Topps Holiday Mega Box 2

 I was quite pleased with the first box, now here is the second!

Pack 1

Brandon Belt

Nick Solak

J. D. Martinez

Albert Pujols

Byron Buxton

Jesse Winker

Justin Verlander

Colin Moran

Nate Pearson

David Peralta

Pack 2

Yermin Mercedes

Willson Contreras

Jose Barrero

Jared Walsh

Aaron Nola (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Jack Flaherty

Jacob DeGrom 

Danby Swanson

Corey Kluber

Juan Soto

Pack 3

Zach McKinstry

Bo Bichette

Jesus Aguilar

Zack Burdi 

Trevor Larnach (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Casey Mize

Luis Patino

Anthony Rendon

Rafael Devers

J.T. Realmuto

Pack 4

Nolan Arenado

Elvis Andrus

Jarred Kelenic

Xander Bogaerts

Francisco Lindor SP (Stocking)

Trea Turner

Robert Alzolay

Jed Lowrie

Austin Meadows

Kyle Isbel

Pack 5

Bobby Dalbec

Jose Ramirez 

Garrett Crochet

Francisco Lindor

Shohei Ohtani (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Eddie Rosario

Walker Buehler

Josh Palacios

Alex Verdugo

Alejandro Kirk

Pack 6

John Nogowski

Kyle Lewis

Eloy Jimenez Relic

Alex Kirilloff 

Manny Machado

Justin Turner

Ronald Acuna Jr.

Ryan Zimmerman

Pack 7

Zack Wheeler

George Springer

Taylor Trammell

Victor Robles

Jake Cronenworth (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Jorge Ona

Mitch Haniger

Jon Lester

Michael Kopech

Dane Dunning

Pack 8

Connor Brogdon

Cedric Mullins

Daulton Jefferies

Dustin May

Gary Sanchez

Franmil Reyes

Giancarlo Stanton

Paul Goldschmidt

Ian Anderson

Brady Singer

Pack 9

Cristian Javier

Max Scherzer

Gio Urshela

Randy Arozarena

Travis Blankenhorn (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Estevan Florial

Yuli Gurriel

Cavan Biggio

Andrew McCutchen

Codi Heuer

Pack 10

Tim Anderson

Alec Bohm

David Peterson

Mookie Betts

Jose Ramirez SP (Candy Cane Sleeve)

Ozzie Albies

Dylan Carlson

Ian Happ

Aaron Judge

Shane McClanahan

Shohei Ohtani Ornament Card

Although this box wasn't as good as the first, the collation was excellent. Between the two boxes there were only five duplicates. Quite a different story than last year. 

Thanks for reading!

What I'm Listening To While I Post This 

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

2021 Topps Holiday Mega Box 1

When it comes to new releases, I will not pay more than MSRP.  That said, one of the advantages of "lurking on the forums" is you are able to find out when they are in stock. There is a Walmart thread that I check occasionally and back in December got the word that the Holiday Mega Boxes were in. I picked up two at $21.98 each to get free shipping (This was from Walmart,  not a third-party seller).

Here's the first box. Let's see how I did.

Pack 1

Matt Olson 

Joey Gallo

Sam Huff (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Hunter Dozier

Andrew Vaughn

Gerrit Cole

Geraldo Perdomo

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Kyle Hendricks

Fernando Tatis Jr.

Pack 2

Joey Bart

Nelson Cruz

Gavin Lux

Lorenzo Cain

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Joey Votto

Tarik Skubal

Jo Adell

Jose Devers

 

Clayton Kershaw

Pack 3

Miguel Cabrera

Kris Bubic 

Shane Bieber 

Tyler Stephenson

Ryan Mountcastle

Clarke Schmidt

Pete Alonso 

Brent Honeywell Jr.

Sixto Sanchez

Kohei Arihara

Pack 4

 

Dallas Keuchel

Andres Gimenez 

Keston Hiura 

Mike Moustakas

Mike Trout (Tier 1 Gimmick - Santa Belt)

Devin Williams

Trey Mancini

Jose Berrios 

Carlos Correa

Brandon Lowe

Pack 5

A.J.Puk

Brandon Nimmo

Brent Rooker

Salvador Perez

Christian Yelich (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Eric Hosmer

Andrew Young

Zack Grienke

Brailyn Marquez

Gilberto Celestino 

Pack 6

William Contreras

Zac Gallen

Javier Baez (Bat Relic)

Ke'Bryan Hayes

Marcus Stroman

Max Kepler

Ha-Seong Kim

Cody Bellinger

Pack 7

Akil Baddoo

Kevin Kiermaier

Mike Trout

Patrick Wisdom

Kyle Hendricks (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Trevor Story

Deivi Garcia

Freddie Freeman

Jazz Chisolm Jr.

Matt Chapman

Pack 8

Jose Altuve

Luis Garcia

Yadier Molina

Anthony Rizzo

Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Daulton Varsho

Mike Yastrzemski 

Justin Upton

Corbin Burnes

Miguel Sano

Pack 9

Stephen Strasburg

David Price

Yu Darvish

Daz Cameron

Victor Gonzalez (Metallic Snowflake Parallel)

Blake Snell

Luis Alexander Basabe 

Kyle Seager

Eloy Jimenez

Tristan McKenzie

Pack 10

 

Charlie Blackmon

Tyler Glasnow

Trevor Larnach

Shohei Ohtani

Juan Soto (Tier 1 Gimmick - Santa Belt)

Casey Mize

Luis Patino

Anthony Rendon

Rafael Devers

J.T. Realmuto 

Each box contained 1 holiday ornament. Mine was Mookie Betts...which my granddaughter thought looked much better with a crease in the bottom left corner.

Mike Trout and Juan Soto SPs? I'd say this was a successful box! We'll see how the second box fares. The last time I bought 2 of these boxes at once they were nearly identical...even the same SP!

Thanks for reading!

What I'm Listening To While I Post This 

The Beatles - You Won't See Me

1993 O-Pee-Chee Premier

Hello everyone...before I begin there is a change on how I upload pictures to the blog. First of all, the paper feed on my printer crapped out. So after trying to fix it, I gave up and bought another one...that was supposed to work with my ancient laptop. Guess what, they lied...it doesn't. So...I have a Samsung tablet that I've been using and have hooked up the printer wirelessly to that. I have yet to attempt to see if I can scan wirelessly to this, so for now I'm just going to take pictures with my tablet and upload them to the blog. It is much quicker than the previous way because I had to crop every photo I uploaded.

I do have some previous posts that are unfinished using the other method, so it may be a mish-mash of photos for a bit. I think we'll all be able to cope however.  

Because card shows haven't delivered much that I've been interested in lately, I have resorted to buying some boxes online. You do pay a bit too much (this box was twenty-something) and then you add shipping on top of that so I will usually buy a couple of boxes at a time to make it somewhat worth it. While I do occasionally buy newer stuff, mostly it's from the junk wax era (which I love dearly). 
 

I had a decent amount of 1993 O-Pee-Chee Premier that I had bought back in 1993, so between that and a full box I figured I would be able to complete it.

It is a 132 card set and a box has 36 packs with 9 cards in each box for a total of 324 cards in the box. Should be no problem getting a complete set...right?

RIGHT?

I like this set, it is very simple.

The backs are very easy to read although seeing Ellis Burks in a White Sox uniform is unpleasant to the eyes.

The checklist was focused more on rookies and traded players than stars. George Brett was missing, Jose Lind wasn't.

Ken Griffey Jr. was left behind, Rich Amaral wasn't.

You do get to see Trevor Hoffman in his Marlins uniform.

I like the cards...but don't like the collation. I did not get a complete set out of the box. I was eight cards short. Card 120 - Tim Laker was nowhere to be found but Card 2 - Chad Curtis was found six times.

So I went to the half set I already had...stored in a plastic case since 1993...

...with Chad Curtis featured prominently. 

But unfortunately I only had one card I needed. So now I'm down to needing only seven.

There wasn't much for inserts as the insert craze hadn't exploded yet. Seeding one per pack were Star Performers. There were 22 in the set and I'm missing five of them. 

There were two other types of insert cards...Star Performers Foil and Top Draft Picks. The odds for both were 1:36.  According to baseballcardpedia.com, these boxes were easily searched. Each box was supposed to have two packs located at the bottom if the box that were upside down. In these upside down packs there were the Star Performers Foil and Top Draft Picks Insert Cards. My box did not have any upside down packs. Boo!

I've begun to update/add my wantlists again so you will see one for this set up soon!

Thanks for reading!

What I'm Listening To While I Post This

The Beatles - Please Mr. Postman