Tuesday, April 7, 2020

2020 Focuses and A Posey Mailday

I made a pretty significant change to my collecting habits this year.  For the first time since 2005, I am not collecting the Topps Flagship sets and all the inserts as they come out.  I am passing on the inserts and will buy a full set once Series 2 is released.  I want to funnel my time and funds to other parts of my collection, I just wasn't having as much fun with the insert pursuit.

To get my new card fix, I am still going after quite a few of the Giants cards that are released.  For Topps Series 1, here are the cards I have decided to pursue:
  • Base cards
  • Gold parallels /2020
  • Gold foil parallels - jumbo pack exclusives
  • Rainbow foil parallels
  • Base inserts (85 Topps, 85 Topps Silver Pack, Decade of Dominance, Decades' Best, Turkey Red, Turkey Red Chrome)
  • Base Hits (85 Topps Auto, 85 Topps Relics, Global Game Medallions, Jumbo Jersey Sleeve Patches, Major League Materials, Rookie Card Retrospective RC Logo Medallion)
There may be more inserts and hits but these are the ones that I have identified Giants in.  Ideally I would also like to get at least one sample of all the different base parallels. Finally, there is an insert that celebrates the Giants in the 2010s and I am trying to complete a full rainbow of that card.

I usually post a comprehensive list of all the Giants cards that I don't have on a want list and this year have elevated the top wants to the beginning of the list to call them out for anyone who visits the page and allow me a quick place to reference those top wants.  If you visit the page, the cards in bold are already on the way via purchase or trade.

If you are interested in helping me out, here are my top wants for 2020 Topps Flagship:
2020 Topps #111 Buster Posey
2020 Topps #185 Johnny Cueto

2020 Topps Decades' Best Gold Chrome #DBC87 San Francisco Giants /50
2020 Topps Decades' Best Red #DB87 San Francisco Giants /10
2020 Topps Turkey Red '20 Chrome #TRC77 Buster Posey
2020 Topps Turkey Red '20 Chrome #TRC78 Brandon Crawford
2020 Topps Gold Foil #236 Brandon Crawford
Any Giants Topps Black parallel /69
Any Giants Topps Clear parallel /10
Any Giants Father's Day Blue parallel /50
Any Giants Independence Day parallel /76
Any Giants Mother's Day parallel /50

2020 Topps '85 Topps Autographs #85ALW Logan Webb
2020 Topps '85 Topps Relics #85RWC Will Clark
2020 Topps Jumbo Jersey Sleeve Patches #JJSPBP Buster Posey
2020 Topps Major League Materials #MLMBP Buster Posey
 To fill a couple gaps I made a couple purchases that got delivered yesterday:

The card on the left is a gold foil parallel.  These came out of jumbo packs only and as you can see from the above list I am down to needing just one card to complete this team parallel set.  I thought those would be much harder to track down but I have been able to gather them up fairly quickly - obviously a lot of jumbo boxes produced and cracked.

The second card from the front looks like the base claim but when you check out the back:
 

It is serial numbered out of 300 and this is the advanced stats parallel as you can see from the 5 years of stats displayed.  I didn't know this was a prime number (300/300) when I picked it up but that makes it just a bit cooler.  This is actually the second advanced stats parallel as I picked up an Evan Longoria right after the release.  These two cards coupled with the relic below came as one lot from a seller on eBay.


I really like the design of 1985 Topps and enjoy these relics this year.  The design is fairly true to the design and I recall ripping packs and boxes of this when it was released so it brings back tons of good memories.  I remember my buddy and me selling our sisters' Garbage Pail Kids at a show and buying a couple wax boxes to crack.

The final Buster from my totally Posey mailday is a relic from Topps Opening Day.  


This relic is from a stadium banner from Oracle Park, my first stadium banner relic in the collection.  Opening Day is typically a product I buy a hobby box of and build the set and I was planning to do the same before going on lockdown.  If I can still find a box at my LCS when this subsides, I will probably do so but I will still go after the Giants.  With their not so good season in 2019 and the expected struggles in 2020, I should have been surprised to see only 3 Giants in the 200 card set (Mike Yastzemski, Evan Longoria and Buster Posey).  

My plan with Opening Day is to go after all the Giants, base, parallels and inserts.  Here is my current want list for Opening Day:

 2020 Topps Opening Day Walk This Way #WW25 Mike Yastrzemski
 2020 Topps Opening Day Blue Foil #81 Evan Longoria
 2020 Topps Opening Day Blue Foil #144 Buster Posey

 2020 Topps Opening Day Red Foil #144 Buster Posey

 2020 Topps Opening Day Autographs #ODAMY Mike Yastrzemski
 2020 Topps Opening Day Ballpark Profile Autographs #BPARBM Renel Brooks-Moon

I have made some pretty solid progress.  The Walk This Way insert appears to be pretty limited.  The Red Foil parallels are Target exclusives.  The Brooks-Moon auto is of the Giants PA Announcer.  It seems to be going for around $40 on eBay and is probably the least likely add off this list.

If you have any help for my 2020 wants, shoot me a note and lets work out a deal.

2 comments:

  1. The Posey 85T relic is a great looking card... and that banner relic is very cool due to it being unique. I probably won't be opening up any Topps flagship this year, but I wish you the best of luck on your hunt for these.

    P.S. I'd love to add the Brooks-Moon autograph to my collection at some point. I remember listening to hear back in high school on KMEL.

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  2. I have the flagship base Posey and Cueto for you and can drop them in the mail soon. Are you still at the same address?

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