Purchases from Toys 'R' Us Via Wal Mart (I Think)

The card section in both of the Walmarts near me was shrinking.  As this past summer went on, I noticed fewer and fewer cards being offered.  Fewer new products were hitting the shelves, and the clearance blasters had dried up months ago.  Then one day, I walked into the card section and found the hangers of jumbo packs of 2018 almost empty, but there were two full boxes of blasters and value packs from years past marked with big stickers denoting a clearance situation.  I was shocked.  Then, as I searched through the offerings I noticed something interesting: some of the clearance items advertised exclusive purple parallels.  Wait.  Purple parallels?  At Walmart?  I started to wonder if Walmart had bought out some soon-to-be liquidated merchandise from Toys 'R' Us to sell in their stores.  With that thought in mind, I decided to splurge and buy more than I would normally have, just because I worried that once this supply was gone, that would be it.  So, for discounted prices, I picked up four value/jumbo packs and two blasters, just to strike while the iron was hot.

This is what I got, and it will take me a series of posts to get through:

• 2012 Bowman baseball value pack
• 2016 Topps Chrome baseball value pack
• 2017 Absolute football jumbo pack
• 2017 Panini football jumbo pack
• 2017 Elite football blaster
• 2017 Playoff football blaster

Since it's football season right now, I'll start with a football break.  Here are the results of my 2017 Absolute jumbo pack.

As has been the trend for the past few years, 2017 Absolute was shiny.  The shine might not show up well in the scan, but the scan does a better job of showing something I hadn't really noticed: there are sections of the card in which the background is still visible.  It gives the background almost a ghostly feel, but it's not as noticeable in-hand.

There were two inserts in my pack.  Doug Martin is still in the NFL, but this Fantasy Flashback to a monster game he had in 2012 may well represent the last time he was truly fantasy relevant.  Hurdles is an odd theme for an insert set, but I guess it does give a chance for Panini to show off some interesting photos.  Although I find this card interesting, both of these cards are available if somebody would like to trade for them.  Any Bucs fans out there?  Lions?  Anybody?  Anybody?

So the question remains: did Walmart obtain these cards from a now defunct Toys 'R' Us?  I'm not sure.  I know that the card scene has picked up somewhat, but the selection has never been overwhelming.  I bought a bunch of stuff impulse-style for fear that it would be my last chance at Walmart clearance cards, but they have actually kept it stocked since then.  So I don't know.  Regardless, even though I spent more than I probably should have, I dragged out opening the cards for a few months, so I have been able to resist too many retail purchases since.  I guess it evened out.