Going streaking on the hunt for Ronald Acuña Jr. Rookie Cards

It started with a hunch -- a reminder to myself about a past visit to a certain store, a dash of the "hit 'em where they ain't" philosophy and a whole lot of the ol' instant gratification habit established years ago -- long, long before The Buzz or even BlowoutCards.com existed.

At 5 p.m. sharp yesterday, I started what ultimately became a three-hour tour that included a few stops and some surprises with the name Ronald Acuña Jr. all at its core.

If you don't have a card shop, there's always the click-here-to-buy approach that works every single time -- but on this day it was a fresh forum post that reminded me of a previous hunch about a chain you might not think of for cardboard that finally got me to go look.

The hunch location? Well, all I'll say is that it's a sporting goods chain you probably don't have in every state -- and it's got a small (and not pretty ... it's downright awful) spinner rack of sports cards that, oddly, have a little fresh stock yet also packs as old as 2006-07 NBA and small NHL repacks that were clearly filled sometime just after Sidney Crosby was a rookie ... circa 2005-06. I hadn't been there in probably a couple years and there might be fewer people than ever going there as it resides right next to an empty Toys R Us store that still has its signage and colorful R wallpaper visible from the parking lot -- that offers up about the only positive energy around.

On this day, at this stop, I came thisclose to finding what I was looking for -- I wondered whether I might land some 2018 Topps Update packs or blaster boxes. It's the hottest thing going today thanks to Acuña and others (and their parallels). While that notion came up short, there was a single hanger box of 2018 Topps Series 2 -- a rumored home of Acuña's rarer and even better SSP RC that looks just like the one in Update. There also was a single value pack of last year's Allen & Ginter that, mystifyingly, is the home of one of the cheapest Acuña RCs -- but also his autographs in those classic framed minis.

"One-hanger SSP magic coming up," I texted to another collector along with the photo you see above.

I walked to the car, ripped into them both -- first the Ginter. That was a pack so bad I joked to myself about its minis -- "a pack I shouldn't even open" -- that was only bailed out by a Shohei Ohtani card on the top of a pack that would have paid for it all last year. The hanger? Not much better -- definitely no magic. The box was literally glowing as if it came from the factory a day ago with not a single scratch or dent but it only yielded base cards of Albert Pujols and Jose Altuve as well as a Gold Jose Ramirez and a Jackie Robinson insert as highlights.

PUTTING THAT SLOW START IN THE PAST ...

I decided I'd hit a chain store down the road -- you bargain-bin hunters probably know the one ... they're everywhere -- to see if there was anything new and, of course, sift through a bargain bin. I walked inside, grabbed a cart and turned the corner into the aisle only to make eye contact with the person stocking the section who, thankfully, was just finishing and wouldn't witness my shock and awe. There were new Chronicles and Absolute Football boxes -- go down a couple of posts from this one to see their Buzz Breaks -- and then I saw something I didn't expect.

There were five -- yes, five -- 2018 Topps Holiday Boxes sitting on the shelf ... fresh arrivals but not discounted in price. I looked at them and noted that a couple had been severely scrunched before I did my mental calculations (looks about like this) as to which one(s) to pick. I decided on two of them, leaving three for the kids, before I moved over to check out the discount bin, which was bulging with a ton of new old stuff -- a boatload of Prizm college football, by the way since it's the season -- but then I'm sure my face looked like this.

I had to do some digging for my gold, but there were three packs of 2018 Topps Update in there fresh but rare in volume vs. the other stuff. Instantly in my cart. I scoured to see what else there might be and then headed to the check stand where I carefully scanned and slowly placed my new packs in my bag -- no dinged corners from dropping them myself like last time -- along with my boxes. I headed to the car and decided to make the super-rare decision of not opening the Update packs in the car in case I landed something big. (I haven't yet dedicated a spot in the car for supplies ... but I've thought about it. But I wasn't about to risk any damage this time.)

Since the Holiday boxes have plenty of room for the packs to move around, I figured I'd inspect (and open) them before  deciding whether a trip to the other store might be warranted to see if I could do the seemingly unthinkable and find more update. (You won't find many if you do ... this has to be the last of them.)

Holiday Box No. 1, Pack 1? An Acuña -- a card that can pay for the box as it's the classic bat-down photo without the SSP odds. The rest of the box included a David Price Relic and five parallels that were modestly led by a Clint Frazier. (The Acuña parallel has continued to elude me ... and I've opened plenty of these -- an almost embarrassing amount of Buzz Breaks before this one really started to grab people and they disappeared.)

Box 2? About halfway in, I beat the odds and landed a one-in-297 auto of St. Louis Cardinals rookie Miles Mikolas -- my first time getting an auto here -- and in the same pack another surprise. His name? Acuña. I know it's not a hard pull -- statistically he should be found in every other box. Also in this one were appearances by Ozzie Albies, Shohei Ohtani, Gleyber Torres and even duplicates for some big-name veterans such as Ichiro Suzuki. My parallels? The best I did there was a Miguel Andujar.

Two-for-two for Acuña wasn't enough for me ... my curiosity got me wondering what I left behind. I gave my card to my cohort who was watching the ripping carnage and said "go get the other two" since I didn't want to do the walk of shame back into the store to the same spot I was at 10 minutes earlier. A few minutes later, I was welcomed by a new bag and the return of my card, and the comment "there were three but I left the beat-up one." You probably know where this one is headed if you were paying attention earlier did the math.

I ripped into Box 3 ... and it led off with a Suzuki parallel and a Paul Goldschmidt Relic and then a parallel run that was probably my best -- Joey Votto, James Paxton, Miguel Cabrera and Francisco Lindor -- before another RC-loaded run that included a number of key guys and ones who have emerged since this one arrived. Ohtani, Albies, Rafael Devers, Alex Verdugo, Walker Buehler, Torres, J.D. Davis and ... wait for it ... another Acuña. Three-for-three. Box 4? Well all streaks do come to an end. This time there was a Lindor Relic as well as a Mookie Betts parallel and the first Mike Trout appearance of the day but no Acuña. We decided to head toward the other store -- remember, there's Update going around -- but struck out after the short drive.

We decided it was time to rip into something different -- some tacos -- and that, along with some traffic issues, ultimately led us back to the area where we had just been. Tacos came and went and then, well, you should know how this works out.

Box 5 ... Another Acuña. Then an Ohtani-Buehler-Torres-Devers-Davis rookie run, parallels that included Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber and a Sonny Gray jersey to round things out before heading back to the finish line with a 4-for-5 day for Acuña ... not a bad streak there.

Buzz went 4-for-5 on this key card ... but that wasn't the end of the ripping on Thursday.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE ...

I had three 2018 Topps Update packs to open ... remember?

Settled at Buzz Central with a laptop fired up for some teaser tweets, I carefully tore into these appropriately-almost-golden packs and was welcomed by some razor sharp corners that defy any bargain-bin history. Pack 1? It included Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto among the RCs and inserts from the old Vladdy, some guy named Chipper and three other inserts. Pack 2? A Blue 1983 for Sean Manaea -- one in 62 packs  but with an odd mangled corner when nobody else had one -- another for Vladdy's Daddy, another Jackie Robinson, another Suzuki and then a boatload of All-Stars, veterans and a modest rookie crop led by Tyler O'Neill. Not much in that one.

My final pack? It lead off early with another Ohtani RC, a Torres All--Star RC, Harper screaming his way out of Washington without a hat but with a headband and then that Chipper guy (again), some other inserts and another past Brave, Craig Kimbrel among the inserts. Deep into the back side of the pack? Not much else at all ... well, except for, well, another Acuña. (See the gallery.)

This time it wasn't the big one -- in fact, his Rookie Debut card is still oddly cheap given where it's found -- but it was enough to make me want to try and defy the easy odds of getting them by click and re-checking that other store once again today for a slim chance at more ... since it hadn't yet even been stocked last night.

Is it 5 o'clock yet?

--

Buzz whiffed on two more Holiday boxes before finishing strong on a third.

AND AN UPDATE ...

Buzz made another run ... found six Series 2 jumbo packs and totally struck out there unless you like Gold parallel commons (got three). Found five Holiday Boxes and took three, leaving two for the kids, and here's how it went ... Box 1? No Acuña but a Kris Bryant Relic, a Cody Bellinger parallel and a mess of rookies as well as a Trout. Box 2? No Acuña (yikes) but a Buster Posey Relic, a Walker Buehler parallel and the obligatory mess of rookies and a Trout. Box 3? An Alex Verdugo parallel, an Aaron Judge parallel, a Stephen Strasburg Relic and ... my fifth Acuña Holiday RC of the last two days about three cards from the end in my final pack. I'm 5-for-8 (.625), for the record.

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