Try a Pack #2: 2017 Donruss Baseball

Now before you say anything, I am not becoming a Panini advocate.  I've always preferred products that have a MLB license, and that's not going to change.

But I really like the look of this set.  If I weren't chasing so many damn sets right now, I might be tempted to put this together.

I bought the jumbo pack, 30 cards in total.   I really enjoyed ripping this.

I was always under the impression that the retro versions were a parallel set.   Wrong.  It's an insert, 50 cards total.  That's a shame, because I like these as well.  Pulled some pretty good names though.   If you need one, let me know.

A couple of Hall of Famers in the set, Ryan and Bench.  Nice!
A couple of Davis' in the set, both named Khris/Chris.  Confusing!  (no, not really)

A pretty solid start to a pitching staff here.  I had to check out Carlos Martinez's stats, he's been a solid part of that Cardinals rotation for a couple of years now, and his numbers this year are pretty solid so far: 2.95 ERA, WHIP of 1.042, 99K's to 30 walks.   A 5-5 record obviously doesn't reflect what he's done so far this year...

4 pretty good bats here at first base.  Love the photo of Goldschmidt at what I'm guessing is Wrigley Field. 

Stanton and Yelich make up what I believe to be 2/3 of the best outfield in baseball with Marcell Ozuna.  If you haven't seen the shot that Stanton hit over the batters eye in Pittsburgh on the weekend, check it out here on Twitter. 

I had not heard of Seth Beer, so I looked him up.  He's a first baseman for the Clemson Tigers who won National collegiate player of the year in 2016, the first time a freshman has won the award.  Listen for his name in the next few years.  As you can see I pulled his American Pride insert, 169/999. 

Josh Bell is a player that the Pirates have high hopes for, but he's struggling to keep his average up during his first full season, although he is showing some power with 11 HR's so far.  I may have to send that card up to Bob Walk the Plank...

I like this set.  Not enough to go and build it, but it's not bad.  I've received cards from this set from other bloggers (Jays, of course), but hadn't seen anything else until I decided to try a pack. 

I imagine there's a few people out there that would definitely get some enjoyment out of putting this set together...

thanks for reading, Robert

1438: Only three

It's funny.  I've been to a lot of card shows over the past several years, and it's always been a solitary thing.  I've wondered what it would be like to go with another collector, to chat about cards and congratulate each other over great finds.

Well, I've had that opportunity over the past couple of months.  My wife's "nephew" has the collecting bug again, and I've gone the past two months to the show with him.  While his purchases have gone up, mine have gone down.  It just hasn't been quite the experience that I thought it would be.

We've joked and laughed, a good thing.  He walked in with a list today, and walked about with a box of football singles full of cards for a few sets he wants to complete.   That monster box cost him a grand total of $5. 

Me?  I bought 3 cards, and they cost me $15.  I'm definitely happy with them, but I'm not sitting down and hunting through boxes the way I used to. 

Oh well, let's look at what I got and go from there, shall we?

Let's start with the "newest" card...

For $2 I snagged the Lou Whitaker and Garth Iorg RC from '78 Topps.  I want to build this set someday, so this knocks off one card.   I also wasn't sure if I had the Iorg card for my Jays collection (I did).

For $3 I grabbed this Joe Morgan '68 Topps all star card.  I was pretty sure I needed it without looking at my want list, and I figured $3 was a decent enough price (it was).

Finally, I grabbed this card...

At $10, for me this was a no brainer.  It has the standard '62 condition flaws that I'm used to.  Rounded corners.  Border off center.  But this one also has a crease through the middle of the card on the front.  To me, it didn't matter.  I'm just happy to get another high price card out of the way for pennies on the dollar.  And to me, it doesn't look all that bad.

$1453-$15=$1438 left on the budget.   On pace to spend $1274 for the year, so I'm still way ahead of the game. 

If I keep on spending just $15 at card shows the rest of the year, I'll be in great shape.  Funny how that works, isn't it?

Thanks for reading, Robert