Christmas in July (part III)

This is the thrilling conclusion of my Christmas In July break - and unlike Hollywood, I'm not going to split the final part of the trilogy in half. Here's my two-box break of 2018 Panini Classics:

A week or so prior to this purchase, I lamented that hobby boxes of Classics cost over $100. Jon Pennysleeves and I are both fans of the chrome-style parallels and, since he's the reason I'm even aware of this set, I was hoping to pull a few legends for him.

Unfortunately it's not possible to pull those Optichrome parallels out of retail packs. But at just $9.99 per blaster, there's still plenty of value to be found. Let's get crackin':

Box I, Pack I:

Boom! Right of of the gate we have two Brett Favre cards I needed, including an Eras insert. That brings my Favre count to 709 - not counting two more sitting in my COMC inventory.

Box I, Pack II:

This one starts off weak but ends with four HOFers including Roger Wehrli (misspelled on the front). I like the way Panini divided this set into thirds: cards #1-100 are current players, #101-200 are retired greats, and #201-300 are rookies. Short-printed, of course.

Box I, Pack III:

The wrapper lists non-base odds at 1:2 packs. I actually like the Ray Guy more than the Zeke insert. (Punters are players, too!) Have to admit I'd never heard of Mike Wagner before pulling this card. Those Seahawks uniforms look like they're relics of the WLAF. 

Box I, Pack IV:

This pack had a little bit of everything - a Packer, a trio of HOFers, a couple of future HOFers, a short-printed RC (which will probably go to Dennis if he needs it) and a blue back parallel RC #d/175. Very cool.

Box I, Pack V:

The Big Ben Composers insert is the highlight here, but I'm partial to the Tomlinson and Flutie. My younger self used to jokingly refer to Rayfield Wright as Ray Right Field.

Box I, Pack VI:

Oooh a relic! I was not expecting that (even though the box clearly states that I should.) The Cowboy QBs are the big names here, but the only base card of interest to me is the Gilbert Brown.

 Box I, Pack VII:

This pack was all passers and pass-catchers. I like the Warfield in particular. (War Paulfield doesn't work as well lol)

Box I, Pack VIII:

Another rookie card, a black & white Raymond Berry, and another Packers legend. Don Majkowski wouldn't be considered a "legend" to most fans but he had a monster 1989 season and he passed the torch to Brett Favre after a 1992 injury. I'm happy to see him resurface in recent sets.

Now let's see what's inside the second box...

Box II, Pack I:

Brady and Big Ben on a "Classic Clashes" insert is the key card here, but I'm no fan of either guy so I'll add it to the tradebait pile.

 Box II, Pack II:

Another Big Ben, a nice John Hannah, and...a Lamar Jackson RC! That might be the best card of the break.

Here's a closer look at that Lamar:

It's gonna be tough to beat that one in the next six packs.

 Box II, Pack III:

Hmm. I feel like I've seen those first three cards before. Also the High Praise insert is a bit disappointing. Not because it's Lawrence Taylor, but because the "praise" comes from LT himself. Lame.

Box II, Pack IV:

It's practically impossible to get a "bad" pack out of this product. Even though there's nothing I'm drawn to here, it still contains a RC and a pair of legendary quarterbacks.

 Box II, Pack V:

Another Composers insert of a Steelers signal-caller, and an Eric Dickerson for my PC. I think I had a Larry Little rookie card back in the day.

Box II, Pack VI:

The Manning and Moore are nice, and what are the odds that I'd pull another relic of a LSU alum?

 Box II, Pack VII:

A Brady dupe, a Barry Sanders, and another Packers legend. Here's an interesting fact (to me, at least) I pulled five out of the six Packers legends in the set; only Paul Hornung eluded me. Yet I didn't pull any of the four current Packers.

 Box II, Pack VIII:

The final pack was heavy on Rams legends, and also contained the sixth RC of the break. As much as I like this set I won't be attempting to complete it, for two reasons. One is the short-printed rookie cards. (I would need 94 more!)

The second reason is that the collation of current player cards was not in my favor. 

Far too many dupes here. The strange thing is, I didn't get a single dupe out of the legends subset. I can't complain, though. I got two new Brett Favre cards, a nice stack of base cards, a pair of relics, and some solid tradebait for only $20.  Can't beat that.

Thanks for reading!

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Christmas In July (part II)

If you missed part one of my Christmas In July break, that's probably because I posted it on Independence Day. Here's part two:

While everyone was ripping into packs of the brand-new 2019 Stadium Club, I was opening two blasters of last year's edition. This is a trend I started with Upper Deck hockey, where I buy retail wax of the previous year's products at a discounted price. At $14.95 a box these were the most expensive cards I purchased. Let's get to the goods, pack by pack:

Box I, Pack I:

Meh. Cozart shares my birthday and Doctor K was on my wantlist, so that's something.

Box I, Pack II:

That's better. I had the Han-Ram and Godley already, but the Bo is nice and Gallo is kinda cool.

Box I, Pack III:

A pair of Sox and a Salvador Perez red parallel. Not too shabby.

Box I, Pack IV:

 The Trout Special Forces is the best card by far, but Eck and X are nice additions as well.

 Box I, Pack V:

Kinda meh here, too. The Elvis and Mauer are nice. Springer should have been in the next pack...

Box I, Pack VI:

 ...because it's very Houston-heavy here. I dig that sharp-looking Altuve insert.

Box I, Pack VII:

Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Mr. October is the highlight here. The Pham is nice. Ender Inciarte always makes me think of Minecraft. Carrasco was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Hopefully he'll be able to make a full recovery and return to the mound soon.

Box I, Pack VIII:

For some reason Sandy Alcantara is card #1 in this set (I thought the set might be alphabetical by last name but nope.) The Big Unit and Big Hurt are nice pulls. I don't know if I like the Cleveland Indians throwback jersey or not. Your thoughts?


Before I start the second box I just want to point out the fact that Topps put enough effort into the packaging that there are action photos on three of the four sides:

I might even save one of these for my small Kris Bryant collection. Anyway.. back to the cards:

Box II, Pack I:

Laser Show! This Dustin Pedroia parallel isn't the most valuable card in the break, but the fact that I got one red parallel in each box and one of those two happened to be a funny card of my favorite player, well..that's some good mojo IMO.

Box II, Pack II:

This is the most valuable card in the break. I had no idea what to make of the Mark McGwire at first; my reaction upon pulling this was "Coool! What is it?" Apparently it's a sepia parallel, inserted at a rate of 1:8 packs. So maybe it's not as rare or valuable as I thought (why didn't I get one in the first box?)

Box II, Pack III:

No, wait..this is the most valuable card in the break - not that I really care about Beckett value anymore. The Gary Sanchez Power Zone parallel is the toughest pull at 1:192 (retail) packs. It's all downhill from here, folks.

Box II, Pack IV:

Solid pack here. The Larkin was on my wantlist. The Rizzo insert has a typo on the back.

Box II, Pack V:

Quick -- name the best card in this pack. Give up? It's a trick question. 

Box II, Pack VI:

Some nice photography here. I feel like TSC could have chosen a better slugger than Justin Upton for their Power Zone insert set though.

Box II, Pack VII:

I did not get enough legends in this break; I was hoping for Bob Gibson or Hank Aaron, but I'll take a Bench. McGwire doesn't really count as a legend, but it's sort of interesting that both Big Macs were the second card in their respective packs.

Box II, Pack VIII:

In the final pack we have Thor, a nice Harrison Bader RC, and a pair of Yankees. Interestingly (to me at least) the last card in the break - Matsui - is also the last card in the set.


I now have 127 of the 300 cards in the set, so I might as well take a shot at finishing this thing. if you have any extras to spare, or if you're interested in any of the inserts (aside from Altuve and Trout) drop me a comment or an email and let me know.


Thanks for reading!


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Independence Day Packs

I had a little Christmas in July celebration yesterday. The pack-ripping itch got the best of me and I ordered a few discounted 2018 blasters from Blowout Cards. Two of them were beat-up boxes of 2018 Topps Series two, which yielded these bonus packs..

I also got a couple fat packs of 2015 Prizm football, which contained a 3-card pack of Red, White, & Blue Prizms.

The regular packs contained these cards:

 I never liked Deion Sanders, but I love those old Falcons uniforms.

The Prizm parallel is always the third card.

The rookie is always the fourth/last card. No Packers in these packs :(


I don't know where Jon Pennysleeves ran off to, but I picked a pair of Panini Classics blasters because he's raved about the set. I'll wait to discuss those until he's around. 


Back to the 2018 Topps blasters. I was able to add 40 cards to my set build - and a whole bunch of tradebait inserts.

Judges, including two blue Judges. 

Future Stars, including a pair of Julio Urias.

Legends in the Making. The Washington delegation was strong here (hold that thought). I got two Michael Conforto - a blue and a black - but no base. That's kind of interesting.

1983 Topps inserts, including a pair of Sox, a blue Gary Sanchez (not SN #/d) and a black Richard Urena (SN #/d to 299.)

Another Raffy Devers, another Ohtani, and a Cutch Home Run Challenge. If it seems like I have a lot of inserts here, that's because there were either two or three in every pack. Is that normal? I always forget.

Here's the rest of the inserts. There were 13 Yankees, including all 8 Aaron Judges. Not counting those, there were still too many Yanks. Especially Gray and Chapman :/


Would you like to see what was in the two Independence Day packs at the top of this post?


Here's that manufactured patriotism in all its old glory:

Yep, I pulled two Ryan Zimmermans (Zimmermen?) And the "patch" on the second card is a little off-center. #Murica


I've got a bunch of blog posts in the works, including part two of my Christmas In July break, so whatever escapes my brain first will be posted this Saturday. 

Have a happy (and safe) Fourth of July everyone! Go watch Stranger Things!

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