Top 3 Topps Digital Cards of 2024 so far

When it comes to Seeking Positivity in the Galaxy, trading cards are way up there as things that just make me happy.  While I am a bit of a completist, I never feel the need to have the best or most expensive cards.  I am perfectly happy with a fist full or phone full of cool base cards.  

With that said, I would like to share my Top 3 Topps Digital cards of 2024, so far.  One card from each digital platform from which I collect: Star Wars Card Trader, Topps Bunt, and Marvel Collect.  Since I do like to compete sets that I start, I normally just collect one at a time, or one weekly and one ongoing set.  This  year that has really been a challenge since all three platforms have pumped out some really great sets with original art or photos.  Anyway, here are my Top 3 cards from each platform from the first four months of the year.  

Star Wars Card Trader

The Client from the Topps Star Wars Masterwork set, Wave 1 - Tools and Technology Medallions - Chrome Purple, Epic, 237 Global Count

Medallion cards are always cool but in print cards, they never fit into nine pocket binder sleeves because they are too thick.  However, in the digital world, that is never a worry.  The Beskar Ingot looks great in this card with a gold title at the top of the card and the image of the Client on the left hand side of the ingot.  It looks really sharp.  

Topps Bunt

Ken Griffey Jr. from the Celebration of The Kid 24, Series 1 - Team Color Signature, Iconic, 382 Global Count

I was so excited to see this set as I was a huge fan of Griffey Jr. in the 1990s.  Even after I sold my print baseball collection, I kept a binder with the cards of my favorite players.  Griffey Jr. is one of those players.  He was a positive, influential player who always seemed to have a smile on his face.  So when this set was released, I went crazy collecting it.  I didn't end up completing the set, but I did get this really cool card though.  I really enjoy autograph cards, and who doesn't want one of The Kid?  

Marvel Collect

Wolverine from the welcome event with the new 2024 base set of cards.  N/A Global Count

No, I am not crazy, and yes, I chose a free card from a "welcome to the new set" event.  Each of these cards are technically stand alone, but there are seven cards to receive as you work your way through the event.  Maybe I am X-Men 97 crazy, but this Wolverine card (and all of them, really) is so sharp and colorful.  They look great, and whenever Wolverine is featured on a "sharp" card like this, you better choose it as your top card, bub.    

Album Playthrough Project: April 2024

The Album Playthrough Project 2024 continues.  April was a light month for full album listen-throughs for me, but there was one album that got lots of play...over and over and over.  It may be obvious which one that is by looking at the list.  I also did lots of listening to playlists where I dug up some forgotten artists and some new artists I plan to give a full listen to the albums in the upcoming months.  

I hope to get back to more album playthroughs in May, but I lose my Friday nights to the live Dave Matthews concert series on the Dave Matthews channel on Sirus XM satellite radio.  

Here is the April List of Albums:  

Ammonia Avenue (1984) Alan Parsons Project 4/13/24
American Town (2000) Five for Fighting 4/17/24
The Tortured Poets Department (2024) Taylor Swift 4/19/24
1989 Taylors version (2023) Taylor Swift 4/20/24
Odelay! (1996) Beck 4/27/24
Scaled and Icy (2021) Twenty-One Pilots 4/27/24

Best Memories: American Town, Five for Fighting 

Biggest Disappointment:  Ammonia Avenue, Alan Parsons Project

Best New to Me (and the world): The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift

For a description of the Album Playthrough Project, click here

February

March

Free Comic Book Day: Top Stories previewed

Free Comic Book Day has come and gone and the large pile of free comic books has been following me around room-to-room as I read them.  Also in that pile are some comics and a graphic novel I purchased at my Local Comic Shop (LCS) that day.  Most of the Free Comic Book Day books are previews to series or storylines that are upcoming, while some offer a side story glimpse of a current run.  This is a look at my post before FCBD where you will find books that I was looking forward to reading.  Interestingly, two of the three books below were on my pre-FCBD list.  

Here are three books that preview some really fun and cool-looking stories: 

"Target: Peter Parker" and "Forgotten Mavels:" 

Target: Peter Parker has Peter and his date attacked by pizza parlor animatronic band animals.  When
Spider-Man shows up, he discovers that the animals are trying to warn him that, "you are his target."  The animatronic animal is shut down by Norman Osborne.  Norman concludes this little preview of things to come by saying on the last panel, "...it looks like we got here just in time."   In the Forgotten Marvels, we have Captain America, Iron Man, and Doctor Doom working together!  They infiltrate an archive of oddities when they are attached by H.A.N.D agents.  In the battle, Cap apparently finds their target, lights a Molotov cocktail, and throws it to a standing burned-out corpse.  When it explodes into flame, the corpse comes to life as the Human Torch.  Say what??  I'm sold.  

Archie Horror Presents The Cursed Library Prelude: 

Jinx Holliday, the daughter of Satan, is telling horror stories from the library in which she sits to a tied-up mummy of some sort.  There are some familiar faces, kind of, like Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews,
Jughead Jones and Veronica Lodge.  It's creepy, but it looks like a ton of fun.  

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone:  

Writer Jim Zub brings his A-game to writing what can be a complex character with tons of history.  This preview introduces the idea of a Conan story to fit into a "universe" with many of, the original creator, Robert E. Howard's other famous characters like Solomon Kane, James Allison, and Dark Agnes.  There is a description of this universe called the Howardverse at the back of the book.  But, the action revolves around Conan battling invaders.  When he topples a massive foe, he discovers a signet stone around the neck of the adversary which rips open memories he had buried deep.  It seems Conan has discovered the Black Stone which will link him to many of Howard's other characters.  Stay tuned and hold on, this seems to be quite a ride.