Topps Project 2020 Mike Trout #142

I got this card in-hand the same day Trout broke the Angels franchise record for home runs, hitting his 300th to pass Tim Salmon - oddly, as much as Trout has been anointed the best player in the game, once in a while, I still tend to think of him as a boy wonder who first came into the league.

Though speculating can be a waste of time, it will be interesting to see if Trout can hit another 300-400 home runs and beyond - where he puts himself position to challenge the all-time home run record.

As far as Topps Project 2020, the values of individual cards have mostly settled below what they initially have sold for on Topps.com - I have two more Trouts [Naturel and Grotesk] I'm waiting on from purchases made at least a couple of months ago and decided to actually pass on picking up the last two Trouts released [Vides and Efdot].

Topps Project 2020 Mike Trout #187

I’ve got to keep up with my Trout run of Project 2020 cards [minus two cards so far], though since the hype around the Topps Project 2020 cards have been sucked out - I’ve tended to make myself wait before committing to an eventual purchase featuring Trout.

Through the early part of the abbreviated MLB season, the new father and birthday boy is still a consistently great player with a great all-around approach - I guess it feels good to buy a little piece of someone who is legit, particularly after a big home run night against the Seattle Mariners the other night.

Father time always wins but watching Trout evolve from a 'kid' to a full grown man and bonafide big leaguer, it should be fun watching him entering his 30s [starting in 2021] - to see if his great all-around approach remains where he has a fighting chance to fend off a decline phase and might actually get a little better.

Topps Project 2020 Keith Shore Ken Griffey Jr. #88

I got this card in the mail from Topps and despite its notoriety, it's going into my micro-mini Ken Griffey Jr. PC - Shore's cards were probably the oddest looking Project 2020 cards early on, like he purposely dumbed his cards down to appeal to third graders, but market conditions have made his cards [Don Mattingly and Mark McGwire for example] valuable just the same.

After the boom, now everyone was going to pounce on any future Shore release and the hype was huge as Junior happened to be the next Shore card - because of FOMO I bought one just the same, but I knew there was going to be 70,000 of these cards made instead of the sub 10,000 numbers his early cards did.

Just to show I’m either not looney or maybe just not smart enough at the time, I didn’t get the other card - a Joshua Vides Nolan Ryan because while any of these Project 2020 cards might have been cash money cards, I’m only focused on the Mike Trouts [regardless of print run or future value] and a card or two that catch my eye.

After the fact, I was only off about 20,000 as there were 99,177 Shore Griffey Jr. [and 64,629 Vides Ryan] cards - the lure of the flip value brought in chumps who keyed in on the Griffey Jr., believing very new Project 2020 card was going to be a quick flip for at least $500 each.

After the Shore Griffey Jr. release, the values crashed and no one is going to be bragging about making a mint off any one particular card - I lost about $13 on the Griffey Jr. since I paid the full price [$21.44 including tax] on Topps.com for a single card.

Maybe the Vides Ryan, paired with the Griffey Jr. wasn't a serious consideration for me but I can pick one up for $10 as well.

Topps Project 2020 Mike Trout #100

I didn’t pounce on Ben Baller's first Project 2020 card, which featured Ichiro, but had to get his first Trout and this collaboration card with artist Blake Jamieson - for the ironic ‘bling’ factor, even if it has nothing to do with anything.

Where Trout is probably all country, the Ben Baller part of this card is supposed to be loud, garish and in your face - maybe the Jamieson part is a little iffy when looking up close at Trout's face, which looks a 'bit fishy,' but it's not like the image shows Trout from the neck up.

It’s funny I wouldn’t know Ben Baller except for intermittently checking his Twitter feed for at least the past few years because he tends to tweet out either something I get a laugh off or something real to think about - he is this prominent jeweler to all the rapper, hip hop guys, a dude who talks big with always something to say.

I found it ironic he would be commissioned to be one of the people to participate in creating this baseball card set for Topps - I can't do real bling, bling but trading cards are right up alley and when the first Baller Trout came out, figured these might be an alternative purchase to one of those damn Utz chips cards that I would never find out in the wild.

I missed on a couple of Trouts I didn't like at first [Thiele and Fucci], but moving forward I'm up for getting at least one Trout and the random non-Trout subject that may catch my eye - print runs and apparent future values be damned since Project 2020 has been a polarizing, yet captivating release through this COVID-19 pandemic.