2014 Topps Heritage Retail

I've purchased next to no 2014 baseball products this year and instead I've been focusing on Packers autographs and more Packers autographs. I'm slowly loading them up on Sports Card Album if you are interested in seeing what I've recently picked up. 

My embargo only lasted through the end of May as I finally picked up a pack of Heritage when nothing else struck my interest at Target. Instead of doing the standard pack review I took a look through the 1965 Topps set and did my best to find the card that is being emulated by the 2014 Topps Heritage card. As you'll see sometimes this worked out well and sometimes you'll have to use a little bit of your imagination to see the resemblance between the two cards. And thanks to COMC.com as they were the resource for the photos of the 1965 cards. 

We start with Matt Holiday's card who has a twin in Dick Groat's card from 1965. This one is a pretty spot on match except that "Cardinals" has to get jammed onto the pennant when "Cards" was used in 1965.

The backs are the same great blue color from the original set. 

Next we have A.J. Griffin and his counterpart Ken Harrelson from the then Kansas City Athletics. None of the Athletics pitchers showed their glove in the 1965 set so I just had to go with a "staring at the camera" similarity.

These next three cards have players from the Nationals, Rays, and Marlins which are all teams that didn't exist in 1965. For these I tried to find matches in the color scheme and found some odd matches. 

The orange pennant and grey background was also used on the Orioles, the yellow pennant and pink background was also used on the Yankees cards, and lastly the white pennant and red background are shared with the Cubs 

These two stern looking gentlemen have the exact same facial expression separated by 49 years.

I enjoy how the "Saltalamacchia" card ends up being paired with an nearly as difficult last name "Amalfitano." 

This one turned out the best...if only the away and home jerseys could have been reversed on one of the cards.

In trying to match Konerko's swinging pose I could find very few that showed the completed swing. Although the swings are different the backgrounds are very close including some shrubbery between Dave Nicholson's hands and the pennants. 

Someday will we think of Paul Goldschmidt, Jay Bruce, and Freddie Freeman in the same way we think of Willie Mays, Ken Boyer, and Ron Santo? Probably not but it must be fun to be on a card like this.

The back gives you a lot of information...like the top 56 RBI leaders in the National League. That kind of thing would never be on the 2014 Topps flagship set.

My last card is a Sandy Koufax Flashbacks '65 insert commemorating Koufax's perfect game against the Cubs.

This sort of card didn't exist in the original set so instead I'll just show you Sandy's 1965 Topps card. 

2013-14 Panini Prizm Basketball Retail

Hey, Prizm isn't bad looking when it's a sport where Panini actually has a license to show team names and logos. I got this as part of some sort of basketball repack awhile back.

163 - Kyle Lowry - Lowry is one of the more underrated players in the league. This point guard was a big reason that the Raptors were able to make a playoff run this year.

121 - Terrence Ross - A Portland native and also a Raptor.

84 - Serge Ibaka - Ibaka's offensive improved by leaps this season. Leaps, but probably not bounds.

147 - Kevin Durant Green Prizm - This green refractor-looking thing should be a nice trade bait piece.

9 - Isaiah Canaan HRX - So, I was promised 4 cards and ended up getting 5, though this one appears to be from another product entire. For all I know this might be normal and they might just be trying to cross-promote these HRX cards. They come with a QR code on the back that you can scan with a mobile phone which leads to you installing some app where you can view video clips of the player. I haven't tried it with this particular card as I have no idea who this rookie is.

2014 Bowman

Bowman hit the shelves for the first time this year a little less than a month ago. I have to say that I always appreciate Bowman when it comes out but get totally sick of it before I even get ahold of the Cardinals team set that I seek year after year.

100 - Clayton Kershaw - I pretty much never get the first pick in any given fantasy draft even though I participate in four leagues a year, not coincidentally the maximum number Yahoo allows to any given account. I was starting to get nervous about Kershaw when he got injured in his first start, but he seems to be okay now aside from one disastrous start.

214 - Yasiel Puig - Back to back Dodgers is not how I wanted to start things out, but I never have a problem getting rid of their cards.

BP74 - John Gant Prospects - I have to say that I like this year's design as well as the Prospects design, if not for any other reason but the foil team logo. Really, no other foil is needed. Especially the player name. Foil makes names hard to read. Foil makes great logos, though.

BP86 - Victor Payano Prospects - The name Payano makes me think of the scam that got rock and pop artists significant exposure on the radio by way of cold hard cash back in the day. And probably now. I don't think anyone really listens to the radio anymore, though.

BP97 - Miller Diaz Prospects State and Hometown - It's a parallel of an insert... I think?

BCP110 - Joe Wendle Chrome Prospects - The Chrome versions aren't especially elegant this year. There's definitely no foil.

BCP52 - Hunter Renfroe Chrome Prospects - As with every year, I haven't heard of these prospects. It feels like there's a lot of prospects in these packs.

38 - Torii Hunter - I know him.

200 - Bryce Harper - I wish I didn't know him.

172 - J.R. Murphy - The backs look all Bowmany.

2007 Topps Series 2 Retail (blaster box pack)

It was on a recent trip to Kmart - yes, that store of bad press and worse stock share values - that I picked up a discounted blaster of 2007 Topps Series 2. Why this blaster in particular? Two words: relic fishing. This blaster's odds were decently promising. I must say, I was both impressed and depressed by what I found.

2007 would be Dave Wells' last season in the big leagues. The lefthander would go on to play against the Padres as a Dodger in his last few games.

Al Cora is also out of the majors. Cora signed with 5 different teams in his last three years after leaving the Sox. Note the upper left corner of this card:

 before taking a look at the next one...



...

...

...

Oh dear. Though it is a relic, I wasn't exactly holding my breath for a dinged swatch card of Vernon Wells. Maybe I should sell this card off to the Angels or the Yankees...

For what it's worth, Vernon had a monster season in 2006 (he hit .303/.357/.542 and tallied 32 home runs). If I were busting this pack back in '07, I might have been able to flip this card, along with my Kmart stock. Assuming, of course, that these corners got mangled sometime around Christmas 2009.

This one ends with a whimper. Note that all four cards had dinged corners, and depicted guys who are out of baseball in 2014.

Card back? Why not?

2012 Bowman Chrome Retail

One pack of 2012 Bowman Chrome Retail for $1.50 at Target...I've been toying with the idea of giving up on buying the standard flagship sets each year and just buy Chrome packs instead when those are released typically in the late summer. This particular pack is just a retail version so it only has three cards inside.

We start with a nice Tim Hudson refractor which looks a bit blue after scanning it. He is still plugging along and is currently the active pitcher with the most wins at 209 currently as I write this. 

#17 Tim Hudson Refractor

Next up we have Desmond Jennings who was named the American League Player of the Week this past week...and interestingly the winner of the award gets a watch as a prize. 

#114 Desmond Jennings

The last of my three cards is of Mets prospect Marcos Camarena...his 1st Bowman Chrome card. He's currently pitching in single A ball and seems to be a ways away from making it to the majors. 

#BCP203 Marcos Camarena

2014 Topps Stickers

Topps Stickers are back once again. A pack can be had for a buck. I think the albums cost $2. I'm still trying to put together a Panini sticker from almost 25 years ago, so I won't be starting down this path any time soon.

53 - Adam Dunn - There's a whole lotta Dunn and not much room left for backdrop.

13 - Will Middlebrooks - Speaking of not much room left, the Red Sox recent signing of Stephen Drew most likely leaves Middlebrooks on the outs. He's not hitting much better than his shoe size these days, you see.

308 - Uhh, I don't know... a puzzle piece of a mob of angry beardos?

30 - Wil Myers

207 - Stephen Strasburg - Remember Strasburgmania? Now he's just merely a really good pitcher. Card collectors hate pitchers once they aren't rookies anymore. I don't understand it.

90 - TC Bear - I don't know what's more frightening, the diabolical/happy look on this mascots face or the extremely weird inset of his cartoon likeness.

264 - Baxter the Bobcat - AHHHH! What in fresh hell is this?! This looks like some creepy furry wearing a pimp suit.

102 - Matt Dominguez - And we end it with an Astro. Still the laughingstock of the league, but they have stepped up their uniform game with the move to the Junior Circuit.

2013-14 Panini Basketball Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone had a fun weekend.  Since I put up a hockey post during it's playoffs, might as well do the same for basketball.  Packs of this set starting popping up a couple of weeks ago.  Here's a pack of 2013-14 Panini Basketball!

8 cards come in the retail pack, while 10 cards come in the hobby pack.  The retail pack sells for $2.  Disappointed that I only get 8 cards in a pack; I must be used to the 12 cards Topps gives me.

I also couldn't figure out what that picture is in the center of the pack.  Took me days before I realized it was the Panini Knight dude.  Why does he appear on the pack?  Anyway, here's what I got:

#49 - Joakim Noah
#55 - John Henson
#22 - Chris Kaman
#33 - Klay Thompson

Not too bad.  The pictures are sharp and I kinda like the fade to black at the top.  I could do without the big-lettered Panini, and depending on the angle, the foil lettering could be hard to read.  The background at the bottom matches the team's primary color.

#173 - Peyton Siva (RC)
#10 - Chris Paul (Bird's Eye View)
#117 - Gerald Henderson
#157 - Kevin Durant

The Bird's Eye View is a 10 card set, but the pack does not list the odds of pulling an insert.  I got a kick out of the unintentional "Easter Egg" on the Peyton RC.

Do you want to see backs?  You all probably know what they look like already.  Alright, here are a couple of samples:

Reused photo / team logo, one line of stats, quick blurb of highlights (updated through the end of 2013), yadda, yadda, yadda.

This is a 200 card set, consisting of 160 players and 40 rookies.  No idea if the rookies are short printed, or if there are legends in the set like last year.  I think it's a better looking set than last year's offering, though.

Anyway, that's it for now.  Have a good week everyone, and thanks for reading!