2018 Bowman 22-card rack pack x6

On a random stop at a Walmart, I thought I'd struck gold with six $5.98 packs of this year's latest baseball card lottery product - turns out, I may have only gotten the leftovers of someone else's unopened plunder, though it's all just a crapshoot with the all or nothing hunt for something with Shohei Ohtani's picture [and really with his autograph] on it.

Pack one
#37 Sandy Alcantara
#95 Jonathan Schoop
#14 George Springer
#21 Noah Syndergaard
#8 Hunter Renfroe
#56 Nomar Mazara
#50 Carlos Correa
#43 Joey Votto
#33 Anthony Rizzo
#5 Paul Goldschmidt
#BCP96 Junior Fernandez - Chrome
#BCP40 Pedro Avila - Chrome
#-SK Scott Kingery - Bowman Trending insert
#ROYF-AV Alex Verdugo - ROY Favorites
#BP28 Kolby Allard
#BP33 James Nelson
#BCP83 Ian Anderson - Chrome
#BCP110 Eric Pardinho - Chrome; that 2001 birthdate...makes him 17
#BP57 Luis Urias
#BP26 Alfredro Rodriguez
#BP9 Alex Jackson
#BP93 Royce Lewis

Pack two 
#69 Bryce Harper
#20 Raudy Read
#4 Zack Greinke
#99 Ryan McMahon
#73 Nick Williams
#48 Jackson Stephens
#26 Clint Frazier
#1 Mike Trout
#67 Giancarlo Stanton
#16 Matt Olson
#84 Paul DeJong
#BCP60 Brian Miller - Chrome
#ROYF-WC Willie Calhoun - ROY Favorites
#BP4 Hunter Harvey
#BP133 Tyler Stephenson
#BCP104 Nick Solak - Chrome
#BCP89 Mike Soroka - Chrome
#BCP119 Gavin LaValley - Chrome
#BP147 Forrest Whitley
#BP139 Travis Lakins 
#BP80 Matt Hall
#BP12 Thomas Hatch

Pack three
#74 Garrett Cooper
#11 Jen-Ho Tseng
#64 Clayton Kershaw
#13 Maikel Franco
#63 Robinson Cano
#92 Josh Bell
#96 Raisel Iglesias
#51 Marcell Ozuna
#72 Alex Verdugo
#90 Max Fried
#BCP90 Stephen Gonsalves - Chrome
#BCP142 A.J. Puk - Chrome
#BTP92 Monte Harrison - Bowman Scouts' Top 100
#-FT Fernando Tatis
#BP34 Josh Ockimey
#BP17 Kevin Newman
#BCP148 Trevor Rogers - Chrome
#BCP95 Jorge Mateo - Chrome
#BP46 Cristian Pache
#BP44 James Kaprielian
#BP131 MacKenzie Gore
#BP63 Dylan Cozens

Pack four
#6 Victor Robles
#94 Chris Sale
#53 Charlie Blackmon
#24 Aaron Judge
#87 Tommy Pham
#85 Andrew Stevenson
#65 Marcus Stroman
#61 Dansby Swanson
#9 Zack Granite
#10 Rhys Hoskins
#2 Francisco Mejia
#BCP121 Jose Adolis Garcia - Chrome
#BB-MCH Matt Chapman - Bowman Birthdays insert
#BCP13 Sam Hilliard - Chrome refractor serial #'d 048/499
#BP13 Sam Hilliard
#BP38 Mitch Keller
#BCP61 Matt Thaiss - Chrome
#BCP140 Blake Rutherford - Chrome
#BP55 Kyle Tucker
#BP49 Nick Gordon
#BP115 Cal Quantrill
#BP58 Sean Murphy

Pack five
#62 Ozzie Albies
#42 Harrison Bader
#12 Chance Sisco
#91 Luiz Gohara
#75 Miguel Andujar
#22 Albert Pujols
#38 Andrew Benintendi
#17 Nicholas Castellanos
#93 Michael Conforto
#27 Wil Myers
#BCP141 Blayne Enlow - Chrome
#BTP-34 Alec Hansen - Bowman Scouts' Top 100 insert
#TP-CHI Jose Albertos, Adbert Alzolay and Mark Zagunis - Talent Pipeline insert
#BP1-06 D.J. Stewart
#BP92 Ryan Vilade
#BCP45 Greg Deichmann - Chrome
#BCP27 Jose Trevino - Chrome
#BCP19 Johan Mieses - Chrome
#BP6 Austin Beck
#BP2 Bryan Mata
#BP149 Steven Duggar
#BP102 Matt Sauer

Pack six
#57 Anthony Banda
#77 Avisail Garcia
#58 Josh Donaldson
#89 Brandon Crawford
#54 Byron Buxton
#47 Cody Bellinger
#81 Nolan Arenado
#88 Felix Hernandez
#76 Tomas Nido
#36 Dustin Fowler
#78 Jack Flaherty
#BCP91 Spencer Howard - Chrome
#BTP-40 Lewis Brinson - Bowman Scouts' Top 100 insert
#BP23 Jeren Kendall
#BP134 Wander Javier
#BCP124 Alex Faedo - Chrome
#BCP113 Taylor Clarke - Chrome
#BCP144 Jahmai Jones - Chrome
#BP41 Jason Martin
#BP37 Jake Burger
#BP14 Kyle Wright
#BP135 Bryse Wilson

Random 2011 Topps thoughts

I picked up three $4.99 jumbo packs of 2011 Topps at Target - flagship Topps is always refreshing to rip when they first come out.

I like the white bordered base cards on this Topps' fare for the masses and it seems like the images on this year's cards really sharp - the images are bright and clear, instead of being dull, uninspiring and gloppy.

I was keeping my eyes peeled for any Diamond Sparkle variation, thinking I was going to find at least one out of my racks - but these short print parallels maybe harder to find than I had hoped.

I think like everyone else, the Platinum Diamond variations are pretty sweet looking - collecting them all is not realistic, but they are 'prettier' and much easier to pull than the cards with a doctored sparkle on them. I normally wouldn't care about the 2010 NL Wins Leaders card [#11] I pulled, but the Platinum Diamond treatment makes enhances the card's aesthetics.
I pulled an Kimball Champions Albert Pujols insert, which was nice - but these mini cards look sort of homemade.

I pulled other inserts, which I didn't really find all that interesting I guess - all I know is I probably don't need a reprint of a 2004 Topps Mark Teixeira [#60YOT-53] or a reprint of a 1999 Topps card of Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez and Jason Kendall [#60YOT-48].

2009 Topps T-206 rack pack breaks

2009 Topps T-206 rack pack breaks [$4.99 each / four packs at Target] - because I had a $50 gift certificate, which was another impromptu [this time for Christmas] present from my father, I was able to splurge on four packs among other purchases.

I picked up a base set already so I was hoping for some random hits - though these rack packs are retail, so it is always a crap shoot.

I only listed the minis and one or two notable base cards - this was probably a 'meh' break, but I guess I'll deal with it.

Pack one
287 Babe Ruth Piedmont mini base card parallel
287 Babe Ruth base

Pack two
164 Luis Valbuena Piedmont mini base card parallel
174 Gordon Beckham base

Pack three
171 David Wright Piedmont mini base card parallel
NNO A-Rod short print variation
207 Jackie Robinson base


Pack four
274 Colby Rasmus Piedmont mini base card parallel
90 A-Rod base
271 Lou Gehrig base