2017 Topps Now: Sean Newcomb #234 (234 print run)

The Braves have always featured good, young pitching and in 2017 Sean Newcomb got to show the MLB what he was capable of. Against the Mets he went 6 1/3 innings, only surrounding 4 hits and 1 unearned run. Since then he has been pretty steady, though in 2018 he had some grip issues at times in high heat/humidity, but still appears to be part of the young starting rotation for the club moving forward.

I'll also have to mention the low print run...that just happened to match the card number. The Topps Now program has grown year over year and I find it a little refreshing that this RC of Sean has a low print run versus the crazy high print runs that Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna's cards received this year. I still love the program, but the some of the cards seem to be losing some of their "limitedness" (is that even a word?) with more and more people coming to the program and purchasing cards. None the less, I'm already looking forward to the 2019 season and the smattering of product that will follow.

Nachos Grande 2018 Topps Heritage Group Break Results

Chris from Nachos Grande has thrown his hat recently into the ring of hosting group breaks. I grabbed the Braves in his recent 2018 Heritage break. I don't usually buy much if any of Heritage, so I figured this would be a good way to get the Braves cards I wanted without having a lot of cards I didn't want.

I feel as if I did pretty good, getting multiples of every non-SP Brave in the set. I did manage to get one SP, Nick Markakis.

The Detroit Tigers ended up being my second team that was randomized to me. I only got 3 cards, but it appears all 3 are SPs. I'm keeping the McCann for my Faith Brothers collection, but the other two will be available for trade.

While Chris was waiting to break the actual boxes of Heritage, he opened a few bonus packs. Nothing too exciting, but I love the junk wax era and even though I may already have these older Braves cards in my collection I'll still gladly take them.

Thanks Chris for hosting the break and getting the cards out to me so quickly!

Care Package of Cards from Cards on Cards

Anytime I receive a mysterious bubble mailer in the mail that contains basketball cards, there is only one blogger I know that it could be from...none other than Kerry from Cards on Cards.

This little care package came in some time ago, but between my work schedule and the holidays it just got "lost" in the shuffle. There were about two decent sized stacks of cards in the mailer, most of them were cards I either had at some point in the past or needed. I took a few photos of some of my favorites to share.

 

The 91-92 Upper Deck set is one of my all time favorites. Back in the earlies 90's the Charlotte Hornets were all the buzz (no pun intended...maybe) in town. My father got to split a pair of season tickets with someone he knew so I got to attend many NBA games at that time. While I was young and just getting into collecting baseball cards a few years earlier, the 91-92 season was probably the first year I actively added collecting basketball cards to the fold.

This Upper Deck set was head and shoulders above the competition. While I bought and liked Hoops and Fleer, none of those could hold a candle to what UD brought straight out of the gates. Since I was able to attend so many games, I was familiar with just about every team's roster, so getting a card of those players was fun. Of course I was out to get all of the Charlotte Hornets cards first, but I had a lot of fun with this entire set. One day soon, I hope to buy a jumbo box of this just to relive those memories again.

The modern era Charlotte Hornets are a different story. If I'm being honest with myself...they are a bad team. The only players that make it worth watching them play are Kemba Walker, Dwight Howard and Cody Zeller (at least for me). Kemba has been named to the NBA All-Star team for a 2nd straight year recently. He's been a part of trade rumors for weeks, but thank heaven they didn't trade him away at the trade deadline earlier this week. The team is already hard to watch, I can't imagine Kemba not being on the team.

This shiney Panini Crusade card is gorgeous, easily my favorite amongst all the basketball cards that were nestled inbetween the baseball cards.

When Panini first brought back the sticker albums I was all about collecting them, but like a lot of things I used to collect, I've had to take a back step and downsize. I haven't bought a sticker pack in years so it's always nice to get something new.

As much as I liked last year's Gypsy Queen product, I never got around to buying much of it. Because of that I don't believe I was able to pick up many of the Braves in the set so these are welcome additions...even if I screamed at Snitker everytime he brought Jim Johnson into a game last season!

Another shiney card to wrap up this post. This comes from 2017 Bowman and it's a Refractor of the young ace, Sean Newcomb. The Braves rotation and bullpen will have a lot of young arms this season and I'm just hoping they can help the club stay competitive during the season. The 1992 Bowman design is simple, but pretty great so this makes this card that much better.

Thanks again Kerry for your generosity. Your welcome by the way for the Hornets giving your Trailblazers a W the other night! Take care my friends, have a great weekend!