2021-22 Panini Select NBA Hanger Pack

Here's another Panini release that came out in the latter part of their basketball release cycle. For the second straight year, Panini offered a retail version of their typically higher-end Select product, with the caveat that all of the base cards are blue instead of silver. Here's a hanger pack that I picked up recently.

17 - Jalen Johnson - This is the "Concourse" design that comprises the non-short printed portion of the set. Johnson has a regular bench role in his second season with Atlanta.

74 - Scottie Barnes - Here's last season's rookie of the year. If you're wondering how this can still be a RC when this was released recently, it's because Panini really is that far behind. (To be fair, the new 2022-23 Hoops set finally dropped this week.)

31 - Carmelo Anthony - Melo as a Laker? Still looks weird.

88 - Julius Randle - The backs are typical of late period Panini products. Boring, no stats... who cares about card backs, I guess?

46 - Trey Murphy III - Another rookie card, Murphy is a 3 point shooting machine, with a name that practically forced that to fruition.

4 - Patrick Williams - I tend to get Patrick Williams mixed up with Grant Williams of the Celtics.

62 - Moses Moody - Moody is another second year bench guy.

20 - Kawhi Leonard - Here's one of the oft-injured Clippers superstar.

77 - Jayson Tatum - Tatum is a St. Louis native and another one of the biggest stars in the game.

100 - LeBron James - Apparently this is the star portion of the pack.

132 - James Harden - Ugh, this guy? This is a Premier Level card, which means it gets a different design and is more rare than the rest.

18 - Joe Wieskamp Blue Prizm - Wieskamp was a second round pick who didn't make it back to the Spurs this season. This is a Blue Prizm parallel, although when scanned it nearly looks the same as the base cards.

3 - Josh Christopher Rookie Revolution - This insert set has a weird design that reminds me of the '90s.

79 - Bones Hyland Blue Shimmer - Each hanger pack promises four cards that are either inserts and parallels, including the hanger pack exclusive Blue Shimmer cards like this one. Bones has one of the cooler nicknames in the league.

22 - Luka Garza Blue Shimmer - Garza was a big star in college but is still trying to find a foothold in the NBA. He's with the Timberwolves these days.

2022 Topps Update Baseball

Finally found a pack of 2022 Topps Update. Max Scherzer and Pete Alonso on the cover of this set. Reason why its difficult to find right now? It have to do with Jeremy Pena, Julio Rodriguez, and Bobby Witt, Jr. rookie cards in this set along with Spencer Torkelson and Jose Miranda. Then there's five ultra short print cards featuring mascot cards. Let's see who are the 16 cards in this pack.

US324 - Avisail Garcia

US277 - Jhoan Duran - solid rookie season

US251 - Andrew McCutchen - still a free agent as of this posting

US317 - Bryan Lavastida - got in 6 games last season

US39 - Carlos Correa - bet on himself opting out of Twins contract for a big payday and losing badly. Astros fans don't miss him at all.

US228 - J.P. Feyereisen - 0.00 ERA in 22 games of relief til shoulder surgery ended his season. Now a member of the Dodgers.

US282 - Alek Thomas - one of players I'm looking forward in the future

US82 - Taylor Hearn

US234 - Joe Perez - its no Jeremy Pena but still an Astros player. He bounced all over the place playing in four levels including a 1 game stint early in the season.

US197 - Jesus Sanchez

US171 - Manny Pina - now a member of the A's via 3-team trade and defacto starting catcher unless A's quickly hotshot Tyler Soderstrom (still not ready) up there while they have William Simoneit and Kyle McCann in the minors.

US164 - Blake Treinen - shoulder injury derailed his season and likely be out for remainder of 2023 season. Double whammy.

US143 - Daniel Norris - got released during middle of the season and signed with the Tigers for remainder of the season. Still currently a free agent.

US93 - Bradley Zimmer - got DFA'd twice in the season including re-joining the Blue Jays 11 days after Phillies signed then DFA'd him. Now a member of the Dodgers.

SMLB-6 - Ryan Mountcastle

Didn't get Pena, JRod, and Witt Jr.

2022 SAGE Football High Series

 

I can never figure out if it's supposed to be SAGE or Sage. And what happened to "HIT"? Also, why are the letters in "SAGE" printed in two different colors? I have so many questions. Here's what I do know. I ended up with this pack inside of a repack football box from a Walgreen's somewhat recently. It seems that Fairfield, the company that puts these out, must have run out of their supply of buy-back football cards, because pretty much everything in the box was a recent Sage (sorry, SAGE) card, and the bonus pack inside was... this. I actually didn't totally mind this, as I don't collect a ton of football and am much more interested in the college game than the NFL, but I can't see myself ever buying packs of SAGE on my own.

186 - Brandon Peters - You can see that this design is... busy. Peters started off at Michigan before transferring to Illinois, but ended up going undrafted and doesn't appear to have caught on with anyone this season after failing to make it with the Chargers.

119 - Mike Rose - Instead of a "fun fact" on the back, the blurb is titled "Here's Something". Well, here's something about Mike Rose: he was drafted by an XFL team recently. I guess that means he's going to play in the XFL, if there is such a thing.

118 - Mykael Wright - As far as football cards go, Oregon Ducks cards are kind of my thing, so I was happy to get this one. Wright was a 3-year starter at cornerback and will also apparently be some sort of XFL player whenever that league does its thing, if it hasn't folded yet.

130 - Khalil Shaker - Here's a an actual factual NFL player. Now we're talking!

87 - Rachaad White - This Next Level subset has a different color scheme, but it's still pretty wild and out there. White went to Arizona State and plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers these days.

2022 Topps Allen & Ginter Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and are getting ready for New Years hijinks!

First a PSA...I had my first colonoscopy a couple of days ago (you all didn't think a post would veer into health topics did you?).  Fortunately, nothing was found and I was given a clean bill of health, so I guess that means my next experience would be 10 years from now.  They need to find a better method than that liquid concoction they make you chug.  Anyway, if you're stalling about undergoing the procedure, just get it done with...it could save your life!

Since baseball cards are back at retail (especially if you time your visits around the time the card vendor stocked the shelves), there's more choices available for us.  There's still some things missing like rack packs (besides Topps Flagship) and gravity feeders, but these days you can go to the card aisle and generally spend a minute or two there looking at options as opposed a year or two ago.

A few weeks ago during a Target shift I saw a box of Allen & Ginter on the shelf.  All the packs were in the box so it must have been put there recently.  I'm not an A&G guy but I usually get a pack or two to sample the set.  I picked one up at the end of the day, $3.50 for 6 cards.  Here's who I got:

#249 - Drew Rosenhaus

#126 - Tom Seaver

Drew represents Gronk, among other NFL players.  Nothing wrong with getting Tom Terrific either.

#324 - Sal Bando

Here's a guy you don't expect to see in sets these days.  Bando is a Short Print, which comes 1 in every 2 packs.

There's 350 cards in the set, but there are some oddities.  Cards #167 and 181 do not exist, and there are 2 versions of Cards #337 and #344 (in the SP section).  Those second versions, for Manny Ramirez and Luis Castillo, are not Short Prints, which makes me think they were supposed to be in the main set.  Great quality control during your pandemic-related delays, Topps.

#BS-43 - Reggie Jackson (Banner Season)

#TO-1 - Power Outage (Time Out! Mini Set)

There's 50 cards in the Banner Season set, while there's just 10 cards in the Time Out! set.  

#189 - Rob Riggle

Hey, not a bad final card.  The Marine-turned-Comedian has been in a bunch of fun stuff, from Step Brothers to Holey Moley.

Here's some card backs because New Year's:

Anyway, that's the pack.  Odd to open a pack of baseball cards and not get a current player but that's A&G for you.

Everyone have a safe and happy New Year!  May 2023 be infinitely better than 2022!  Get that colon checked...and thanks for reading!

2013 Panini Cooperstown (Hobby)

It's 17 degrees here in Massachusetts so lets open some 2013 Panini Cooperstown.

We have previously opened the retail version of this product, today we take a look at the hobby variant.

6 cards-per-pack. 24 packs-per-box. 1 on-card autograph per-box.

Opening these hobby products is always a bit of a gamble years later because you run the risk of paying a large chunk of cash to get an expired redemption.

We have Paul "Big Poison" Waner, a member of the 3,000 hit club and former NL MVP, and Phil Niekro, legendary knuckleballer.

Next we have Jim Bunning, class of 1996, and "Year of the Pitcher" legend Bob Gibson on an 025/499 blue parallel.

Here is "The Frenchman" Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie, collector of nicknames and 5x batting champion. This is part of the "Stars of the Diamond" rounds subset, 1/pack.

And finally, our autograph hit from the box is Juan Marichal, 196/200, Class of 1983.

2022 Topps Archives Baseball Blaster Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  The holidays certainly crept up on us this year.  The house is still a mess and we host Christmas celebrations Sunday afternoon.  I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Less loose packs in the stores during the pandemic means more blaster box purchases.  Is there a rack pack for this year's Archives?

I was able to pick up a blaster of Archives after a recent Target shift (last month was my 20th anniversary there, holy crap!) but then my eldest came back with a blaster box of his own a few days later.  We saw a hobby pack a while back, so why not a blaster pack?

He let me scan one of his packs before they disappeared into the abyss that is his room.

25 bucks for the blaster.  3 exclusive 1988 Topps Big Foil cards are included in the box.  Here's a pack of what he got:

#61 - Hoy Park (RC)

#47 - Matt Manning (RC)

A couple of rookies in the 1963 design start the pack off.  Manning has a background color variation card in the set...obviously this isn't it.

#134 - Jose Abreu

#167 - Ronald Acuña Jr

We move on to 2 cards with the 1978 design.  Abreu moved on to the Astros in the offseason.  Sox fans will miss him for sure.

Acuña also has a design color swap variation...this isn't it either.

#PC-11 - Jose Ramirez

The Topps Post Cards insert come 1 in 8 packs.

#281 - Willy Adames

#230 - Salvador Perez

Hey, kudos to Topps for using the often ignored 1987 design.  It's been 35 years...about time they brought it back!

#289 - Sonny Gray

Here's the checklist for those who need it, and here are the backs because it's the most wonderful time of the year:

Anyway, that's the pack.  Nothing earth-shattering in the blaster, just the 3 Big Foils and a couple inserts here and there.

Hope you all have a great holiday season!  Hopefully there'll be time for one more pack before the end of the year.  Thanks for reading!