Friday, May 17, 2019

A victim of advertising


I like to think I'm smart enough not to fall victim to the world of advertising.

But every so often a situation comes up and shows me that I'm just as prone as everyone else. Case in point: you may have heard that a snack brand called Utz is putting baseball cards in their products this year. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd never heard of Utz before all this. Though the Utz stuff at my Target didn't have cards inside, I decided to sample a bag of their Sour Cream & Onion chips a couple months ago.

And I liked them so much that I now buy Utz, and only Utz, whenever I get a craving for potato chips...congrats Utz, you win.




I was just at my local Target yesterday and they still didn't have any of the baseball-card bags of Utz: thankfully, though, I seem to have an Utz source here in the blogosphere with immortal reader and longtime friend of the blog Mark Hoyle.

He sent me a PWE right around the time I first heard of the whole Utz promotion with not one, but two Cubs Utzes with Contreras and Quintana here -- and I didn't have to spend a single cent!




In a tale of good timing, I received two more Cubs Utzes from Mark in the mail yesterday, just as I was starting to prepare this post.

I'm not sure how large the Utz checklist is, but I certainly wasn't expecting a relatively obscure dude like David Bote to be included (though I'm sure glad he is!).




Mark also sent me this enormous jewel that I'm way overdue in acknowledging -- a 1970 Topps Poster of none other than Ron Santo!

I'm not usually a fan of oversized pieces, but I think we can all agree and say this is unequivocally fantastic.




I often wonder how susceptible I am towards advertising (what little there is these days, at least) with baseball cards.

I always tell myself that I don't have to run to Target whenever there's a new set out, that whatever I need will be available for loose change soon enough. But more often than not, I end up scouring the card aisles at Target -- the reason I was there checking the Utz bags at all yesterday was to see if Big League came in (it did!).

Even sets I'm so-so about, like A&G, typically produce a Target run -- these 2018 A&Gs sent to me by my buddy Robert of "$30 A Week Habit" fame and were much needed since I didn't pull them from any of the overpriced packs of A&G I opened last year.




A&G's baseball-themed inserts are fun to receive even if they do typically feature the same handful of guys over and over again.




I don't know if my chase for A&G's non-baseball insert sets can be called "set building," in that I'm currently getting them at a rate of about one or two a year.

These two excellent "Indigenous Heroes" from Robert doubled the number of these I'd previously owned (only 21 more to go!).




In my head, I fancy myself collecting (and living life, I guess) in a very anti-advertisement way -- when the Baseball Card Mafia says: go high end, buy 874 mega boxes of Bowman, and get everything slabbed, I say: give me base cards, give me $3 rack packs of Opening Day, give me the off-center, the creased, the loved.

It's a rare treat to receive killer vintage in the mail, but that's exactly what we have here with this '59 All-Star Luis Aparicio I unexpectedly received from the perennially insane blog legend known as JBF a whole back. It's in better shape than about 98 percent of the other '50s Topps I own. I have so much battered vintage that receiving a good-conditioned one seems like an oddity. I'm proud of that. When the industry says Chase Mantle, I say Give Me Aparicio!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a sudden craving for the bag of Utz sitting in my cabinet right now.

11 comments:

Zippy Zappy said...

I've only seen the Utz chips around at Stop & Shop so far TBH. Luckily I had Once A Cub send me a few so I didn't have to buy any lol.

Mike said...

I'll keep an eye out for Utz with cards..had no idea!

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

I may have to run to Target this weekend. Sweet Aparicio.

Fuji said...

I don't have access to Utz... but that's okay. I can live with Hot Cheetos and Miss Vickies Jalapeno chips.

P.S. The 1970 Topps Posters are awesome!

Big League said...

Utz has advertised at Yankee Stadium for several years now. I am surprised some baseball folks only learned of Utz this year due to the card situation.

bbcardz said...

Oddly enough, a few Utz products are sold at one of my places of employment in SoCal but none with baseball cards inside. And I agree with Fuji, the 1970 Topps Poster is awesome. I have that one too and just need two others to complete the set. Congrats on picking up a very nice bunch of cards!

Big Tone said...

Dollar Stores have Utz chips ,too I believe.I used to buy the small 25 cent bags from my local corner store all the time.

GCA said...

There are Utz factories within a short drive of my area. Haven't seen any of the product with the cards though it may be there.

Preach brother! Give me base, inserts, slightly dinged vintage, and never mind the rookies or the high end....

Mark Hoyle said...

I agree the utz chips are my go to chips for my lunches. The ca4dd come in the 12 bag variety packages or the 12 bag chips collections. I buy these anyway. The cards are just a bonus

Defenders50 said...

Utz reminds me of my SE Pennsylvania roots, but I don't see them out here in Iowa too much. Glad to see they realized that promoting baseball cards is a worthwhile endeavor though!

Adam Kaningher said...

"Bag of Utz sitting in my cabinet right now."

I wouldn't be able to do that. Any bag is mostly gone within 10-15 minutes of it entering my house. It's a problem.