I Finished Last in March Radness--Will I Survive to Tell About It?

Since I was appointed our school's testing coordinator last year, March has been an insanely busy month for me at work.  So when Cards on Cards opened up his March Radness NCAA basketball tournament this year, I wanted to enter without spending a lot of time choosing teams.  I ended up sitting down with my 10 year-old and 8 year-old and having them take turns choosing teams in the bracket.  When I ended up with Old Dominion in the championship, I knew I had a winner. . . or not.  It turns out that I did win, because Kerry puts together a package for last place.

He made some vague threats about the loser getting a really bad package.  I was curious.  I imagined a box of Norfin Trolls or *gasp* a priority mail box packed to the gills with junk wax dupes, like 50 copies of 1989 Fleer Steve Jeltz or something.  Kerry mentioned in one post he might send me a box of spiders.  I didn't think he was serious, but the thought creeped me out.  But I braced myself for the worst.

And this is the worst Kerry could do.  At first glance, it's a healthy stack of cards, and I could certainly imagine worse than Anthony Rizzo.  But is this top card merely hiding something a little more nefarious?

Three 2016 Cubs from the Topps National League Stars set?!  Why that's, that's--pretty cool, actually.  I didn't have any of these, although I think I have about a full page of that Jake Arrieta design, between Flagship, Chrome, Opening Day, parallels, etc.

This may be the extent of all the 2019 Donruss I get this year.  A red holofoil of Albert Almora and his currently hot bat and a really nice DK El Mago are two of my favorite cards of this package.

A couple more of 2019's offerings.  This is my first look at Opening Day's Rally Time inserts.  I like the concept, and that is definitely a fun card of David Bote, but why does it look just like a base card?  Could they really not come with anything to make a unique design? 

I didn't buy any Chrome at all last year, so these were all needs.  I really liked last year's design, and I do like it all chromed up, but I don't have much of it.  Once again, Javy is my favorite here.  I think I would like the Contreras more if it were a photo from the front angle.

More Javy.  This is the first Panini Chronicles card I've ever gotten, but I did get some blasters really cheap from Dave and Adam's last week that I'm going to bust.  I'm not in love with the product, but I figured for $6 a box, I would try a couple.

Who doesn't like early Bowman's Best?  Or the Cubs jerseys that look like they say "Cuba?"  I sure like them, and I'm glad to receive them.

And there's the junk wax I was expecting.  Walton, Sandberg, and Gracie are always welcome in my collection.  But Stadium Club has me in suspense--was Dwight safe or out?

Yes, there were some dupes for me, as I expected from Kerry's evil plan.

Some Team USA cards, including two players who made it to the Show in Austin Jackson and Kevin Gausman, and a relic of Cody Wheeler, who never did.

And now we're just getting some random stuff here.  I don't recall a "History of Topps" insert set.  I'm not a fan of either the card or the concept.

What's this?  Tyronn Lue?  Well, this is A&G, so I guess it's still a baseball card.  Kinda.

Now we're really getting random.  I never got into Star Trek.  My sci-fi fix comes from Doctor Who.  Like the good Doctor, the NBA sticker comes from overseas, from a European Upper Deck release.  That's kind of cool.

Also included were two unopened packs.  I have no interest in either of these two sets, so I gave them to my boys.  They were the ones who earned me this package, anyway.

I can see what Kerry was trying to do here.  As a Cardinals fan, the scariest thing he could think of was Cubs cards!  These were probably hiding in his closet, haunting him when the lights are off in the dead of the night.  He thought this package would keep me away from his contests forever.  But he failed!  I get the last laugh here, because, unbeknownst to him, I actually love Cubs cards.  I win!

But wait, what on Earth is this?

*Runs away screaming*