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

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!

2019 Panini Diamond Kings Hobby Pack

 Stopped by one of my LCS's, Bosco's, here in Anchorage to check out the Geek Swap Meet and I also picked up a couple packs of 2019 Diamond Kings. Nothing crazy out of either pack, but I'll feature the best one out of the two and as a bonus I'll show off the insert from the second pack so you can get a look at that.  Here are the odds on the pack.

First up is my lone Brewer card, one of three featured in the 150 card set, and it's Christian Yelich's SP card.  As a matter of fact two of the three Brewers cards in the set are SPs.  Overall I think the cards are beautiful.  This set probably suffers the least from the lack of logos and the card are well designed and have a canvasy feel to them.

 Let's check out the rest of the pack.

 I do love that this set features not just current players, but also lots of HOFers, and lots of prewar guys to boot.  Panini hasn't done a Cooperstown themed set in a few years.  Maybe it's time they give it a go again.

 I just realize that this pack actually had 3 rookies in it.  Not too shabby.

 My pack hit was this Shohei Ohtani DK205 insert.  A nice looking homage to the 205 set.  As a matter of fact the set features lots of vintagey inserts.

 My other pack hit was this Lefty Williams 1919 Diamond Kings insert, which answers the questions what would Diamond Kings looked like 100 years ago and who would they have featured.   I like it.  There are also lots of other retro sets from Donruss past sprinkled through the product.

2005 Topps Chrome Series 1

How about an old pack of Topps Chrome?

141 - Aaron Guiel - Huh?

219 - Steve Doetsch - Buh? In hindsight, maybe the "rookie card" rules that were instituted the year after this were a good idea. These sets are full of guys who stayed down on the farm.

155 - Trot Nixon - This one is a little more recognizable, with the Red Sox of the mid-'00s being all over the TV.

193 - Mark Mulder - Mulder was a two-time All-Star.

Here's a look at the back. The second photo was a nice touch, but I can't see Topps ever doing that again.