I am in that wonderful between period in which I've opened Christmas gifts but there are more to come.
So I hesitated writing this post as there could be more cards to come. But I can just write another brag post later!
All the cards I received so far came from my sister-in-law. You've read about her before. She's the one with the magic touch when it comes to selecting items in the card aisle. Two years ago she sent an Archives blaster that yielded a George Foster autograph, which I still have. There were many instances before that, too.
This year I received two hanger packs of 2024 Update from her. These are the first packs of Update I've opened as I've purposely avoided them, simply hand-picking the Dodgers.
Upon opening the first pack I felt like I made the right call, probably right around pulling that Padres' duo rookie card. "Why am I opening a pack with Padres rookies?" was about the exact thought I had. These cards seemed meaningless.
That feeling continued through the next few cards, but I perked up a little when I pulled the Juan Soto card. This is the kind of card that Update was meant for -- a big name changing teams. My favorite part of Update in the early 1980s.
The pack ended well with a needed 1989 insert of Yoshinobu Yamamoto. This is all you can hope for when buying retail packs -- let me get a card of a player from my team that I need!
So with Pack 1 ending on a good note, I was ready for Pack 2.
And that started with my first Paul Skenes card, the Rookie Debut one. Not a bad opener. I don't know what the green blob is over the fans down near Skenes' left leg.
Pack 2 continued by matching Pack 1 with a series of ho-hum cards for someone not trying to complete the Update set, but never fear ...
It's the Paw Patrol Aaron Judge short-print!
Man, I've seen this all over the social medias in the last couple of months. This thing is pretty weird. I guess if you are parents of little kids, then this card is great, but the time for me to pull a card like this that would be useful would be around 2002 with something containing Sponge Bob or Dora the Explorer. I don't even know what Paw Patrol is really.
But it's neat to pull a card that was the talk of 2024 for a hot minute, though ebay prices tell me that's cooled waaay down.
No matter. Next card ...
It's the Skenes rookie in rainbow foil style!
Woof. This does go for between 12-20 bucks on your favorite seller site. Per usual it was a good thing the Christmas lights were glinting when I was opening this pack because otherwise it looks like a regular card -- not that there's anything wrong with a regular Paul Skenes rookie right now.
That's the rest of the pack. A little heavy on Giants but I didn't even notice because I pulled the Soto All-Star insert and I was still feeling the buzz from the rest of the pack.
So once again the snazziest pack I opened all year was provided by my sister-in-law. She has the gift.
She also wrapped this up for me.
Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have chased down all of 2024 flagship this year, huh?
But I didn't know I was going to get this. After sending me factory sets in 2021 and 2022, my sister-in-law skipped 2023 so I thought that was the end and besides the design was so irresistible!!
Oh well, there are a few perks in the factory set.
There are the Factory set rookie variation cards.
And there are the rookie photo variation cards (including a Dodger!)
Yeah, try to keep that straight if you're collecting this set 25 years from now. I can barely keep it straight now. Jackson Holliday has like 10 different cards in flagship through 60 major league games. This hobby is so damn confusing.
So much for a cat to learn on her first Christmas!
But it's kind of neat having a complete set in a binder and the same complete set in a box. You no longer have exclusive rites to that feat, 1989 Topps!!!
My wife also bought this must item for my baseball library. Long overdue for someone who made sure to have each year's Bill James Abstract during the early 1980s.
Along with another Dodgers World Series championship T-shirt (my second), this Christmas on the gift front has been going pretty well. So let's see how it continues through the weekend, eh?
Comments
Congratulations on the cards and the fact that you have a family member willing to indulge your passion for the hobby. (My wife refuses to buy me anything card related.)
I’m curious to know what you think of Bill James work. I don’t recall reading any posts about that. Probably something I’ve missed.
I was a casual acquaintance of Bill James many years ago (early 80’s) when I was attending KU and he was teaching there. I always thought his “ideas” were interesting but so different than the “normal” views of baseball at the time. Chatting with him a couple of times made me realize that his baseball knowledge was incredible and on a completely different level from mine. I will always regret not asking him to sign a copy of the Baseball Abstract I had.
It doesn't get much cooler than that.
B. I love the idea of having a factory set paired with a bindered one. I'm not sure if I have any of these pairs in my collection, but if I did it would likely be the 1985 Donruss or 1987 Fleer sets.
C. I pulled one of those Aaron Judge Paw Patrol cards. There are two versions. The ones we pulled are really common... but there is another one that sells for a lot of money.