[ZSDOne]

That would be fine with me if the DBN could have their own LFG cards at inflated prices for less content, and the rest of us could go back to the era of $19.99 blasters with guaranteed hits.

Charging double the price to remove the base cards is a nice touch

Fanatics is more likely to go with exclusive $60 blasters only sold at the South Pole with exclusive penguin parallels than give good value in blasters 

Old Topps might have - but Old Topps doesn't exist anymore

[rjcj2017]

Charging double the price to remove the base cards is a nice touch

Fanatics is more likely to go with exclusive $60 blasters only sold at the South Pole with exclusive penguin parallels than give good value in blasters 

Old Topps might have - but Old Topps doesn't exist anymore

I thought those penguin parallels were found only in Walmart Holiday boxes .... hayoooo

[ZSDOne]

I thought those penguin parallels were found only in Walmart Holiday boxes .... hayoooo

and they'll also have Polar Bear - and Santa Claus auto relics!  

Because South Pole, North Pole - what's the difference?

[rjcj2017]

Speaking of not giving a crap ... I would normally bother to make this its own thread with a photo and eveything, but ...

I busted a blaster of Allen & Ginter the other day for the low low price of $27.98 - I swear my local Walmart upcharges the upcharge - and got the usual fillers of birds, plates of food, etc.

The best card in the box was a silvery bordered (not framed) thing of Mark McGwire, which is cool because I PC him.

If you've ever read the back of an A&G card, you'll notice ALL the stats are spelled out rather than using numbers.

So under "home runs" it said "seven hundred and three" ...

Which is fake news because Big Mac roided out "five hundred eighty three" homers in his career ...

And then I realized that along with the incorrect career batting average of "two hundred ninety six," I was reading Albert Pujols' career numbers.

Topps gonna Topps, I guess ...

Again, to all card companies, my standing offer - your proofreading sucks. All of you.

I am happy to offer my vast background in copy editing to you for the low low price of one case of cards per product that I proof.

Believe me - you need the help. All of you.

If you care, that is. If not, keep on sucking!

[ZSDOne]

"They both played for St. Louis - close enough"

- FanaTOPPSics, (Probably)

I am honestly surprised they still make Allen & Ginter - but apparently either Fanatics doesn't bother looking up who those Allen & Ginter guys were or they simply don't care as long as consumers don't bother looking up who those Allen & Ginter guys were.

[rjcj2017]

"They both played for St. Louis - close enough"

-  FanaTOPPSics, (Probably)

I am honestly surprised they still make Allen & Ginter - but apparently either Fanatics doesn't bother looking up who those Allen & Ginter guys were or they simply don't care as long as consumers don't bother looking up who those Allen & Ginter guys were.

The funny thing is, for as much as I don't care for the product in general - mostly boring photos and the aforementioned bird cards and magicians and what not - I have arguably done better "hit wise" on A&G than any other product over the years ...

- Ken Griffey Jr. framed mini bat relic, absolutely sweet looking card
- Carlos Gonzalez framed mini auto back when he was a regular MLB All-Star
- Kate Upton framed mini relic card (sold it before she started dating Justin Verlander, otherwise I would have kept it for my Tigers PC)
- Bobby Knight framed mini relic card, most likely a sweater, one of my favorite basketball PC cards that has survived not one but two full collection purges

Plus I have a small PC of base cards of all of the non-baseball athletes over the last few years, including ...

- Hot dog champ Joey Chestnut
- Mario Andretti
- Lindsey Vonn
- Roy Jones Jr.
- Michael Phelps
- Roger Federer
- Bruce Jenner
- Trevor Lawrence
- Jaylen Waddle
- John Calipari
- Rocky Balboa!
- Apollo Creed!

In addition to the McGwire the other day, I pulled a Will Levis card, so that will go in the PC above.

I bought the singles online of Victor Wembanyama and Scott Henderson to add to the basketball PC as well - no need to keep buying blasters at the low low price of $27.98 for those.

[ZSDOne]

I got an opportunity to look at Bowman U Chrome in person and I got to say that the 1955 Bowman Chrome inserts look even worse in person than they look online - the 1955 Bowman Travis Hunter might well be the worst looking card I've ever seen (its a terrible photoshop job that makes his head look gigantic and the overall image too small on the card - what a terrible looking card) - since 1955 Bowman was a great design its probably the worst retro use of an old design I've ever seen.

FanaTopps also no longer bothers to list the odds on the package or packs - because they absolutely don't want people to see that they are printing this garbage to the moon. Also there is a warning that Topps is not responsible and can not warrant against counterfeit cards and that even numbered and autograph cards could be fake - LOL! Caveat emptor is definitely the model here.

The base cards look much better than I expected though

And I don't see how anyone gets even the fairly reasonable hobby box price in value unless they are incredibly lucky - there are simply too many prospects who have not even played in college yet (or have played but have not exactly been very impressive) - plus, almost everyone in there already has autos out from Leaf, Sage, Panini, Wild Card, Onyx, and maybe even others - and given that college cards tend to not hold long term value, this is definitely a wait and buy singles after the initial rush - since most of those will be not even dollar box material it's the way to go (autos, numbered and inserts are going to be primarily $3 to $5 box material of primary interest to team collectors long term).

[rjcj2017]

I got two blasters by miracle, I'll post in the breaks shortly

[ZSDOne]

I got two blasters by miracle, I'll post in the breaks shortly

I got a look at the LCS - they had lots of blasters available there (how I know the blasters no longer list the odds which was a nice thing that Topps used to do)

[ZSDOne]

Let's see how Fanatopps is handling their card business

Tom Brady Counterfactual Baseball Cards

And people wonder why I mainly stick to Sage.