2021 Donruss hanger box recap

  I find 'some' 2021 Topps Heritage blasters at a Target one day, the next day, I find the shelves wiped out in the card section - however a straggler hanger box got put back on the shelf by a Target employee.

I don’t like Donruss, but I’m desperate enough these days to pick up anything that is a baseball product - good thing I haven’t seen anything put out by Leaf or I may fold under pressure.  

Flippers are still going to take it all if product is sitting around, though I tend to feel like interest in hoarding retail stock is really in NBA, NFL or non-sport cards - despite my anecdotal evidence not playing out most of the time, I might be able to find baseball cards [maybe unopened blasters or loose packs] ‘once in a while’ where I would be shut out entirely if I primarily focused on the other stuff.  

For obvious reasons, recent Donruss cards are so basic and an eyesore [for obvious reasons] - maybe their ‘tributes’ to the brand’s sets [from the mid 1980s] are pretty hollow, where it’s hard to get nostalgic over ‘new takes’ that feel more like uninspired knock offs.

A redeeming factor that may not actually mean much, but give credit where credit is due are the parallels and inserts - they have a lot of shine to them and if nothing else, amuse me for a moment where I’d like to imagine actually caring enough about them to chase.   

#148 Eloy Jimenez

#106 Jose Abreu

#64 Marcell Ozuna

#122 Matt Olson

#80 Cavan Biggio

#137 Adam Wainwright

#160 Patrick Corbin

#118 Austin Meadows

#76 Carlos Correa

#133 Zac Gallen

#90 Lucas Giolito

#147 Marco Gonzalez

#105 Clayton Kershaw

#252 David Ortiz - Retro 1987; would have been nicer if the black borders on the originals were used; might be even more interesting if the surface wasn’t glossy and the card stock was more faithful to the originals. 

#210 Miguel Rojas

#231 Ozzie Smith - Retro 1987

#164 Jose Berrios

#255 Dale Murphy - Retro 1987

#188 Brandon Woodruff 

#234 Cal Ripken Jr. - Retro 1987

#167 Hyun-Jin Ryu

#258 Andre Dawson - Retro 1987

#191 Luke Voit

#227 Larry Walker - Retro 1987

#185 Brad Keller

#251 Steve Garvey - Retro 1987

#209 Anthony Santander

#52 Keibert Ruiz - Independence Day parallel

#135 Ramon Laureano - Holo Orange parallel

#92 Jeimer Candelario - Holo Orange parallel

#182 Aaron Judge - Holo Orange parallel

#248 Andy Pettitte - Retro 1987; Holo Orange parallel

#26 Cody Bellinger - Diamond Kings; Holo Orange parallel

#51 David Peterson - Holo Orange parallel

#ES9 Trevor Story - Elite Series insert; Diamond parallel

#UNL26 Frank Thomas - Unleashed insert; Diamond parallel

#54 Deivi Garcia

#50 Triston McKenzie

#253 Alex Rodriguez - Retro 1987; 14x All-Star variation

#3 Vladimir Guerrero - Diamond Kings 

#36 Joey Bart

#206 Max Scherzer

#17 Starling Marte - Diamond Kings

#52 Keibert Ruiz

#67 Mike Yastrzemski - Yaz nickname variation

#4 Anthony Santander - Diamond Kings

#37 Dylan Carlson

#200 Christian Yelich

#239 Sammy Sosa - Retro 1987; .534 Slugging Pct variation

#30 Ketel Marte - Diamond Kings 

A pair of redundant repack hanger boxes

A place I sometimes get my food from has a Walgreens in the same strip mall, so while the restaurant was closing and I had to a neighboring joint to get my grub for the night - I walked over to Walgreens to see if there were any 2021 Topps with whatever store exclusive parallels they come with.

Just as I figured, there were no Topps on the shelves and I ended up grabbing these repacks - with all the cards out in the world, these are the last things I want to be opening, but there are no unopened products on the shelves.

Ironically, I'd spent the same afternoon updating my A-Z archive of commons, slaving away at some tedious sorting - I wonder how I get to the point where there are these loose pockets of cards I’ve got to sort out in ABC order and funnel in boxes that maybe impacted. 

Even though I’m in the middle of being overwhelmed in the here and now - I still knowingly add more junk to the mix. 

Going through the second pack, what was peculiar was similar sequence that repeated from the first - I assumed the cards are sorted into the hanger boxes by machine, but can Fairfield really add just about the same brand / year for different random players, multiple times over.   

 

I thought I’d get a different mix of cards but between the boxes I bought but ended up with 28 pairs of dupes - that fascinates me, but makes me think twice about ever picking up another Fairfield repack hanger.

Pack one

80 cards plus 1 1991 Score Series 2 pack with 16 cards

1991 Score Series 2

#538 Andy Benes

#542 Dave Clark

#447 Mike Aldrete

#453 Mike Bielecki

#780 Terry Steinbach

#875 Rickey Henderson - MVP subset

#870 Benito Santiago - The Franchise subset

#855 Kirby Puckett - The Franchise subset

#737 USA flag 

#743 Ray Stephens

#757 Ed Vosberg

#763 Rodney McCray

#4 Roberto [Clemente] Romps - Magic Motion World Series trivia card

#598 Bill Krueger

#595 Kelly Gruber

#600 Kevin Maas

#592 Wes Gardner

1989 Score Rick Cerone #396

1989 Score Manny Lee #326

1992 Score Pat Kelly #185

1992 Score Scott Terry #219

1992 Score Kevin Elster #103

1992 Score Jeff Brantley #157

2019 Topps Heritage High recap

Did I need some retail therapy [?] - I don't want to go add more redundant cards to whatever claptrap I have that I consider a collection, particularly when I'm not as emotionally attached to either MLB or its players towards the end of the season.

On the other hand, cards are familiar to me and there might be a little bit of FOMO - as far as getting an chance to buy a retail blaster or hanger box right now to possibly pull a rookie card or rookie-year parallel of a rookie star like Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Fernando Tatis Jr., Eloy Jimenez, etc.

#634 Asdrubal Cabrera
#615 Skye Bolt
#527 Jorge Alfaro
#544 Daniel Murphy
#645 Tanner Roark
#559 Jeurys Familia
#657 Matt Moore

#562 Wade Miley - the last two seasons have been bounce back years for the veteran lefty, but busting a big league baseball card product, the run of retread players never ceases to bore me.
#668 Leury Garcia
#586 Daniel Descalso
#685 Anthony DeSclafani
#600 Jeff Samardzija
#524 Griffin Canning - I’ve had different kinds of Canning prospect cards, but this is one with the MLB/MLBPA rookie card logo, so that means something right?

#612 Trevor Richards

#699 Caleb Smith - the last two guys [Richards and Smith] are not quite retread veterans, but seem pretty anonymous for me to care about.
#606 Domingo Santana

#20 of 30 Pete Alonso - Candy Lid insert; I think I would have preferred a regular card or parallel, but I can't complain.
#716 Alen Hanson - SP
#THC-541 Yasiel Puig - Chrome parallel serial #’d 206/569

#AW-8 Alex Bregman - Award Winners insert; maybe he gets some narrative votes for the American League MVP, but the writers are intent on making sure the sheer excellence of Mike Trout's year-to-year numbers never gets taken for granted.

#574 Craig Kimbrel - he seems like a probable Hall of Famer, but the past couple of years have been a mixed bag, whether pitching in the postseason in 2018 or starting this past season in the middle of the year.

#673 Hansel Robles - he’s been lights out for a bad Angels team and presumably with a bump in salary in 2020, hope he doesn't turn back into the reliever his old team ended up throwing away.
#583 John Brebbia
#682 Charlie Culberson
#591 Christian Walker
#690 Scott Alexander
#601 Drew Pomeranz
#700 Nick Kingham
#608 Braden Bishop
#515 Sam Gaviglio

#512 Keston Hiura - he might be the rookie whose card I wanted to pull, besides the obvious guys mentioned.

The first time I was ever aware of Hiura, was when he played for Team USA in 2016 - I literally thought of him as just another guy and didn't bother getting his autograph.

I didn't anticipate him being a first round pick in 2017 - while emerging as a future hitting star in the middle of a big league lineup two or three seasons later.

#613 Cal Quantrill
#580 Brandon Woodruff
#679 Aaron Sanchez
#55 Jurickson Profar

2018 Topps Series 2 hanger box

I haven't bought any 2018 Topps Series 2 because cards of MLB rank-and-file players tend to get boring and redundant, when I don't have an opportunity to get them autographed in-person - while I actually picked up the SP variation rookie year cards of Gleyber Torres and Ronald Acuna Jr., this was my first actual unopened break of 2018 Topps Series 2.

#546 Jordan Luplow
#685 Russell Martin
#679 Tyson Ross
#478 Brad Miller
#463 Cory Spangenberg
#378 Aaron Wilkerson
#443 Gerrit Cole
#675 Victor Arano
#473 Wilmer Difo
#440 Troy Scribner
#611 Josh Bell
#394 Chad Pinder
#354 Robert Stephenson
#372 Nick Tropeano
#700 Shohei Ohtani
#514 A.J. Minter
#535 Jhoulys Chacin
#594 Sandy Alcantara
#392 Marcus Stroman
#579 Carson Fulmer
#682 Kansas City Royals team card
#389 New York Yankees Award Show - feat. Stanton and Judge
#426 Jacob Faria
#475 Aroldis Chapman
#377 Domingo Santana
#643 Justin Wilson
#597 Caleb Joseph
#490 Jarrod Dyson
#526 Tanner Roark
#399 Chicago Cubs team card
#625 Los Angeles Dodgers team card
#481 Ronald Torreyes
#575 Adrian Gonzalez
#635 Cody Allen
#391 Ben Zobrist
#S-60 Ozzie Albies - Topps Salute insert
#439 Dustin Pedroia - Gold parallel serial #'d 0290/2018
#83AS-47 Wade Boggs - 1983 Topps Baseball insert
#607 Sean Newcomb - Rainbow Foil parallel
#II-47 Amed Rosario - Instant Impact insert
#LITM-3 Byron Buxton - Legends in the Making insert
#LITM-8 Jose Abreu - Legends in the Making insert
#641 Cameron Maybin
#398 Sam Dyson
#351 Bryce Harper
#568 J.C. Ramirez
#664 Gregor Blanco
#556 Andrew Benintendi
#483 Drew Pomeranz
#648 Derek Holland
#471 Cole Hamels
#457 Hanley Ramirez
#677 Brandon Moss
#688 Tony Walters
#617 Doug Fister
#507 Zack Greinke
#606 Jake Arrieta
#530 Jason Vargas
#509 Santiago Casilla
#510 Freddie Freeman
#358 Brad Brach
#520 Jim Johnson
#670 Asdrubal Cabrera
#583 Tommy Joseph
#534 German Marquez
#369 Chris Taylor
#362 Miguel Rojas
#538 Jason Castro
#515 Greg Bird
#504 Scott Schebler
#368 Matt Strahm
#401 Michael Brantley

2016 Topps Series II hanger box

#620 Daniel Hudson
#610 Adam Morgan
#446 Tom Murphy

#514 Michael Taylor
#638 Michael Pineda
#519 Kyle Barraclough
#676 Jarred Cosart
#525 Jurickson Profar
#432 Cameron Rupp
#411 Brian Matusz
#574 Ryan Dull
#452 Gerrit Cole
#565 Matt Den Dekker
#454 Greg Holland
#378 Jeff Mathis
#459 James Loney
#467 Giovanny Urshela

#360 Eduardo Escobar
#615 Miguel Castro
#690 Jimmy Nelson
#556 Abraham Almonte
#388 Evan Longoria
#666 J.T. Realmuto
#635 A.J. Pierzynski - Gold parallel serial #’d 1140/2016
#KID-17 Ken Griffey Jr. - A Tribute to the Kid insert
#3000-19 Ichiro - Chasing 3K insert
#BB-2-1955 Roberto Clemente - Berger’s Best insert
#HH-13 Robin Yount - Hallowed Highlights insert
#FP-13 Edward Burns - First Pitch insert
#CTG-6 Kyle Schwarber - Changing of the Guard insert
#MLBD2-12 Bill Mazeroski - MLB Debut insert
#376 Brandon Barnes
#462 Jumbo Diaz
#499 Carlos Perez

#489 Adeiny Hechavarria
#643 Elite Meet & Greet - feat. Cespedes and Wright

#657 Johnny Giavotella
#471 Kolten Wong
#681 Joe Smith
#679 Nate Jones
#362 Cory Spangenberg
#488 Colton Murray
#408 Jason Castro
#497 Devin Mesoraco
#601 Leonys Martin
#575 Ryan Strausborger
#480 Mike Foltnewicz
#521 Chris Archer
#559 Cliff Pennington
#381 Bartolo Colon
#639 Rubby De La Rosa
#416 Johnny Cueto
#364 Keon Broxton
#636 Arodys Vizcaino
#384 Michael Morse
#396 Matt Reynolds
#515 Ryan Flaherty
#430 Ariel Pena
#662 Masahiro Tanaka
#544 Jeremy Jeffress

#619 Dustin Ackley
#509 Mark Canha
#543 Carlos Rodon
Info card / 50 cents off 

#527 Jordy Mercer

#438 Paulo Orlando
#602 Keith Hessler

#398 Cleveland Indians team card
#377 Scott Kazmir
#594 Lonnie Chisenhall

#590 Anthony Gose
#545 Hector Santiago

#492 Many Healthy Returns - feat. Molina and Grichuk

2016 Topps Heritage 35-card hanger box

I'm not exactly a fan of Topps Heritage because it's a played out card product to me - it's not like I don't appreciate 'old school' elements in baseball cards, but Heritage is just kind of bland and lacks imagination.

The images used are boring for the most part with no action shots - these Heritage cards either show the players from the waist up and/or boring poses from spring training photo shoots.

The images on the cards look like they are grainy, maybe part of a process [scanned newspaper effect?] - trying to make these new cards look old-timey.

The card backs seems like they are easier to read - so that is probably a good thing.

It’s probably not a consideration for strictly baseball card collectors but the images used and the facsimile autograph - makes the cards seem a little too cluttered to get a random in-person/TTM autograph on.  

For in-person / TTM graphing, I’m mostly an Allen and Ginter guy [until the Topps Heritage Minors product comes out] - going through these cards, I’m not exactly excited to get the guys’ cards I think I can get autographed.

#77 Evan Gattis

#247 Hector Santiago

#179 2016 Diamondbacks Rookie Stars - feat. Godley/Brito

#348 Detroit Tigers team card

#381 Arodys Vizcaino

#193 A.J. Pierzynski

#187 2016 Giants Rookie Stars - feat. Brown/Williamson

#365 St. Louis Cardinals team card

#279 Jeff Bannister

#378 Jason Castro

#132 Ichiro

#399 J.J. Hoover

#267 Mike Scioscia

#181 NL Rookie Stars - feat. Conforto/Nola

#303 David Murphy

#310 Chris Sale

#220 Matt Duffy

#486 Rusney Castillo - short print

#TOPPS NAP-MMA Manny Machado - New Age Performers insert

#TOPPS TAN-YA Carl Yastrzemski / Nolan Arenado - Then and Now insert

#Pittsburgh Pirates team card

#227 Carlos Gomez

#421 Taijuan Walker

#45 Hanley Ramirez

#370 San Francisco Giants team card

#321 Garrett Richards

#72 Mark Trumbo

#88 Xander Bogaerts

#203 Lonnie Chisenhall

#26 Drew Smyly

#191 Jimmy Rollins

#317 Colby Lewis

#312 Vidal Nuno

#17 Brayan Pena

#328 Denard Span

2016 Topps Series I 72-card hanger box

#327 Anthony Rizzo

#190 Jeurys Familia

#328 Anthony DeSclafani

#163 Joaquin Benoit

#115 Aaron Harang

#269 Giancarlo Stanton

#77 Clay Buchholz

#158 Henry Urrutia

#15 Ryan Howard

#26 AL Home Run Leaders - feat. Davis, Cruz and Trout

#289 Nick Hundley

#126 Papi and the Prince - feat. Ortiz and Pujols

#181 Minnesota Twins team card

#185 AL ERA Leaders - feat. Price, Keuchel and Gray

#315 San Diego Padres team card

#108 Ben Paulsen

#BB-10 Bill Mazeroski - Berger’s Best insert

#350 Kris Bryant - Rainbow Foil parallel

#FP-5 Evelyn Jones - First Pitch insert

#WRIG-22 Rafael Palmeiro - 100 Years at Wrigley Field insert

#P-4 Bryce Harper - Perspectives insert

#MLBD-9 Yu Darvish - MLB Debut insert

#AM-5 Nolan Ryan - Amazing Milestones insert

#62 Trayce Thompson

#64 Corey Kluber

#35 Luke Hochevar

#118 Jose Fernandez

#218 Andrew Miller

#228 Matt Garza

#304 Charlie Furbush

#208 Kurt Suzuki

#68 Odubel Herrera

#239 Huston Street

#82 Michael Bourn

#296 Yordano Ventura

#258 Devon Travis

#145 Jon Niese

#74 Troy Tulowitzki

#133 Aaron Nola

#201 Adam Jones

#194 Chase Headley

#17 Billy Butler

#300 Buster Posey

#113 Aaron Sanchez

#9 Eric Hosmer

#267 Chris Heston

#298 Ryan Braun

#230 Ryan Vogelsong

#234 David Robertson

#276 Francisco Cervelli

#349 Ben Revere

#58 NL ERA Leaders - feat. Greinke, Arrieta and Kershaw

#139 Yasiel Puig

#53 George Springer

#221 Ryan LaMarre

#MLBW-4 Los Angeles Dodgers - Wacky Packages sticker insert

#259 Paul Goldschmidt

#232 Michael Conforto

#138 Francisco Liriano

#19 Delino DeShields Jr.

#293 Hyun-Jin Ryu

#92 Darren O’Day

#196 Hunter Strickland

#244 Matt Carpenter

#86 Wilmer Flores

#271 Kevin Kiermaier

#213 Matt Shoemaker

#319 Adam Wainwright

#134 Yadier Molina

#55 Jesus Montero

#116 Brett Gardner

#38 Jed Lowrie

#264 Jake Arrieta