2005 Topps Updates and Highlights Retail Edition

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  Looks like the dog days of summer came a little late here at APTBNL, as it looks like the month of September will end with less than 10 posts.  Oh well, it was bound to happen.  Anyway, must keep on moving.  Here's a pack that may or may not have come out of the Target discount bin...it's a pack of 2005 Topps Updates and Highlights!
 

Albert was obviously distracted by something happening to his right.

Yes, a pack of this has been posted before, but that was a Hobby pack and, OK, you know the drill by now.  It's a 330 card set with Prospect / Draft Pick / First Year / etc cards of King Felix, Justin Verlander, Matthew (?) Kemp, Carlos Gonzalez, Ryan Zimmerman, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jay Bruce, and everybody's favorite PED abuser, Ryan Braun.  I didn't know that 2005 had a bunch of future stars.  Anyway, here's what I got: 

#UH245 – Martin Prado (RC)

#UH300 – Jason Motte (RC)

#UH276 – Micah Schnurstein (RC)

Not a bad start to the pack.  Jason's listed as a Catcher on the back of his card.  Micah probably would have made it to the big leagues if they had an action shot of him.

 

#UH93 – Bill Bray

#UH287 – Kelvin Pichardo (RC)

#UH317 –Jacoby Ellsbury (RC)

Jacoby's RC shows up in the next shot.  He must be up in the stands somewhere, look at that little dude on the bottom right...I wonder if he has a card.

#UH178 – Manny Ramirez All-Star

#UH112 – Greg Maddux Season Highlights (#271 / 2005)

#UH216 – Andy LaRoche Futures All-Star (back)

Got me a gold parallel as well.  Showing the back of Andy's card since you all got to see the front in the Hobby pack post.

#UH200 – Andruw Jones Home Run Derby

#UH130 – Postseason Highlights

#UH166 – Ken Griffey Jr. Sporting News All-Stars

Getting a Griffey is not a bad way to end the pack.  This one's a winner in my book.  Have a great rest of the week, and thanks for reading!

2013 Topps Football

In preparation for tonight's Thursday Night Football matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, I thought I'd post a pack of this year's Topps football. Apparently no one else has done that. I never buy football cards, but I saw this at a local variety chain store and gave it a whirl. I don't collect football much, aside from Oregon Ducks players, so if there's anything in the post that any of you want, feel free to leave a comment.

45 - Andre Roberts - Looks like Topps has gone away from the baseball design. Sometimes they use it for their other sports and sometimes they don't. Instead, we have a nearly unreadable player name.

189 - Jonathan Stewart - Only two cards in and we have a Duck! This one goes into my Ducks stash.

342 - Ryan Kerrigan - Here's what the backs look like. Wait a second, is that... yes... that's a Twitter handle. I can't imagine Topps putting players' Twitter names on baseball cards, but maybe that's something they have in store for 2014. Yikes.

81 - Bruce Irvin - The back of Irvin's card proclaims him to have been the oldest rookie on one of the NFL's youngest teams. I guess that they meant the oldest Seahawks rookie, because at 25, Irvin was a lot younger than that Brandon Weeden guy.

254 - Mohamed Sanu

22 - Josh Freeman Mini - This mini (pretend the image is small, okay?) is based on the 1959 Topps design, according to my 30 seconds of research.

LM-TP - Troy Polamalu Legends in the Making - For some reason, I flipped right past this card and assumed that Polamalu had retired and this insert set was a tribute to retired players. I should probably pay better attention. Polamalu is only 32, so he might be around a little bit longer.

35 - Luke Joeckel - I'm not fond of NFL rookie cards (you'll see why in a minute), though at least this guy has his helmet on. And, wow, those Jaguars helmets... not a fan.

414 - Lane Johnson - This is what I don't like. And there are far worse. I want to see players when they are playing their game, not this.

184 - Desmond Trufant - Yeah, I don't even... oh, how many Trufants are there, anyway?

404 - Bjoern Werner - Hey, Werner looks like he's ready to play. He even might have some shoulder pads in. The pack wrapper promised a rookie card in every pack, and I ended up with 4.

316 - Tim Tebow - Seriously?

2003 Fleer Genuine

One of the best parts, I think, of a repack box is finding those packs you ripped very few of, or none at all. Even better? A pack you have never even heard of. Maybe I am the only one that never heard of this set.

Pretty much a set designed for finding relics. The back of the pack has the set at only 100 base cards, with another 30 as serialed prospect cards. Hoping to pull an auto or game used? Well, contrary to it's name, good luck with that. Practically everything that fits that description is numbered 250 or lower. There are only two items that have per pack ratios - 1:225 or 1:566. Case hits at best for the "lowest" end hit of the set. And no - I didn't beat the odds. But let's look anyway.

Ahhh - the early 2000s. Dig the granite pattern in the colors. That's not foil behind Ivan - just a lot of silvered shimmer to the black and white image. Ivan, as well as that green bar in the middle and the bottom green has a gloss, while the rest of the card is matte finished.

Color swapping to match the team colors. May be a little too much "white" space on the front, though. Yeah, Edmonds really pops, but...I don't know. Just too much border I guess.

Was Dunn that skinny at one time? And he would actually hit the ball? Shocking....

The vest top didn't work for the Angels. It looked great for the Pirates. I thought the Sox one looked nice too. But Erstad can't save it, even with the high cuffs.

It seems if your body is extended, the white space isn't so bad. Brown fills up the card and it works better than Rodriguez's. And the backs?

If you has picked "recycled image and 5 years worth of stats", come forward and pick up your prize. Again, too much open space. Granted, you can clutter it too much. It appears the back matters based on the card front. The back of the Dunn card looks pretty decent and balanced.

Ok - if you need/want something, let me know.

2012 Topps Series 2 Hobby

Greetings!

Hope everyone's doing well.  A while back, I was able to make a quick stop at a nearby comic book store before bringing my car in for an oil change.  I don't collect comic books, but there's enough geek / nerd candy at a comic book store to keep me occupied for 20 minutes or so (it sure beats sitting in the dealership's waiting room, I don't care how much free popcorn they have).  On the way out, I saw a pack of this and I thought why not...it's a Hobby pack of 2012 Topps Series 2!

I'll buy that for a dollar!

10 cards for a dollar?  Sure, I'll play.  Who knows, perhaps I'll get lucky like the last time I bought a Hobby pack.  Since these cards have been posted already, there's no need for descriptions.  Here's what I got:

#373 – Carlos Gonzalez

#425 – Carlos Zambrano

#500 – Alex Rodriguez

 

#584 – Daric Barton

#GS-46 – Joe DiMaggio (Gold Standard)

#TM-83 – Joe Mauer (1987 Mini)

#439 – Elvis Andrus

#594 – Ricky Romero

#371 – Jim Thome

#611 – Neftali Feliz

Well, nothing cool like the last time.  I guess not all Hobby packs are winners.  Here are some backs:

 That's all for now.  Enjoy the rest of the week and thanks for reading!

2010 Topps Chrome Football Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  The NFL season kicks off tomorrow.  May your favorite team and your fantasy team(s) do great.  I personally don't think the Bears will do all that great, but I hope I'm proven wrong!

Time for another pack from the restocked $1.59 Target bin.  We saw the Hobby version already; here's the Retail version of some 2010 Topps Chrome Football!

It's a 220 card set with the dreaded SPs of some of the big rookies  Will Tim Tebow make an appearance?  Well, no:

#C32 - Devin McCourty (RC)
#C101 - Darren Sharper
#C140 - Ryan Mathews (RC)
#CGL-ST - Emmit Smith / LaDainian Tomlinson (Gridiron Lineage)

McCourty does not have a SP, but Mathews does (I did not get it).  Every time I read Darren Sharper, I always add "image" to the last name; thanks, Chris Berman.  As for the Gridiron Lineage card, it's nice and all, but I've gotten a few more packs of Chrome since I scanned this one, and all of the Gridiron cards I got has a Cowboy on it...what, all players have to be connected to Dallas somehow?

Here are the backs, because I heard someone ask about them (you know who you are):

 Anyway, that's the pack.  Enjoy the season and thanks for reading!

2013 Panini Prestige football

Back to the LCS pack wars with this puppy, cuz you know I don't buy them football rectangles.

Horizontal pack design alert. My favorite part is not how many cards are in the pack, but that there is "8 CARDS PER PACK!". What is with the exclamation point? Have I not noticed that on other wrappers in the past? Let's dive in.

Well, the front is clean. Not sure I like the drop shadow on the players name. In fact, there are too many different fonts on the front.

You see the whole color fade is based on one of the teams primary colors.

However, when you wash out the background, and then have a player wearing a lot of white, you really can lose the subject on the card. It's just not working here, Panini.

Now this is an interesting insert. Design is decent - I get the whole "on the highway" motif. It's the photoshopping that is interesting. The TV numbers on the shoulder are WAY TOO BIG. The shoulder stripes are rounded and look horrible. But the most interesting part is this is no standard photoshop. What caught my eye in that seam just above the front numbers that runs across his chest. If you look at images of Lacy in his 'Bama gear, the uniform cut is very different. So either this is a shop job with a head replacement on someone else's body, or Panini went the extra mile to include the jersey pattern that no one would probably have noticed. Except me, obviously. Too much thinking?

Is it me, or is that not the name of an evil villain's dog. Also, how many light bulbs are in the roof of that training facility? Geeeez.....

This guy needs to get back to The Daily Show.

Again with the wash out into the background. Sigh....

Sorry, I forgot the backs. Trust me - you are not missing anything but the standard Panini reused image and a couple stat lines with bio. Spot anything you want, let me know.

2011 Topps Chrome Football Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well and getting ready for the big Labor Day weekend.  Good for you folks who have Friday off.

Here's another pack from the restocked Target $1.59 bin...another one of those "I can't believe this isn't on the site yet" packs...it's 2011 Topps Chrome Football!

Standard Chrome release, with all the shiny chrome-ness.  Here's what was in the pack:

#113 - Dontay Moch (RC)
#171 - Marvin Austin (RC)

Since I don't follow football all that closely, I have no idea who Moch is.  I think I've heard of Marvin Austin.  Point is, unless you're a big name rookie, I wouldn't know you and wouldn't know if your card is of any value.

#BCR-23 - A.J. Green (RC)
#220 - Adrian Peterson

OK, now we're talking...a nice Bowman insert and you can't go wrong with Peterson.  Here are the backs:

Well, that's the pack.  It was certainly Bengal-centric (is there a blog out there that has used the term Bengal-centric?), but I don't think I did too bad.  Enjoy the long weekend everyone...thanks for reading!

2013 Bowman Platinum baseball

Good old raffle and pack wars last night at the LCS. Let's scan a few of the packs used in the games. Today, let's put up Topps 2013 release of Bowman Platinum, because if there is one thing we have been clamoring for, it's more Bowman releases. Thanks Topps!

Topps going all out with the pack design this year. As in they put someone else on the package. Otherwise, it's a lot of "seen this before". None of you seem very surprised by this. Five cards - pack god mojo?

I won't bother to explain the look versus the scan - you all know the drill. It's the usual unremarkable set they release year after year. This isn't a design release, it's a hit release.

Mix of current players with the guys in the minors. Slight difference in the front design.

Well how about that? At least I got something for my troubles. Orlando is still working his way thru the Royal system. Currently ranked #7 prospect in KC's farm system. It's an auto at least, right?

I'm calling this one better than the autograph. And I already know where I am mailing it.

And we end with a National. I didn't scan the backs. Do we need to see the standard Bowman back again? I didn't think so.