Friday, March 20, 2026

Blasted by Blasters - Blaster 4

 

Last of the four birthday blasters.

Let's see the Inserts, Angels, and other interesting cards found in each pack.


Pack 1


That Bagwell and Holiday parallel is a nice start.



Pack 2


Bam!
Pretty stoked about pulling an autograph (1:1,209).

Cubs hot pack.



Pack 3


Ohtani Bleacher Reachers!




Pack 4


The Pressly is a Golden Mirror Variation (1:860).


Not sure if these are SSPs as TCDB hasn't marked them as such.




Pack 5

Again seeing the same SMLB cards.



Pack 6


The pack with only one insert also gave me the most rookie cards I've seen in a pack.


Pack 7


And ANOTHER Dodger Black Gold.



There were 20 inserts (18, 19 and 20 in the other three blasters) and again one of the packs had only 1 insert.


Typical Topps:
In three of the four blasters I opened, I pulled these same SMLB cards:
Merrill (x3)
Bregman (x3)
Muncy (x3)
Chisholm (x3)
Butler (x3)
Campbell (x2)
McCutchen (x2)


From 3 consecutive blasters.
Damn that sucks.
Eliminates the chance to pull something else I might have liked.

I usually sit on the rookie cards for a year or so to see how they do, but most of the rest of the other cards I've pulled in the four blasters are available for trade on TCBD.


I have a Holiday Egg coming up, stay tuned for that.





Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Blasted by Blasters - Blaster 3

 

Third of the four birthday blasters.

Let's see the Inserts, Angels, and other interesting cards found in each pack.


Pack 1


That's a True Photo Variation (1:618) on the top Jose Iglesias card.
I always liked the full bleed cards like 1992 Stadium Club.



Pack 2


Nice group of inserts, I especially like the jack-o-lanterns (1:22), and a Nick Kurtz rookie is always nice.




Pack 3


Drake Baldwin is a pretty good rookie pull.




Pack 4


Would have liked to see a better photo of Gehrig.




Pack 5


Here's some cards from the pack with one insert.




Pack 6


If I'm not mistaken, every Black Gold (1:24) I've pulled has been a Dodger.

I seem to be pulling a lot of Kristian Campbell cards recently as well.




Pack 7


Starting to see a repeat of the same SMLB cards per blaster.
Harper looks like he's wearing spandex with leg warmers.

This blaster had 19 inserts (18 and 20 in the others) And again one of the packs had only 1 insert.


Stay tuned for fourth and final blaster.







Monday, March 16, 2026

The Coca-Cola 600

You've probably heard of the Coca-Cola 600, the longest NASCAR race on the schedule at 600 miles. The event is held on the last Sunday in May at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It is a unique race in that it starts in the daylight of the early evening and doesn't conclude until the sun has long been set. The lateness of the start means that some drivers can also compete in the Indianapolis 500 which is held on that morning. Imagine driving in two long races on the same day!

Well, this isn't about that.

This is about my 600th TCDB trade!

 A trade with Ymmat who is the one who sent the milestone to me.


Nothing too flashy for the 600th but all good stuff that I needed.

Oh, and a checklist card too!

This checklist has the Angels team listed on the back.

Cool thing about this trade is Ymmat reached out to me with this offer asking only for any three cards depicting HOFers in return.



Other trades have been coming in as well.


This is the second one in about a week from bcmeeker and is the result of me sending him the wrong 1962 Topps card in the first trade. We figured why not trade again in order to get the correct 1962 Topps cards to each other.




Here's a nice two-PWE trade that came from alh who lives in the beautiful state of Hawaii.


This trade started out as a request for all the 1987 Topps Tiffany Angels he had. Unfortunately, they were already committed so I went for the 1988 instead.


I also got a bunch of Tiffany PC guys. The Ripken is a #444.



Here are some cards from a trade with Chemo (that would be #603 for those counting).


There's a lot going on here.
The Gallego is a reversed image (on back) ERR I needed for the 1989 UD set.
I don't know why I was missing the Grich card as these Smokey's came as a set.
The Geoff Zaun VAR has his name as Jeff on the front.



Last up for now is a trade with SMSiegell.


Nice to knock out most of the Series 1 Angels in one big chunk.


The Abbott is a "no period" variation.




Saturday, March 14, 2026

Blasted by Blasters - Blaster 2

 

Second of the four birthday blasters.

Let's see the Inserts, Angels, and other interesting cards found in each pack.


Pack 1




Pack 2


Two-Angel pack! 
And I always appreciate pulling a Votto. He was a fringe PC guy at one time.



Pack 3


Angels Holofoil parallel!



Pack 4





Pack 5





Pack 6


I was really hoping Hendricks would have a great season last year so that the Angels would bring him back. They granted him free-agency.




Pack 7


We had 18 inserts in this blaster, 20 in the last.
And 1 pack with only 1 insert just the last blaster.

Stay tuned for Blaster #3.


Friday, March 13, 2026

Red Cardboard is Back!


You read that right. Over a decade away, but now back to blogging. Go check him out HERE, Follow and add him your blog roll. And get in on the GIVEAWAY!

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Blasted by Blasters - Blaster 1

 

First of the four birthday blasters.

Let's see the Inserts, Angels, and other interesting cards found in each pack.


Pack 1

Four inserts and an Angel. nice pack.



Pack 2

Ooh, Black Holofoil PCA card, numbered 07/10



Pack 3

Third Angel in three packs and a Black Gold is always a nice card.



Pack 4




Pack 5

Nice Griffey pull.



Pack 6

Not a very good pack.



Pack 7

Four inserts and an Angel, again!
Great way to finish.

So I guess the SMLB cards are 1-per pack, after that no telling what inserts you'll get.

In total 20 inserts in seven packs.


Stay tuned for Blaster #2.


Monday, March 9, 2026

Blasted by Blasters - Egg

So my birthday came and went, and much to my surprise, unlike me, my family was able to find some Topps product to give me as gifts.


One daughter hit the jackpot at Target and shared the news with the rest of them. She checked the card aisle and found nothing. Somehow she was led to the toy section and found an end-cap with lots of Topps product.

Is this a normal thing for Target? Using a toy section end cap for sports cards?
I've found clearance stuff back there, and there is small section for Pokemon and gaming cards and such, but never an end cap of current sports cards.


For this post we'll start with the egg, I've never opened one of these before.


The egg contains a 59-card pack of 2026 Series I cards, including 2 Holiday Variations and 1 Exclusive card.

Here are the highlights:


Holiday Polka Dots Green/Pink 1:2
 Holiday Egg Tin Exclusive 1 per tin
 Holiday Chicks 1:10


Rainbow Foil, 1991 Topps 35th Anniversary, Titans of the Game.


Angels pulled and Freddie Freeman because a daughter has a crush on him.


The top two rookies (as of this writing) based on TCDB pricing (taken with a grain of salt).


And the rest of the rookies in the egg.


Not sure what I'm supposed to do with the egg now.




Stay tuned for the first of four 2025 Update blasters.