Mail Day Number Two

 My second batch of team sets came in.  It was only two sets but it was the one I was most excited for because it was Topps Flagship and Allen & Ginter.  

One of the reasons I wait until the new year to buy the previous year's cards is so that I don't have to chase each series of team sets down.  So when I buy Topps I buy series 1, 2, and Update as a complete set.  (I always bought Heritage and High Numbers together but I broke from that this year because for some reason that was like three times more money this year)  I am not going to post anything more about flagship right now. Since it is all three series' it has the most cards and I think might just do a card by card post on it; a rehash of the 2023 team if you will.  

Now onto Ginter.  A&G has been one of my favorites since it came out or I should say the year after it came out.  I never saw 2006 Ginter until I started getting it in blog trades.  I always assumed it might have been hobby only and in my little town the only place I had to buy cards was Wal Mart.  In 2007 A&G was available to me and it was perfectly simple.  Silhouette images on a white background (and minis) it was great.  I understand that Topps had to change it up some and it couldn't stay images on a plain white background forever or every year's cards would look the same.  They started out using other old A&G sets as a template but that could only last so long too.  Now each year Topps adds some stuff that they think makes it look old timey.  To me however 2023 was a bust.  This is the worst A&G design ever, it looks so cheesy.  

I said cheesy but I should have said Carney because each card screams elementary school Renaissance Festival.  They say step up to the board and grab a fishing pole, everybody hooks a prize! Just reach in and grab a duck, whatever number is on the bottom is that basket you get to pick from, EVERYBODY gets a prize!  But really nobody does because the prizes are so cheap looking.

Also how does Topps do this?

These aren't image variations either, they used each of these guys twice it the same set.  Yes one is a base and one is a SP but in a way aren't SPs still base cards?  At least that is how I always saw them.  Somehow Topps couldn't find anyone else in the history of the Red Sox to to put in the set one time so instead they doubled up players in the same set.

One of the main reasons I stopped blogging is my scanner.  My old one was so perfect.  I could fill it with cards and when I scanned it asked do you want this as a single image or do you want it to be broken into multiple images.  No matter which I selected one I got perfect scans with no background.  I could scan 9 cards at a time and it would break it into 9 scans with no cropping issues.  My current scanner can scan a full page or it can scan a specified area.  I can say scan 2.5x3.5 but it only scans the exact middle of the top of the page and if I am off any it cuts the card off.  So right now I am using my phone which I know sucks.  The background doesn't bother me as much as the lighting does.  I am going to try and figure that out some work around for the scanner.  I am thinking some kind of template that makes me set the card in the perfect spot but I know it will be some trial and error.  Hopefully I can get something figured out.