Epic Wong Post

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one.

Panini Chronicles Contenders Optic Ruby Wave.  Serial-numbered to 199.  The Chronicles Contenders Optic is one of my favorite cards.  Obviously I try to get everything I can, but variations of this is one of the cards I jump on when I see them.

Topps Heritage Black Border.  So far Heritage is Wong's only card in 2023.  Hopefully that will change soon, but with no Panini sets with current players in it, I do not have a lot of hope that it will until possibly Topps Update.

Bowman Red.  I was pretty surprised when this one popped up.  I snatched it right away, because it was numbered to just five.  The Bowman cards are odd because they list Wong as a catcher/second-baseman.  When he was in the minors, it was thought he would be more of a super-utility player, then his defense started getting notice.

Topps Chrome Aqua Mini Diamond Refractor.  TCDB has listed this and an Aqua Speckle Refractor.  I suspect they are the same thing because they are both numbered to 199.  I have not been able to confirm that though.  It is interesting that Cardboard Connection does not list either of them.  

Panini Prizm Red Velocity Prizm.  I'm not sure why this design means "Velocity", but it is a common Panini design.

Panini Select Rookie Jersey Autographs Orange Pulsar.  This one is numbered to just 15.  I really need to know what this patch is.  I have seen it on a few of my Wong cards so far.

Topps Chrome Green Wave Refractor.  Serial-numbered to 99.

Panini Select Rookie Jersey Autographs Cracked Ice.  This is another variation like the Orange Pulsar above.  I kind of like the Cracked Ice parallels.  This is serial-numbered to 25.

Bowman Sterling Gold Refractor.  Serial-numbered to 50.  This is a shot that is not super-overused.  It does appear on the Topps Transcendent 1/1 cards, of which I have one so far.

Finest Flashbacks Prism Refractor.  I worked out a deal on the forums for this card, which was a little surprising that someone there had something so rare.  This is serial-numbered to 35.  I am thrilled to add it, because this is another one I really like.  Unfortunately, the superfractor showed up on Twitter of all places and was grabbed before I had a chance.  Extremely disappointing.  It was a decent price too.

Panini Chronicles America's Pastime.  Just a simple white swatch here.  This is an over-used photo, but a good one for Panini to use.

Topps Heritage Black & White.  This is the last of the Heritage variations I needed.  At least those that are listed on TCDB at this time.  These are supposed to be fairly rare I think.

Topps Chrome Magenta Speckle Refractor.  Serial-numbered to 350.

Panini Immaculate Black Socks.  I am pretty sure that's what this one is.  There's a lot of variations of this card.  The material looks like socks to me.  It is serial-numbered to ten and features an autograph in silver ink.  It is a bit of a unique item.  

Topps Now Blue and Purple.  To date, the only Topps Now appearance Wong has made is for his first Major League home run.  I grabbed a couple of the parallels recently.  I bought the base right away when it was released, long before I started this collection.  I am still annoyed he did not get a Topps Now card after his 4-for-4 day with two home runs and a double.  

Donruss Optic Pandora Red Prizm.  This is serial-numbered to 99.

Bowman Sterling Mini Diamond Refractor.  

Topps Chrome Blue Refractor.

Topps Chrome Sonic Edition.  The base cards from this set are pretty boring.  The only difference between them and base Chrome is that the Topps Chrome logo and RC logo are flipped and the RC logo is larger.  I got this in a trade on TCDB.  It was supposed to be a larger trade, but I still got one Wong card.  Plus, this came off my larger want list.

Topps Heritage Red.  This is big.  This was one of the cards that was cancelled on me.  I managed to find someone on TCDB who had it in his collection, but it was not for trade.  I contacted him and he was willing to part with it.  I also grabbed these other two cards which increased my numbers of Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Alex Verdugo and Jackie Bradley Jr.  It was a good deal.  I still need to find the Panini Mosaic Orange Fluorescent.  Unfortunately, there might be another card joining it as one I bought but never received.  Hopefully not.  Nothing frustrates me more than that in this hobby.

Topps Gold.  These are weirdly hard-to-find and expensive.  I guess they only fall one per box now, even though the 2022 serial number is reasonably high.

Panini Chronicles Contenders Rookie Ticket Autograph Blue.  Serial-numbered to 99.  I don't love the photo on this card, and it is used in other places as well.  With the lack of a logo, it looks more like a minor league or even college uniform.  I am sure it is just Spring Training or something, but still, it doesn't look like a Major League uniform.

Donruss Optic Rated Rookie Signatures Blue Mojo.  One of these days I need to figure out what card I have the most variations of.  This is probably the leader among the autographs, and there are a few more coming in.

Panini Absolute Tools of the Trade Jumbo Signature Spectrum Blue.  This is my first parallel of this card.  There are a few out there that I just have not grabbed yet.  

Donruss Optic Rated Rookie Signatures Navy Blue Stars.  Here's another of the Optic autograph parallels.

Topps Chrome Blue Wave Refractor.  Tough to beat the Topps Chrome parallels for good-looking parallels.  It certainly helps that they do have the MLB license.

Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs Refractor.  And finally, the last card of the post is this, which I was not aware existed.  Or rather, I kept forgetting about it.  I had the base version, but forgot about the normal refractor.

That's it for today, but there are more to come.