2014 Panini Prizm World Cup

Well, if the timing is correct, and the game didn't go into two 15 OTs and the PK shootout (which sucks - bring back the golden goal), the Belguim/US game should have just ended. I have bought a few packs of Panini's WC release, and meant to post one of the packs sooner, but life. Let's just get the cards up, shall we?

As with their other Prizm releases, the pack is all silver. Six cards per pack. There are sticker autos in the product, but pretty rare pulls - one every other box in a case if I heard correctly. No auto going to be posted, but we have 6 other cards to look at.

Standard Prizm-ish background. At least, with the uniforms and the licensing, the cards look far better than Panini's MLB releases. The basic design is a bit...cluttered. At least the name is easy to read. Upper left is the official logo for the World Cup in Brazil. Upper right is the respective badge of the national team's federation. Pay attention to that corner later in this pack.

The set is made up from players of the 32 countries that made the finals of the WC. Images are of the players in their respective country's kits, though not specifically the kits worn in Brazil.

Prime example of an older jersey. This is the Dutch kit from 2013. Not as nice as what they have worn this year. Though, my personal fave is this.

Each pack comes with one of many insert cards from the set. Here is the set focusing on the keepers. Ochoa was nothing but a wall against Brazil. Most people would find the Mexico-Brazil game that ended 0-0 to be a complete bore. Trust me - one of the best games of the tourney so far.

Yeah, I picked the only pack that had the only US card I have pulled to this point. I prefer these uniforms over the bomb pop kits we are wearing this year.

Final card is Chelsea/English defender Ashley Cole. Remember my comment about the federation logos? Check out this card. That is NOT the crest for the England football association. It should look like this:

Topps, however, has the licensing to English football, so Panini could only use the English flag on the cards, as well as photoshopping out the badge from the jersey.  So this release is 97% licensed. Card backs?

Panini template rear design. No player stats - just data about the player and a paragraph about him. BTW - if you guessed the back of that Ochoa Guardians card has an image recycle, you win a cookie.

Go USA!

2013 Panini Triple Play

Here's a little late night pack delight. This pack comes to us courtesy of the Dollar Tree, where nothing good happens after 9:00 PM. Oh, I did pay for the pack. I swear. I also picked up a little black container to keep all of my pens in that hopefully won't stick me with any sharp metal edges.

70 - Matt Cain - After scoring a minor hit with Triple Play in 2012, Panini changed things up a little bit and used some... different... artists. This particular card makes Cain look like one of the characters from the TV show China, IL. I'll let you guess which one.

1 - Aaron Hill - The backs are still, you know, Panini with a little whimsy. I'm guessing there must be some sort of game you can play with these, since Hill's card declares a HOME RUN for no discernible reason.

89 - Bryce Harper - This looks more like the artist from the previous year's set. If they were going to do a true cartoon Harper, however, well... the guy is already too much of a cartoon in real life as it is, I guess.

9 - Matt Wieters - Wieters doesn't have any Topps cards apparently, which might make this exciting for someone who likes the guy if it were actually a picture of Matt Wieters and not a drawing.

57 - Robinson Cano - A clearly distraught Cano finally got his wish and got out of New York and got PAID.

16 - Kevin Youkilis - Something isn't right about this.

26 - Brett Lawrie Sticker - Unlike most Dollar Tree packs, which are a mere shell of the product they're trying to sell you on, the only difference in 2012 was that they left out any chance of pulling the nondescript memorabilia cards. All other inserts were in play. I'm not sure if they continued the weird faceless relics in 2013, but according to the wrapper you could pull all sorts of inserts and cards from the expanded (probably short printed) set. Now, compare that to the $1 packs of Topps where you get 5 base cards and only base cards, and you can see why someone might think these are okay. I'm just not quite sure I'm a Triple Play guy, though.

2008 Upper Deck Cleveland Indians Fan Pack

Wow, I haven't busted a pack in here for a long time !

But a few days ago I received a pack in the mail that is very worthy.

A Cleveland Indians fan pack I never heard of before !

Chunter, a big Braves Fan over at Chip & Dale, with whom I've made several trades, sent an email about this pack.

He found it at a Walmart for $1.00.

He wanted to know if I was interested.

What !!?? Are you kiddin' me !

Even if I had seen these these before I'd still be interested in another or two, or five, or ten !

I know absolutely nothing about this pack and have never seen one before, for the Indians or any other team.They are available on ebay for Red Sox, Yankees and Indians and apparently were available in 25 ct. cases and 100 ct. "master" cases. They carry a pretty hefty price but are not selling too well. Probably because they are mostly just common cards and not much of any substantial value. More of a curiosity factor..Which they would have gotten me there ! 

I probably would have been more excited about the contents back in 2008 than I am now as there is not one single card of a current Indian player !

However there was one quality card !

So here's what was inside.

2007 Upper Deck Series 1 and 2

8 Series 1

4 Series 2

2008 Upper Deck Series 1

7 cards

2007 Upper Deck Future Stars

2 cards

2007 Upper Deck SP  Legendary Cuts.

These two are a step up !

Nice cards of Feller and Lemon.

2007 Upper Deck Artifacts

Victor Martinez

And finally the card that made the pack for me.

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces

You may not be able to tell, but it's the glossy version !

Only one I have.

So thank you Chunter !

I'll be watching out for a pack of Braves for you !

2014 Topps Major League Movie Jumbo

As soon as I read that Topps was offering a "Special Edition" pack of cards based on the "Major League" movie, I knew I had to get a pack! The wrapper in old school wax-coated paper! It has the great feel I remember as a kid.  The delivery guy left it on the porch and we had a rain come through. The outer box showed signs of water damage as did the paper wrapper that encased the pack. The pack itself had some water on it, but because of the wax coating, it was fine as were the cards inside!

As mentioned, the cards are 5"x7". They are styled after 1989 Topps Baseball, the same year the movie was released. The photos are certainly on par with those found in 1989 Topps products. By today's standards, they are grainy, out of focus, and generally reflect baseball photography of the 80's.

The main differences between the '89 cards and these come by way of insignia. There is a "Major League" movie logo in the upper corners and the "Wild Thing" baseball logo in a lower corner.

I suppose no "Major League" card set would be complete without Jobu. And, we all know the line from the movie where Jobu gets his comeuppance. It's not safe for work or children, so I won't post it here. Haha!

The Rachel Phelps card is my only gripe. Team owners are not featured on cards. Managers are featured on cards. I think Topps should have had Lou Brown instead of Phelps. But, in the scheme of things, I won't complain too much.

I love the use of this photo because it comes just as Dorn decides he is going to play along. He is ready to be pummeled repeatedly by grounders.

Harris is infamous for his use of "pitching aids." I wish Topps would have used a more "traditional" photo for a pitcher. I also wish they would have made one of "Willie Mays" Hayes. 

The backs of the cards resemble 1989 Topps as well. Each card features information about the featured photo on the front. There is obligatory copyright info (including that of Paramount Pictures) at the bottom. I wish they would have done stats for the players I am sure someone somewhere has tracked each of the players' stats in the movie. In fact, I found some made-up stats HERE and a slew of rosters, fan-cards, etc HERE.

Regardless of the shortcomings, this is a welcome set for fans of the movie!

2014 Topps Series 2 Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone's ready for the weekend.  Packs of this starting appearing on the Target shelves a couple of days before the "official" release date.  Good times...it's a pack of 2014 Topps Series 2!

Great bounce-back after losing Mr. Padre

It's the standard 330 card set, with all them parallels and mostly-boring inserts.  This was the third pack I bought...let's see what I got:
 

#603 - Starlin Castro
#441 - Mike Pelfrey
#417 - Chase Headley
#489 - David Price

I sure hope there's a Topps guy looking at all the card blogs out there and reports to management that the blogosphere does not like close ups of pitchers pitching and batters batting on the majority of the cards in the set.  If they're just paying for Getty images, find some better ones!

#573 - Adam Lind
#478 - Billy Hamilton (checklist)

I like the season highlights appearing on the checklist cards.  Topps could make it better by putting a sentence or two on the back to give more info on the highlight. 

#212 - Jason Heyward (Future Stars - SP)
#BM-10 - James Shields (Breakout Moments)

This is why I posted the third pack.  Looks like Topps expanded the Future Stars concept to players that missed the Future Stars branding the first time, because Topps didn't use it for a while.  I do like that they used a picture of them in their Futures jersey, although there's a few brain cells thinking it could be a photoshop job.  
 

#451 - Luis Garcia (RC)
#465 - Justin Morneau
#597 - Mat Latos
#473 - Mike Napoli

Speaking of photoshops, bad job on the Morneau.  That purple looks like it can glow in the dark.

Here are some backs for you:

Anyway, that's the pack.  More later...thanks for reading!

2012 SP Signature Baseball 3-Packs

2012 SP Signature is a unique and fun product.

Each box contains 3 packs of 3 cards. All cards are sticker, certified autos. 3 per box are dual autos.

No pictures or team logos on cards.

The result is a straightforward, fun break for hitseekers. In the past I've pulled a Red Sox quad auto (Yaz/Rice/Lynn/Evans), Duke Snider Auto, and some other cool ones.

Boxes run $90 right now. Lets see how I did...



Austin Maddox is first, now in the Red Sox system.



D-Lee! Not too shabby. 300+ homers, couple of ASG's.



Double Auto... Pedro Alvarez and Colton Cain. The latter hasn't made the bigs yet.

Next pack...



Looks like I cut off some of these scans. Sorry. Jhoulys Chacin... how fun is that to say.



Luke Hochevar... at 30 years old a solid, average pitcher.



A couple Mariners here. This break isn't super impressive so far.

Oh well, one more pack...



Danks/Flowers... looks like I'm not hitting a quad auto today...



Ian Kennedy. No disrespect, solid player, but this hit is still looking like a dud... just one more...



WOAHHHHHH...

Okay! Albert! I can live with this break. I can definitely live with this break.

1989 Upper Deck Baseball

The new kid. The evolution of the hobby. The game changer.

Welcome to 1989 Upper Deck baseball. This is the pack that changed the hobby forever. New card stock. Unique photography. Back side images. Holograms. Everything in our hobby changed when these packs hit the market, especially considering the first card that Upper Deck released. Somehow, my LCS got in a box of 1989 Upper Deck. I bought a pack since I do not own a copy of card #1. Let's see if I am now an owner of one of the hobby's most iconic rectangles.

Wax wrappers were another change in card collecting after the release of Upper Deck. Who remembers these foil packs? You could win a Mantle, according to the front. Plus - 15 cards. FIFTEEN!!! And I think that was for a buck if I recall. Let's go three at a time.

 

The familar 1st base path design, that they continued thru their next three years to complete the baseball diamond. The Ellis is poorly framed. UD got better in the coming years.

We start seeing UD different take on the images with the Shelby and the Slaught.

Almost a PATP with Pena. And look - a real checklist. If I had to guess, before I ripped the pack open, I would have known one of the 15 cards was a checklist. When these were common place in sets (as opposed to the "checklists" they have now), I pulled one in dang near every pack I purchased.

Well, I got a rookie, but it wasn't Junior.

I am sorry for those that got the Chris Berman nickname in their head with that last card. Let's turn over the cards and show the best 3 reverse sides.

Ruffing blowing bubbles. That is the type of shot that won the fans over to UD, among other reasons. The pack also said I would get a 3D team logo hologram. I got two!

Well, today is Father's Day, which means Panini packs, which means if there are still packs left in this box, I am buying a couple more. There's gotta be a Junior in one of them, right?