2019 Topps Series 2 hanger box recap

Flagship Topps is fairly common, but with a chance to pull rookies and rookie-year parallels - there might be a chance to buy something unopened at a big box store on a whim and find a card that might be worth something.

I bought this along with the Topps Heritage High hanger box featured in an earlier post - maybe due to the 'better than a blaster' type posts on other card blogs, maybe I'm looking to spend a random $20 and tax on something than a lone blaster box of any baseball card product.

I prefer a little more variety and maybe a workable compromise I came with to get my fix - was picking up hanger boxes of two different Topps branded cards, rather than a single blaster.

#504 Stephen Tarpley
#506 Ben Gamel
#655 Tyler O’Neill
#656 Jacob Faria
#681 Jeff Mathis
#474 Carson Kelly
#413 Mike Fiers
#576 Jake Cave
#606 Johnny Field
#471 Kevin Newman
#356 Stephen Strasburg
#686 Brandon Drury
#562 Willy Adames
#478 Alen Hanson
#652 Rosell Herrera
#594 Austin Slater
#440 Dustin Pedroia
#497 New York Mets team card
#447 Up High, Down Low - feat. Springer and Altuve
#625 Milwaukee Menaces - feat. Yelich and Arcia
#491 Detroit Tigers team card
#584 Josh James
#517 Shawn Armstrong
#380 Chris Archer
#645 Steve Cishek
#542 Chris Davis
#509 Texas Rangers team card
#406 Jason Castro - gold serial #’d 0461/2019
#FF-9 Bob Feller - Franchise Feats insert
#FF-4 Cal Ripken Jr. - Franchise Feats insert
#519 Julio Urias - 150th Anniversary parallel
#ES-3 Houston Astros - Ballpark Evolution insert
#AJ-25 Aaron Judge
#AJ-13 Aaron Judge
#NNO Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
#84AS-DMA Don Mattingly - 1984 Topps Baseball
#590 Jose Peraza
#378 Brandon Workman
#505 Dellin Betances
#518 Steven Wright
#513 Brett Gardner
#467 A.J. Minter
#381 Juan Lagares
#375 Cody Reed
#358 Leonys Martin
#472 Scott Kingery
#586 Drew VerHagen
#423 Ji-Man Choi
#434 Roberto Osuna
#361 Taylor Davis
#515 Hyun-Jin Ryu
#570 Eduardo Escobar
#695 Eric Thames
#579 Andrew Benintendi
#364 Kenta Maeda
#550 Adam Cimber
#507 Cody Bellinger
#391 Jung-Ho Kang
#397 Lance McCullers
#635 Adam Frazier
#534 Aaron Altherr
#407 Eduardo Nunez
#670 Eloy Jimenez
#487 San Diego Sluggers - feat. Hosmer and Renfroe
#363 Max Stassi - I want to say something about not be able to tell what team he’s currently playing for, but he's was picked up by the Angels and looks to get hip surgery sooner than not.
#502 Mike Montgomery
#386 Ryan Pressly

2019 Topps Series 2 Gold parallel David Fletcher #520

I was out of the country for three weeks and maybe I wanted to set things up where I'd buy miscellaneous cards online so I'd have something to look forward to coming back home - go figure, I didn't follow through on that plan, though I did make this one low-end purchase while overseas.

From the Series 2 flagship of Topps, I could try and hunt down a Fernando Tatis Jr. Gold parallel for the going rate or pay $2 for the rookie parallel of the guy on my local team - it's an apples to oranges comparison where Tatis Jr. is one of the hot rookies this year with superstar potential.

There is still a collector in me who kind of wants to chase some of the rookie-year issues of rookie stars like Tatis Jr. - but for now, the Fletcher card works as a ‘have not’ placeholder.

2019 Topps Series 2 Rod Carew Photo Variation #631

I don't really seek these out because they become too hard to find or seem outright common to care about, but I grabbed this card for a price of an unopened pack - with the card in-hand, maybe the image [of Carew swinging to get his 3,000th hit in 1985] seems just a little pixelated or perhaps wasn't touched up as much, so it doesn't look as sharp.

2019 Topps Series 2 blaster recap

I don’t know the last time I’ve picked up a flagship blaster [a series 2 at that], much less one from Walmart - the lure of some notable rookies made an impulse purchase a reality.

There was a $2 off sticker to peel off and use towards the purchase - accounting for sales tax, the coupon amounted to a $0.45 discount.

Exclusive 150 Years of Professional Baseball Patch Card pack
#AMP-RY Robin Yount

Pack one
#668 Pat Neshek
#578 Patrick Wisdom
#669 Mallex Smith
#609 Kansas City Royals team card - feat. Kauffman Stadium
#367 Ohtani Gets Hot

#475 Pete Alonso - 150 Years of Professional Baseball parallel; a decent lower-end pull of the hot big league rookie at the moment.
#MB-9 Mookie Betts - Betts Highlights
#418 Jason Vargas
#385 Ender Inciarte
#537 Ronald Torreyes
#421 Yoshihisa Hirano

#579 Andrew Benintendi
#364 Kenta Maeda
#670 Eloy Jimenez - I've had my share of assorted Jimenez prospect cards, but this one is his official rookie card.

Pack two
#498 Pablo Reyes
#679 Adam Wainwright
#357 Chris Martin
#521 Arizona Diamondbacks team card - feat. Chase Field
#495 Cleveland Indians team card - feat. Progressive Field

#FF-8 Johnny Bench - Franchise Feats insert; these remind me of an ESPN SportsCenter graphic.
#608 Ehire Adrianza

#437 Albert Pujols - one way to look at his legendary career is the St. Louis Cardinals got all his prime years [and two World Series championships], while the Angels basically paid him to hit his milestone career numbers in their uniform.
#394 Miguel Rojas
#593 John Hicks
#550 Adam Cimber
#507 Cody Bellinger
#487 San Diego Sluggers - feat. Hosmer and Renfroe
#363 Max Stassi

Pack three
#610 Howie Kendrick
#553 Daniel Mengden
#649 Carlos Tocci
#392 Cionel Perez
#641 Bryse Wilson
#526 Sandy Alcantara
#ICR-62 Ernie Banks - Iconic Card Reprints

#GV-6 Alex Bregman - Gary Vee’s Top Entrepreneurs in Baseball insert; I sort of like these 'fun' inserts, though I'm at a loss figuring out who Gary Vee is and what makes his apparent hustle interesting besides being a collector.
#651 Jorge Lopez -
#582 Austin Wynns
#391 Jung Ho Kang
#397 Lance McCullers Jr.
#502 Mike Montgomery
#386 Ryan Pressly

Pack four
#556 Rowdy Tellez
#354 Nomar Mazara

#429 Wilmer Font - this guy has been around pro ball forever, but not someone who has stuck around and done much in the big leagues.
#503 Marcell Ozuna
#415 Bryan Shaw
#440 Dustin Pedroia
#HRC-9 Nolan Arenado - Home Run Challenge

#84AS-WC Willson Contreras - 1984 Topps Baseball Rookies & All-Stars insert
#545 Tyler White
#648 Kevin Kramer
#477 Mikie Mahtook
#485 Wil Myers
#635 Adam Frazier 
#449 Matt Moore

Pack five
#414 Mike Soroka
#450 Greg Garcia
#452 Caleb Ferguson
#431 Lonnie Chisenhall
#497 New York Mets team card - feat. Citi Field
#447 Up High, Down Low - feat. Springer and Altuve
#533 Matt Shoemaker - Gold parallel serial #’d 1249/2019
#MB-4 Mookie Betts - Betts Highlights
#690 Hunter Dozier
#360 Mark Melancon
#463 Wily Peralta
#647 Kyle Freeland
#461 Eduardo Rodriguez
#536 Get Up! - feat. Molina and Ozuna

Pack six
#629 Myles Straw
#680 Justin Smoak
#473 Kyle Wright
#625 Milwaukee Menaces - feat. Yelich and Arcia
#491 Detroit Tigers team card - feat. Comerica Park
#FF-15 Giancarlo Stanton - Franchise Feats insert

#600 Shohei Ohtani
#479 Wei-Yin Chen 
#352 David Peralta
#617 Hernan Perez
#388 Dominic Smith
#372 Yu Darvish
#395 Andrew McCutchen
#565 Andrew Triggs

Pack seven
#547 Trevor Richards
#525 Ian Kinsler
#519 Julio Urias
#584 Josh James
#517 Shawn Armstrong
#380 Chris Archer

#385 Dale Murphy - Short Print variation; I like the image of Murphy caught in a playful moment as he's presumably going through baseballs to sign.
#SS-15 Edwin Diaz - Signature Statistics insert
#552 Davis Hess 
#443 Steven Matz
#646 Jason Heyward
#370 Jacoby Ellsbury
#524 Chad Pinder
#382 Daniel Norris

2019 Topps Series 2 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. NNO

I got this card purchase fairly quickly, but the seller was probably doing cartwheels when the card was sent out - I thought this might be a hard to pull short print like the 2018 Topps Series 2 cards of Gleyber Torres and Ronald Acuna Jr.

However, pulling this supposed SP of the rookie slugger has fairly been easier than anticipated and values have dropped accordingly - with the card not being numbered as part of the flagship set [even if the number would be shared with another player's regular card], is this just another rookie-year card and not a definitive, must have?

There here was definitely some FOMO on my part and at times, I want to throw money into a card that might be a keeper - but when I don't use common sense, do some basic research, I'm prone to an impulsive purchase.

Maybe the bottom line here is Topps gave something for collectors to chase in 2019 Topps Series 2 - with the idea, they can still issue a regular Guerrero Jr. rookie card [with corresponding parallels] that is going to be chased in their late season Update Series.