Mets from Brian

I got another assortment of Mets cards from Brian at Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary.
This package was basically all new cards to my collection. Some were duplicates, but they'll go into another personal collection of mine, which I'll explain later in this post.

Starting off with the oldest cards in this lot. A 1981 Fleer card of Doug Flynn and a 1987 Fleer World Series card of Ron Darling.

Here's a plethora of 1999 Topps cards. I had never seen these before. I thought they were all gold parallel versions, not knowing this was the actual base version.

 
Stadium Club is big in the card world right now. Brian sent me a bunch from the 90s.

A few Fleer Flair cards.

A couple of 2001 Fleer Platinum.

Officially licensed Upper Deck cards.

An oddball card.

Random Mets that I didn't know how to group.

2015 Cards.

No Mets lot would be complete without my favorite player showing up.

I mentioned earlier about duplicates that Brian sent me. Not a problem at all. Not only do I collect Mets cards, but I also collect cards of players wearing Florida State League uniforms. These next four cards fit right into that collection, as Paul Wilson and Rey Ordonez are shown in their St. Lucie Mets jerseys.

Finally, the best for last. The card I liked the most, which I had also never seen before was this 2013 Topps card featuring David Wright and Darryl Strawberry.

Thanks again, Brian, for all the great Mets cards.

2015 Topps Stadium Club

I can't believe none of the other baseball card blogs have made a post about the new Stadium Club cards. Kidding, of course. My measly, 18 follower blog is finally joining the party.

Here are the results of my $5.99 (more value?) pack from Target. It started off with 3 fantastic looking horizontal shots.

Johnny Cueto, Cincinnati Reds

Fernando Rodney, Seattle Mariners

Rougned Odor, Texas Rangers

Next up are some great vertical shots, including back-to-back Tigers.

Starling Marte, Pittsburgh Pirates

Victor Martinez, Detroit Tigers

James McCann, Detroit Tigers

Maikel Franco, Philadelphia Phillies

The only insert in this pack was this Luminous Triumvirate.

Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals

Finishing off the pack with more great photographs. 

Jose Altuve, Houston Astros

Marcus Stroman, Toronto Blue Jays

Anthony Rizzo, Chicago Cubs

The last card I pulled was this former player/manager. 

Dusty Baker, Los Angeles Dodgers

I was surprised I only got one retired player in this pack. It seemed like others were getting 2-3 per pack.
I'm a fan of the cards themselves, not so much the price, but I know I'll end up buying more of these.

2015 Topps Series Two

The Target near me finally got 2015 Topps series two packs in stock. They had them in many varieties, single packs, hanger boxes, and value packs. I went with the value pack. 36 cards for $4.99.

It ended up being a really underwhelming pack of cards.
Derek Jeter makes an appearance in series 2 on the New York Yankees team card.

 The other team card I got was of the Miami Marlins.

Five players with their new teams showed up in this pack. Dee Gordon with the Miami Marlins, Jimmy Rollins with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tyler Clippard with the Oakland A's, Brandon McCarthy with the New York Yankees, and Brennan Boesch with the Cincinnati Reds.

          

                                                                              

 

A couple of cards with the rookie card insignia appeared, Brett Bochy and Jung Ho Kang.

       

Even a future star/all-star rookie in Nick Castellanos.

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Here's current American League stolen base leader, Jose Altuve.

I did get one New York Met in this pack.

Interestingly enough, I had read about this Jon Niese card last week on the This Way to the Clubhouse blog.

Mark keenly observed that the Mets hadn't worn this particular jersey with a black cap since the 2011 season. Makes no sense for this image to show up on a 2015 baseball card.

As for the inserts in the pack, I pulled these 4 plus a game card. Comedian/actor, Kevin Hart wears the White Sox throwback while throwing out the first pitch. Topps celebrates Prince Fielder's first home run.

     

Matt Adams is acknowledged as being a Heart of the Order guy in this new subset.

As Night Owl pointed out,

Topps did an excellent job of making bats look like loaves of bread in a deli.

I think an appropriate name for this new set should be Hearth of the Order.

Hall of Famer, Ozzie Smith gets a card commemorating him breaking the assists record in 1994.

Finally, I got a Call Your Shot game card. I pulled one of these in a series one pack several months ago and still haven't scratched it.

I like the look of this set a lot. Just not sure I want to buy enough of it to complete a full set.