Prizm

The other box I bought from my favorite dealer was 2015 Panini Prizm. Panini missed the mark with the first two editions of Prizm, in my opinion. Last year I felt like they got it right, minus the powder, and this year was just as good if not a bit better. So I took the offer of a good price and picked up a box.

First the inserts.

Now the parallels.

Camo Prizm #142/199

Black and White Checker Prizm #003/149

Red Power Prizm #076/125

Jackie Robinson Prizm #09/42

I said it before and I'll say it again, where Panini really excels and I think beats Topps is in parallels. One reason of which being because of Panini's much lower production numbers they are able to provide more color per box. 

And lastly the autos.

#041/125

#82/99

Definitely pumped to pull the Folty auto. He's got a bright future with the Braves.

Topps Chrome is a juggernaut that Prizm will never outsell regardless of whether or not Panini ever gets a full license. But of all the sets Panini puts out that are easy to directly compare to a Topps set, this might be the best one.

Diamond Kings

At the show Saturday before last I picked up two boxes from my favorite dealer. The first was 2015 Diamond Kings. He mentioned to me that he pretty much never buys more than a case of unlicensed stuff because it just doesn't sell all that well. But that after selling his first case of DK he bought another two cases because it was such a hit with his customers. He also mentioned that he'd had one guy pull a Babe Ruth jersey relic (with pinstripes!!) from one of his boxes. I didn't pull anything that huge but it turned out to be a pretty good box that was a lot of fun to bust.

First I pulled one base parallel.

#08/25

Framed Parallels (Two per box)

Unnumbered

#04/99

And the hits (Two per box)

#14/99

#16/99

Pulling relics of old school players is always fun, particularly one that was the centerpiece of one of the greatest moments in baseball history.

Great box!

But wait! There's more!!!!

#02/10

BOOM!!!!

Show Singles

Went to a show last Saturday. These are the singles I picked up.

First I picked up Don Gullett's 1973 Topps card to add to my collection. I'm still looking for his Topps cards from 1974, 1976, 1979 and 1980.

The following cards I got from one dealer from a $5 or 3 for $12 box. I think I did pretty well.

I love 90's inserts.

#1374/5000

This one has a wood like surface similar to the wood minis we've seen in sets like Gypsy Queen.

Another addition to my HoF relic collection.

#119/150

#566/999

Schafer was once a highly touted prospect for the Braves. But he never really could get things going at the major league level with Atlanta, Houston, Atlanta again and then Minnesota. The Twins released him earlier this season and he has yet to sign with a new team. Perhaps someone will pick him up to use as a lefty bat off the bench down the stretch,

#74/75

I was really surprised to find this card in the $5 box as Cone's autos tend to go more in the $15-20 range so I had to have it,

Two Cards From Topps

Just a quick post about the two cards I recently received from Topps.

First up is the redemption from my recent box of 2014 Tribute.

I still can't get over how amazing this card is. I'm leaving it in the toploader with the Topps sticker intact just in case I have need to sell it in the future. But for now this one is definitely staying in my collection. I do know that Topps places a pretty high value on this card as it was delivered via FedEx and required a signature. I'm not sure what their threshold is for shipping with that method rather than through USPS but it's got to be at least a couple hundred.

The second card is my prize from the Call Your Shot promotion, aka Topps finding a way to make people pay to help clear out some storage space. Despite my cynicism I went ahead and paid the shipping charge since it seems some people have gotten some pretty nice cards from high end products. I wasn't disappointed.

Orange Refractor #74/75

I'm definitely not disappointed getting a minor PC player from a high end product, albeit a sticker auto, that was randomly pulled. Topps was also quick in sending this out. I received it less than a week after entering the winning code and paying the shipping charge.

Mixer: 2012 Topps Olympics

When I put together these mixer cases I have a set amount of money set aside for it and I always try to spend every cent of it. So to fill up the last little bit of this order I added a blaster of 2012 Topps Olympics. I pulled two good cards.

I assume this is from a British stamp release for the Olympics.

The relic is 1:31 packs and the stamp card 1:201 packs, so not a bad blaster.

A Suggestion

This is a followup to the box of 2013 Topps MLS I opened. 

Let's be honest I had never even heard of probably 80% of the players featured in the base set, and I am a soccer fan. Men's soccer is, to be honest, overshadowed in this country by women's soccer. Now while MLS has slowly built itself into a success the women's leagues have struggled financially with each one only last two or three seasons before going bankrupt then a new one popping up. But on the international side where the world watches, the US men can't hold a candle to the women. It mostly comes down to the simple fact that the women win and have been among the best in the world for the last 25 years while the men plod along as a second or third tier international side that can't get over the hump. 

SO...in light of the recent World Cup winning performance by the US Women's National Team I think one of the card companies should put out a set commemorating the team. Presumably this would be Panini as they currently hold the US Soccer license. I know they did one of their sticker sets before the World Cup but that kind of product has an extremely small audience. I think this set would generate a heck of a lot more interest than an MLS set and could maybe spur a growth in the card collecting hobby among young girls as well. 

I for one would pay good money for a set featuring the likes of...

Tobin Heath,

Alex Morgan, and of course

World Cup final hero Carli Lloyd.

The set could also include past members of the National Team including those who played on the '91 and '99 winning teams. And of course it must include autos and relics!

Just a suggestion.....DO IT!!!!

Maybe they already have something in the works?

Mixer: 2013 Topps MLS

This blog has been almost completely dedicated to baseball cards as that is what I collect. There have been intrusions by hockey cards in the past buts its really been all about baseball. However, when I was picking out boxes for my mixer case I decided to try a box of 2013 Topps MLS Soccer. I'm actually a pretty big soccer fan but my focus is on the European leagues. With not having a nearby MLS team the league hasn't really been very prominent on my radar. But the box was a good price so I pulled the trigger. This box actually turned out to be really good.

Each box guarantees three autos and three relics.

Here is the base card design. Shown off by one of the few American soccer players that non-soccer fans have perhaps heard of.

Parallels

Blue #15/50

Gold #06/25

Black #03/10

The inserts were basically along the same boring lines that Topps uses for the flagship baseball sets, so I won't bother showing any of those. Next, the hits.

MLS Maestros Auto

Super Draft Auto #25/25

Green #01/75

It's pretty obvious from the content of this one box that this product is VERY short printed compared to Topps baseball flagship. But the demand is also way lower so it makes sense. It is fun to pull lots of low numbered cards from one box.

Here it is!

Wow what a beauty this card is!!

Got it in 10 days. TEN DAYS!!!!!! Quickest redemption turnaround by Topps...ever? I did not expect that.

Mixer: 2008 Upper Deck SPx

I hope everyone was able to catch the All-Star festivities over the last few days. MLB really hit one out of the park with the new Home Run Derby format..heh. And the game last night certainly was an exciting affair. Now it's time to get on with the second half of the season with the trade deadline coming up soon. But in the meantime let's get back to baseball cards!

The next box in my mixer case was 2008 Upper Deck SPx. UD SPx is always a great product to bust no matter the sport as it offers great hits in quantity at a decent price. I've opened SPx hockey and loved it so I jumped at the chance to get some SPx baseball. Each box contains 10 packs with each pack containing an auto or a relic. The odds generally work out to four autos and six relics per box, There are also numbered insert sets featuring Ken Griffey Jr. and Babe Ruth.

The base cards are all die-cuts. 

My box also included a box loader pack. I don't know if every box has one and if each one includes an auto, but mine did. It also included a Yankee Stadium Legacy card.

The rest of the autos follow:

That signature looks like mine did when I was about..ohhh...four years old.

I'm actually impressed that of the five autos I pulled, including the box loader, three of them are players I've heard of.

These redemptions are two per case. Mine is for #7 which was Alexei Ramirez, so nothing too bad to miss out on. If I had pulled the redemption for Carlos Gonzalez, Max Scherzer, or Clayton Kershaw I would have been a little more upset.

Next up the inserts:

509/725

512/725

447/725

These as well as the Babe Ruth insert come in a 1/1 parallel, of which there are two per case. (There are 100 different inserts of each.) I did not get lucky enough to pull one. But if you want a really good shot at pulling a 1/1 Griffey or Ruth card then 2008 SPx is the way to go.

And now the relics:

075/150

27/75

123/150

105/125

Patch relic 76/99

And the best for last...

20/25

WOO!!!