Monday, July 11, 2022

2022 Panini Diamond Kings

 

Let's take a look at this year's version of Panini Diamond Kings. The annual set features a mix of rookies, veterans and legends. I bought a blaster recently and this is one of the blaster packs.


56 - Freddie Freeman - I can't say I'm a big fan of the design. The side seems to be dirt colored while the bottom part beneath the player name is grass colored. I get what they were going for, but it just doesn't look attractive to me.


17 - Edd Roush - Kudos to Panini for finally including some different retired players for once. I don't think I've ever pulled an Edd Roush card before.


53 - Javier Baez - The backs of the card continue the dirt-and-grass theme. As with most Panini baseball cards these days, there isn't a lot to look at on the reverse.


116 - Gerrit Cole Artist's Proof - This one is a parallel with the Artist's Proof stamp on it.


MS-5 - Jose Altuve Modern Strokes - This insert has more of a paint canvas theme to it. Panini likes those double meanings.


101 - Jackie Robinson - Last up is Jackie Robinson, which means we didn't get any rookies in this pack. The rookie cards feature a few different designs, in tiers based on rarity. It's something they've been doing with the Court Kings NBA sets for years but had yet to implement on the baseball side. You can see a couple of the designs here.

Saturday, July 09, 2022

1995 Miller Brewing

A pack featuring the Miller Brewing company. The cards feature advertisements they put over through the years and the company's history on back of the card. Back then you can mail in 5X7 card along with five wrappers.

Here are the odds on the inserts you might possibly pull.

Here are the cards:

St. Patrick's ad. Back of the card talks about Miller brewing facilities all over the nation.

 Miller's 1984 Olympic Summer Games poster

A magazine ad from 1950s

One of many music tour ads. They mention sponsoring ZZ Top, Brooks and Dunn, and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant music tours on the back of the card,



This brewery is still in operation today in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
Got a Crystal Gallery insert card that runs in 1 out of 12 packs. This is nice!

Monday, July 04, 2022

2018 Topps Fire Rack Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone is enjoying the 4th of July weekend.  I'm the on call supervisor this weekend so that means I have to stay local and not party too much, just in case work stuff arises.  Since I have to be around, I decided to check into the APTBNL offices and put a post together.

If I'm right, this is my first post on July 4th and just the 5th post on America's birthday (the others were in 2009, 2012, 2016, and 2019...hmm, someone's gonna have to look into that 2009 post).  Since it's my first 4th of July post, I had to find something appropriate. 

Because fireworks, right?

I posted an exclusive gold parallel pack from 2018 Topps Fire a while back but it appears no one has gotten around to posting one of the rack packs, unless it wasn't tagged properly.  Let's correct this injustice and see what I got:


#200 - Sandy Koufax
#68 - Adrian Beltre

Always nice to start with a legend, although point deductions are applied for the type of font Topps is using for that Koufax...the K is too much like the X.


#132 - Greg Maddux
#181 - Juan Soto (RC)

2018 had a pretty solid rookie class...Juan Soto, Walker Buehler, Rhys Hoskins, Ozzie Albies, some dude in Anaheim whom folks claim can hit AND pitch...yeah, right!


#PP-6 - Aaron Judge (Power Producers Blue Chip Parallel)
#73 - Ernie Banks (Orange Parallel #68/299)

The back of the pack didn't give the odds of the Power Producers insert or it's Rack Pack parallel.  The Orange Banks looks real nice in hand.


#HS-8 - Corey Kluber (Hot Starts Blue Chip Parallel)
#87 - Yu Darvish (Blue Chip Parallel)

The Hot Starts Blue Chip Parallel was a 1 in 4 pack pull.  Each pack came with a Blue Chip base card.  


#98 - Hunter Renfroe
#73 - Ernie Banks

Ernie Banks hot pack!


#4 - Adam Duvall
#43 - Gary Sanchez

There's that font again...the D looks like an O and the V looks too much like a U.

Here's some backs because America:


The background colors on the Power Producers and Hot Starts cards are what their fronts should look like.

Anyway, that's the pack; not bad overall.  Here's the checklist if you need a reminder.  Happy 246th, America, and thanks for reading!