of all time, and I have zero ties to Bench. Everything about this card is perfect. I dare anyone to find a better photo used in this year's set.

The only Ranger I pulled in my two blasters was this red foil parallel of Adrian Beltre. I'm not complaining. I pulled a few other parallels, as well (black foil, sepia).

This chrome parallel of Rickey Henderson was in my first blaster. I think this is the second year of Stadium Club featuring chrome parallels, but I could be wrong.

I pulled plenty of inserts, also, with this red foil Ronald Acuna Beam Team being the best one. According to the odds on the box, these fall one in every 193 packs. Not too shabby.

However, the best card of the two blasters was this beauty:

This is the Ken Griffey Jr. photo variation short print! Outside of a photo of the Kid's backswingm is there a more iconic photo of Griffey than one with his hat backwards?!

So, there are my first two blasters of 2019 Stadium Club. Full disclosure: I went back to the store the next day and bought another blaster and a fat pack. I'll share the results of those tomorrow.

Have you bought any Stadium Club this year? If so, what did you find?

Blaster Madness #7: 2019 Bowman (Part II)

My last post discussed my desire to try and get more value from seven blasters of 2019 Bowman than I would a single hobby box (seven blasters run about the same as a hobby box, in terms of price). If you read that post, then you know I feel like I did pretty well and got enough value from those four blasters to cover the hobby box.

Let's take a look to see if my final three blasters paid off. 

Right off the bat, I saw green.

This Ke'Bryan Hayes green refractor was in the first blaster. I like the green refractor look, but I was hoping for the green shimmer, as I like them just a bit more.

Well, I guess that counts as a win! Not a Ranger, but a green shimmer refractor of the Royals' MJ Melendez was in the second blaster. Both of these are numbered to 99. 

The first blaster also provided ink. This base paper (sticker) auto of Eduardo Jimenez was in the next to last pack. I know everyone seems to be big on the Chrome autos, but I really appreciate and like the retail paper autos more. I don't really know why, I just do. I just wish they were on-card.

But that isn't it...

The second blaster also gave me ink, in the form of this Shed Long base auto. First, heck of a name. Second, two refractors and two autos in two blasters?! Definitely a win!

If you are keeping track at home, you are probably asking, "What was in the third blaster?!"

Well.....

...

...

...nothing.

That's right, nothing of significance was in the third blaster. All base, no color, no extraordinary inserts. But hey, after two blasters like these above, you don't complain about a barren blaster.

So, after seven blasters, the final count stands as follows: three autos (one green refractor numbered to 99, two base paper), two refractors (green and green shimmer, both numbered to 99), one colored paper (blue paper, numbered to 150), and two insert parallels (gold refractor to 50, atomic refractor to 150). Not included in any of this discussion are the coveted "1st Bowman" base and Chrome cards.

So, my judgement:

Waaaay more value in the blasters than in a single hobby box. If a single hobby box had all of this in it, it would be consider loaded.

But wait, there's more.

I went back to the store a couple of days later and decided to get the two remaining blasters. So, as an added bonus, let's see how I did with those.

I'm really not sure what to call these. A speckled refractor? A disco refractor? Either way, this one features Angels' first-round pick Jordyn Adams.

How about another auto? Can I get another auto?

A gold paper auto of Sterling Sharp, numbered to 50! Nice! These blasters are killing it! Massive win!

So there you have it. If you ask me, the way to go with 2019 Bowman is definitely the retail blaster route. I hope you enjoyed reading along!

Blaster Madness 5: 2019 Panini Stars and Stripes (This Was a Good One)

I've got a number of scans from other blasters that I had planned on blogging about, but the contents of a blaster I purchased yesterday forced it to the front of the queue. I had to make a quick run to Walmart for a couple things and decided to grab one of the available blasters of 2019 Panini Stars and Stripes. I'm a sucker for anything Team USA, so thee cards are right up my alley. 

Each blaster promises two autographed or memorabilia cards per box, on average. Let's take a look at what I pulled.

First was this Caleb Pendleton auto. Pendleton is a member of the 17U National Team, a squad that works in the USA Baseball development program. Like Bowman, there may be a wait to find out if he makes it to the majors.

This was the third hit of my box, a Hunter Haas relic auto. The wait for Haas will be even longer, as he is a member of the 16U team.

But here is the real beauty of the box:

This is a 1-of-1 Jack O'Dowd USA Baseball patch autograph! How awesome is that?! Again, this guy may take a while to determine if he ever makes it to MLB, but it's a beautiful card nonethelless.

What's the best card you'v pulled from a blaster (of any product!)?

Sorry for the brevity, but today has turned out to be a bit busier than I expected                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Wait, What Happened To 2018? (OR, Blaster Madness 4: 2019 Elite Extra Edition)

Back in December, my scanner went bonkers. At least, I thought it did. Last week, I was working on my dissertation when my laptop started going crazy. It turns out that my laptop was the problem, as it was creating issues by misreading external hardware code...or something like that. The repair guy tried telling me, but I openly admit I don't speak tech.

What I do know is that I had to get a new laptop. Late last week, I did just that. I hooked the laptop up to the scanner and everything seems to work!

I scanned in some cards and then opened Blogger...and realized it has been more than two months since I last posted. Wow. Granted, I was having issues scanning, but if I'm being honest with myself and you, I must admit that I didn't have the motivation to blog, anyway. Last year was a tough one for me. I won't re-hash everything that made it that way, but I am glad it is over. One of my personal goals for 2019 is to work harder on being more optimistic and to not let minor setbacks turn into major roadblocks for me. Part of being more optimistic and happy means spending more time doing the things I enjoy. So, today I write.

The fourth blaster of my Blaster Madness series features two blasters of 2019 Panini Elite Edition. This is the first Panini baseball product of the year (I believe) and features many of last year's drafted players, most of the various USA National Team players, and many unsigned foreign (specifically Latin American) players. Each box contains five tota cards, two of which, on average, are hits (autographed, memorabilia, or autographed memorabilia cards). 

I snagged two looking for a specific player, but more on that later. For now, let's see how I fared.

Each box also contains one exclusive pink parallel. One of my pink parallels was of Rangers' prospect Juan Pablo Martinez. Sadly, this was my only Rangers card. Martinez was signed early in 2018 - with money the Rangers tried to give to Shohei Otani before he signed with the Los Angeles Devils - and was MLB.com's second-ranked international prospect going into the 2018 season. He split the 2018 season between the Rangers' Dominican Summer League team and the Spokane Indians.

This is the only numbered parallel in either of my boxes, and it happens to be the die-cut version numbered to 99. Appearing on the card is Cristian Santana, international free agent, not to be confused with the man of the same name in the Dodgers organization. I couldn't find much info on this Santana.

The only autograph appearing in either blaster is of another international free agent, Luis de la Cruz. It's autographed and it's legible, so it is automatically better than 95% of current autos, though it still isn't impressive. Again, I couldn't find much info on this player.

My first relic appears as a quad relic of Shane Baz. Baz was a first round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017, going 12th overall. He was traded to Tampa Bay last year as a PTBNL in the trade that sent Chris Archer to the Steel City.

The second relic I found featured two swatches from Kyle Lewis. Lewis was the 11th overall selection in the 2016 draft, going to the Mariners. Can we talk about these swatches though? How often do you see a card numbered to 49 have such amazing swatches? Beautiful!

The last hit left that sinking feeling...

Womp womp womp. 

So there it is! I've decided that I am going to give away the points AND the Lewis relic. All you need to do is post about your favorite memorabilia card in your collection and then post a link in the comments below. I'll create a recap of the posts and then select a random winner from the comments! Don't have a blog? No problem! Tweet about your favorite memorabilia card and post a link to the tweet in the comments! The contest runs until February 22 at Noon central time. Ready, set, go!

Blaster Madness 3: 2018 Bowman

Naturally, something goes wrong when I try to get back in the habit of posting. This time, my computer has decided not to recognize my scanner anymore. It's okay, though, as I still have scans to work through.

The third installment of Blaster Madness focuses on 2018 Bowman. Bowman products essentially brought me back to the hobby, but the growing price (along with a growing number of parallels) has forced me to keep my distance the past couple of years. 

This year, I bought a single blaster of Bowman. In it, I found three cards that I wanted to share. Let's take a look.

First up is Kyle Cody's First Bowman card. The Rangers snagged Cody in the sixth round of the 2016 draft out of Kentucky. For Cody, this represented a drop in his draft stock, as he was selected 73rd overall (third round) by the Twins in the 2015 draft. Cody missed the majority of the 2018 season after having Tommy John surgery.

This is one of the few Chrome cards in my blaster. Ronald "The Condor" Guzman. Guzman is tall with an incredible wingspan, which earned him the nickname. Guzman spent most of the season at the MLB level as the club's primary first baseman. He seems to be a solid player that could have a decent career. The highlight of his season came against the Yankees in the Bronx, as Guzman crushed three homers in a single game, which also happened to be the first professional game his parents were on hand for. 

The last card I pulled would be the "hit" of the blaster. This gold shimmer refractor of DJ Peters is numbered 11 of 50. I don't know much about the card, other than I really like the gold shimmer. I'll hang on to this to see if Peters does anything with his career.

That's it for the third installment of Blaster Madness! I hope everyone is enjoying the end of the year!

Blaster Madness 2: 2018 Bowman Platinum

For the second installment of Blaster Madness, we take a look at 2018 Bowman Platinum. In terms of number of Ranger cards pulled in a single blaster, this has to be one of my better boxes. Let's take a look.

First pack Gallo mojo! When I first saw the cards, I thought I really liked them. Now that I've had some time to see them, I'm not sure I really care for the design. What are your thoughts?

Bubba Thompson was a 2017 first-round pick for the Rangers. I don't know much about him, but the talking heads that do know their stuff seem to think he will be a very important part of the Rangers' future.

Speaking of Thompson, he is featured in the Prismatic Prodigies insert set. I actually do like these.

Willie Calhoun was the key player the Rangers acquired from the Dodgers in the Yu Darvish trade. He hasn't really produced for us yet, but hopefully more time in Triple A will cure that. This is a cracked ice parallel.

I also pulled this purple parallel of Dee Gordon numbered to 250. I like the color more than I like the plain black, but that isn't really saying a lot. 

Overall, I do like this set. I'm excited to pick up the remaining Rangers!

Blaster Madness 1: 2018 Topps Chrome

As promised, today begins my new series "Blaster Madness." Since I've moved back home, I haven't had the opportunity to purchase many hobby boxes. My supply of cardboard comes primarily in the form of blasters from Walmart. TO say my options are limited is an understatement, so apologies if my posts become a bit...redundant. 

My first offering for this series takes a look at a blaster of 2018 Topps Chrome. Let's take a look and see what I found.

First card of note for me was Adrian Beltre. Beltre signed with the Rangers prior to the 2011 campaign and has been the most popular player on the team since. Beltre may retire this offseason - I would venture to say that he most likely will retire. However, that decision hasn't been made. I would never be opposed to having Beltre back again for another season. If I'm being honest, I wouldn't be opposed to having Beltre slide into our open manager position. I can dream right?

Next up is a base card for my Joey Gallo PC. I really like this card. I haven't set out to determine when the photo was taken, but it was clearly after something good happened. If I had to put money on it, I would guess that this was taken after a walk-off hit.

On to the non-Ranger cards of note. This is my first Chrome Ohtani rookie. It will be interesting to see how long he continues to pitch and DH. I know he will strictly DH next year while recovering from Tommy John surgery...it will be interesting to see if he stays in that role after next season. If so, the Angels paid a ton for a DH.

I also pulled this Devers base rookie card. I'll be completely honest: I don't know much about him, so I don't have much to say about the card.

Keeping with the rookie theme, I also snagged this Rhys Hoskins rookie refractor. When I saw the "RC" designation on this card, I was a bit surprised. It feels like Hoskins has been around for a while, but I am guessing that he made his debut too late in the season last year to be included in Update, so his rookie cards are falling into this year's product.

The final card of note in my blaster was this sepia refractor of Mike Trout. I don't seem to pull many refractors of Trout, so this was a nice surprise. It will stay in my collection for now.

So there it is, Blaster Madness #1. Not the best blaster I've ever had, but certainly not the worst. Thanks for reading!

I've Been Gone A Minute...Again

Just when I thought I would be able to get back to posting regularly, more stuff comes up and keeps me away. I mentioned in a now-deleted post (not sure how that happened) that my grandmother passed away in April and I was having trouble dealing with that. I'm a bit better, now. To help out, I decided to move back to my hometown to take care of my grandfather while writing my dissertation. This has been an...adventure...to say the least. I don't care which side of the aisle you are on politically, medical insurance and government benefits should not be as complicated as Medicare is. I'm about to earn my PhD and I don't understand a thing about Medicare.

Anyway, I've got a ton of scans ready to go for future blog updates. I haven't purchased much cardboard this year, but what I have purchased recently is almost exclusively cardboard from the blaster variety. Therefore, I will soon be starting a serious that will be called "Blaster Madness" to take a quick look at what my $20 got me. 

One product that I did manage to get in hobby box form was this year's Allen & Ginter. I am participating in Gint-A-Cuffs again this year, so I will need to have my scans and scores posted this evening. I promise that will happen. Let's just say that between missing hits and a ton of Yankees, I doubt that I will be standing on the winners podium this year!

So that's it for now. Stay tuned for new content!