Pack Animal: 2015 Heritage Hanger Pack

The things I do for you guys…

I was looking for some 2015 Heritage or Topps Stickers in order to share them with you – completly selfless behavior, I do not benefit in the slightest from this – but the only local store I could find that had anything Heritaginous or Stickery was part of retail chain that I normally don’t patronize because I don’t care for their business practices.  My readers are more important than any moral stance I might take, so I held my nose and bought the hanger pack.

I should also mention that I bought it through the self-checkout aisle but did not do that swipey thing that cashiers do to deactivate the “loss prevention” doohickey inside… Which meant that noises went off when I walked out of the store.  Nobody chased after me, though.

So here we go with my first Heritage card of 2015…  I wanted to include the still-wrapped cards because the way the security tag is pasted on the cellophane it makes Colby Rasmus look like someone from one of those “adult magazines” where they block out the faces.

“Colby, 28, is a baseball player with a difference…”

By the way, I like the fact that they went with non-obvious colors for the teams that did not exist in 1966.  True to the original… although I have not noticed if they created any new color combinations.  That would be a little more praise-worthy if they do that.

My first Met from the set (speaking of non-obvious colors)…

Here’s the back of Mejia’s card:

Those pink card numbers are going to be a bear when it’s time to sort cards. Authentic? Yes. Problematic? Absolutely.

Omar Infante displays one of two all-too-common poses in these Heritage sets (Mejia above has the other).

Someone from the Players’ Association needs to have a remedial course in posing for photos.

Shin-Soo Choo says “It’s better with the bat off your shoulder.  Try it, Omar, it’s fun!”

One of the joys of Heritage is the manager cards, even if every manager doesn’t get one…

Photoshop battle! Here’s Kung Fu Panda photoshopped into a Red Sox jersey…

…But is Topps’ photoshop job better than MINE?

I’m biased, but I’ll say “Nah”. They took the easy way out and used the road jersey that doesn’t have the red piping. Shlabotnik for the win.

This Rookie Stars card with two different teams is goofy looking.

Did they do dual-team rookie cards in 1966? I don’t remember anything like that.

My hanger pack had five shiny parallels like this Sonny Gray, which doesn’t look shiny in the scan, but trust me, it is.

Shiny. Parallel. Yawn.

This is a team checklist card, which seems to take the place of the old team photo cards. I’m not sure where I stand on these. They’re arguably more appealing than the team photos, but they’re also sort of generic like those 1970’s Fleer Action Football cards.

Who said that they could take liberties with these Heritage sets? Bah!

By the way, this card’s border, like Omar Infante’s borders, are supposed to be lavender, but my scanner washed them out.

I’d like to point out something here… This is a “News Flashbacks” insert, take a look at the “1966” in the top left corner of the card.

Now look at the team name at the bottom right of my 2014 TSR custom cards.

Topps, you’ll be hearing from my lawyers.

…And yes, I’m in full self-promotion mode today…

Here’s a Carlos Gonzalez short print… you could say it’s a CarGo Shorts… print…
heh heh… uhrrr… (I don’t know if I’d mentioned that I’m really tired as I’m writing this…)

And finally, it’s time to bellow like Jim Morrison…

Mistah Mojo risin’!!!

So I can take solace in the fact that the lapse in my boycott resulted in someone who does not boycott this chain being deprived of a hit. Neener neener.

A mildly interesting fact:  Even though I got a relic insert, my hanger contained 35 cards, despite the legal disclaimer that packs with certain inserts may contain 3 fewer cards.

I’ve noticed that 2015 Heritage hasn’t gotten a lot of blogger love.. I don’t know if it’s because people aren’t finding these cards yet, or if people are generally “meh” about the design.  I’ll admit it’s not a classic set, and a big come-down from the 1965 design, but I still like it in a “less is more” sort of way.

I’m still trying to work out how my new-card money is going to be spent this year.  At the moment I’m leaning towards busting Heritage and Archives here and there, while buying a factory set of Topps flagship (and completely ignoring 2015 Donruss, where nobody seems to have learned the 83D lesson of being too similar to the prior year’s set).

So, who’s on board for 2015 Heritage?  Who thinks it’s a snooze-fest?