Let It Snow

Until my move to the Midwest this summer, I had lived my entire life in California.  I have lived up and down the state, as far north as Sacramento and as far south as Orange County.  One thing every place I lived had in common was a lack of snow. There were myths in my neighborhood that before we moved to Sacramento there was snow but I had never once experienced snowfall outside the windows of my house.

When we set out to move to the Kansas City area over the summer my middle kid was most excited about moving to a place where it would snow.  Sadly, only my oldest had even ever been to the snow so it would definitely be a new experience for our family.  Well the time finally came earlier this week and we got a nice dusting of snow throughout the day on Wednesday.  I happened to work from home that day so when my wife picked up my daughter from preschool at 2:30 I was welcomed with a scream about wanting to have a snowball fight.  So out to the deck we went and scraped up the inch of accumulated snow into small little balls and had a fun battle.  An hour or so later when my middle kid came home, he proceeded to run out on the lawn and roll around and try to make snow angles then toss little snowballs around for almost an hour. Finally my oldest got home around 5. It was getting dark but he had to go out and play around until it got a little too cold for him. 

Most of my local friends and neighbors weren't too excited as it wasn't that much snow and certainly wasn't a new thing for them but for the ARPSmith family it was a special day that will be remembered forever.

I thought that my recollection of that snow day would be a perfect time to share some of the Topps Walmart Snowflake cards I have picked up since they were released.  I was unable to find a box at my local Walmart but found a couple sellers who helped me out with some Giants.

 I was able to pick up 6 of the 9 base Giants.  As most have seen/heard these cards form their own set of 200 with new numbering.  The cornered smoke effect is replaced with snowflakes, perfect for this time of year.  I believe all the cards I have seen have the same photos as the Topps base cards.

 Each base card also has a Metallic parallel.  Instead of the white snowflakes, the snowflakes are in a glittery metallic form.  They didn't scan great but look pretty good in had.

I would like to eventually finish up both the base and parallel sets and they should look great in 9-pocket binder pages, with each type filling up exactly one page.

 In addition to the base and relics, the Giants have 4 hits in the product.  I was able to pick up this Matt Duffy relic for a very reasonable price.  I am a little surprised he is in the product but it is probably just a jersey dump for Topps since he isn't with the Giants anymore.  The other 3 hits would most likely not make it into my collection as they consist of a Joe Panik auto and auto/relics of Posey and Bumgarner.  I have seen a couple Paniks and they sold very high.  I haven't really searched for the auto/relics but can guarantee they will go for more than I am willing to pay.