A blaster of 2019 Leather & Lumber

After an especially dispiriting Michigan loss this afternoon--one that I hope finally shocks the coaches into making some much-needed changes--I headed over to Meijer to grab a few things.  Armed with a gift card from a rebate plus 10% off I checked the card aisle and was happy to see a couple blasters of Panini's 2019 Leather & Lumber available.  I'd checked out a couple breaks and received a few cards in trades that piqued my interest, so why not?

These go for $21.99, though I got a couple bucks off that thanks to having 10% off with my rewards card.  The blaster came with the two packs of five cards you see above, and as you might have noticed up top you're guaranteed a hit.  The pack on the right was clearly thicker so I opened the other one first.  Here's what I pulled from each:

Pack #1 was 100% inserts, all of which look pretty cool to me.  Marte's is called Hit 'N Run and is the Gold parallel, #d 48/99.  Campy's is titled Slugfest and looks terrific too.  Next up is Maple & Ash, certainly highlighting the "lumber" part of the product, and the player I got is Colorado's Charlie Blackmon.  The last two are from an insert called Bat Patrol, and I got two all-time great pure hitters in Carew and Gwynn.

10 cards isn't much so I scanned the backs as well.  Here's the first pack:

The Gwynn is the lone keeper for me in the blaster, but the gamble was fun, and I like having some recent trade bait.  That's also my 650th card of Mr. Padre!

Pack #2 contained four base cards plus the promised hit.  I like the looks of these as well, especially compared to the original versions back in 2004 and 2005, the last time the name was applied to a standalone product (it had previously been used as an insert a few times).  The bat and glove backgrounds again live up to the set's name and make for a cool design.  The players I got were pretty good too, led by Trout.

Meanwhile, my guaranteed hit is a signature/manuball RC (#091/149) from the base set of Cards pitcher Dakota Hudson.  It's one of 51 such cards in the base set, the first one, in fact, at #101.  Hudson is among a pretty strong group that includes Juniors Vlad and Tatis, Pete Alonso, and others.  I've always liked the look of these "sweet spot" signatures so this was a nice get as my guaranteed hit, especially since Hudson one of St. Louis' first-rounders in 2016 and has had a very nice season in their rotation.  I'll be giving Kerry dibs on this and will make it available otherwise.

And here's the backs, in case anyone is interested.

Retail and boxes/packs in general aren't really my thing anymore but this was a fun one-off purchase.  I don't see myself going the unopened route with these in the future but may try to nab more items from the product, especially those cool die-cut cards, one of which you'll see in my next trade post soon!