Pack Rip: 2019-20 Upper Deck MVP

It's not uncommon in this scene for a post like this to start "So I was at Target today..." And that's where this post starts.

Went to the Target in Dedham, MA today with my partner.  We were there to pick up some stuff off our brother/sister-in-law's baby shower registry.  I shot over to where the cards are usually located (on the peg board wall at the end of check out) and I was actually confused.  There was nothing.  I saw an end cap with a gaunt selection of Magic, Pokemon and Yugioh.  And honestly, it may have only been Pokemon and Yugioh.  I did eventually find a small selection of Topps 2019 baseball (series 1 and 2), some repack boxes of football and basketball, and some blaster boxes of 2019-20 Upper Deck MVP hockey.

Topps 2019 Series 2: First x/99 Hit

I haven't been opening many packs this season. I've been putting my baseball/hobby focus on TTM's and fan packs and enjoying that mostly. But, my partner was at Target and saw an interestingly packaged blister pack with 3 packs of 2019 series 2 with a Lefty Grove exposed. So she got it for me. The biggest hit has to be the Carlos Carrasco #501 Vintage Stock x/99.  I did get a Pat Neshek, a Scott Kingery Future Stars, Yusei Kikuchi, an Aaron Judge insert and an Ichiro/Shohei Ohtani which is pretty cool.

Pack Rip: 2019 Topps Series 1 & Fairfield Repacks

Got a couple of packs at Target last night.  I hadn't opened anything since my birthday, so I wanted to keep moving towards the 2019 Topps base set.  I picked up a couple of repack boxes from Fairfield, based on a couple of Jabs' videos.

As you can see, not much happening.  In fact, the A&G pack was one card short.  But, I did get a cool Ty Cobb/Bryce Harper out of the 2019 box, and let's be fair.  We can't pack pull a NNOF Frank Thomas every time out.

Four more TTM requests are going out in the mail today.  Retired Phillies' Phil Bradley, Curt Simmons, Bobby Wine and Cookie Rojas.

Mail Day: Vault Card Club (Take 2)

Last Tuesday I opened my first (and probably last) Vault Card Club subscription box.

As I mentioned in that post, I didn't get the "Vault Club Pack" (or whatever) that was promised as part of the package.  Today VCC made right and delivered a pack of hits to complete that order.

I am glad they stuck to their word and completed my shipment, but I'm still not overly impressed.  Three cards, they are all autographed, and I did finally hit on a Phillie.  But I still don't think I got $30 worth of value out of this box.

The 3 "hits" I got are all pitchers, 2 Bowman and a Donruss.  We got a 2014 Matt Imhof on-card on a Bowman Chrome, a 2011 Bowman Chrome Matt Burke (both are "1st Bowman Cards), and a 2014 Donruss The Rookies' on-sticker for Stolmy Pimentel.

The whole experience with Vault Card Club was a let down.  The packs were not that impressive, and these 'hits' didn't exactly set the world on fire.

So I'm going to confirm my original grade score of Vault Card Club as a C-.

Birthday Baseball Pack Rips

My partner and her mother both know exactly the way to my heart - burritos and baseball cards.  So for my birthday, both of them got me a couple packs of Topps 2019 Series 1.  Between them I got a blaster box, 2 fat packs and blaster box.  A nice jump-start to the 2019 set.

The quick review of the set is this:

Vault Card Club Review

I decided to give Vault Card Club a try after watching one of Jabs' unboxing videos.  I wish I had not.  On the website, which is laughably amateur, they advertise a "Vault Pack" which is all "hits".  To get a vault pack, you have to add a note to your order, which I did.  However, I did not get the vault pack.  Instead I got 2 packs of drafts, 2 recent series 1 packs and 2 recent Heritage packs.  Hardly worth the $29.95 I paid.  Not hardly, nowhere near.  The quality of packs was disappointing.  They say "5-7 packs", I got 6 and they replace one pack with the hits pack.  So if I had gotten that, would I have not gotten one of the higher end Heritage packs?  Or would that have been the seventh pack?