Friday, June 23, 2023

Parallels should look different

 I got the old man disease.  You know, the one where everything new is dumb?  Yeah, I kind of have that.  Too many sets, too many inserts, too many parallels.  Too many graded cards, too many new fanboy collectors etc.  As if the hobby could really change back to the way it was in my youth.

However, sometimes, I think some of my complaints are actually pretty legit, not just my age showing.  My current example and topic of this post is this card of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 

Looks like one of the common, standard 2021 Topps Update - All Star Game inserts.  But it's not.  First complaint is that these "All Star Game" cards are inserts, not part of the base set, but they have the exact same design as the base set.  Minor complaint, but still!  But the bigger complaint is this:  the card shown is actually the "Platinum Anniversary" parallel of the base insert.  It's numbered /70!  But you can't see anything in the appearance of the front of the card that would tip you off to that (or at least I can't).  Unfortunately, I don't have the base insert to compare side by side, but looking around on the interwebs, I just can't see a real, meaningful difference between this fairly low numbered parallel and the base.

Parallels should look different!!  And the old man rant concludes.

Hopefully that doesn't bother any of you, and you would like to have this card.  Because this situation bothers me enough that I am going to PWE it out to someone for free.  If you want the card, guess the serial number (any number between 1 and 70) in the comments.  You can guess once per day if nobody gets it right off.  The first person to get it right will receive it in the mail.  If I already have the winners address, I won't even announce who won, the card will just show up.  If I have to ask, then there won't be a surprise.  I'll update once a day if the number has been correctly guessed.

Let's see how it goes!!