2019 Topps Holiday... Getting the Kids Back in the Game?


No matter how many times I tell myself I'm not buying anymore Topps Holiday, I always end up buying Topps Holiday. Its a gimmick to get us to spend more money on baseball cards that we probably already own, one way or another. Hot Wheels does the snowflake variation on blister cards to get more sales, so why shouldn't Topps. 


This year's Holiday feels more festive. The 2019 Topps design looks stunning with those bright green & red borders complimented by the snowflakes on the opposite side. The first time I saw scans of these, I didn't like them. It's not until you hold them in your hand that you realize how great they look.


The biggest selling factor for Holiday to me is not the color or the snowflakes, but the fact that you usually get all the best rookies from the year all available in one product. With pretty good odds of pulling them.


The 1 in 2 pack metallic snowflake parallels make their return, although they are not very photogenic.


The 1 per blaster relic cards are duds. Well, if I had pulled a Dodger I would be singing their praises more than likely. Kepler and Chapman? Not guys I collect at all. Not guys that I know of anyone else collecting either.


Here's my first in hand SP Variation. The Tanaka up top is the base card, nothing special. But the one on bottom is a 1:7 base SP Variation with a Christmas streamer running across the background.


Another base SP variation. Perhaps if Altuve had busted out his Candy Cane Bat in the World Series, Houston would be Champs right now. 


And this one is a rare SSP variation. Notice the Christmas ornaments over the wall? 

While the photoshopping on these may be cheesy, they sure are fun to unearth in packs. My 7 year old, who loves anything Christmas, absolutely loves these cards. We can complain about Topps milking all they can out of these designs every year, but if they catch many kids' eyes like they did mine, these could end up bringing a new generation of youngsters into the collecting world. 

At the end of the day, weren't baseball cards intended to make kids happy?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Valentine's Surprise from my Better Half

Image
The last week and a half have been a blur. I took a promotion at work a few weeks back and it has really taken its toll on my free time. I haven't been posting. I haven't been commenting. I've been a bad blogger. I've also been neglecting packages from TCDB. I have piles of new Dodgers just waiting to be shown off here. Valentine's Day arrived and my better half really outdid herself with these amazing Dodger cookies she got made from a local baker. As good as they look, they tasted even better. 1994 Fleer Pro Cards San Antonio Missions team set These showed up in one of my TCDB trades, as a freebie?!?! How did this user know my Dodgers in the Minors collection needs major help? 2019 Topps Walgreens Yellow Parallel Only my second 2019 yellow.  2008 Topps This set is about to be finished up. 2013 Topps & 2014 Topps A couple more Topps Flagship sets that I'm almost done with now. 1992 Topps and 1993 Top
Read more

Dodgers in bunches from Night Owl

Image
Been away for far too long. Life, adding things over at TCDB and completing trades over there have pretty much dominated my free time lately. Thanks in large part to a package from Night Owl, I cracked into the Top 100 Dodger Collections over at TCDB. Night Owl is one of the premier Dodger collectors in the collecting world, so when you see a package in your mailbox from him, you know you're gonna be in for some surprises. Greg sent a mixed bag of cards I needed to finish team sets, cards I didn't know existed and everything in between. Here's one from a set I didn't know about. 2003 Playoff Portraits. I like these alot more than their modern counterpart, Topps Gallery. These have class. A couple of examples of Finest sets I missed out on during my great collecting sabbatical from 1995-2008.  Ah, stuff from my return to collecting. Somehow I completly neglected Topps Bunt and this particular year of Archives. The Greinke was one of few i
Read more

Adding my Collection to the TCDB has Taught me Something...

Image
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been (rather slowly), adding my collection over at the Trading Card Database. Everything except stuff that really gels with me is going into the For Trade Collection. I never realized how much stuff I have amassed over the years that really has no internet presence. I think I finally have all the motivation I need to go ahead and get a scanner now. Some of these oddities have really cool backstories. 1995 Tonka/Kenner Star Wars Power of the Force Remember when Kenner relaunched the 3 and 3/4 Star Wars figure line as Power of the Force back in the 90's? Well, they also went into a collaboration effort with Tonka and produced some little 1 inch die cast figures. Those figures came in 3 packs and had these amazing trading cards packed in with them. No listing on TCDB. 2007 Topps Hollywood Zombies Bonus Cards Hollywood Zombies are listed on TCDB, but these Bonus cards are not. I think there was only 2 of them and the
Read more