A Perfect Blaster for Christmas

Waiting for me under the Christmas tree this year at my parents' house was a blaster box of 2019 Topps Series 1 baseball.  The tag said the gift was from Santa, but I'm pretty sure it was my Mom that provided this one!

I don't get a chance to rip many packs these days, given that I tend to focus my hobby spending on singles for my collection for the most part, so it was awesome to be able to tear into some wax (or foil, more accurately) for a change.

The blaster contained 7 packs, 14 cards per pack (Is that standard?  Bravo, Topps!), and one commemorative patch card.  While I'm not actively trying to build the 2019 Topps set, this turned out to be the perfect blaster for me!  Red Sox cards seemed to abound, and I even ended up with a few non-Red Sox keepers for my collection as well.

I didn't do a pack-by-pack scan or anything like that, opting instead to simply highlight some of my favorite cards overall.  Here we go...

As you'll see, the number of Red Sox cards I pulled from just 7 packs was rather incredible, starting with this David Price World Series Highlights card.  Obviously the fact that Boston won it all in 2018 resulted in a large number of Red Sox cards sprinkled throughout the 2019 checklist.

While it's tiring to see Topps reprint the same iconic cards to death year after year, at least in this case I landed one of my absolute favorite cards from childhood.  The '87 Bo Jackson Future Stars card, while not his true and proper RC, is cardboard gold if you ask me.  Easily one of my favorite cards from the '80s, period.

I think just about every baseball card collector can agree that the team stadium cards in this year's flagship set were a complete success.  Everyone seems to adore these, and it's easy to see why.

I'll be hanging onto this pair, especially since SunTrust Park is one of the stadiums I've actually caught an MLB game at.  My wife and I were able to see Bryce Harper and the Nationals play here not long after it opened while I was down in Atlanta at a conference for work.

More Red Sox content, with Mitch Moreland's base card.

Thought this one was pretty cool.  I don't recall having seen these "Grapefruit League Greats" inserts before.  Although it does seem that Topps shoves the same retired stars down our collective throats year after year, it's hard for me not to get excited about pulling a Babe Ruth card (though I would've preferred a Ruth Red Sox card).  Also, unlike a lot of Topps' mindless insert sets from recent years, I think this one is just quirky enough to kind of work.

The Sox love continues with a League Leaders card of the man Boston just secured for at least one more season, to the tune of $27M dollars.  Money aside, as a fan I'm excited to know that I can enjoy watching Mookie play for another season at minimum.  Didn't have this one for my team set, either.

The two stadium cards above weren't the only ones I pulled, and this one was obviously my favorite of the handful that I landed in the blaster.  I've got quite a few cards of Fenway Park now, and I'll always welcome more.  I've experienced so many fun times in this ballpark with family, friends, and co-workers over the years, at both sporting events and concerts alike.  I would have eventually picked this one up on my own, happy to have pulled it here instead!

Just one more Red Sox base card from the box, this Steve Pearce World Series Highlights.  Pearce is a guy who's under-represented in my collection, especially given the key role he played in the 2018 championship, so this was a cool pull.

That marks the end of the Red Sox base cards, but not the inserts.  Also pulled this '84 Topps-inspired Andrew Benintendi.  I'm telling you, my Mom picked the best blaster she possibly could have off the shelf here!

Oh and how about another Grapefruit League Greats insert, this time featuring Big Papi?

Held onto this Phillies Citizens Bank Park card as well, just because I'm accumulating all of these despite not collecting them that actively.  This is one park I have not been to, though I hear it can be a tough crowd!

We'll close out the standard cards with yet another Red Sox insert, this time from the '150 Years' insert set that contains so many great photographs.  I remarked above that it was cool to get a Ruth insert, but would have been better had he been in a Sox uniform, and before the blaster was through that exact thing happened.  Like I said, hard to imagine a better blaster than this for a Boston fan.

Closing it out is my one-per-blaster commemorative patch card.  I don't hang onto these typically, but it was kind of cool to pull a guy who I looked up to in the early '90s.  "Juan-Gone" could really mash the ball.  If any of my regular trading partners would like this one just leave a comment and I'll toss it in your next package.

So, that's a wrap on what was a very satisfying blaster of 2019 Topps.  Just a few weeks until the 2020 set hits shelves.  I don't think my Mom reads this blog, but I know my Dad does, so a big thank you to both of my parents for this really fun gift!

This post does not mark the end of my holiday season spoils however, as a big gift from my parents was a $100 eBay gift card.  I put that together with another one I had, and a little cash, to land one of my most-desired cards since ever since I began collecting as a young boy!  I'll be back with that card soon, in the meantime thanks as always for stopping by!