some pretty good cards from work

i've traded cards at work a couple of times in the last 30+ years. the first time was in the early 1990's, and i obtained my first 1989 upper deck ken griffey jr card that way. most recently, i swapped a lunch for a couple of cards, including a si for kids eric karros card, from a coworker last year.

this post features cards i received from my employer, although indirectly. i was given one of those "choose your own retailer" gift cards for a years of employment milestone, and i quickly turned that into a target gift card that i decided to redeem for cards. i placed an online order and soon received the boxes i had requested.

first up was a 2024 topps series 2 mega box. these have 16 packs, and i am going to show just the inserts by pack.

pack 1

yes, the lone insert was randy arozarena's stars of mlb card. not a great start

pack 2

better. a freddie freeman "around the horn" insert, jose ramirez' "city to city" insert (more on that insert set in a future pots), hank aaron's 1989 35th anniversary card given the mega box foil treatment, and spencer strider's stars of mlb insert.

pack 3

another 1989 mega box foil - this time it's the say hey kid and an all-star card at that. sonny gray, who has been getting some insert love from topps the last couple of years, is the obligatory stars of mlb subject

pack 4

now we're cookin'! obviously the orange mega box foil parallel of adley rutschman's 1989 all-star card is the star here, but i will also acknowledge the royal blue parallel of jon berti, corey seager's 1989 all-star card, and trea turner's stars of mlb insert. a couple of former dodgers there.

the rutschman card is special, as it it numbered to just 25

which is pretty sweet.

pack 5

the box has already peaked at this point, but i was pleased to see a byron buxton home run challenge card as well as shohei ohtani's stars of mlb card. i almost redeemed buxton's card for the july 4th game i attended but decided not to. he didn't homer so i had no regrets.

pack 6

there's a good variety of inserts, from the significant statistics card for jhoan duran to the women in baseball card of alyssa nakken and ichiro's mega box foil parallel of his 1989 all-star card. plus we get topps stretching the definition of "stars of mlb" with a zack gelof card.

pack 7

a gold parallel of taijuan walker reminds me of how high the print runs must be today. the gold parallels seem a lot harder to come by even though they are printed in about the same numbers from year to year. that means there are a lot more packs out there. the other inserts feature nolan jones, who is currently being victimized by the sophomore slump, and luis arraez, who is trying to win a third consecutive batting title, each for a different team. 

pack 8

nothing but a joey votto stars of mlb insert for this pack

pack 9

finally a national all-star card with matt olson, and a rainbow foil parallel of giancarlo stanton. what i said above for the gold parallels goes for the rainbow foil as well. and, i was very happy to find the yoshinobu yamamoto stars of mlb card in this pack!

pack 10

not a bad pair of inserts of cal ripken jr (around the horn) and derek jeter (1989 all-star mega box foil parallel) and a sal frelick stars of mlb insert. i should note that the around the horn inserts are similar to the stadium club triumvirate inserts in that they connect to show the entire infield across three cards. ripken is shown as a shortstop on his card, and he would have cards of brooks robinson and eddie murray on either side of him. for the dodgers, it's max muncy, mookie betts, and freddie freeman. i would have loved to see ron cey, davey lopes (or bill russell), and steve garvey featured.

pack 11

big dodger turnout with the clayton kershaw chrome parallel and base stars of mlb cards. and then there's the 1989 mega box foil card of a yankee rookie.

pack 12

not a good pack for inserts when all there is is a manny machado stars of mlb card

pack 13

a lot of blue here - royal blue bo bichette parallel, blue around the horn alex bregman parallel, and a freddie freeman fantasy favorites insert. bucking the trend is the ceddanne rafaela stars of mlb insert. i am an alex bregman magnet, i swear.

pack 14

and to prove that fact stated above, here's bregman's 1989 all-star card in mega box foil fashion, along with a josh jung home run challenge card and jose ramirez's stars of mlb insert

pack 15

evan carter's 1989 card gets the mega box foil, and carlos correa is the stars of mlb subject in this penultimate pack

pack 16

very cool to see a satchel paige 1989 all-star card, and the final insert of the box is jasson dominguez's stars of mlb card.

next up was a 2024 bowman blaster. i was really hoping to score a pete rose card. i didn't, but in the end i did ok.

i got a mookie betts base

an elly de la cruz chrome insert

and a jackson chourio prospects chrome insert parallel

but not much else.

except for this

a dylan crews blue autograph parallel!

i will admit that i wasn't entirely sure about it - the name sounded familiar - and then i turned it over and was reminded that he was the 2nd overall pick behind paul skenes in last year's draft.

speaking of skenes, he showed up in the bowman mega box i also picked up.

both chrome and mega box chrome prospect parallels!

there were some other decent cards, but nothing to top the crews or skenes cards. between those and the rutschman card, i think i did ok with my gift card purchase. i am already (sort of) looking forward to the next work anniversary milestone payout!