Some 2018 Donruss from the Dollar Store

Last year, upon reentering the card world, I went to the dollar store and bought 4 4-packs of Donruss (some 2016 and some 2017).  I thought maybe that started an annual tradition, so I went yesterday and bought 4 4-packs of 2018 Donruss at the same dollar store.

Justin Verlander.

I've read other reviews of these cards.  I know people's opinions on logo-less cards.  I don't mind buying a small number of them, though, since I'm deeply ambivalent about all modern cards, but I just want to open a couple of packs after all these years.

This Verlander is by far my favorite card that I pulled.  The design echoes 1984, the composition is good, and the lack of logo is less noticeable from this angle.  And I'm glad that he got to play on a contending, and then championship, team.  In a way I'm glad that Houston won the World Series and in a way I don't like it.  The negative aspect is that there are only a few teams with a longer championship drought than my Bucs, and Houston had been one of them.  So the list is shorter now, and the Pirates look ever more futile.  The positive aspect is that the fourth largest city in the US should be able to put together a winner every now and then, and they've had some good runs in the past that never quite paid off.  I've said many times that the 1980 Phillies winning the World Series was a formative experience for me; it's easy to think that team with Rose, Schmidt, Carlton, and many other excellent players was bound to win.  But the 1980 NLCS against the Astros was incredibly close.  Most of the games, including the decisive Game 5, went to extra innings.  The way Manny Trillo, Larry Bowa, and Garry Maddox are revered in Philly, could have happened to, say, Jose Cruz, Enos Cabell, and Art Howe in Houston.

Harmon Killebrew

It's nice to have a new Harmon Killebrew card, I suppose, but I just have to feel like this card is missing something.  The card actually scans better than it feels in person -- close up, the photo looks like it's not sharp enough or bright enough, and I wonder if it could have been cropped better to have him take up a bit more of the space.

L.A. leaders card -- Kershaw and Seager.

This is the worst card in the pack, design-wise.  Nothing against Kershaw and Seager, but this looks like Panini just isn't trying.  I think the picture is unflattering, and there might as well be no text at all.  They could have, for example, put their names along the top, and put Los Angeles along the swoosh in the corner, or vice versa, or anything, to have the card not be so blank.

Two of J.D. Martinez.

Two of Buster Posey.

I said that I bought 4 4-packs of these, for a total of 16 cards.  I got two sets of doubles, so that I only in fact received 14 unique cards.  They're not much for collation, either, I suppose.

So, that's my annual venture to get some modern cards.  I will have another post up on a couple of modern cards that I received from COMC soon.  Thanks for reading!