2022 Panini Diamond Kings

 

Let's take a look at this year's version of Panini Diamond Kings. The annual set features a mix of rookies, veterans and legends. I bought a blaster recently and this is one of the blaster packs.

56 - Freddie Freeman - I can't say I'm a big fan of the design. The side seems to be dirt colored while the bottom part beneath the player name is grass colored. I get what they were going for, but it just doesn't look attractive to me.

17 - Edd Roush - Kudos to Panini for finally including some different retired players for once. I don't think I've ever pulled an Edd Roush card before.

53 - Javier Baez - The backs of the card continue the dirt-and-grass theme. As with most Panini baseball cards these days, there isn't a lot to look at on the reverse.

116 - Gerrit Cole Artist's Proof - This one is a parallel with the Artist's Proof stamp on it.

MS-5 - Jose Altuve Modern Strokes - This insert has more of a paint canvas theme to it. Panini likes those double meanings.

101 - Jackie Robinson - Last up is Jackie Robinson, which means we didn't get any rookies in this pack. The rookie cards feature a few different designs, in tiers based on rarity. It's something they've been doing with the Court Kings NBA sets for years but had yet to implement on the baseball side. You can see a couple of the designs here.

1995 Miller Brewing

A pack featuring the Miller Brewing company. The cards feature advertisements they put over through the years and the company's history on back of the card. Back then you can mail in 5X7 card along with five wrappers.

Here are the odds on the inserts you might possibly pull.

Here are the cards:

St. Patrick's ad. Back of the card talks about Miller brewing facilities all over the nation.

 Miller's 1984 Olympic Summer Games poster

A magazine ad from 1950s

One of many music tour ads. They mention sponsoring ZZ Top, Brooks and Dunn, and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant music tours on the back of the card,

This brewery is still in operation today in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

Got a Crystal Gallery insert card that runs in 1 out of 12 packs. This is nice!

2018 Topps Fire Rack Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone is enjoying the 4th of July weekend.  I'm the on call supervisor this weekend so that means I have to stay local and not party too much, just in case work stuff arises.  Since I have to be around, I decided to check into the APTBNL offices and put a post together.

If I'm right, this is my first post on July 4th and just the 5th post on America's birthday (the others were in 2009, 2012, 2016, and 2019...hmm, someone's gonna have to look into that 2009 post).  Since it's my first 4th of July post, I had to find something appropriate. 

Because fireworks, right?

I posted an exclusive gold parallel pack from 2018 Topps Fire a while back but it appears no one has gotten around to posting one of the rack packs, unless it wasn't tagged properly.  Let's correct this injustice and see what I got:

#200 - Sandy Koufax

#68 - Adrian Beltre

Always nice to start with a legend, although point deductions are applied for the type of font Topps is using for that Koufax...the K is too much like the X.

#132 - Greg Maddux

#181 - Juan Soto (RC)

2018 had a pretty solid rookie class...Juan Soto, Walker Buehler, Rhys Hoskins, Ozzie Albies, some dude in Anaheim whom folks claim can hit AND pitch...yeah, right!

#PP-6 - Aaron Judge (Power Producers Blue Chip Parallel)

#73 - Ernie Banks (Orange Parallel #68/299)

The back of the pack didn't give the odds of the Power Producers insert or it's Rack Pack parallel.  The Orange Banks looks real nice in hand.

#HS-8 - Corey Kluber (Hot Starts Blue Chip Parallel)

#87 - Yu Darvish (Blue Chip Parallel)

The Hot Starts Blue Chip Parallel was a 1 in 4 pack pull.  Each pack came with a Blue Chip base card.  

#98 - Hunter Renfroe

#73 - Ernie Banks

Ernie Banks hot pack!

#4 - Adam Duvall

#43 - Gary Sanchez

There's that font again...the D looks like an O and the V looks too much like a U.

Here's some backs because America:

The background colors on the Power Producers and Hot Starts cards are what their fronts should look like.

Anyway, that's the pack; not bad overall.  Here's the checklist if you need a reminder.  Happy 246th, America, and thanks for reading!

2021-22 Panini NBA Hoops

It's NBA Draft night, so let's check out a pack of Hoops. This one is a pack from a blaster box.

112 - Maxi Kleber - The card design is very Hoops-y. It's not bad.

118 - Richaun Holmes - Holmes is a solid but a bit undersized center who mostly shoots around the basket.

43 - Al Horford - Horford is 36 now and is in his second stint with the Celtics. He's more of a volume three point shooter these days, for better or for worse.

120 - Thomas Bryant - Put this one in your "people wearing face masks" collection.

179 - Mike Conley - Same goes with this one.

24 - Derrick White - White spent his whole career with San Antonio before being set free and joining the Celtics for a bench role.

107 - DeAndre Jordan Anniversary Edition - The Anniversary Edition cards were advertised as rare parallels, but it's hard to determine their print run with them being unnumbered.

228 - Davion Mitchell - Each blaster pack comes with a rookie card at the end. Mitchell had a decent rookie season, starting 19 games and getting increased playing time during the final month with Tyrese Haliburton sent to Indiana.

2020-21 Panini Chronicles Basketball Hanger Box

Greetings!

I hope everyone is doing well.  It's NBA Finals time, so what better time for a basketball pack.  A month or so ago my eldest (who just graduated from the 8th grade, holy crap, I have a high school kid) and I were at Target.  I sent him to a specific aisle to grab something and on the way back to me he took a detour through the card aisle and saw a couple of boxes of Chronicles.  He grabbed one and tried to sell me on buying it with the hopes we would split the cards.  Ol' Jafronius doesn't do Chronicles but there hasn't been basketball cards on the shelves, so for $15 we took a box home.

I gave him the option on if he wanted the top card or not, which he opted to claim.  He also thought that he'd get the top half of the stack; I shut him down real quick on that thought.  There's what we got:

#85 - LeBron James (Threads)

#9 - Jayson Tatum (Chronicles)

The kid saw LeBron and thought it was a safe pick so going forward his cards are on the left and mine are on the right.  

#57 - Patrick Williams (RC) (Prestige)

#19 - Ben Simmons (Chronicles)

He then was pretty excited to get the Bulls rookie from last season (in a set released this season), and felt sorry that I got Simmons.

#80 - Obi Toppin (RC) (Threads)

#4 - Zach Levine (Chronicles) 

Joy turned to heartache for the kid, as I "drafted" his current favorite player.  

#52 - James Wiseman (RC) (Prestige)

#48 - Donovan Mitchell (Chronicles)

There's 725 cards in the set, which is divided into 27(!) subsets.  Here's the link to the checklist for those who are interested.  

#99 - Theo Maledon (RC) (Threads)

#43 - Nikola Jokic (Chronicles)

The set was released back in November, part of the 2021-22 NBA season.  I haven't come across a reason why all of Panini's 2020-21 releases were delayed a year.  Maybe they were all gonna have little sports figures like 2021 Big League.

#107 - Patrick Williams (RC) (Panini)

#141 - Facundo Campazzo (RC) (Luminance)

The kid found it curious he got a second Patrick Williams in the box.  I didn't say anything at this point.

#178 - LeBron James (Paybook)

#102 - LaMelo Ball (RC) (Panini) 

Now he was confused with his second LeBron.  I told him how this set was designed, with only the big players and the hottest (year old) rookies.  

#155 - Kira Lewis Jr. (RC) (Luminance)

#116 - Tyrese Maxey (RC) (Panini)

I told him not every player gets a card.  For example, Game 5 hero Andrew Wiggins does not have a card in Chronicles.  However, Bulls rookie Patrick Williams has 23 cards in the set!

#131 - Onyeka Okongwu (RC) (Panini)

#187 - Jae'Sean Tate (RC) (Playbook)

#635 - Anthony Edwards (RC) (Classics)

#165 - Tyrese Maxey (RC) (Luminance)

Got my second Maxey in the "draft".  

#632 - Isaac Okoro (RC) (Classics)

#645 - RJ Hampton (RC) (Classics)

Apparently the base Classics subset are exclusive to hanger boxes.  

#75 - Obi Toppin (RC) (Prestige Green Parallel)

#642 - Theo Maledon (RC) (Classics)

Green Parallels are also hanger box exclusives.  Obi Toppin is a fun name to say.

#563 - Deni Avdija (RC) (Hometown Heroes)

#194 - Anthony Davis (Playbook Green Parallel)

The kid was pleased to get a shiny card, while I lucked out with the second Green Parallel.

#264 - Immanuel Quickley (RC) (Marquee)

#227 - LeBron James (Essentials)

The kid found it ridiculous that there was a third LeBron in the box.  Turns out there are 19 Lebrons in the set.  If you're a big Jimmy Butler fan, you can look for...1 card in the set.

#273 - Nico Mannion (RC) (Xr)

#300 - Luka Doncic (Xr)

What's an Xr?

I asked him what he thought of the set after the going through the cards.  He wasn't a big fan of the repeat players  but did enjoy of the look of some of the cards.  Maybe that's what Panini is going for with this set...enough good looking sets to impress collectors.   

Anyway, that's the pack.  I forgot to scan the backs, but you know what Panini backs look like.  Thanks for reading!