2012-13 Panini Prestige

I have a really hard time finding basketball packs on the retail shelves where I live in Portland, Oregon. I don't know if that has anything to do with us being a one sport town (basketball) or if it's just because there isn't much of a market for basketball cards to begin with. There's plenty of NBA Hoops product hanging around right now, though, and recently I saw another new product on the shelf. I picked up a pack on a whim even though it wasn't really in my budget.

83 - Joe Johnson - The new Brooklyn Nets logo looks like a joke.

40 - Tim Duncan - Duncan lives on to play basketball.

97 - Kevin Martin - The league is making a big deal out of wanting to clean up the flopping problem. Kevin Martin is one of the chief offenders of an equally huge problem. He's a flopper with the ball in his hands. It's ridiculous how many times he gets to the free throw line.

98 - Wesley Matthews - Here's one of my guys. Wesley really plateaued last year after a promising start to his huge Blazers contract, but I'm hoping that the lockout year was an aberration (much like the Blazers' terrible season.)

56 - Drew Gooden

3 - Kevin Love / Russell Westbrook Connections - The "connections" is that these two went to UCLA and played together. One thing that Panini does that really annoys me is that they don't distinctively number their insert cards. Other card companies have for the most part followed the golden rule of numbering their inserts with a separate set of card numbers that make them distinguishable from the base cards. They also don't provide odds on their inserts on the wrapper, but they make a point of listing out each insert and how many cards are in the insert set. Weird.

163 - Jimmer Fredette - The big deal with this year's NBA cards is that, due to the lockout, there essentially were no rookie cards last year. This year's sets contain "rookie cards" for last year's rookie class as well as this year's. As far as The Jimmer goes, though... I've got nothing.

 
121 - Ramon Sessions

143 - Mo Williams

116 - Nate Robinson - Here's a look at the card back. It's a typical Panini design, albeit with a massive team logo. It's okay.

Basketball card collectors: drop me a line if you are interested in a particular team or card. I have a lot of basketball cards that I have no idea what to do with, other than put them on Listia or something.

1984 Topps Baseball Photo Rub-Downs

My last post focused on a 1985 pack of Topps Rub-Downs.  

This post takes a step back and looks at the prior set from 1984.

The 1984 and 1985 sets were practically identical: 32 different sheets featuring 112 different players.

2 sheets in a pack, with the instruction/checklist card, and piece of gum.

The only difference I could find between the two issues is on the back of the instruction card, or, on the checklist side.

The 1984 card above lists the National League teams first, whereas the 1985 card lists the American League teams first.

The font on both the front and back of the card is slightly different as well.

And again, a Topps advertisement on the back of the pack.

1985 Topps Baseball Photo Rub-Downs

2 sheets, an instruction/checklist card, and a stick of gum.

Here's the instruction card.

Your goal is to obtain "a magic action Baseball Rub-Down Photo!"

Any questions?

The back of the instruction card contains the checklist.

Hey team collectors, here's another team checklist card for you to consider.

And the back of the pack with one of those bitchen Topps advertisements.

2011 BBC Doctor Who Monster Invasion

Greetings!

Hope everyone had a great week.  This post marks my first anniversary contributing to this fine website.  I did not think I'd be consistent enough to post somewhat regularly.  Yes, I'm a day late, but that's how it is I guess.  In 365 days, I've moved on from transforming robots to a time-travelling alien with a British accent.  Here's a pack of 2011 Doctor Who Monster Invasion!

The 11th Doctor and his former companion.

I picked up a pack of this and the follow-up release (foreshadowing a future post, wink, wink) earlier in the year during the 2012 Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2).  I really have no idea how this game is played, as my searches on the interweb have yielded nothing useful.  The wiki site is found lacking, and even the official website does not say how you play the game.

Monster Invasion appears to be a magazine the BBC produces for the kiddies, and the cards complement the magazine.  Anyway, here are the cards from the pack:

#057 - Vortex Manipulator
#050 - Pyrovile
#123 - President Nixon

The card number appears in that white circle in the upper right corner.  If applicable, the episode the image comes from is along the left side.  The circle in the upper left corner gives info like the type of card and the rarity.  Not sure what the Unit rating means.

It looks like you use the stats on the card when the characters go head-to-head, and the stats can be boosted by those gadget cards.  Don't think the Vortex Manipulator can help Nixon out against that fiery rock monster.

#011 - General Staal
#093 - Seventh Doctor

It is good to see that they were throwing a bone to the "classic Who" by at least having one of the Doctor's previous incarnations pop up on a card.

#081 - Cyberking Clash
#154 - Screen Angel
#088 - Monster Mucus

The above 3 cards are "adventure cards".  It appears the opponents have to use the stat on the card in their card battle.  So if Monster Mucus is played, Radagast can take out the fiery rock monster with that Vortex Manipulator, but would still lose to Mr. Potato Head?

#102 - The Alliance (foil)
* - What the back of the cards look like

That Alliance card is pretty shiny.  Each pack comes with a foil card.  There are 8 common cards and 1 rare card per pack, but I don't know if the rare card is always shiny.  I have no plans to try the code on their website, but is someone out there does, let us know how it goes!

Anyway, that's the pack.  I was bummed that there's no info out there on how this game is played, but I would imagine the target audience would be pleased with these cards.

More later...thanks for reading!

1984 Fleer Baseball

Today we are ripping a pack of 1984 Fleer which came from 3 Stars Sportscards in the Twin Cities.  Am I able to pull the key card from that set, a Don Mattingly rookie?

2002 Inkworks The Scorpion King

2002 saw the arrival of The Scorpion King which was a prequel to The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. You might remember that The Rock appeared in The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King was his first staring movie role.  The movie was a huge financial success [$165 million worldwide box office.] and the movie itself also had it's own prequel [yes, a prequel to a prequel...it was called The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior] and sequel [The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption].  Those two films were straight to DVD and there was no sign of The Rock.

With six cards in the pack I was thinking the over/under on the number of cards featuring The Rock was three.  Let's see what I got:

A strong start with the Rock as a falconer...which reminds me of The Falconer!

Another Rock card, this time with a camel which looks to be a Dromedary.

Next we have a third Rock card...which would have been greatly improved if he was doing his trademark eye brow raise.

The fourth Rock card features the late Michael Clarke Duncan.  In the movie, he played Balthazar who teams up with The Rock's character Mathayus against the movies central villain Emperor Memnon.  

And the rest of the pack which was disappointingly Rock-free:

2011 Press Pass Football

Greetings from the $1.59 section at Target. Our subject today is some college football cards from the good people at the Press Pass company. They can't be bothered to use different pictures on the fronts and backs of the cards, so you don't even get to see what the backs of these cards look like. Sorry!

3 - Julio Jones - Press Pass opted for some weird scoreboard-ish design here and I can't really say that it works. Julio Jones is one of the top players on my fantasy team, though I admittedly know little about fantasy football.

42 - Jake Locker - Hands down one of the most overrated players in the history of college sports. Locker spent his entire career at Washington injured or running around with his head cut off because he had no D-Line. It still doesn't save the fact that he can't throw a straight pass to save his life.

20 - Blaine Gabbert Blue Reflectors - This is some kind of parallel. Gabbert is the coverdude and is presently at the helm of the perennial sinking ship known as the Jacksonville Jaguars.

CL-4 - Cam Newton Class of 2011 - The less said about the cheating scumbag known as Cam Newton, the better. At least he's happy!

5 - Nick Fairley - Fairley was Newton's monster of a teammate at Auburn.

All of these cards are available. Just ask!

2012 Topps Update Series

Greetings!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and that you are enjoying the baseball postseason.  This is the first of back-to-back anniversary posts.  This one celebrates my 11th wedding anniversary to my beloved wifey (it was actually yesterday, but you don't post on your anniversary).  The next post will mark the first anniversary of my start in blogging via this website.  Hooray!

Anyway, let's mark the occasion with the newest set on the block, 2012 Topps Update Series!

It's the standard 330 card set, released just 4 days ago.  I don't remember if prior Update sets were released on the last day of the season.  Who did we get?

#US207 - Greg Dobbs
#US304 - A.J.Ellis
#US149 - Octavio Dotel (back)

I do enjoy the celebration cards.  We get to see the back of Dotel's card because he was not celebrating with his Tiger teammates.

#US65 - Derek Norris (RC)
#US258 - Josh Vitters (RC)
#US119 - Derek Jeter All-Star (Target Red Border)

#247 - Clay Buchholz (#1053 / 2012)
#GM-U2 - Mike Trout
#US176 - Brad Ziegler

The Golden Moments cards are back, and Topps brought back the serial numbered cards for the Update Series.  I missed them in the first two sets.  There should be a rule that if you are a sidearm / submarine pitcher, your baseball card is always of you pitching.

#US219 - Brian Fuentes
#US330 - Alex Burnett
#US234 - Jeff Keppinger

OK, so we know who brings up the rear in this set.  Way to end on the positive note.

Anyway, that's the pack.  Have a good week...more in a few days.  Thanks for reading!