2013 Press Pass Showcase (NASCAR)

This is my first post to A Pack to Be Named Later, so I thought I would do the very first pack I opened after I created my own blog, Cardboard History back in November. I mostly collect the NBA, NASCAR and some Non-Sports cards, and I like to talk about them...a lot.

Showcase was a Super Premium product, with a retail price of $225 a box, which is only three packs plus a one card bonus pack. Luckily, Dave & Adam's marked them down to $99, so I had to get one.

This was what came out of the very first pack I opened of the set, in it's 5th and final year of release-

The box is a fake leather/rubber with holofoil printing. It's kind of cool in it's own right. It kind of feels like a cross between a tire and a brand new leather shoe.

The pack itself is not all that impressive, but I doubt many people save them, as I do.

The very first card out of the box is an insert printed on clear acetate plastic. It would turn out there was one clear insert per pack.

The second card out turned out to be my favorite in the box. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been my driver since 1999, when my first favorite Ernie Irvan retired, and this dual relic is a nice one, with large pieces of firesuit and sheet metal.

The next card out of the pack was the only base card. Oddly enough I got Mark Martin. Somebody had sent me Mark's base card from the 2009 or 2010 set several years ago, I don't remember who or which set off the top of my head, but it was the only other Showcase base card in my collection.

The penultimate card is a subset and I happened to get Tony Stewart. The serially numbering on this one is hard to see, but each and every card in the set is numbered, with base cards being numbered to 349.

The last card out of the set is the parallel. Each pack had one parallel, and all three of mine in the box were the most common, gold parallel. The golds are numbered to 99. I was able to pick up a red numbered to 10 as a single a week after I got the box. Being a Dale Jr. parallel, I was happy.

And that was the first pack. I was overall happy with the pack, however I probably would not have been particularly happy with the box at $225. There simply aren't enough cards to make that price point justifiable to me.
If you'd like to see the other two packs, I detailed the entire box here. Fronts only, though.

Thanks for reading, and I'm looking forward to sharing more pack breaks with A Pack to Be Named Later in the future!
Billy

2014-15 Upper Deck MVP hockey

I have 39 scan folders for this site. Today, the randomizer picked the last folder in the directory - MVP hockey. Here's a set that has been around a few years (I can't find the exact number online), and is basically the Collector's Choice of Upper Deck. Especially since Upper Deck renamed Collector's Choice to MVP.

No Sid, Ovech, N-H, Hall or any or the standard that have been on packs. Post boy honors go to Evgeni Malkin. Pack looks nice with the colors matching the Pens sweaters. That won't last when we look at the cards, but let's just soak it in right now. Eight cards in the pack.

Oooaf!!! This is a set that needs to be retired. The designs are poor with far too large of frames around the images. And is that a Donruss racing stripe running through the middle?

As you see the racing stripe changes with the club. Works for the most part when the team has some yellow in their palate.

Not so much with blue.

Or red. This also is a silver signature parallel, which fall one per pack if I recall.

Nice idea for a subset, with the 3 stars for the week. The badge, though - yeeeesh!!! Make it smaller!

Yes, it's a Blackhawk. Even they can't make the base set work.

One last card to endure.

And the back.

I like the pronunciation guide under the player's name. Major points for that. Logos for the product and the team are too damn big. You will get more years of stats with more seasons in the league. Not sure if it's full career stats. None of my players have that much NHL experience.

Eh - it's a pack of cards. Nothing great.

2011-12 Upper Deck SP Authentic hockey

Back to the scan folder. Posting this pack will put me under forty packs to post. Of course, I have about 10 packs that have never seen the light of APTBNL, so I really have a long way to go. I should just hijack this blog for 2 months.

Anyway, randomizer fell on 2011-12 UD SP Authentic. I believe this was a LCS purchase. I'll stop dragging my feet and get to the scans.

Either Nugent-Hopkins or Hall on the pack. Remember when those two were going to save the Oilers? Well Edmonton, you need some defense and goaltending too, otherwise you are just the Nordiques before they moved to Denver. Five cards.

It's a similar design to the other SP releases. All seem to have the same feel. WAY TOO much foil, with the lines, the logo, the player name and team. Very geometric front.

White sweaters don't work well with this design,

Nor does purple, but purple doesn't work well with anything.

DEATH TO BETTMAN STRIPES!

Last card - no hit in the pack. Oh well. And the backs.

Far too much empty space. You couldn't maybe put 4 or five years worth of stats, then a career total? Shame on you, Upper Deck.

2014-15 Panini NBA Stickers

Stickers are what Panini has always done best, or at least done... Anyway, these still exist. I like stickers and I like sticker albums, but I don't quite like the NBA enough to put together an album. I am still working on a 1990 Panini MLB sticker album like a fool, but that's another story. I just buy these to look at a few of them and put the Blazers away in a binder for safekeeping.

308 - Dorell Wright - It's no coincidence that a Blazer is the first card out of the pack, and that's because I'm a PACK SEARCHER and you can see right through these things. I snagged the pack with the Blazers 10th Man (or 5th guy off the bench, essentially) who has been rather disappointing in his time with the team so far. He's a 3 point specialist on a team full of 3 point shooters and hasn't really distinguished himself as of yet. I surely sent some kid home crying to his mama because I stole the best pack in the box.

408 - Rockets vs. Pacers NBA Global Games Taipei 2013 - This is apparently a thing that happened once and Panini decided to commemorate it on a sticker. There must be a ton of stickers in this set, because NBA rosters are half the size of MLB rosters and this card is numbered higher than any Topps baseball set since the '90s.

317 - Utah Jazz Home Jersey - The first in a two-part series, apparently.

219 - Houston Rockets Logo (Foil) - Every good sticker album set has its foil cards, and these certainly have a look to them. I'm not sure what to say about it just yet.

342 - Blake Griffin (Foil) - Not pictured, the Kia that he must have jumped over. And the basket. And everything else. (Can a large basketball player actually fit in a Kia? No! Of course not!)

172 - Nikola Vucevic - For a few years, Nikola was the best Nikola in the NBA, but he now has a scrappy young Nikola Mirotic to contend with.

357 - Los Angeles Lakers Road Jersey - Gross! Normally I turn Lakers cards around so you aren't blinded by their awfulness, but the back of a Panini sticker is really nothing to look at. Still, I regret this tremendously.

2014 Panini Prizm football

Back to the randomizer, and out spits Panini Prizm football. This is almost a pack we don't need to post - think baseball, with licensing. But we should post it anyway, so let's see it.

When do we get to call Johnny Douchebag a bust? I live for that day. Until then, we see his mug on everything, everywhere. It's funny how retailers just jam crap down our throats we really don't like. It's the only explanation for this, and the Kardashians, among other stuff. But I have digressed - 4 cards.

Chrome Prizm without borders. The design is nothing fancy. The player name and team are easy to read.

I think that first card was an artsy thing, the image HORRIBLY centered and all. Spiller looks much nicer, both on the card and in a far better Bills uniform than years past.

Again - good centering. It's not a horrible set, but I don't collect football, so I have no real thoughts about it.

The usual recycled photo and career only stats, but this is a much better back from Panini. The team logo isn't too large like it usually is, the bio is well placed and the back has some life to it. So better when you flip them over.

Diecut hit. I could toss this like a throwing star and do some damage. Only on a heavy card stock could this sort of diecut survive without major damage. BTW - there's "hype" for this guy?

2013-14 Panini Prime hockey

I am not a high end box buyer. Heck, I rarely buy full boxes (something I plan to change this year). However, my wife has mad bingo skills, and won a round of BCK bingo a few months back at one of my LCSs pack wars. The winnings - your choice of boxes. So it was hard to pass on a high end offering like Panini Prime.

I threw away the box before I scanned it, so thanks Dave and Adam's for the screen cap. The pack within was a plain silver pack, so not worth showing. Seven cards in the box, four of them being hits. This is not a "did I get something" but "what did I pull". So let's have at it.

Do the math - 7 cards with 4 hits means you get three base. Here's what they look like. Decent layout, though really dark. Everything you can barely see is foil.

Thankfully, the Islanders got their sweaters right just before they move to Brooklyn.

This one scans better as it was a rainbow foil numbered to 10. On to the hits.

Nice two color swatch with a seem on this card of Nuberdeau. The design needs some work, though. That huge, out of place "DU" is because this is for the duel rookie class.

Nice triple swatch of Russian stars.

Quad swatch and on card auto of current Islander Brock Nelson. One swatch of orange with the 3 blues.

Not a Stars fan, but love this Prime Colors swatch of Kari Lehtonen. It's part of the number 2 from the sleeve that came off the old sweaters that were retired after the 2013 season.

This is an interesting set. It's the inside seam from the uniform, and these tend to be popular on ebay. Though, Jensen is not so great a pull as he only has 19 NHL games under his belt and is currently laboring in the AHL.

Here's the big hit of the box. Numbered to 3, it's a quad auto with a laundry tag in the upper right window. This was a meh pull, until the Dead Wings lost their top two goaltenders and Mrazek finally got his chance in net. He's doing well, currently with a 9-3 record in 13 appearances.

2008-09 Upper Deck MVP hockey

The NHL All Star game (and their super ugly sweaters) goes off tomorrow. The randomizer fell upon this pack of hockey, so the timing is pretty good.

Straight forward pack, and somehow Crosby isn't the poster boy. The previous year happened to be Iginla's career high in points, so he deserved the honor. 8 cards in the pack.

Design is ok. We have the silver signature on it. Logos and names in foil.

A bit of a step down when you think of UD photography. And man, those were some ugly Oilers uniforms.

Black for blacks sake.

Boo-ya! Though, it is Burish, who is now back in Chicago, but with the AHL Wolves.

Front and back of the last base in the pack. Full career stats on the back, along with a short bio.

Man - UD just loves to punish me with Dead Wing inserts. 

Nice pull with a Winter Classic card. But being printed prior to the game, the photo is of a standard sweater.

Not sure if I lucked out with 2 Winter Classic cards or what. I should complete this insert set.