Started opening the jumbo box this morning and we scored our first ever Golden Mirror. Between this and the /5 mojo earlier this week, Mr. McCutchen has been kind to us. Let me know if there are any big fans that are interested.

The Kruk is already a PC favorite! Gorgeous card for a gorgeous man.

I've read that 2025 Topps Baseball has fewer hits than ever (and a ton of fluff), so we were surprised to pull several pretty awesome cards already halfway through our hobby box.

My son and I have been back in the hobby since around 2022 and have opened a ton of Topps Series 1, 2 and Update, but never have pulled a /10 (much less a clear one) or a /5...or even a /25 to my knowledge. And for all three to show up in half a hobby box was amazing. Not superstars by any means but it's been a fun morning. I know the Castillo napkin relic isn't anything special, but as Mariners fans that was a fun surprise as well!

We still have a jumbo box we'll break over the next couple of weeks, so I'll follow up if we end up landing anything else notable.

One of my last posts was about the 2023 Topps Finest Julio Rodriguez "Rainbow" I assembled over the summer. I had every card besides the Red, Red Purple Vapor, Red Black Vapor, and the Superfractor. Of course I'd never get any of those...they're hard to find, and far too expensive. Some of you asked me if I'm going to all the trouble of assembling the others, why not make an investment in the entire Rainbow? I, of course scoffed at this assertion. Until I started thinking more about it and the Bilbo Baggins meme.

And then as if it was divine intervention, the very next day I saw it on ebay, the holy grail...the SUPERFRACTOR. I tried to say, it's too expensive, or someone else will buy it. I sat on it for two full days, then I said screw it and contacted the guy. I negotiated a (relatively) fair price, and next thing you know, I was a proud papa. I texted some friends and showed them what I'd done. Instead of chastising me and calling me reckless, they celebrated my moonshot which really took the edge off. So much so that I went on to buy the Red Black Vapor and Pink Purple vapor. The collection is nearly complete...I just need the Red /5. If you see one outside of ebay, please let me know!!

I'll do another post once they're all PSA authenticated and framed with the others. ebay verified them, but I'm way too OCD to not have them all match with the PSA slab look.

So what's the point of all this? Don't ever let anyone tell you not to reach for that distant star...it can be yours! Now I just have to hope my wife never realizes how many more days we now have to work to reach our retirement goals.

I came here to complain about the 2024 Topps Flagship, but there was already a post about it, so I got all my bitching done there:

https://stg.onmantel.com/post/1d4a940d-0de9-4eae-8e66-af8dc1d5a545

Short version: the 2024 Topps appear to be cheap and unimaginative, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Until then, I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for hobby boxes from previous years that are worth acquiring. I realize buying boxes and opening the packs in hope of a home run is a poor investment, but nothing beats the high finding a winner or the sadness of just getting worthless "relics" and mostly commons. I'm here for both, the emotional swings are part of what's great about this hobby.

My LCS had 2022 Chrome update for dirt cheap ($50), so we bought some yesterday and got some fun hits. I was looking in to 2021 and 2020 Chrome, but the rookies those years were pretty awful for the most part (Ke'bryan Hayes, Brandon Marsh...and those are the "good" ones).

I know 2017 was good because of Ohtani and I want to say 2011-ish for Trout, but those boxes sell for $5,000 or much more.

Any pre-2022 diamonds in the rough for ~$200 or less that are worth buying? Again, not looking for home runs, but rather a decent amount of color and quality for the value. I mostly avoid Panini/Donruss, but anything else is free game.