Series Two Me vs. Topps

 I created homemade cards for all of the 2024 Cubs, which means I had cards out before Topps did with several players in series two (it's not all of the series two players because many of them got cards in the factory set.

I'll give myself the win because I show him in a home uniform.  I also show him as a fielder instead of using the same boring pitching shots that Topps overuses.

I win because any card that shows the City Connect uniform is an automatic loser.

 

I win because I used an actual picture instead of a photoshop job and I have his position correct, too.

I'll take this one as I use a personality shot instead of a batting stance.

My card has him coming home after his first career home run.  How can you top that?

My card is an automatic winner because I went vertical instead of horizontal.

 

Another win for me as I show the home pinstripes against a beautiful blue sky while Topps does the the ugly CC uniform again.

 

My win again as I show the fun personality of Shota and Topps resorts to Photoshop.

Its another case of a non-pitching shot against the standard throwing picture.

I'll call this a tie as there are two decent looking pictures of Mastrobuoni being used.

 

I win because I did mine first! The two pictures look to be from the same game.   Topps cropped theirs a bit tighter.

2024 Series Two vs. Factory Set

 There were six players that have cards in the 2024 factory team set but not in series one.  The assumption is that they will have a cards in series two.  Did  they?  Are the cards from the two sets identical?

Let's find out...

 

 

 

 

Series two is on the left and the factory set is on the right.  The pictures are identical.  Oddly though, the Topps logo is in a different place on the two Madrigal and Tauchman cards.

 

These two cards were in the factory set but not in series two.  It makes sense for Mervis but not Leiter.  He's been in 32 games this season out of the bullpen.  I wonder why he was considered team set worthy but not good enough for series two?

2024 Series Two Cubs

 I picked up the series two Cubs last week and the seller shipped them promptly.  I bought the set on the 15th and it arrived on the 18th.  That's pretty quick to go from South Carolina to Michigan, so kudos to the USPS for that.

There are 16 Cubs cards, 15 players and one combo checklist card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among them we have...

• 12 cards with home uniforms, though three of the twelve are the ugly City Connection version
• Four with road uniforms, split two and two between the grey and blue tops
• Only two with a horizontal orientation
• All of the players included are still in the Cubs organization, though Madrigal and Canario are in AAA and Tauchman is on the IL

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 21,806 Cubs cards from 317 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1978 O-Pee-Chee #56 Rick Reuschel  The RNG starts with an appropriate pick, Big Daddy on Father's Day.

1980s: 1986 Sportflics Decade's Greatest #13 Gabby Hartnett  This card is actually a 3 in 1.  The other two players are Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey.  

1990s: 1994 Score #96 Mike Harkey Looks like a nice sunny day in April or early May as the ivy is still brown.

2000s: 2005 Bowman's Best #131 Brandon Sing This card was considered part of the base set.  That is the only reason for me to have Brandon Sing's autograph

2010s: 2015 Topps Traded #79 Rookies Rising  Who would have thought that nine years later, one is just a shell of what he once was while the other is playing in the Mexican League.