2018 Topps Heritage blaster box #1

Pack one
#220 Carlos Carrasco
#240 Justin Smoak
#361 Checklist - feat. Aaron Judge
#24 Charlie Blackmon

#25 of 30 Victor Robles - Deckle Edge insert

#284 2018 Nationals Rookie Stars - feat. Victor Robles and Andrew Stevenson
#208 Yuli Gurriel
#3 2017 American League RBI Leaders - feat. Cruz, Judge and Davis

#166 2017 World Series Game #5 - feat. Bregman

Pack two
#190 Dinelson Lamet
#235 Buster Posey - All-Star subset
#198 Hunter Renfroe

#231 Kole Calhoun

#424 Kenley Jansen - SP
#121 Kolten Wong
#314 Checklist - feat. Cody Bellinger

#168 2017 World Series Game #7 - feat. Springer
#239 Mike Foltynewicz

Pack three
#288 Jake Arrieta
#83 Dexter Fowler
#226 Giancarlo Stanton - All-Star subset
#171 Javier Baez

#TN-4 Jim Palmer / Corey Kluber - Then and Now insert
#396 Kevin Pillar
#325 Edwin Encarnacion
#1 2017 American League Batting Leaders - feat. Altuve, Garcia, Hosmer and Hanley Ramirez; Topps goofed and it should be Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians pictured.
#223 Caleb Joseph

Pack four
#54 Blake Snell

#278 Aaron Judge - All-Star subset
#26 Tommy Pham
#346 Marcus Semien

#69CC-AJ Aaron Judge - 1969 Topps Collector Card; based off the 1969 Transogram figurine cards.
#13 Domingo Santana
#65 D.J. Lemahieu
#228 Wilson Ramos
#264 Carl Edwards Jr.

Pack five
#128 Ender Inciarte
#108 Billy Hamilton
#292 Manny Machado - All-Star subset
#151 Manny Machado

#409 Kelvin Herrera - SP
#187 Joey Votto - All-Star subset
#241 Addison Russell
#64 Johnny Cueto

#29 Andrelton Simmons

Pack six
#272 Matt Moore
#389 Shelby Miller
#101 Salvador Perez
#237 Chris Rusin

#THC-176 Corey Kluber - Chrome serial #’d 059/999
#105 Josh Harrison
#122 Ian Desmond
#270 Matt Adams
#397 Evan Longoria

Pack seven

#275 Mike Trout
#230 Ryan Zimmerman
#350 Yan Gomes

#NAP-19 Anthony Rizzo - New Age Performers insert
#182 Mookie Betts - All-Star subset
#247 Willson Contreras 
#341 Christian Yelich
#16 2018 Giants Rookie Stars - feat. Ryder Jones, Miguel Gomez and Reyes Moronta
#358 2018 Athletics Rookie Stars - feat. Dustin Fowler and Paul Blackburn

Pack eight
#368 Jason Heyward
#234 Zack Greinke
#92 Stephen Strasburg

#404 Drew Pomeranz - SP

#285 Ian Kinsler
#142 Danny Duffy
#179 Gary Sanchez - All-Star subset
#130 Andrew Benintendi
#62 Eric Thames

Trout fishing - reeling in some catches

As primarily an Angels team collector, I don't always end up focusing on Mike Trout since everyone else does - though I know I can't really afford to pick up his high end cards, I still feel like any particular 'non-rookie, non autograph, non limited' Trout singles are kind of just afterthoughts that I would not want to pay a premium for.

However, to scratch the regional / Trout collection itch, maybe I was looking for cheap Trout cards [$1-$3] that kind of pop and might nice additions - even if they are random, miscellaneous issues.

I grabbed a trio Topps Update All-Star Game Access inserts [2014, 2015, 2016] because as retail exclusive cards, they maybe harder to track down after the fact - these maybe just what I'm looking for as far as low-key adds to a Trout collection without having to think too much about whether they will hold value over time.

2017 Panini Donruss Optic Mike Trout #13 - Diamond Kings Prizm parallel; I might have been looking to snatch up several Panini promotional / oddball issues but it is hard to look at cards that have no logos; this one looks kind of classy and jazzy at the same time.

2017 Topps Finest Mike Trout #FB-MT - Finest Breakthroughs insert; I like the comic book ‘Pow!’ style graphic.

Featured autograph - Shohei Ohtani

This was once an unsigned card given to me by my buddy featuring Hiromi Oka and a more prominent teammate named Shohei Ohtani - Oka has been a modest performing outfielder with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters while Ohtani looks to play in his MLB season as a pitcher who can throw 100 MPH and a hitter capable of blasting tape measure home runs.

I got the card signed in last year or the year before - when the Ham Fighters were in Arizona for a portion of their spring training.

1986 Donruss Fred McGriff RC #28

This may not be a significant purchase because there are too many of them - but for my Top 50 common PC, I wanted a rookie of McGriff to group with two certified autograph cards I've picked up over the years.

Here is Sports Illustrated's in-depth look at McGriff's career - the movement for once borderline HOF guys like Bert Blyleven and Tim Raines were championed by numbers guys, but because McGriff falls quite short of the advanced metrics standards for first baseman, he isn't getting the same 'after the fact' support.

While the numbers don't lie, I do think it’s time McGriff gets a serious bump for induction into the Hall of Fame - unlike other sluggers, McGriff numbers never really experienced a power surge through the mid 1990s, yet he still hit 493 home runs as a consistent, metronomic slugger.

1990 and 1991 Upper Deck set pick ups

From an out of town card shop, I grabbed these sets for $5 each to have some stuff to go through when I'm bored - it’s kind of ironic that even though the junk wax era may have been the absolute worst time to be collecting cards, that was when I first really got into it.

These looked to be factory sets, though it looks like they might have been opened at some point where the seal on the boxes may have been loose or just frayed over time- these sets felt like bricks and was considering just taking one or the other since I had to take them back home.

I bought these sets because it's tough accounting for all the junk wax era mini-collection cards and when there is no value in one particular common card - I might as well splurge on picking up complete sets as opposed to looking to buy applicable cards piece by piece.

For my image based mini-collections, the Upper Deck cards are sort of pesky because the cards have two images - I'm not exactly a 'card back connoisseur,' so it maybe tedious to find that some of the more unique images used are actually lurking on the backs.

I busted through the 1991 Upper Deck set first and sorting them out is kind of tedious - at the same time, it's fun going through the cards as an exercise in nostalgia.

I think these cards have held up well as far the design and the photography - even though these may as well be cards obscured by history.

Featured autograph - Donnie Moore

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and while a tragic figure, I wanted Moore's autograph for my Angels all-time collection - I settled for a larger sized autograph card [sold by Kruk Cards] since it stood out more than a regular sized card.

The PSA/DNA slabbed autograph will probably be counted as a signed card for my Angels all-time collection - as well for the regional component of my Top 50 common PC.

I was happy to see this was in the mailbox, but the position of the actual card in the slab is quite crooked - it looks upright in the pictures in their listing, but what I received is above.

The slabbed item was shipped in a photo mailer, but it was kind jammed into my mailbox haphazardly - so presumably the card 'moved around' from when it was originally shipped.

As is, I contacted Kruk's Cards and once they finally responded, offered a simple solution that actually worked - "You should be able to knock the card around within the slab by just lightly tapping the slab."