Things are looking up

 

Hey, I know things are pretty grim out there. Heck, I'm not looking forward to anything coming up this week -- doctor's appointment, booster shot, big snowstorm -- it's another week of wishing my life away.

But as of right now? This minute? In the hobby? Things are looking up.

 

Topps cards, pretty much as we know them, will continue to exist according to the news that broke last night (It's amusing how quickly news move these days: something breaks before it is announced and still before it's announced people start complaining about how they're sick of hearing about it).

I'm sure everyone saw that news coming, but still it's reassuring to get confirmation that we're probably going to see Topps flagship, Heritage and many of the other familiar brands continue without interruption over the next few years.

But in news closer to home: I found cards on my store shelf yesterday!

 

For a couple of months I've been hearing that cards have been returning to retail shelves around the country but whenever I hit the big box store, I'd swing by the card aisle to find nothing. It was expected, and with my attitude about current cards, not a big deal.

 

However, I believe that card collecting should involve being able to find packs of cards at your local shop. It should be on that Ten Commandments of Card Collecting list: thou shalt find packaged cardboard of sports figures for purchase in thy local market.

 

So, even finding this ...

 

 ... made me happy.

I'm generally not a fan of blister packs, or the presentation (where's his head?), but, man, to see them hanging there -- there wasn't just one or two, there were about seven or eight -- was almost shocking.

These were the first current cards (are 2021 cards still current?) I've found at a local store since Feb. 25 of last year when I bought a blaster of 2021 Topps. That's almost a full year.

I admit, my trips to Target these days don't feel like they have much of a purpose without the potential for cards. I feel like I'm wandering around the store with no direction and I end up leaving without something that I had planned to get, mostly because I forgot. The possibility of cards gave me direction. I had a real shopping purpose.

Here is what was in the two packs:

Pack one. I'm pleased that I actually know most of the players (not all). But that 2021 design is still brutal. Also, way to mix up the photo shots on those first three cards out of the pack.

Pack two. There were no Dodgers in the packs -- clearly I'm doing the right thing avoiding packs and blasters. But the Red Sox card of the two guys in the weird uniforms should qualify as they are Alex Verdugo and Enrique Hernandez and the card mentions how they played on the Dodgers together.

My hope was that I'd find one of those All-Star Game inserts, but the chances of that were slim. I did get a Cardinals insert, which is good because an envelope from Cards On Cards arrived just today.

Opening those packs did remind me about the regret and feeling of pointlessness that had become increasingly common when I was opening blasters on the regular. But the long time away from opening something that I grabbed with my own hands off the display made this a novelty purchase, and a fun one.

It was nice to have that moment of discovery, scan what was available, select what I wanted and walk it to the check-out and drive away with thoughts about what might be inside bouncing through my head. You know, what I had been doing for 35 years.

We need those happy moments when there is so much grim outside.

Thanks to the latest news, those moments will continue. I hope. Don't be dumb, Fanatics. Make cards more available at the local market.