2015 Bowman Chrome Baseball

I'm not a big fan of Bowman is any of it's forms. I'm not a prospector, but it's not the inclusion of prospects that makes me dislike this product or any of the other Bowman products.  It's Topps' numbering system for the set.  I understand that Topps probably has to seperate out the prospects due to it's contract with the MLB and what constitutes a rookie, yada, yada, yada.  

But Bowman Chrome is a set that just seems pointless.  I mean Topps already puts Chrome cards in the regular Bowman set.  As a matter of fact they look just like these cards, with a few minor differences.  But I do like to pick up a few packs of new stuff, not that this is new anymore.  

Four whole cards in the pack I scanned all the backs.  Let's see who I got.

My insert in the pack was this Prospect Profiles, I had to look that up since the set title isn't anywhere on the card.  These are mini tall boys in the cut.  They're 3 inches high but only about 2/3 of the width of regular card.  Robert's been in the Cincinnati farm system since 2012 and was promoted to AAA this year. Who knows maybe he'll get a call next year.

2013 Topps Chrome Update Baseball

I've been snagging deeply discounted 2013 Topps Mega Boxes at Wal-Mart.  It's hard to pass up with each box containing two exclusive packs of Update Chrome and 5 packs of Update.  I lucked out a few weeks ago and pulled a gold refractor Yasial Puig rookie card.  I went back a few days ago and there were two more discounted Megaboxes so they came home with me.  I might have enough cards now to consider putting the set together.  This was the best pack of the bunch. Let see what I got.

Unlike regular Chrome, Chrome Update only has two refractor parallels, the gold (numbered to 250) and black (numbered to 99)  It nice to see one of the serial numbered refractors pop out of the pack.

2014 Topps Allen and Ginter Retail Hanger

It's hard for me to pass up an Allen and Ginter rack pack for almost half price.  Especially when I'm still trying to build the set.  I'm happy to announce I needed about half the base cards so that's a bonus too.

It's also nice when you get inserts of players you collect.  I still have a player collection for Prince here, but since he left the Brewers it's much more passive and I tend to only add cards if I pull them from packs, find them in the dime box, or get them in trades.

The rack pack also contains two, yes two mini's.

My only non baseball insert.  For me I like Ginter specifically for the non-baseball personalities inserted into the checklist and the great variety in the inserts, both mini and full size.

2013 Panini Cooperstown

After digging through some repack rubbish, I think I've finally stumbled upon an unlicensed baseball release I can actually get behind. I've now opened four of these Panini Cooperstown packs and have yet to be disappointed, despite the lack of logos. Here's one of them.

- Eddie Mathews Colgan's Chips - There's been one of these circular weirdos in each pack that I've opened. The original Colgan's apparently was a round gum that came in a round tin that contained a disc-shaped baseball card. I wish you could still get cards in weird ways (besides from weird people, that is.)

82 - Rod Carew - Here's the base design. It's not the best thing that I've seen, but the somewhat reduced size of the photo distracts from the logos being cropped out at least.

39 - Dizzy Dean - Here's one for my team collection.

3 - Cap Anson Cooperstown Lumberjacks - These inserts have a wood finish to them and are really nice looking, despite their subject being reduced to a blip in the center of the card.

58 - Duke Snider - You can see that the front of the card indicates the year the player was inducted into the Hall.

16 - Edd Roush - The backs of the card are nice and detailed, containing the line score of a notable game of the player's career, usually a World Series game.

2015 Donruss Football

Donruss football is back.  The overall design seems new, but keeps with the basic simple design seen in old Donruss offering and Score.  And there are inserts and parallels galore!

I think you get one rookie per pack.  I could be wrong about that though.  The Rate Rookies have a lot of foil.

I'm also pretty sure you get 1 insert per pack on average.  Again I've only opened a couple packs and both had inserts and rated rookie cards.  My insert this pack was an Elite Matt Ryan.

2014 Topps UFC Champions

I am on a mission - scan folder clear out. So you will be seeing me every other day for a while. I WILL GET THIS SUCKER CLEANED!

We've had a lot of hockey, so today we get UPC - 2014 Topps UFC Champions to be specific. I never got into boxing, and I will never get into UFC. If you enjoy it, then by all means please watch. My opinion is simply mine, and two people beating the snot out of each other is not interesting to me. But UFC is fiercely popular, so Topps has released a few sets for the sport.

When I looked this set up on Cardboard Connection, I had no idea MMA fighting has been around 20 years. Wow - that is a lot of ignoring by me. :) From what I read, this set focuses on those 20 years with the subject matter. I am going to trust CC because again, Jeff = clueless. Your standard set with relic and autographs possible. 200 card base set with parallels and a few insert sets.

The octagon ring plays into the design of the card. Action shots can be expected in the set, though you will see some non-action photos coming later in the post. It's kind of hard to see the look, so let me show you this picture I took.

You can see the person has a gloss on them, while the background is matte. We have seen this in other cards before, and it's kind of fun. Also, that glossing is used through the layout of the card, so there is no foil on the front. I am just going to post through the 10 cards and I don't have many comments, and I would probably be snarky anyway.

Here is one of the insert sets. I am not sure who  Royce Gracie is, but he is one of the sports greats and I will not take that from him.

Now I know what the layout looks like - Minority Report. The movie, not the series. Yes? Anyway, there's all the cards, and they do look nice. Some really great action shots seen, and you can feel the pain that is being dished out.

Very simple back with some biographical info about the fighter, his Twitter handle if you are so inclined to follow, and a paragraph about the person.