I know for a fact you bastards were all boozin it up all night even if the closest you've ever been to being Irish is eating a Reuben sandwich. You feel like crap now dontcha? Hair of the Dog just bit ya in the ass, didn't it? Well watch this bit of stupidity, it might make you feel better.




At the very least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you're not stupid enough to video yourself while smashed to the gills in an attempt to honor your ancestors and put it on the internet.

Oh and here's an obligatory Mets card since there wasn't one in the video:


And here's a pony JUST BECAUSE

OH GOD I HAVE NO TIME TO TYPE THIS MORNING


(thanks, Matt)
((you figure out which Matt))

A hot tip from reader Joe advised me to be on the lookout for Target loosey Heritage packs. Specifically ones with a barcode that ended in 01849. Apparently these packs all had either a SP, insert or red tint variation when he ripped about a half-dozen of them. Other packs had a barcode ending in 3-something-something-something. I've gotten quite a few looseys with bupkis in them so the promise of a SP was welcome. I am always up for testing out a scientific theory, so I snagged a couple of packs with the 01849 code and did indeed get two SPs. Johnny Cueto and an Alexei Ramirez All-Star. I also got one of the other barcode packs (I really should have saved the wrappers) and pulled a Red tint and a Chrome of Pedro Alvarez. So much for a control group.

I have two theories regarding the Target barcode variant and the proclivity for those packs to provide some sort of non-base card.

1) While Wal-Mart's looseys generally only come in gravity feed boxes, Target often gets gravity feed and individual boxes of product. The two different products have different barcodes and the two got mixed up while cleaning or in consolidation by the distributor. Due to the fact that most Heritage packs have at least one SP or insert in them and the low sample size of our packs, we just got lucky and got an insert in every pack and there is no advantage in the 01849 code packs.

2) SHENANIGANS!!!



If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know which theory I support.

At any rate, as long as you are not one of those hardliners who believe that anything other than closing your eyes, grabbing randomly in the card aisle and buying whatever happens to fall into the cart is pack searching, it couldn't hurt to check the barcodes and grab a pack or two next time you're at the local Target and you find that THEY STILL DON'T HAVE ANY ALLEN AND GINTER SERIOUSLY WTF.  Surprisingly, my three packs completed two pages.


This one here was missing four cards prior to my purchase, including the Braun! I don't think I've ever come close to knocking out a page like that before. Not from only three packs.


Why, yes, I am including Red Tints in my main set. Basically, I don't give a flip anymore about variations. Back in 2004 variations were fun, there were less than a dozen of them and they had old school logos on them that were kind of neat. Now we have green tint variations and red tint variations and blue tint variations and I think maybe purple variations exclusive to Rite-Aid packs in Montana and black border variations but they don't really count because they are a variation on the Chrome set and Jesus H. Christ, we got like 500 variations and some of them are super short prints and eff all this noise. So yeah, tinted cards are in the set. It kind of looks like a '52 Topps background now that I think about it.

First page completed in my 2011 Heritage binder. The Sinkbiel that filled the last empty pocket came out of one of those Value Boxes that everyone's been hyping to death. While you all are getting good stuff out of your boxes mine was a complete pile of garbage. Nothing good in the Topps packs. All base cards in both Heritage packs, no SPs or inserts. The three codes I got netted a '67 card of a nobody and two junkwax crappers. Even the Collector's guide was screwed up as the middle page wasn't stapled in the book and was just hanging loose. The refractor was Mantle of course. Bluh. This page and that lone '67 card were the only good things to come out of that mess. It's a good thing I completed a page now, because I'm not going to be acquiring much more Heritage now that GQ is out.

I just realized this and I learned about it from here. Didn't even figure it out by myself.


I have brought shame upon my family.

One of the weird quirks about the 1962 Topps set is the card numbering. Check out this number on the '62 Minnie Minoso card.


A simple white number inside a small black baseball. Pretty basic stuff. Not too hard to read and it's in the upper left corner so it's easy to sort. (At least for me it is, do lefties prefer the number on the right side?)

2011 Heritage is copying the 1962 design so it's important for them to get all the details right. Like the card number. Here's MVP Hambone's card:


Nailed it. If anything the number is even more clear and easy to read than the original. Clear is good when it comes to card numbers, especially when many of the collectors are old geezers with bad eyes like me.

But wait! In 1962 Topps switched things up somewhere around series two and used a different design for the card number:


Well lookie there. Larger baseball, larger number and the number is in bold for easy reading! They even replaced the top row of stitching with the original Topps logo. Nice choice by the '62 design team. But wait! Did Topps muck up the details in a retro set yet again?


No, they didn't! Huddy's got the good number on the back of the card. The designers were paying attention this time. The entire back is pretty spot on actually. The stats are right (No WHIP or OPS here), there's a significant chunk of biography text on the back and the cartoons are in the original style. I haven't figured out if Topps recycled the toons from the original cards or not. I haven't seen any I recognized from my small stash of '62s yet. The only real differences in the two are the much increased trademark and legalese usage on the modern card.

Ah, but I was focusing on the card number for this particular post. The '62 crew were tinkerers to a fault and came out with this slightly different number for series 3:



For some unknown reason, the nice bold font on the card number was reduced to a skinny squinty shell of its former self. Ok, so the numbers are actually the same size as the first series numbers. It just looks smaller due to being in a bigger baseball. Thankfully Topps decided it was more important to save our eyeballs from the squinty numbers than to be completely historically accurate and there are no squinty numbers in 2011 Topps Heritage. Whoever decided that made the right call. It's not healthy to be too obsessed with the minute details in these retro sets. Although the Topps logo on the card number is clearly the wrong font. And the card backs are flipped when you compare them to the originals! What the hell Topps!?

No, I am not buying a box this year. I'll pick up some packs and a few blasters. No Hobby box.

Why?

At my main card shop today I saw two things of interest:

A 2011 Hobby Box of Heritage: $90.
A 1955 Bowman card of Hank Aaron: $62.50.

Yep. Not buying a Hobby box this year.

I'm guessing it will look something like this:


Don't forget the Gimmick cards!


If you don't know what the heck is going on, check here. It's pretty much the worst kept secret in baseball.