Sunday, April 28, 2019

Panini HOF Class of 2019

At the Ravens draft party the Hall of Fame had a table since Ed Reed is getting inducted this year.  They were giving away packs of cards each pack contains 8 cards one of each being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August 2019.  See below for pictures of the pack and each card and the back of the cards.




Friday, April 26, 2019

2019 Topps Opening Day Rack Pack

Greetings...

Still trying to sort while job hunting, so here's that rack pack of Opening Day I referred to back when I posted the retail pack.


There's 200 cards in the set, and here's the checklist for those interested.  Here's the pics of the cards I got:


#14 - Rick Porcello
#163 - Will Smith
#98 - Ozzie Albies

Folks have talked about the collation issues in Series 1.  As of now, I've bought 3 of these rack packs and the 1 retail pack I showed off before.  The Easter Bunny also hooked me up with a 3 pack.  So that's a total of 101 cards (foreshadowing).  I have 24 doubles.  An entire rack pack.  No bueno, Topps.


#158 - Gregory Polanco
#65 - Albert Pujols

Both of these guys are on one of my fantasy teams.  That team is 11th out of 12 teams.  I keep picking up Pujols thinking he'll produce, like he's still Cardinals Pujols.


#143 - Sean Manaea
#53 - Carlos Correa
#145 - Luis Severino

Yes, the cards appear out of order, but the Opening Day rack packs don't put their horizontal cards all in a row like flagship, so I got creative.


#26 - Zack Godley
#179 - Jake Arrieta
#54 - Mike Foltynewicz

Here are the inserts.  Oh yeah, my other 2 rack packs had the same 3 inserts in them.  Grrrrrrr.....


#YOF-7 - Sandy Koufax (150 Years of Fun)
#M-11 - Diamondbacks Mascot
#ODB-TBJ - Opening Day in Toronto

The 150 Years of Fun come 1 in 2 packs.  The Mascots are 1 in 2 packs as well.  Maybe I got some Super Short Print of D. Baxter wearing a baseball fez.

If I read the pack right, the Opening Day insert comes 1 in 7 packs.


#29 - David Dahl
#135 - Matt Chapman
#189 - Michael Conforto
#149 - Todd Frazier


#82 - Jonathan Villar
#92 - David Peralta
#113 - Edwin Diaz
#103 - Mitch Garver

Sorry for the bad camera angle, which makes some of the cards look like they're faded.


#121 - Orlando Arcia
#83 - Kole Calhoun

We end on a cool Kole Calhoun bat flip.  Here are the backs


 Bonus card:


#178 - Touki Toussaint (RC)

The 3 pack included a purple parallel, although the pack says "3 Packs Plus 3 Exclusive Cards Inside!"  Geez, another lazy error by Topps.  Not a bad looking card in hand.

Anyway, that's the pack.  Have a good weekend everyone, and thanks for reading!

Sunday, April 21, 2019

2019 Topps Series 1 Rack Pack

Greetings...

Hope everyone enjoyed the Easter weekend.  I wanted to file my 2019 Topps Series 1 cards, so before the Easter festivities began in earnest, I took some pics of the cards in the best of the 3 rack packs I've picked up over the last few weeks.


Come to think of it, this may have been the first rack pack I bought.  Anyway, here are the cards, all quick-like:


#349 - Kyle Schwarber
#262 - Mitch Moreland
#131 - Mark Trumbo
#250 - Shohei Ohtani


#210 - Kris Bryant
#164 - Billy Hamilton
#177 - Kohl Stewart (RC)
#38 - Kolby Allard (RC)

Schwarber, Ohtani, and Bryant in the first 8 cards ain't too shabby.  Here come the horizontals:


#180 - Justin Turner
#241 - James Paxton
#73 - Jon Gray
#26 - Angels Stadium


#47 - Yankee Stadium
#245 - Rogers Centre
#276 - Nolan Arenado

Stadium cards are cool.  They would seem to be perfect for Opening Day with the Mascots.


#150-104 - Ichiro (150 Years of Professional Baseball - Greatest Seasons)
#237 - Seth Lugo (Rainbow Foil)
#150-115 - Steve Carlton (150 Years of Professional Baseball - Greatest Seasons) #55/150
#211 - Jeimer Candelario

Just 3 inserts in the rack pack.  The 150 Years of Professional Baseball come 1 in 4 packs.  The rainbow foil come 1 in 2 packs.  The 150th foil stamp version of the 150 Years of Professional Baseball subset come 1 in 247 packs if I read the odds right.


#202 - Sweet Life - Los Angeles Dodgers
#302 - Jose Berrios
#103 - Sean Manaea
#15 - J.P. Crawford

#23 - J.D. Martinez (League Leaders)
#7 - Gleyber Torres
#10 - Clayton Kershaw
#39 - Richard Urena

Still not a fan of the current League Leaders format.


#129 - Kenley Jansen
#184 - Ken Giles
#122 - Zach Davies
#320 - Ronald Guzman (Future Stars)


#2 - Tyler Anderson
#120 - Robert Gsellman
#342 - Wilmer Difo

There we go.  Here's some backs because Easter:


Anyway, that's the pack.  Now I can finish filing.  Boy does the collation stink.  Thanks for reading!

Friday, April 19, 2019

2018-19 Panini Status Value Pack


Happy Friday, everyone! It's playoff time*! Let's check out some brand new basketball cards!


84 - Blake Griffin - Panini's Status debuted last season if I'm not mistaken, and I never saw a trace of it at the retail level. It kind of bites old-school SkyBox (think 1991-92) but without the laser basketball tracers.


41 - Hassan Whiteside - Here's a look at the card backs. They're certainly more colorful than normal, except the photo, which has some weird newsprint black and white filter on it. They use the same photo on the back as the front, which is a very Panini thing.


98 - Jaylen Brown - I wonder if Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum ever talk about the Y's in their first names.


56- George Hill - George Hill has been around the block of late. He's on his fourth team in three seasons, although he's probably pretty content with playing for the team with the league's best record now, even in a reserve role.


70 - Damian Lillard - It's Dame! He's basically the mayor of Portland. Well, he's the figurative mayor. Our literal mayor is, well... our local government is kind of a mess.


27 - Tobias Harris - In a strange turn this season, the Clippers traded away their (arguably) most productive player and still made the playoffs. His new team, the Sixers, had him doing spot duty at center last night because Joel Embiid is hurt.


51 - Dwyane Wade - This season was Wade's farewell tour, which means next season will be his farewell tour on basketball cards. And probably the season after that. Just look at Kobe.


9 - De'Aaron Fox - If I was De'Aaron Fox, I would insist on being called "THE Aaron Fox" because I'm weird.


67 - Kyle Kuzma - Some non-LeBron Laker.


7 - Mike Conley / Jaren Jackson Jr. / Marc Gasol Factions - The rest of the pack is all shiny/holo reflective, starting with this Grizzlies-themed insert card.


156 - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - All of the rest of the cards, save for one, are rookies. They also have a different design look. I suspect there's no non-holo version of these?


46 - Kevin Love some sort of parallel - This looks to be some sort of purple/pink parallel, but according to Cardboard Connection, the fat packs either have "aqua" or "red" parallels? Is this red?


168 - Donte DiVincenzo - In a truly villainous move by Panini, apparently cards 101 through 150 are rookies only available at Walmart. And then 151 through 200 are rookies (different photos, but the same guys) only available at Target.


163 - Jevon Carter - This is where I should mention that I bought this pack at Fred Meyer, which is not Target or Walmart. It's a smaller, mostly Pacific NW chain owned by Kroger. I've seen so-called Target exclusives there before, like Topps Fire baseball.


188 - Kevin Huerter - Rookie photos are so cool.

*for like the next two months

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

1984 Topps Baseball

A blast to the past with a pack from 35 years ago. The key card out of this is Don Mattingly.
I got five runs. I need 20 more to send in for one of those All-Star cards and get entered in 1985 All-Star game contest.
125 - Britt Burns - played 6 full seasons with 1985 as his final season. Hip injury cut his career short.
334 - Chuck Rainey - sunset card
528 - Mark Brouhard
652 - Rudy May - sunset card as 1983 his final season
225 - Lee Mazzilli
56 - Gary Allenson
110 - Ron Guidry - lead the league in complete games with 21, a number that will never be reached in the current era.
556 - Jim Bibby - third sunset card of this pack
621 - Frank Howard - replaced George Bamberger and finished the season as manager. It's last time he managed MLB team.
617 - Rick Cerone
514 - Floyd Rayford
332 - Kevin Gross
328 - Vern Ruhle
723 - Rich Dauer
227 - Steve Braun - the card with a gum stain and its surprisingly not bad unlike what I seen.

And one more thing....
The gum and its still intact!