2010 Topps WWE Platinum

I'm back with yet another wrasslin' pack of cards to rip! I believe this is Topps' first foray into the higher end market for wrestling cards. Ever since I saw the pre-sell sheet for this product @ Blowout Cards I was on the fence. While I do enjoy watching wrestling on TV each year I just wasn't sure I wanted to pay close to $60 for a hobby box of this product. When I came across some retail packs @ Target I decided to grab a few to get a feel for the cards. I'll post the result of the other packs on my blog soon. For now however let's rip open a pack and see what we get.

Again John Cena is Topps' poster child for WWE product.  Each retail pack contains 5 foil cards.  Note the blurb that cards are written by Michael Cole.  More on that later.

#9 Gail Kim

One of the current WWE Divas.
 

#90 Skip Sheffield

This card has a refractor like sheen and is printed on thicker card stock.  It's not sequentially numbered and I don't see anything about this card on the back of the pack.  Perhaps a one per pack parallel?

Former (?) member of the Nexus.  Don't get me started about his nickname on his vest...

 

#PP-16 The Hart Dynasty - Platinum Performance (1:4 packs)

Similar to the previous card this insert has a rainbow foil on both the front and back of the card.

#89 Vader
Or Big Van Vader as I remember him from his WCW days.  Notice how the paragraph starts.  "Michael Cole says..."  The WWE commentator wrote the back of each card in the set.  Love 'em or hate 'em I enjoyed reading the backs of each card.  While not every card offered new information to me I thought they were well written none the less.


#10 Iron Sheik
Like with past WWE products this set mixes the old with the new.  Notice the classic yet altered logo just above the name.  At least from the numbering it appears the hall of fame personalities are mixed in w/ the current talent instead of being lumped together at the end of the set as was the case with the base set.

To sum things up - I ended up ordering a hobby box of this product after my first pack preview.  While I wasn't overly excited about the very similar Platinum design used for this years football set - it works for wrestling cards for some odd reason.  It doesn't feel high end to me, but it is head and shoulders above the base WWE set released earlier this year.  There are several tiers of parallels to chase along with a few insert sets and a good autograph checklist.  I'm sure I'll write up a box break post once my shipment arrives so make sure to drop by Cardboard Collections for more WWE goodies!

1995 Pinnacle Series 2

Ah, the mid-'90s. One of my favorite subjects. Museum Collection! Red Hot! Artist's Proof! White Hot! New Blood! None of those inserts and/or parallels will be found here. Instead... some other cards.

241 - Jeff Blauser (Jeff, Jeff, bo-beff, banana-fana fo-feff, fee-fi-mo-meff. Jeff!)

312 - Jose Offerman (Jose, Jose, bo-bose, banana-fana fo-fose, fee-fi-mo-mose. Jose!)

279 - Shawn Green Swing Men (Shawn, Shawn, bo-bawn, banana-fana fo-fawn, fee-fi-mo-mawn. Shawn!)

287 - Manny Ramirez Swing Men (This one's fun. Manny, Manny, bo-banny, banana-fana fo-fanny, fee-fi-mo-anny. Manny!)

272 - Barry Bonds (Barry, Barry, bo-barry, banana-fana fo-farry, fee-fi-mo-marry. Barry!)

419 - Gabe White (Gabe, Gabe, bo-babe, banana-fana fo-fabe, fee-fi-mo-mabe. Gabe!)

414 - Russ Davis (Russ, Russ, bo-buss, banana-fana fo-fuss, fee-fi-mo-muss. Russ!)

368 - Carl Everett (Carl, Carl, bo-barl, banana-fana fo-farl, fee-fi-mo-marl. Carl! I DON'T BELIEVE IN DINOSAURS!)

436 - Kent Mercker (Kent, Kent, bo-bent, banana-fana fo-fent, fee-fi-mo-ment. Kent!)

374 - Dennis Martinez (Dennis, Dennis, bo-bennis, banana-fana fo-fennis, fee-fi-mo-mennis. Dennis!)

342 - Eddie Murray (Eddie, Eddie, bo-beddie, banana-fana fo-feddie, fee-fi-mo-meddie. Eddie!)

358 - Steve Karsay (Steve, Steve, bo-beve, banana-fana fo-feve, fee-fi-mo-meve. Steve!)

1986 Topps Mini Leaders

From shiny and new to tiny and old - that's how we roll here at APTBNL. Here's a pack of 1986 Topps minis, featuring 6 Picture Cards and one card without a picture offering the owner a chance to win a trip to Spring Training in 1987.

21 - Lonnie Smith (The design, of course, is based on the team leaders cards from the base set of the same year.)

5 - Dwight Evans

54 - Juan Samuel (Samuel finished 5th in the NL in steals with 53 in 1985.)

11 - Carlton Fisk (The Sox had some strange uniforms during this era. I don't think of Carlton Fisk as one of the all-time great sluggers, but he did hit 37 HRs in '85.)

45 - Orel Hershiser (This was before Orel's scoreless innings streak. All he did in 1985 was pitch 5 shutouts with a 2.03 ERA - which was only good for third best in each category.)

35 - Jimmy Key

2010 Bowman Platinum Retail Baseball

Today on this Snowy day in New York there isn't much to do but open some packs up and clean the home. I don't know much about this product, but it's worth a shot to open a pack up and see how we do. These packs have 4 cards in them.

Front of the pack.

#66- Ike Davis RC

#3- Felix Doubront RC

#48- Adrian Gonzalez

#PP4- Jesus Montero Platinum Prospect Card.

I'm not sure how many rookies your supposed to get in these packs, but I think I did well. I didn't pull a huge name rookie card, but I'm happy with the Montero being the Yankee fan I am. I'm hoping he comes up either this season or next season. The cards are very shiny but the Platinum Prospect card is a little thicker than the others or it just has a much thicker coating on it. Cool looking cards. 

2010 Donruss Elite Hobby Football

I picked up a pack of 2010 Donruss Elite Football. Not huge into Donruss Elite because I just feel that you never really get your bang for your buck. These packs only come with 5 cards. They are always very shiny cards. I saw a few packs busted so i'm hoping maybe we can pull something nice out of this one. 

Front of the pack shows Tim Tebow. I'm wishing him lots of luck in the nfl!

#99- Clinton Portis.

#57- Visanthe Shiancoe.

#15- Steve Smith.

#69- Jerricho Cotchery.

#92- Carnell "Cadillac" Williams.

Another poor pack that i've opened on this site. Sorry about the boring read. I'm actually now out of packs so i'll have to go out and find some new ones for you all. All of these cards are very shiny with the red and silver foil card stock which looks kinda cool. We didn't pull anything nice today though. I guess the Williams card is the best of the bunch. No rookies which is always a let down to me. But we tried! 

2007 Upper Deck Series 1

Thanks to the wildly popular demand of last year's 2007 Upper Deck pack, I figured I'd give it another shot. This time, it's all about Series 1. Let's see if we can do better than last year's Series 2 effort.

155 - Jason Kubel (I couldn't pick Kubel out of a police lineup consisting of AL Central players, but he had that one good year that prompted me to add him to my fantasy league teams again last year.)

409 - Ian Snell (Another victim of the Pirates Prospect Curse.)

92 - Javier Vazquez (Vazquez has been well-traveled of late.)

236 - John McDonald (I don't know who this is at all.)

UD-SR - Scott Rolen Game Materials Jersey (Success! This pack came from a repack box, folks, and it contained a relic... a Cardinals one at that! That's my team!)

484 - Vernon Wells Team Checklist (Wells admirably tried to make up for his dismal performance to contract ratio last year by gaining his first All-Star appearance since 2006.)

369 - Chris Capuano (Annnnnnd this happened.)

1995 Pacific Series 2

Often times I'll find that cards or a certain set will look a lot better in person than on the internet. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. What seems to be more rare is when something will actually look better online than in hand. I think this is one of those cases. The cards look really tacky and cheaply made, but with the full-bleed photos they hold up fairly well if you're just looking at some small images on a computer monitor.

447 - Paul Molitor

323 - Bobby Witt

113 - Deion Sanders (Street Fighter soundtrack? Who knew?)

143 - Steve Reed (Love the photo, but it's a little blurry.)

163 - Lou Whitaker

193 - Shane Reynolds

223 - Jose Offerman (Speaking of Street Fighter...)

243 - Turner Ward (This is where the true horror of Pacific Trading Cards is revealed.)

273 - Larry Walker (The Expos were apparently into maximizing the usage of the back of the jersey space or something.)

303 - Mike Stanley

64 - Tim Salmon

94 - Jack McDowell

On the back of the wrapper (not pictured) is a special offer to send any combination of 28 '95 wrappers from any of the 6 officially licensed MLB card companies plus $2 to receive an 18-card "National Packtime" set. It's amazing to think that there once was 6 licensed companies. Did anyone ever do this redemption? The mid-'90s are fascinating to me.