Sports Cards and Memories: April 2019

This break took a little longer than expected. I started this last week but ran out supplies and since I don't have a card shop in town, I had to order supplies and wait until this weekend to finish up. So last year I did REALLY well with Bowman but there's a huge difference between this year and last year. Last year, I got lucky and was able to order an entire case directly from Topps.com who had them at MSRP, unlike the markup other places had it. This year? No such luck, Topps sold out of Bowman very quick, and Hobby's too expensive to me, so I went the retail route instead. The damage? 19 Fat Packs, 23 Value Packs and 10 Blasters. Obviously retail is retail so it's gonna be rough to do well, but I figured it's worth a shot. Here's what I got

Wander Franco Paper Base (5)
Wander Franco Chrome Base (4)

Top 100
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Keston Hiura
Jackson Kowar
Brandon Marsh
Justus Sheffield (2)
Mitch Keller (2)
Mike Soroka
Michel Baez
Travis Swaggerty
Michael Kopech
Matthew Liberatore
Jonathan India (2)
Julio Pablo Martinez
Luis Urias
Cristian Pache
Jesus Luzardo
Yusniel Diaz (2)
George Valera
Ronny Mauricio
Andres Gimenez
Triston McKenzie
Brice Turang
Keston Hiura
Keibert Ruiz
Griffin Canning
Taylor Trammell
Sandy Alcantara
Sixto Sanchez
Ke'Bryan Hayes

Top 100 Atomic Refractor
Keston Hiura (#25/150)

Ready For The Show
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Austin Riley (4)
Fernando Tatis Jr. (2)
Will Smith (2)
Keston Hiura
Ryan Mountcastle
Jon Duplantier (2)
Brendan McKay
Nick Senzel
Yusniel Diaz (2)
Bo Bichette
Mitch Keller

Rookie Of The Year Favorites
Kyle Tucker
Kyle Wright (2)
Kolby Allard (2)
Christin Stewart (2)
Chance Adams (4)
Luis Urias
Chris Shaw
Danny Jansen
Brandon Lowe

Bowman 30th Anniversary
Wander Franco (2)
Nolan Gorman
Ronald Acuna
Sixto Sanchez (2)
Keibert Ruiz
Mackenzie Gore
Casey Mize
Nick Senzel
Hunter Greene
Dylan Cease
Kris Bryant
Nick Madrigal
Cristian Pache
Francisco Lindor

Bowman 30th Anniversary Green Parallel
Wander Franco (#52/99)

Talent Pipeline
Vladimir Guerrero Jr./Bo Bichette/Nate Pearson
Elehuris Montero/Genesis Cabrera/Andrew Knizner (2)
Casey Mize/Jake Rodgers/Matt Hall
Adam Haseley/Darick Hall/Ranger Suarez (2)
Seth Beer/Forrest Whitley/Yordan Alvarez
Eloy Jimenez/Blake Rutherford/Zack Collins
Seuly Matias/Khalil Lee/Nicky Lopez
MacKenzie Gore/Josh Naylor/Luis Urias (2)
Jazz Chisholm/Taylor Widener/Taylor Clarke
Tristan Pompey/Nick Neidert/Austin Dean
Nico Hoerner/Thomas Hatch/Adbert Alzolay

Camo Parallels
Wander Franco
Joey Bart
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (2)
Fernando Tatis Jr.
Alex Kirilloff
Roberto Ramos
Dylan Cease
Peter Lambert
Yordan Alvarez
Freudis Nova
Jo Adell
Beau Burrows
Ryan Vilade
Brent Rooker
Keston Hiura (2)
Nico Hoerner
Luis Garcia
Sixto Sanchez
Ke'Bryan Hayes
Daz Cameron (2)
Esteury Ruiz
Brandon Marsh
Brendan Rodgers (2)
Brady Singer
Taylor Trammell (2)
Ronny Mauricio
Jarred Kelenic
Will Smith
Albert Abreu
Corey Ray
Chris Paddack
Franklyn Kilome
Dustin May
Nick Madrigal
Casey Mize
Andres Gimenez
Noelvi Marte
Victor Victor Mesa
Christian Santana
A.J. Puk
Bryan Mata (3)
Rylan Bannon (4)
Peter Alonso (3)
Genesis Cabrera
Christian Pache (2)
Jonathan Hernandez (3)
Ryan Weathers (3)
Ryan Mountcastle (3)
Nick Neidert
Justin Dunn
Reggie Lawson
Sandro Fabian
Blaze Alexander
Leody Taveras
Jay Groome (2)
Alex Faedo (2)
Yusniel Diaz (2)
Matthew Liberatore
Aramis Ademan
Ronaldo Hernandez
Brendan McKay
Austin Beck
Ryan Helsley
MacKenzie Gore
Andrew Knizner
Jonathan India
Brusdar Graterol
Jesus Sanchez (2)
Griffin Canning (2)
Ethan Hankins (2)
Brady Singer (3)
Juan Pablo Martinez (2)
Drew Waters (2)
Blake Rutherford
Cristian Javier
Edward Cabrera
Austin Riley
Evan White (2)
Adonis Medina (2)
Logan Allen (2)
Mitch Keller
Colton Welker
Derian Cruz
Hunter Greene

Sky Blue Paper
DJ Stewart RC (#299/499)

Purple Paper
Eloy Jimenez (#114/250)
Max Scherzer (#122/250)

Blue Paper
Rougned Odor (#29/150)

Green Paper
Eddie Rosario (#07/99)
Scooter Gennett (#98/99)

Gold Paper
Jake Bauers RC (#15/50)
Starling Marte (#16/50)

Red Paper
Kevin Smith (#4/5)

Refractors
Andres Gimenez (#268/499)
Gavin Lux (#256/499)
Peter Lambert (#184/499)
Orelvis Martinez (#375/499)
Daniel Johnson (#351/499)

Blue Shimmer Refractor
Jay Groome (#123/150)

Green Refractor
Casey Mize (#29/99)

Green Shimmer Refractor
Shane Baz (#78/99)

Yellow Refractor
Sixto Sanchez (#20/75)

Gold Refractor
Anthony Seigler (#13/50)

Paper Auto
Alex McKenna

Purple Paper Auto
Alex Royalty (#68/250)
Nick Meyer (#34/250)
Matt Krook (#74/250)

Breakdown by Format

Fat Packs-Walmart(13 Packs)
0 Wander Franco
0 Autos
1 Gold Paper Parallel
1 Chrome Refractor Parallel

Fat Packs-Target (6 Packs)

0 Autos
1 Wander Franco Chrome Base
1 Wander Franco Bowman 30th Insert
1 Wander Franco Bowman 30th Green Refractor
1 Yellow Refractor
1 Chrome Refractor

Value Packs-Wal Mart (16 Packs)
1 Wander Franco Chrome Base
2 Wander Franco Paper Base
1 Wander Franco Camo Parallel
1 Paper Auto
2 Purple Paper Autos
1 Paper Purple Parallel
1 Paper Blue Parallel
1 Gold Refractor

Value Packs-Target (7 Packs)
0 Autos
0 Wander Franco
1 Sky Blue Paper Parallel
1 Refractor
1 Green Shimmer Refractor

Blasters (10 Boxes All Wal Mart)
1 Purple Paper Auto
2 Wander Franco Chrome Base
3 Wander Franco Paper Base
1 Wander Franco Bowman 30th Anniversary
1 Top 100 Atomic Refractor
1 Purple Paper Parallel
2 Green Paper Parallel
1 Gold Paper Parallel
1 Red Paper Parallel
2 Refractors
1 Blue Shimmer Refractor
1 Green Refractor

Overall Thoughts: Yeah..it was a bloodbath as expected. So the big name of this product is Wander Franco, the Rays top prospect. His stuff is selling sky high at the moment so the silver lining is at least I pulled 14 Wander cards with one of them being a Green Insert Parallel numbered to 99. It's not enough to salvage the break as a whole, but still a decent pull regardless. The autos were crap, most of the checklist for the Paper Prospects is Garbage, you're hoping for a Green or Green Shimmer Prospect Auto of Wander, Vlad Jr., Eloy Jimenez and there are others. Didn't get any of those. Got a lot of parallels including a red to 5, but the names were terrible. Overall chalk it up to another bad break from 2019. I have a feeling 2018 is just an outlier as I had so much luck go my way in regards to picking up product. This year? No Bowman Hobby, I got shut out of National Treasures First Off The Line Basketball (The product that provided me my two pulls of all time, Bowman Hobby also provided me my 4th best pull of all time), I probably won't go for something like a case of Topps Tier (which I KILLED last year, but I had extra money to play around with from my sales of the National Treasures cards, I don't have that this year). This year seems to be back in line with 2016 and 2017. Anyways, Bowman's always fun because you just never know about prospects, so who knows, maybe someone will surprise. Here's pics of the cards