2017 Score Football - Retail

As we proceed to the second of the four 2017 NFL packs I bought, I present 2017 Score Football.  This is definitely aimed at the value collector -- 12 cards for $2.00.  This set features a 440-card base set, of which the last 110 are rookies.  There is a good selection of insert sets and various parallels to make even a cheap retail pack interesting.  Let's see what I got here...

#24 - Trent Murphy

Like the 2017 Prestige football cards, these showcase borders featuring the team colors.  Here the colors are present both in the top and bottom of the card, along with the team logo in the lower right.  The extra blank space at the bottom gives the photo a little bit more of a squared-off aspect ratio, which lets the photos spread out a little more widely than they do in some of these other products that I purchased.

The backs have the same, tired Panini style of using the same photo as the front.  You get a little space for a write-up...this one is about Trent gaining and losing weight.  It's like a Jenny Craig ad!

#15 - Bryce Petty

Jets backup QB?  This pack is not starting out great.

#159 - Melvin Ingram - This one shows off the image flexibility I was mentioning earlier.  This is one of the wider shots that you will see on a card that is still in portrait orientation.

 #148 - Vontaze Burfict

 

#291 - Ezekiel Elliott!!!  The phenom had a great rookie year and another great game for the Cowboys tonight.  Although it'll be 6+ more weeks before we see him again...

Color Rush Insert - #13 - Ezekiel Elliott -- EE Hot pack!  This is the subset that celebrates poor design choices.

Huddle Up Insert - #3 - Eagles / Carson Wentz -- Offensive lineman do not get enough love from the card companies, so I'm happy to see this one.  What a great concept!  This was my favorite insert from these packs so far.  In particular, this one shows off the vast difference between Jason Peters (6'4", 328 lbs.) and Darren Sproles (5'6", 190 lbs). 

#298 - Aaron Rodgers, Football god.

 

#154 - Leonard Williams

 With the large checklist of rookies, not all of the players you get are big names.  Here's who I pulled:

 #335 - Donnel Pumphrey - 4th round pick of the Eagles.  He enters a crowded backfield situation, but several players (Sproles, Blount) are getting old and will be off the field soon enough.  Pumphrey will move up the depth chart rapidly when they are gone.

#424 - Brian Hill - 5th round pick by Atlanta.  He is on the active roster but did not rush any in the opener.

 #434 - Artavis Scott - Undrafted - He landed on the Chargers practice squad.

That's it for the 2nd pack - it's HALFTIME!!

Can you barely contain the excitement of what's to come?

1998 Japanese Bandai WCW/NWO New Japan Pro Wrestling Cards

The late 1990s were a great era in Pro Wrestling.  One of the cool angles to come about from this time was the WCW and New Japan Pro Wrestling working together.  In 1998, Bandai capitalized on this and produced this 223-card set.  I haven't been able to find a checklist on this yet....anyone know of one?

Cards came in 10-card packs for 300円.  Let's see what I got!

Card #1: Mr. Takahashi.  Not sure who he is, but probably important.

Card #2: Kazuo Yamazaki...once a student of Tiger Mask.

Card #3: Shiro Koshinaka...this guy has been around starting out with AJPW in 1979 working with Giant Baba.

Card #4: Roland Bockl(Bock)...this German is older than my father.  Born in 1944, his debut was in 1973.  The internet says he wrestled Andre the Giant....legit!

Card #5:  Bob Backlund...need I say more.....although this looks to be an earlier picture of him.

Card #6: Dick Murdoch....a classic and staple wrestler from the 1980s and 1990s.

Card #7: Bret Hart...a younger version of him eh.

Card #8: Ultimo Dragon....the masked Japanese.

Card #9: Black Tiger II...I can never keep any of them straight.

Card #10: Scott Steiner.....he has been around a long time..  if you don't know him, shame on you.  It is too bad he is from Michigan.

2017 Panini Prestige Football - Retail

With football season upon us, I hit up the card aisle at Target to see what was available for NFL cards.  I picked up packs of the four different 2017 releases they had and figured we could take a little tour of what's available.  Four quarters of play, if you will!

First up, we have Panini Prestige 2017.  Each of these products has a different cover boy, and Prestige features J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans.  A pack of these will run you three bucks at Target, and for that you get ten cards. 

The first card out of the pack is #74 - Ameer Abdullah.

These cards are very nice-looking in person.  Full bleed photos, bright colors, and a classic, team-color-matching design that doesn't take away from the action in the picture. 

Here is the obverse side.  An ongoing criticism of Panini products is that they frequently use the same photo on the front and the back of the card.  They do that same thing here and it is a giant waste of space!  We already saw that picture on the front...no need to see it on the back!  Every player gets a small write-up, with height, weight, college name, and two rows of stats - 2016 and NFL Career Totals.  The color scheme on the back matches the team colors also used on the front.

#54 - Larry Fitzgerald

#141 - Kenny Britt - This is the weirdest card as the colors are for the Browns, but he is still pictured in a Rams jersey.  Eww.....

 

Connections Insert - #18 - Antonio Brown / Ben Roethlisberger - This was the only insert card in the pack, but it is not serial-numbered.

 

#12 - Carlos Hyde

#17 - Brandon Marshall

#196 - Ty Montgomery

#139 - Eli Rogers

#282 - DeMarcus Walker - Walker played for Florida State and was taken by the Broncos in the 2nd round of the draft (#51 overall).  He is starting the season behind Von Miller on the depth chart at OLB in the Broncos 3-4 defensive scheme.

#198 - Darren Sproles - And rounding out the pack we have one of the shortest NFL players, Mr. Darren Sproles.  Despite his small size, he uses his speed and his sure hands to make problems for the opposition.  Sproles is in the Top-10 all-time for receptions by a RB.

That's it!  Was it worth it?  Three bucks for one insert and a bunch of other base cards?  I don't think I will be buying any more of this one, but they are nice to look at, so they've got that going for them.  If you are interested, maybe try a blaster or a hanger box to see if you can get a few more inserts than what I grabbed.

2016-2017 Panini NBA Hoops Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed their Labor Day.  I uploaded the pics to Blogger weeks ago and promptly ran out of free time to finish the post.  Yes, a pack of this was already posted, but I had the pics already in the folder, so here's a pack of 2016-2017 Panini NBA Hoops!

The pack The King posted almost a year ago was from a blaster box, so technically this is a different pack...it came from the Target gravity feeder box.  10 cards in a pack...lets see what I got:

#99 = Ian Mahinmi
#35 = Mike Conley

I like the border design, but sometimes the name can be hard to read, like with the Conley above,  I also kinda prefer the transaction note on the card as opposed to the player photoshopped into his new uniform.

#90 - Emmanuel Mudiay
#141 - Ricky Rubio

The set is 300 cards total, with cards 261 - 300 reserved for the rookies.

#266 - Buddy Hield (RC)
#173 - Mo Williams

Buddy's one of the more recognizable rookies from last year, mainly because of the DeMarcus Cousins trade.

#5 - Ish Smith (#10/25)
#11 - Derrick Rose

There's no need for me to post my pack of 2016-17 Panini Donruss NBA since Madding took care of it, but they used the same Rose picture in their set.  That put a sour taste in my mouth, putting an end to my basketball purchases this past year.  Why use the transaction note for Ian Mahinmi but not for D-Rose?

As usual, there are no odds listed for the Orange parallel.

#222 - Omer Asik
#169 - Aaron Brooks

See, Panini, a transaction note for a former Bull!

Here are the backs, but you already know what they look like:

Anyway, that's the pack.  Hope everyone enjoys the short work week, and thanks for reading!

2017 Topps National Baseball Card - Dodgers

My nephew how goes to UCLA went to the Dodgers game when the had the National Baseball Card Day (August 12th) Stadium pack giveaway.  Each pack contained 4 Dodgers cards and a cover card from Topps celebrating the day.  He got me 2 packs below was the better of the 2 packs neither had the Kershaw I was hoping to get. each card is stamped with "National Baseball Card Day 2017" in Silver and are number LAD-X not sure how many different cards in the team set one pack cards 2-5 the other had 7-11 mostly current players I did get a Mike Piazza in the second pack.  See below for pack 1:

Cover Card

Adrian Gonzalex - LAD-2

Kenley Jansen - LAD-3

Kenta Maeda - LAD-4 

Corey Seager - LAD-5

Seager Card Back 

1985 Japanese Amada Nintendo/NES Cards

In the late 1970s and early 1980s in Japan, Mini Cards ruled the world as far as trading cards were concerned.  Hundreds of different Mini Card sets were being cranked out by a good half dozen different companies.  Video games ultimately killed card collecting off in the early 1980s in Japan, but not before Amada capitalized on the popularity of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  Issued in 6 series of 60 cards each, this 360-card set from 1985 captured screen shots and graphic drawings of NES games.  These three-card, Series 5 packs were wrapped in a paper envelope with the Amada seal and name imprinted on it.  They came 60-100 packs per box...winner cards were included and if you won, the prize was usually a small prize box of cards that contained anywhere between 4-10 cards depending on the level of prize.

Up first is a screen shot from a game called Pooyan, card #268.  The premise behind this game is that a bunch of wolves attacked the house were Mama Pig and her piglets (Pooyan) were living.  Now Mama has to use a bow and arrow to fend off the wolves and save her babies.

Next out of the pack is the box art card (#295)for a game from Sun Electronics called Farmers Rebellion.  This is a maze game set in medieval Japan and the farmers are planning and uprising.  This two-player game has you running around battling ninjas.  I love the art on this one!

The last one is a screen shot card (#294) from the game Door Door....a puzzle game that has you control a little round animal with a baseball cap.  The object is to avoid the bad creatures by going through doors and climbing ladders.


There you have it.  Anyone ever play any of these games growing up?