Serial Card Countdown -- The Grand Finale

    A huge thanks to The Diamond King for 100 serial-numbered cards. This post marks the last one in my countdown. I've moved on to my top five cards, and without further delay, here they are:

#5: 2019 Leaf Valiant Green Prismatic JJ Bleday Autograph (98/99)

    I like just about every aspect of this card. I think the design and background are spot-on (of course the color scheme works for me, because he's on the A's). I do like on-card autos, and this one looks very nice. A solid card at #5.

#4: 2019 Panini Crusade Pink Cody Bellinger (11/25)

    Panini Crusade is far and away my favorite Panini baseball card design. The designs are pristine, and the crests Panini uses for the cards are amazing. I wonder how Bellinger will fare in 2025 with the Yankees. He looks ready to have another solid season; it would be insanity to see him struggle like in 2021.

#3: 2017 Panini National Sports Collectors Convention Wrapper Redemption Memorabilia Rainbow Spokes Mookie Betts (22/25)

    Well that was quite the mouthful. Thanks to TCDB user jamestagli for clarifying just what type of card this is. It's a really nice card (it looks like Mookie is exploding); it's shiny, and has that lovely  (though a little bit plain) jersey swatch on it. I'm sure Mookie's headed for the Hall, the question is how much longer he can go. He hasn't shown too many signs of slowing down. other than getting hit by pitches and breaking wrists.

#2: 2018 Panini Immaculate Collection Rookie Auto Dual Materials Tyler Wade (09/99)

    This is a very intriguing card. The double patches plus the autograph are pretty cool, even though there's a ton going on in the card. I still think they did a good job with the card's photo -- Wade looks so young! I've always liked seeing player-used memorabilia cards, so the two and the autograph is really nice. Wade has been getting plenty of ABs in spring with the Padres. Maybe he'll play a lot?

    Now, we have really been through 99 cards, from the process of choosing the top 20 and then counting down all the way through card #2. The card about to be shown won the honors of the best card in the box. And that card is...

#1: 2023 Topps Pristine Gold Refractor Zach Plesac (35/50)

    This card was actually sitting on top of the box when I opened it and was therefore the first card I saw in the entire package. It's a real eye-catcher. The design is really good (the card is way nicer in hand than on the blog). Plesac has been in the majors since 2019, and in 87 career big-league games (86 starts), is 27-28 with a 4.31 ERA. Plesac lands #1 on my countdown. 

    So ends the serial card countdown. This was a fun little series that of course could not have been done without The Diamond King. Thank you for your generosity.

    Thank you all for reading the blog, have a great week, and happy collecting! Opening day's right around the corner, so good luck to your teams :)

Serial Card Countdown (#10-6) and the Return of Shiny

     Thanks again to The Diamond King for 100 awesome serial-numbered cards as well as some sweet post material. This the third of four posts where I count down my top 20 of the cards sent to me. After today's post we will be narrowed down to the top five (although you won't know what they are). I'm happy to announce that shiny is back and better than ever for this post, so if that's you're thing you may well enjoy it!

#10: 2021 Topps Update - Fast Friends Green Foil (326/499)

    It's really quite strange to see the word 'jell' on a baseball card. It doesn't remind me of team bonding, but more of desserts. Anyway, this card looks so much better in hand then on computer. Hopefully Bo Bichette and Vladdy can be a force once more this year. I'm not even a Jays fan -- it's plain sad to see flops like Bichette's 2024 season.

#9: 2022 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary Red Atomic Jacob deGrom (014/100)

    It's Jacob deGrom, which will explain partly why he's ranked so high. I like the design of the card, even though the 'Red Atomic' background doesn't fit amazingly with the orange and blue color scheme of the Mets. It looks good even so. I've already stressed how much I would like for deGrom to be healthy for 2025, so I won't go into detail right now :)

#8: 2020 Topps Big League Award Winners Rainbow Foil Jacob deGrom (077/100)

    Two deGroms in a row! I really like the Award Winners from 2020 Topps Big League (Mike Trout and Pete Alonso were featured on an earlier post). It's entertaining to see how these guys clean up after dirtying themselves up on the diamond. I think deGrom cleans up best out of the Award Winners I have.

#7: 2015 Bowman Purple Ice Troy Tulowitzki (39/50)

    This is a really nice card, and of one of my favorites. The Purple Ice design is perfect on the card for so many different reasons. This is easily one of the best cards in the box. 
    I'm a little bummed about Tulo getting kicked off the ballot this year, but it was inevitable.

#6: 2024 Topps Chrome Sonar Purple Refractor Esteury Ruiz (051/275)

    'Whoa!' describes my reaction perfectly when I laid eyes on this card. It's truly eye-popping. There is so much going on in this card. I don't think this would work well with any design other than the already neon design of 2024 Topps. The photo taken for this card was perfect too. Overall just a solid one.

    

    That's it for the penultimate countdown post. I hope you enjoyed the post, and next Wednesday will see the finale of the serial card countdown. Thank you to The Diamond King for the amazing cards which get better every week, and thank y'all for reading! Have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

Serial Card Countdown (#20-16)

    I won The Diamond King's last serial-numbered card guessing contest, and the prize was 100 numbered cards. Firstly, a huge thanks to The Diamond King for the cards! They are truly amazing, and I could take forever going through them.

    I said half an eternity ago that I would start the countdown, but never got down to it. Now I've finally started, and will hopefully remember to finish the four posts on the subject.

    I'm going to start the countdown of my twenty favorite of the numbered cards, and continue on down, posting every week until I get to number one. There were so many cards to choose from, so it was very difficult to narrow it down. But I finally did it, so here we go.

#20: 2020 Topps Major League Material Relics David Dahl (016/199)

    Alright, things get started with a former Ranger in David Dahl. The game-used patch took the card into the top twenty. Other than the lovely purple patch there isn't a ton on this card other than a decent action shot, but it's a great one. David Dahl has played seven years in the majors (2016, 2018-2021, 2023-2024) and is batting .268 with 324 hits and 46 home runs. He was an all-star in 2016 when he batted .302 with 15 home runs in 100 games.

#19: 2016 Bowman's Best Atomic Refractor Nomar Mazara (067/250)

    The design of this card was just too cool. Obviously, being a Rangers fan pushed it a little bit higher in the standings, but the background is plain awesome. Nomar played from 2016-2022, mostly with the Rangers, and in 684 games batted .256 with 85 home runs. He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 2016.

#18: 2018 Panini Immaculate Collection Clint Frazier (38/99)

    The patch on this card is enormous! And besides that, I like what they did with Frazier's photo -- it looks very....Panini. Well, that was the first word to come to mind anyway. Though Panini isn't my favorite brand of baseball cards, I like some of 'em (especially Panini Prizm...I dunno why, but I've always liked those). Clint played in the bigs from 2017-2023, and also played under the name Jackson Frazier.

#17: 2023 Bowman Chrome Pink Christian Yelich (082/299)

    Correct me if I'm wrong on the card identification, but I'm not very good at surfing the TCDB for unknown subsets yet. Anyway, I love Christian Yelich, and though the color scheme on the card is awfully strange, it resonates with me. I hope Yeli can have a healthy 2025 season, because it looks like he's coming back to form and I'd hate to see another season go down the drain, especially if it's one of his last good ones.

#16: 2006 Topps Sterling #76 Nolan Ryan (124/250)

    Three of the first five cards in my top twenty feature players who have played for the Rangers (not biased, shhhhhhhh). I really like this card, although it is a little bit difficult to read what the year was (I thought it was 2015 at first). I like the classic photo of Ryan tipping his cap, and think this is a worthy card to finish out the post with.

    Well, there's the top five cards in the countdown. I intentionally got the sheen on the cards -- I like that kind of thing, plus it helps to show how nice the cards look in-hand. I hope you enjoyed, and next Tuesday will be numbers 15 through 11. Thanks again to The Diamond King for the awesome cards, and thank y'all for reading. Have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!