2023-24 Panini Haunted Hoops

Greetings!

Hope everyone enjoyed Halloween 2024.  Back in 2022, Halloween-themed Pokemon cards were released, which caused a mini-frenzy amongst collectors.  You got alot of packs to hand out to the kiddos, but there were only 30 cards or so in the set, so collectors would get tons of extras.

It took longer then I thought it would for the sports card industry to give it a shot; this year Panini released a football and a basketball version of Halloween cards for the people.  Since Ol' Jafronius prefers basketball over football, I forked over the 21 bucks for some Haunted Hoops!

120 cards for 21 bucks isn't bad, but I had some immediate buyer's remorse when looking at the pack.  

While the 2024 Score-a-Treat release is based on 2024 Score Football, Haunted Hoops is based on 2023-24 Hoops.  Why are they using last year's Hoops set for a Halloween-themed release for the 2024-25 season?  I mean, they're playing games right now, where's this year's Hoops set?

Bummed at the realization that the basketball cards aren't from this year, my reaction was slightly improved by remembering that last year's set had some hot rookiez, including the hottest of hot rookiez, Victor Wembanyama.

The 40 packs were stacked in 3 piles in a cardboard sleeve.  I decided to show the best pack in each stack.

Left Stack:

#91 - Mike Conley

#32 - Jamal Murray (Orange Parallel)

You get 2 base cards and then one parallel in each pack.  The Orange parallel is the most common one.  Notice the spooky slime and cobwebs!

The parallel is the last card in the pack, so what was the middle card?

#282 - Victor Wembanyama (RC - Rising Stars)

There's 2 Wemby RCs in the set, the base and this one, part of the Rising Stars subset (the closest thing to an insert in this release).  1 down, 1 to go!

[Narrator:  Unfortunately, Ol' Jafronius didn't get that second Wemby.]

Here's the backs for those interested:

Scary pumpkins!  Evil circles!

Notice the stats on the back were from 2022-23.  I was hoping that at least they would have last year's stats since they were spooking it up for the holiday, but no.

Center Stack:

#212 - Tobias Harris

#190 - Grayson Allen

Zombies filling the seats!  Scary!

Unlike the Pokemon release, there's 300 cards in the set.  There's 279 base cards and 21 Rising Stars.

#162 - Kyle Kuzma (Holo Webs Parallel)

Since Panini never tells us the odds, I'm not sure how rare the Holo Webs are.  You can see the slight shine on the card, making the card extra eerie!

Here's the back of the Kuzma card:

Right Stack:

#93 - Cameron Johnson

#257 - Scottie Barnes

Also of note, the cards are real flimsy, so maybe the cardstock is a lesser quality than normal.

#295 - Paolo Banchero (Rising Stars - Slime Parallel)

I got a couple of the Slime cards, so I will assume the Holo Webs is rarer than the Slime.  And of course there'd be parallels of the subset cards.

Since I was still kinda bummed Panini used last year's Hoops set for this year's release, I wondered if they used the same image for the player - that would be scary lazy!

#180 - Nikola Jokic (2023-24 Hoops)

#1 - Nikola Jokic (2023-24 Panini Haunted Hoops)

Good on Panini for using a new image, but how about the back?

Yes, the stats are still morbidly depressing, but hey, the write-up was updated as well.

I searched for one more, just in case Panini was picky with their updates:

#31 - Bennedict Mathurin (2023-24 Hoops)

#254 - Bennedict Mathurin (2023-24 Panini Haunted Hoops Slime Parallel)

So yes, it does appear that they updated all the images and write-ups for the release.

Anyway, those are the packs.  To me, using last year's set is a big minus, but the different image and write-up are decent pluses.  You get a lot of cards for your money, and I got no duplicates in my box.  I'll leave it up to you if you want to pass them out to the kiddos, or keep them for yourself!

Trick or Treat everyone, and thanks for reading!

2019 Wizards of the Coast Transformers - War for Cybertron: Siege II TCG Booster Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  While I was putting together my last post, the 40th anniversary of the Transformers animated series was celebrated by fans everywhere:

On September 17. 1984, the first episode of the 3-parter "More Than Meets The Eye" began airing on US TV.  I don't think kids back then could have conceived that 40 years later, Transformers would be as prevalent in pop culture as it is currently.  Belated happy birthday, Transformers!

I posted the booster pack for War for Cybertron: Siege I a while back, and since today is the 13th anniversary of my first post here on APTBNL, it's time to post Siege II:

War for Cybertron: Siege II was released back in November of 2019.  Continuing from Siege I, the gimmick they had for this release was the inclusion of mini-Transformers called Micro Masters and Battle Masters.  

Each pack contains 8 cards.  You get 2 Transformers in a pack, the regular large character card and the "small" character card, and 6 battle cards.  The battle cards are the size of regular baseball cards and are wrapped in clear plastic.  The 2 character cards are not in plastic and are protected by 2 pieces of cardboard; this time both pieces have ads on them:

This time, there are 52 Characters and 64 battle cards in the release.  Here's the battle cards:

#55/64 - Stable Cover

#53/64 - Soldier's Blaster

As usual, the Commons start the pack.  You can see this is Wave 4 on the bottom left.  Again, those colored pips in the upper right affect the Transformer's attack or defense.  

#54/64 - Special Delivery

#6/64 - Battlefield Incursion

Interested in seeing the card list?  Click here to see the Battle cards.  There's there link on the page where you can see the Character cards.

#20/64 - Erratic Cannon

#13/64 - Crude Club

Hey cool, my Rare card is a club!  Let's see what mini-Transformer I got:

#22/52 - Private Seawatch

Seawatch is a Common card, and just like in Siege I, the characters are assigned military rankings.  I don't think I had this little guy when it was released back in the late 80's.

How about the main Transformer, you say?

#47/52 - Sergeant Thundercracker

Woo, got a Rare one!  Thundercracker's plane mode matches his pre-Earth form.

The robot side for both cards are all foiled up and looks nice.  

Anyway, that's the pack.  The artwork for these character cards are still great, even though I'm still not a big fan of the military ranks.  And yes, I still haven't played the game; I pick these up because I'm a fan of the Franchise.  

Happy birthday to the Transformers, happy 13th blogiversary to Ol' Jafronius, and as always, thanks for reading!

1993 Topps Football Series 2

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  Today is my eldest son's 17th birthday.  Nothing big planned for today since school's in session.  The Wifey talked about taking him out to breakfast when I get home from work, assuming he gets up in time.  He's a good kid; a little too messy for my tastes. but he's a teenager, so that makes it OK, I guess?

NFL season is upon us again, and with Week 2 in the books, it's time for a football pack.  The local-ish LCS recently switched from the big green tub of loose packs to monster boxes full of them; I picked up this one on a trip there to pick up some card auction winnings.

Professional...as opposed to Amateur Football cards

In my post from (holy crap) over 12 years ago, I noted that I paid a buck for Series 1.  Don't know if it's inflation or if the local-ish LCS always had Series 2 for 2 bucks, but here we are.  15 cards per pack, just like Series 1.  Here's what I got:

#600 - Rick Mirer (Draft Pick)

#605 - Ronnie Lott

Mirer was the 2nd overall pick in the draft and started off strong for Seattle.  Per TCDB, there was a Rick Mirer card in Series 1, so this is not his Rookie card.  OK then.

I don't know if I ever knew that Ronnie Lott was a Jet.

#649 - Steve Everitt (Draft Pick / RC)

#637 - Dan Williams (Draft Pick / RC)

There are 330 cards in Series 2.

Everitt played for 4 teams between 1993 and 2000.  Williams started with Denver and ended with Kansas City in 2001.

#551 - Roosevelt Potts (Draft Pick / RC)

#519 - Robert Delpino

Where did the Bronco go on Delpino's helmet?

#480 - Andre Rison

#506 - Chuck Cecil

Andre Rison was a stud back then, nice looking card.

#499 - Michael Brooks

#591 - Marco Coleman

Brooks gets the one per pack Topps Gold treatment (GOLD!), which isn't a bad parallel but makes for a bad picture.  

#601 - Richard Dent

#595 - William Fuller

Great shot of the Hall of Famer.  Dent's taunting Fuller (Houston Oilers!) and he's having none of it.

#615 - Merril Hoge

#564 - Sean Landeta

It's been 7 years since Hoge was analyzing games for ESPN; he joined the Mothership back in 1996 and didn't make it past the layoffs in 2017.

And...Punter cards!

#500 - Jerry Rice

Last card in the pack is a guaranteed winner.

Here's some backs because football:

Look at them stats!  USFL stats!  College stats!  Punter stats!

Anyway, that's the post.  Hope you all enjoyed this retro pack.  Good luck in your Fantasy leagues, and thanks for reading!

2021-22 Wild Card Alumination Basketball

My wife was at a store and the had boxes of 4 packs 8 cards per pack for $8.50 so she picked up 2 for me.  These are all college guys Rookies in my opinion not a great checklist.  But lets see a pack.  First is the unopened pack, then the 6 base cards and then the back of the base.  Each 8 card pack is to include 2 inserts which there are a lot of, here is a link to the TCDB.com page for the set if interested in all that is possible https://www.tcdb.com/Checklist.cfm/sid/310348 .  The 2 insert I received were a Light Show & a Starbright.  The biggest name in the packs I opened was Josh Giddey and this pack had 2 different cards of him a Base and the Starbright.  

Pack

Base Card Design

Base Back Design

Starbright Insert Front design

Starbright Insert Back design

Light Show Insert Front design

Light Show Insert Back design

2024 ABD Yuto Horigome Quickstrike

I'm guessing there aren't a lot of collectors interested in Japanese skateboarders, but that's okay.  This blog's agenda is to rip at least one pack of every card product ever made.  So here you go...

Let's kick things off with the skater featured in this product.  Yuto Horigome is a twenty-five year old skater from Japan who has won three gold medals at the X Games and two gold medals at the Olympics in street skating.

Last month, I discovered ABD Collectibles produced cards for him as well as other skaters.  Collectors can either purchase individual packs or full boxes on their site.  Boxes are available for $126.90, while each pack costs $12.69.  The advantage of buying a box is that you are guaranteed an autograph.

Since I really wanted Yuto's signature, I grabbed a box.  If you're interested in seeing the autograph I pulled, click here.

Alright... enough mumbo jumbo... let's check out the first pack of the box:

I really like the logo.  Reminds me of a package of Pop Rocks from the 80's.

According to the back of the pack wrapper, each pack contains only three cards: two collectible cards and one redemption card.

Card #1:

English Hollywood 16 Non-Foil

There are only three different cards in this product:  Hollywood 16, Portrait, & Franklin Switch Tail.  

However each card has four different versions:

#1:  English Non-Foil

#2:  English Foil

#3:  Japanese Non-Foil

#4:  Japanese Foil

Based on my personal box break, I think that each of these versions were printed in equal quantities.  There are hand numbered parallels that are randomly inserted into packs that are much rarer.  Unfortunately, I did not pull any of these in my box. 

Card #2:

English Hollywood 16 Foil

Based on my scans, it's hard to tell the difference between the non-foil and foil versions.  However they're very easy to tell apart in hand.  Here's a photo of the cards side by side:

Card #3:

The third card in the pack is advertised as a redemption card, but it's actually more of a contest card since not ever card is redeemable for something.

Collectors can check to see if they won, by scanning the QR code.  Unfortunately... I couldn't find any information on odds of winning.

Well that's it.  Three cards for $12.69 (+ tax).

What are your thoughts on a product like this?  There has to be at least one other card collector out there that's also a fan of Yuto, right?

Happy Friday and sayonara!