Product Highlight: 2007 Upper Deck Holiday Inn Baseball

The 2007 Upper Deck Holiday Inn Baseball set is nothing earth shattering, but an interesting promotion.  For those members of the Holiday Inn Priority Club that stayed at a participating Holiday Inn hotel between May 31, 2007 and July 30, 2007 received a special pack of Upper Deck baseball cards.  You received a pack for each night stayed.  Inside each pack there are (4) cards – (3) base, and (1) Cal Ripken, Jr. insert.  There are (5) Ripken inserts, and the entire base set consists of (60) cards. Its possible to find those Ripken inserts with a code on the back. The codes were meant to be used in the Priority Club Rewards Program.

You won’t find any rookies, relics, autographs, or parallels.  Adding at least one of those elements would have drastically increased people’s interest in this set.

In my opinion, Upper Deck’s idea of printing cards on hotel room keys for promotional purposes makes for a more unique souvenir.

Card of the Day: LeBron James 2003-04 Upper Deck – 2003 Holiday Season – Winter League Card

Card of the Day: Ke’Bryan Hayes 2021 Topps Holiday #185

2021 Topps Holiday Mega Box Baseball Box Break & Review

Collector Type: Set/Relic/Autograph/Christmas Fans

The base set consists of (220) cards. Parallels include Metallic, and Gold Metallic #’ed 1/1.

Short Print Photo Variations offer some fun holiday elements to watch out for. I always check the CMP codes when identifying them:

• Base – #420
• SP – #426
• Rare – #427
• Super Rare – #428

Each Walmart-exclusive box should contain a relic, autograph, or autograph/relic.

One insert set comes in the form of MLB Star Ornament Die-Cuts.

Its a niche product. Some people enjoy it a lot, while others won’t touch it at all. I find it to be a fun holiday spin on cards. The base design this year reminds me of The Matrix code. Perhaps its a bit of subliminal marketing given that the new Matrix movie, The Matrix Resurrections, comes out later this month.

For $21.98 I’d say my box was more than decent. The SP’s fall (1:7) packs, and I was able to pull two from this 10-pack box. And the two I pulled are of very popular players.

Here is what I pulled:

Relic:

• Cody Bellinger Relic

Short Print Photo Variations:

• Mike Trout Santa Belt #27
• Juan Soto Santa Belt #100

Parallels:

• Tyler Stephenson RC Metallic #141
• Ryan Mountcastle RC Metallic #174
• Shane Bieber Metallic #130

Insert:

• Pete Alonso MLB Star Ornament Die-Cut

Card of the Day: 2007 Topps Santa Claus Holiday Set Bowlfulla Jellies #16

Rangers ’19 Topps Holiday Relic Contest Winner Announced

Congrats to Dave Kaltenmark on being the lucky winner of the Nomar Mazara 2019 Topps Holiday Relic.  Once Dave Kaltenmark sends me their mailing address, I will ship this card ASAP.  Thanks!

Rangers ’19 Topps Holiday Relic Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest is for a Nomar Mazara 2019 Topps Holiday Relic.  Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, June 26, 2020 @ 8:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• U.S. residents only.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!

Card of the Day: 2016 Topps Santa Claus Holiday – Kris Kringle 1990 Merry Xmas Auto

Card of the Day: Didi Gregorius 2017 Topps Walmart Holiday Snowflake #88

2019 Topps Holiday Baseball Mega Box Break & Review

Hey look!  My local Walmart finally got some 2019 Topps Holiday Baseball Mega Boxes.  Walmart exclusive!  I’ve been wanting to try a box.  The Walmart here doesn’t have the best card section like some others do.  In store, a box should cost around $20.

The 2019 Topps Holiday Baseball Mega Box set consists of (200) cards.  Parallels include Metallic (1:2 packs), and Gold Metallic #’ed 1/1 (1:7,045 packs).

New for 2019 are the Base Short Print Variations.  Its hard to believe that none of the past Holiday boxes have had these.  There are three types that you can pull.  Each can be identified by the CMP code on the back.

• SP (1:7) – #063
• Rare (1:20) – #064
• Super Rare (1:161) – #065

Given that this is a holiday-themed set, all Base Short Print Variations have some type of holiday element added to them in addition to the holly berry border.  Candy cane bats, Christmas socks, and Santa Claus hiding out in the background are all great examples of what you can find.  My Base Short Print Variation was found upside down in the pack.

Housed inside each box are (10) packs.  Among those packs there should be (1) relic, autograph, or autograph relic.  My favorite hits are the Holiday Faux Relics.  These cards feature fictional relics from Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Frosty The Snowman, and even the Workshop Elves.  Cards like this always make interesting conversation pieces.  I know a lot of people like to make fun of them.  But imagine pulling one of these cards out around Christmas time.  It would create a memory that would last a lifetime.  Every holiday season you could bring it back out to display while remembering where you were, and who was around you when it happened.

Isn’t creating memories a core part of collecting?

If I would’ve pulled the Pete Alonso Gold Metallic #’ed 1/1 I could’ve gotten the entire Alonso rainbow from one box.

Checklist

Here is what I pulled:

Relic

• Nomar Mazara

Base Short Print Variation

• Shohei Ohtani SP

Parallels

• Pete Alonso RC Metallic
• Kolton Wong Metallic
• Pedro Avila RC Metallic
• Jake Arrieta Metallic
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr. RC Metallic

Notable Rookies

• Pete Alonso RC
• Yusei Kikuchi RC
• Keston Hiura RC
• Nick Senzel RC
• Michael Chavis RC
• Fernando Tatis Jr. RC
• Cavan Biggio RC
• Carter Kieboom RC