Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog, where I will be breaking down each card from 2018 Topps Opening Day. This blog is in no way afiiliated with Topps, MLB, the MLBPA or any other organization that may have claims. I will be sticking to more factual anecdotes about the cards, but any commentary is my own personal opinion.

Giveaway details are towards the end, but I thought I’d open up with a FAQ style post to help set some expectations.

Why Opening Day?

A few reasons actually.

While most people have been, let’s say indifferent, to the flagship design template this year, I kind of liked it. Maybe it is the contrarian in me and the more people dismissed it, the more it grew on me.

But really, I thought Topps stepped up their game with the photo selection in Series 1. To me, that's just as important, if not more, than the design. Since OD is made up of a mixture of some of the best from Series 1 and some previews of Series 2, it made sense to me. I believe I read the split is 125/75 this year but haven't made the comparison myself yet.

I like all of the inserts. Maybe not the odds on them, but the themes found in Opening Day inserts are great. Despite being a team collector, I really enjoy seeing what oddball stuff around the league there is. That's why I read all your non-Cubs blogs, too!

I always wanted to try to build a “master set” at some point and with Opening Day’s price point, everything just kind of came together.

What can I expect to see on this blog?

Each post will focus on one card in particular from the 280-card master set. There are 200 base cards and 80 total inserts from Team Traditions and Celebrations, Before Opening Day, Mascots, and Opening Day (yes, there is an insert in Opening Day called Opening Day) will be featured.

The odds on the National Anthem, Dugout Peeks, MLB Sticker Collection and Opening Day Stars inserts are not high enough for me to pull anywhere near a complete set through my case so I don’t think I will showcase these.

Card breakdowns will highlight the source photo from Getty Images, game and player highlights from the day the photo was taken, any possible niche collections the card would fall into and a dozen more things!

As the post count grows, I'll add links and labels to the sidebar and generally adapt the layout to fit the needs of the blog.

When/how often will cards be posted?

Daily, 6PM EST. My main blog posts in the morning so spacing them out will help ensure I stay on schedule. 

The plan is to do one base card each day Monday through Thursday, one insert card on each Friday and Saturday and a statistical based post on Sunday. The inserts will run out before the base cards at this pace so I may skip a day here and there for weekends. At that pace, the blog will be done right before Christmas. If I need to take an extra day here or there and it stretches until next year's Opening Day release, so be it.

I heard there was free stuff/giveaways. What's the deal?

Daniel Wilson of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop was the first and only follower so far, and before this blog even had a post. Thanks! As a reward, I'm sending him a full base set!

But let's drum up some more followers. I'm giving away the equivalent of a master set team by team. Just follow and claim a team with a comment below. One set for each team is available, first come, first serve.

Also, for every five followers, I will randomize a base set giveaway. Five followers = 1 set. This will end when my next Sunday post hits. Tweeting and/or mentioning this new blog on your own blog will get you a bonus entry.

So there you have it. The first card post will be Monday, March 19, 2018 at 6PM EST. Hope to see you there!