School's Out for Summer! Break #1

Since I've gotten back into the hobby, I've made it a tradition to break something on the last day of school.  I figure that if I'm going to break something, it is probably best for me to break some boxes of cards.  This year, I used some Target gift cards to pick up a blaster each of 2018 Topps Heritage and 2018 Score football.

The blaster of Heritage came with a coupon for a free pack of Topps, so I picked up my first flagship of the year.  Yes, it is May and I'm barely breaking into flagship this year.

I really like flagship this year, so that's not the reason I haven't gotten into it.  Here is most of the free pack.  Ozzie Albies seems to popping up in everything I open lately.  I'll gladly take the Judge insert for my ROY collection.

 Three horizontal heroes in the pack.  Maybe I'll have Walker Buehler in my ROY collection by the end of the year, too?  He sure looks impressive so far, and Dodgers always seem to win Rookie of the Year.

Now, on to Heritage.

 A good homage to the great 1969 design. Here are a few of my favorite base cards from the box.  I really like the Brantley with the blurred out Pirate? in the background.  It's a nice change of pace from the posed shots, but doesn't seem to break the '69 mold too much.  Darvish is now struggling with the Cubs, so I like having the card documenting his short-term stop with the Dodgers.

 Only two Cubs in the box, but two good ones to pull.

All the cards I pulled in the box that fit into my various player collections were of the ROY type.  Both Jose Abreus came from the same pack.  I didn't notice until I was typing this that the photo used in both cards was the same.  I think my favorite card of the entire box is the Carlos Correa.  It looks like it should be some kind of SP or photo variation.

 I already showed two All-Star subsets, but here are the other three I pulled.  I really like these cards.  They look really sharp and the black and white action shot in the background is a nice touch.  I might just hang on to these, whether I collect the player or not.

 Rookies from the box.  Another Albies jumps out at me, but I think the biggest name may be Miguel Andujar.  He's one of the many exciting young Yankees that is making it harder for me to dislike them anymore.

 As per the odds, I expected 2-3 SPs, and that is what I got.  Not the biggest names, but this year's SPs aren't all the big names, unlike some years past.  I have to admit, however, that I have no clue who Vince Velasquez is.

Finally, here are the inserts from the box.  I don't really like the 1969 Collectors Cards, but Scherzer isn't a bad guy to pull.  I love the deckle edge cards, but the star of this show is obviously Harper.

In all, I don't feel that I hit it big with SPs or inserts, but this box brought me a lot of good new cards for my collections.  I might pick up some more Heritage later, but right now I'm not planning on getting too much into it this year, even though I like the '69 design.  Next post will feature the second half of my End of School Celebratory Break.