Seven Bucks Went a Long Way (The Finale)

 Okay, let's wrap this up.

Through 11 packs, we've had ups and downs. Looking over at the piles of cards from this endeavor, I'm pretty happy so far. Sure, some packs were relatively boring, full of flagship Topps from 3-5 years ago, with average-at-best players in average-at-best photos. But those average players on average cards with average photos have a place in my collection. 

The last pack had 25 cards, including the most valuable ones in the entire lot. Let's see what awaits us, shall we?

I've already talked Tek. This is a great card, but I don't need Cano.

A lot of people love 1987 Topps, and this silver pack promo of Bumgarner looks great. But when I was a kid first looking at the 1987 design, I felt like I was looking at my dining room table. I didn't like that dining room table, so I didn't like the design. These days, I can appreciate it more, but it's still not my favorite. The Taijuan Walker gold card is a nice addition, but I need either of these cards. 

Tomoyuki Sugano has never played in MLB, but he is a star in NPB. This WBC card is a double for me, so I don't need it. The Juan Soto is very welcome to my collection, though, as the first card from this pack I'm keeping.

Ke'Bryan Hayes is already represented in my archives, so this 2019 Topps Pro Debut card doesn't fit in my collection. I collect Jose Altuve, and I love to see his cards, but I have this one. So two more rejects.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Here in Japan, these are big money cards. Especially that Ohtani. But I do need them both!

Some 2021 Topps Fire. Those backgrounds are really loud! Jeter isn't needed, but I'll save him for later. Yermin Mercedes is needed!

I guess these two Fire cards are the neon design. I'm surprised Dallas Keuchel is still around, not because he is bad, but because I don't remember him being good for anything other than a perfect game. But he won a Gold Glove last year. Trea Turner hit for the cycle last year. So I need both of these cards!

Charlie Blackmon and Christian Yelich are good players, but I don't need their cards. 

These 2014 Bowman Chrome Draft Pick cards feature two players that have yet to step on the field during a Major League game. Cosart is a refractor.

Miguel Almonte did get a cup of coffee in 2015, and Brett Graves finally got the call in 2018. I need both of these cards!

The whitte-bordered card of Gavin LaValley is a "paper" Bowman card. Why do we need to call them paper cards? Bowman is Bowman. Bowman Chrome is Bowman Chrome. I don't hear anyone refer to Topps flagship cards as "paper" Topps. Get off my lawn. LaValley never made the majors. Spencer Adams played from 1923-1927. But that's not the Spencer Adams above. So I don't need either of these cards.

Ryan Castellani made his debut in 2020, but I already have a card for him in my archives. And paper doll Joe Gatto isn't needed any more than Chrome robot Joe Gatto.

Two more pieces of paper. Austin DeCarr moved over to independent league teams from 2020, but I'd be surprised to see him playing next year given his stats. Brett Graves already got his card earlier in this pack in Chrome form. So here are two rejects.

What's this? A hit? Casey Mize had a pretty good year last year, so this is a decent card to have in my collection. I want some relics from this set with the Santa hat or other Christmas icons. This is only the third card from this lots I've added to my type collection.

And one more big hit to wrap this up! It's an autograph gold parallel from 2021 Topps Pro Debut of Yordys Valdes. I'm not expecting Valdes to be a superstar or anything, but this is just a nice card to add to my type collection!

For the twelfth and final pack, two cards were added to my type collection, two cards cover awards, and six cards go to the archives. Plus one card is in the saved-for-later stack. So of 25 cards, 10 or 11 were keepers. There are some nice cards that didn't make the cut, but the two hits made this pack the most valuable, both monetarily and sentimentally.

So that wraps up this nearly two-week long series. For just 700 yen shipped, I ended up with hours upon hours of entertainment just to start with. Around here, the cheapest karaoke is 300 yen per hour, and I got much more than 2 1/2 hours of fun! (I do love karaoke, though.)

Card-wise, here are the results.

• Type collection: 4 cards (two hits, one numbered parallel, and one unnumbered parallel)
• Player collection: 1 card (one base card)
• Awards collection: 20 cards
• Live Game collection: one James Loney card
• Archives collection: 135 cards
• An additional 23 cards which might fit somewhere into some upcoming projects

So for, again, just 700 yen - less than $7 - I ended up with 161 new cards in my collections and 23 more that could be added later! That's somewhere around four cents per card, including the autograph and jersey cards! There's a big stack of about 300 cards I don't need, but even so, this was a great project. I might flip through those extra cards one more time and then see if I can give them to some of my students or something.

Meanwhile, I've received several packages lately, so it's time to do some scanning! Until next time...