Topps Without Borders-1998

I am removing the borders from the Topps designs year by year.

This time it is 1998.

Of course, I am using the most iconic card from the set.

With border:

 And without border:

 Card sized:

I really like it minus the ugly gold border. It lets the bezel surrounding the player set the border for the card and not the gold blah.

Still doesn't do much for the player's name in gold on top of a distracting background. Topps should have just let the photo continue to the bottom of the card, which would have let the name stand out better.

Up next, 1997. A set which I have one card of. It's a cool card though.

Nice Hit in 2013 Topps Hanger Box

Just a quick post to show you this card:

While not rare in the slightest, still one awesome card to gawk at.

Really digging the looks of 2013 Topps, base set and most all of the inserts.

Grabbed two more hanger boxes and will show just the inserts from them, including eight more of the gorgeous Chasing History Gold Holofoil cards. Such sweet cards!

2013 Topps Retail Blaster Box Results

 

After ripping a hanger box of 2013 Topps and getting a good return in cards I am posting the results of the retail blaster box I also bought.

One thing about the box. Prince is clearly in foul territory so he might as well sit down now.

And make sure you are 6+ years old. Cards are addicting and you need to be mature enough to buy them!

The allure of buying a blaster is that you get an exclusive pack which holds either a commemorative patch relic card or a rookie patch relic card:

If you are lucky you can pull one of these:

And I was lucky enough to pull one of the rookie relics. But they were right, the card was not the one pictured on the box:

I love this idea. Might collect the set.

Glad I didn't get a patch card.

Here's the checklist:

Usually you work up to what is supposed to be the 'hit' of the box but even this card isn't really the best thing you could pull out of these boxes so it doesn't matter where I show it.

Like the last post on the hanger box I am showing the stars, rookies, inserts, and any cool looking base cards.

And away we go!:

Bwyce Hawper! That makes sense if you know who Kripke is from the Big Bang Theory.

Really clean looking card. Too bad Ellsbury broke his pelvis ten seconds after this picture was taken.

 Don't know much about him but he is a big man who is young and can rake.

When your teammates  call you 'Mini Miggy" I guess you have a big pair of shoes to fill.

Most likely Isringhausen's last Topps card.

His Career Chase stat has him at 300 saves with 308 to go to catch Mariano Rivera. Insane.

Justin has been an Indian for a while so I don't know why his hat looks photoshopped.

Got one of these in my hanger box but it's good to have multiples of a potential ace than multiples of Paul Janish. Or any other backup infielder.

The beard with the fire of a thousand suns! The beard Tommy Hanson would like to have if he could grow it like Ian's.

Clean looking card of a player headed toward the Hall if he can put at least two more solid campaigns together. Preferably three.

Normally I don't care what facial scruff anybody has but this is not a good look for him. It might work if he was 6'5". But being 5'10" it makes him look like Gimli.

And the fact he appears to be copying Brian Wilson makes it look worse.

The Cardinals are stacked when it comes to minor league starting prospects.

As a Cubs fan this makes me sad. Then I realize 100 years worth of fans have been sad for a while so I got over it.

This is what it looks like when a grown man releases all his pent up rage.

Just don't say 'Miami' around him.

Hopefully John can rebound from shoulder surgery and return to his past ways as the ace 1a of the Sox.

McCutchen and Marte in the same outfield is ridiculous.

Marte had 19 triples between the minors and majors in 2012.

He doesn't do it all, but what he does he does real well.

A card of the newest Cubs player. Two years, five million seems like a solid risk.

As for the card, that is one weird angle.

It looks like David Wright is positioning a Fathead of Hairston.

Cameraman loves the shot he took but he isn't the one who is going to itch for a week.

Andre Dawson cushioned his blow.

Had a 4.5:1 SO/BB ratio in 2012 minor league play.

The adult in me says Angel ripped the back of his pants while sliding.

The 10 year old me says.....well, you know.

Led the NL in triples.

Seeing how the ball is still two feet from the catcher I'll say Cozart is safe.

Great photo of a once great player. Maybe he gets his groove back this year. With the rest of the senior citizens who now make up the Phillies.

Oooohhh! You see that bro! Ooooohhhh!

Trouts combined minor/major league numbers in 2012:

• .335 average
• 636 at bats
• 150 runs
• 213 hits
• 31 doubles
• 13 triples
• 31 home runs
• 96 rbi's
• 55 stolen bases
• 78 walks
• 155 strikeouts(who cares!)
• Will be 21 years old until August of this year.

First layer of bricks have been added to his pedestal which will hold his bust in 25 years.

I think the catcher knew he was safe so he wanted him to remember this play for a while. Taking one for the team, Matt?

As for inserts I got the following:

Two Emeralds:

Three minis:

I also got a Beltre in the hanger box I posted about so now I have....um...two!

I thought for sure the Reyes would be an SP card with him in a Blue Jays uni.

Got two more of these things which, by the time the site goes live, we will all have 100 of them.

I like the Chasing the Dream inserts but I don't like his mechanics. And neither did the D'Backs.

I like the gold cards this year because for the first time in a long time they aren't just a solid border around the card.


The entire bottom of the card incorporates the gold into the design. The logo really spiffs it up and they even kept the little lines behind the logo.

The gold looks more subdued this year.

Got two Chasing History Silver Foil cards:

The Sabathia card does nothing for me but the Spahn card with the leg kick really pops out. Would love to get the Gold Holofoil card as well.

And lastly I got this card:

An Aroldis Chapman Calling Card insert.

I like the two very different fonts used in his name.

Do you want to know why the Reds are making Chapman a starter this year?

Read the last sentence on the back:

That's disgusting!

They are turning him into a starter so they only have to bear the stench for 30 or so games instead of everyday when he was a reliever.

You can almost smell the card through the screen.

I need to wrap this post up before Aroldis comes around.

Thanks for reading!

2013 Topps Hanger Box with Odd Insert Ratio?

I am so happy to be the first........twentieth.......one hundred and seventy-eighth blogger to bring you a look at fresh 2013 Topps product.

Bought a hanger box at Walmart like everybody has in the last two days and came across a very odd selection of inserts. More about that later.

Got one of these..........

 .....and immediately tried out the website.

Here is what came up(I added the site to the image):

topps.com/thechase

Guess I'll worry about that later.

Here is a common card to show you what they look like:

One thing that sticks out to me is the lines added behind the team logo.

I had not noticed those at all in all the images I had seen until today.

It really makes me more excited about the cards now because I thought it was just white space but now it really fills out the design.

Here's a scan of a card back:

Not too bad.

Kept the baseball field motif from the front which ties the two sides together which Crackin' Wax pointed out in his video. And he also pointed out a different feel to the cards, which I can attest to. They feel a bit thinner.

With my eyes as bad as they are some of the bios and the Career Chase fact are hard to read but not a terrible overall back.

Here are some of the base set cards which are either stars/rookies or just plain awesome shots:

Favorite card of the year!

Rockin' the stirrups and, apparently, a home run

Great color coordination here-and logos too!

Dodgers seem to have the best color match

Bad year, great card

Clean looking card!

Beast or bust. You never know.

Another gritty player for Arizona.

Here's to good health!

A technicality is not vindication nor a reason to act as if it is.

You're lucky I put you on here Ryan!

Here is the 1972 style mini I got:

I love this set. I was born in 1972 and only have one card from the real set.

By collecting this set I will claim this as my birth year set.

Here's the back:

So much better than last years 1987 set.

Full stats and uses the true color from the original set. Last year's backs were way too dark.

Here is a Chasing the Dream insert:

Which reminds me of this set from 2001 Topps:

Thick card is.......thick.

And I also got two cool Emerald parallels:

I like the Emeralds but am going to grab any and all Pink parallels that I can. They are mesmerizing to me since it is such a different choice of color than we are used to seeing.

Now here's where the oddly worded title of the post comes in regarding odd insert ratios(still odd).

I got one silver foiled Chasing History card:

Nice card. Looks great in person.

But then I got all these:

 

All four of these cards are gold foil with holographic backgrounds and are parallels of the silver foil cards.

The thing is, why did I get four of them in one hanger pack?

I assume everybody got these in abundance in their hanger boxes but if you didn't I would like to know why I did. Maybe the sorter goofed up and tossed them in their together?

Whatever it was I'm glad I have them as they are great in person.

Here's a picture of the shininess:

Shiny!!

Definitely might go after this set too.

Overall, I think 2013 Topps is very solid. Did not see any thing that would give me pause about buying a ton of it throughout this year.

Except for the Camouflage parallel. That's just awful.

The good thing about the SP cards is that they are fairly easy to spot since they all involve players leaning into the stands to catch balls. I believe the name is Out Of Bounds Baseballs(OOBB).

Of course, I am calling them Baseballs Out Of Bounds(BOOBS).

Bought a blaster box too and will break it down and to say it is a letdown from the hanger box is an understatement. But the Patch card I pulled evened it up a bit.

Well, go bust some packs! :)