The 2024 Topps Holiday design appealed to me right away. I've enjoyed most over-the-top designs -- as long as they have a fun streak -- and these cards have that.
It was the first Holiday set I found appealing since 2019, when I went a little nuts and completed the whole thing that holiday season. Since that year, the designs were pretty blah and I started to think Topps should hang it up with this set.
So good for Topps going splashy this year ... er, last year.
Yeah, why am I writing about this now? The holidays are long gone, replaced by ... crap is that another lake-effect storm?
Well, I'm just staying in the spirit of the current situation. In case you haven't noticed the last four or five years, everything is late. Almost nobody shows up at work on time anymore in my experience, packages are constantly delayed, work orders delayed, events pushed back.
Topps is just as late as everything else. Archives is just coming out now. Stadium Club was way late again. Allen & Ginter showed up five months after it once did. It's amazing that the Holiday brand arrived right on time. It's also amazing that collectors were able to rip this product in December on the socials. Whenever I looked for it, there was nothing there, either in person or online. Don't these on-time collectors get it? It's fashionable to be late!
By the time I could order 2024 Holiday online (forget about buying in person, my Target has reverted to its pandemic-era card shelf emptiness), it wasn't 2024 anymore. But I ordered and pressed ship anyway. Then I waited. And I waited another week. "Get ready for something special!" Target exclaimed. "An item is ready to ship!" But then I waited another week. Then I got an "order has been delivered" email. And I waited another day. Finally, today, a box arrived on my porch, late yet fashionably dented.
I like the packaging of these Holiday "balls". In all the online pictures, it looks like a dome with a flat bottom, but it's more like a round Christmas ornament with a small flat spot on the bottom. It looks like a toy for the cat (but she has enough of those).
The packaged cards came out with the ornament card on top. When I saw Zack in an A's uniform, I had no idea who he was. I try to stay current, but it's the offseason and A's players are some of the first to fall out of my head before they're returned to my brain in the spring. It's Zack Gelof, of course. I knew that ... after I did research.
When I opened the wrapper and pulled out the cards, I got a nice whiff of chemical plastic that made me resolve for a moment to purchase only Heritage cards.
Let's take a look at these cards you've all seen before:
I've completed all but two of the Dodgers base cards in this set through a gracious send that you'll see soon. So the goal here is to find the Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages. Will Smith I already have, the rest is all Orioles and Astros.
There's Ohtani!! All right. I can open the rest with a happy song in my heart. I like the small Brenton Doyle, he almost looks like an ornament with all the other designs.
You get 59 cards per Christmas ball. There are 200 cards in the set, so I imagine you are tempting fate purchasing a second one.
This group produced the three "Christmas tree parallels" that you see on the borders of the Casas, Rojas and Soderstrom cards, as well as the blue foil tree parallel on the Goldschmidt. They also have the sparkle feel that the silver-borders have. Not the greatest group of players but the Goldschmidt will have a home.
The Adolis Garcia is one of the SP's. He's wearing a New Year's top hat.
Very Rangers heavy. Three Rangers in this group, plus there's the regular Goldschmidt.
A nice McCutchen, otherwise I don't care.
The final cards in the stack, with a Zack Gelof to book-end the stack! Lot of Padres and A's, too. I think I got Fuji's Christmas ball.
Speaking of which, as I was writing this, I accidentally hit the ball and it rolled off the counter onto the kitchen floor and dented in two spots. Oops.
Even though I like the design, I have no plans to complete this set. I just need to get the Andy Pages card and then decide whether I want any of the parallels (I have an Ohtani already). But there's lots of time for that. It's not like there's a specific time set for anything anymore. Topps can tell you that.
Comments