Those Spoils from Trading Card Day

     Alright, I get it; Topps Trading Card Day was almost a week ago. But I was really busy, so I haven't gotten around to posting all the lovely cards that I got from that day. Here we are now, better late than never. 

    Luckily, there was a participating card store roughly twenty-five minutes away from my house. This was the first Trading Card Day I ever took part in, so it was definitely exciting. I spent only $16 across the whole day, but that was enough for me to get a lot of good stuff. All these cards I got for either a quarter or a dollar apiece; although I can't remember which exact ones cost what.

    I do remember that these chrome ones were $1 apiece. The solid design of the cards caught my eyes right away, and I picked them out of their box right away. I think the color scheme is great, and they're both VERY shiny, which I just love.

    I'm a huge fan of the Panini Prizm design from 2021. I'm glad that the camera that I used pictured the design of the card really well. Unfortunately, due to a few injuries Matt McLain has yet to make his season debut in 2024, after an electric 2023 performance in which he batted .290 in 89 games.

    I also grabbed this McLain card. I like the other one better.

    I think I've already made the point that I love Riley Greene, so it was awesome to find his 2024 Future Stars card. Riley's having an awesome year, slashing .264/.357/.485 with 17 homers in 101 games. Unfortunately, he's stuck on the IL right now, but should be back in action shortly.

    Got some more nice Chrome to show y'all. I think the pattern in the background of the card is great, and the photo shows Paul Goldschmidt in that unforgettable batting stance.

    Next I grabbed a few Braves. I just liked the look of the top card, though I'm not really sure why. AJ Smith-Shawver is one of my favorite pitchers, so it was great to find his rookie card. Smith-Shawver has only made one appearance in the Bigs this year, going 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Right now he's in the minors waiting for another opportunity.

    Grabbed a few more 2024 cards. I thought I had the deGrom card, but I added this one just to make sure. And I was right; I did have that card. I also realize that I had the Corbin Carroll card too. But I did get Westy's rookie card, as well as the last base card that will be made of Miguel Cabrera, so not a waste at all.

    I grabbed a few of the youngsters I like too. The action shot on Brandon Pfaadt's card is great. Pfaadt has been good this year for the D-Backs (6-6, 3.92 ERA, wish he were on a better team), and PCA has been....interesting. He's batting .205 but is 22-for-22 on stolen base attempts, so I guess he's been good in that regard.

    I was almost out of the store when I took one last look through the boxes and found these cards. I really like the 2024 Bowman design from the Austin Riley card. The Topps Barrels Acuna card caught my eye, just as a cool-looking card that cost a quarter. The back of the card is interesting. I'm not really sure how necessary a stat 'Barrels' is (batted balls with a launch angle and exit velocity that generally would produce 1 .500+ batting average and 1.500+ slugging percentage), but Acuna had 86 of 'em in 2023, which led the league.

    This was a neat card. I've never seen a Topps Gallery baseball card before (shows just how young I am at the hobby, I guess), so it was a nice pickup. 

    I apologize for the horrible slanting on the pictures. I've never taken card pictures on a phone before, and it didn't turn out the way I would have liked. Anyway, pink, chrome, Bednar; I think this was a pretty good decision. I think the pink border compliments the feats of Bednar's 2023 campaign well; a flashy pitcher, grabbing a league-tying 39 saves with just a 2.00 ERA. He has not been so hot this season, with 20 saves and a 5.77 ERA, and also an injury partway through the year. Hopefully he can get back to his old dominant self soon.

    Moving on to the two packs that I got; a 12-card 2024 Topps Series Two pack (not sure if there's a particular name for that), and 2024 Bowman. I'm not gonna lie, there are two areas with this card store that I complain about. The autographs they sell are very overpriced, as well as their contemporary card packs. These two cost me $9 for a grand total of 2 22 cards. 

    Unfortunately, the Topps pack didn't turn out too great. No great cards here. At least none of them were dupes though, and will find a place in the 2024 binder.

    Though the Topps pack wasn't too hot, the Bowman one was very good:

    I got some big rookies in this pack; Evan Carter, Jung Hoo Lee, Zack Gelof; none of whom are panning out to their potential in this 2024 campaign. 

    James Wood has already made his debut in Washington after slashing .353/.463/.595 in 52 games with AAA Rochester. He's currently batting .262 in 33 games with the Nats.
    Douglas Glod is a nineteen-year-old infielder in the Braves system. He is currently struggling in Rookie Ball, though he shows some potential.

I also got this 36-year old pack for only 50 cents.

    That's all the purchasing that I did. However, I got some more goodies from the store for Topps Trading Card Day.

    I got the promotional cards that the store was handing out for free:

    I must say, Topps did a brilliant job on the cards. I design is excellent, and the players chosen were very good. But I do need to ask; for all those who participated in Trading Card Day, were your packs the same as this one? I saw others with the same exact cards, so I was just wondering.

    The store manager said he was feeling generous, so he gave me some more free cards. Don't you just love small businesses?

    I don't pay attention to college football, so I have no idea who these guys are, but it was a nice gift from the manager.

    I also got a special card for spending more than $10 on Topps products. I got to choose between Shohei Ohtani and Elly de la Cruz...

    

    To sum up this whole post in one sentence, it was a great experience and I got some fantastic new cards. As always, than you for reading, have a great weekend, and happy collecting!