Platinum Status

 

A reasonably priced blaster? In 2021? 

 

I had a decent day at the monthly card show last Saturday once I got over the fact that 95% of the tables are not for me. So many people involved in this business have tables full of marked up retail products and ten cent cards in dollar boxes. I spent most of my time at the show in dime boxes at a couple of tables, and even found a blaster that wasn't marked up at all on my way out the door.

Bowman Platinum is never my favorite product, as the foilboard heavy product always tends to veer towards tackiness rather than something special. I do think Walmart usually comes up short in their retail exclusives versus the other big box chain.

This design isn't terrible, but I'm not sure I'll remember it in a few years. Dylan Carlson's RC is one of four Cardinals on the base checklist, which checks in at 100 cards. There's also the expected Prospects cards, where the Cardinals only have one participant.

I also pulled a "foil ice" parallel of the third place finisher in the NL ROY award. I surely can't complain about that.

I also ended up with both versions of the George Springer card, but no other cards for my collection.

I'm not sure how "Renowned" this catcher who played 10 games for the Rangers in 2020 is, but he's still rookie eligible in 2022.

I think this is supposed to be an insert design called Periodic Elements, but the gimmick is ruined a bit by the player obscuring part of the design. Also, it's weird to see his name printed as R.Hassell on the card (his first name is Robert.)

Here's what the Prospects design looks like (in foil ice form.)

Jake Cronenworth was one of the better players who had RCs in 2021 products.

Here's another one of the foil ice Prospects cards. This reminds me that I still have a boxed up bunch of Nationals cards with no address to send them to, because the person who claimed them claimed to be a fan of Cade Cavalli.

Brailyn Marquez is apparently one of the Cubs better prospects, but he didn't pitch at all in 2021. I'm guessing there was some sort of injury at play.

The best card of the box was objectively this Ronald Acuña Jr. card, which is numbered to just 99. This one heads to my trade box.

Opening Night Hoops

New basketball cards for a newer season. 

 

The 2021-22 NBA season begins anew tonight! A couple of weekends ago, I actually found brand new unopened basketball cards in a retail store for maybe the second time in the past couple of years. Granted, these are 2020-21 cards, but it doesn't look like we are going to have any 2021-22 NBA cards for quite some time so we'll take what we can get.

I picked up a hanger box of Panini Select from Barnes & Noble of all places. This is the first time the set has been available at the retail level, and all of the base cards are blue instead of their normal (hobby) silver. They're not the best things I've seen, but beggars can't be choosers at this point. Let's check out what I got.

Here's a rookie and a former MVP from years ago. As you can see, the retail cards are a pretty serious blue, not just a sky blue.

A couple of LA team guys, although Williams had already moved on to the Hawks at this point.

On average, about half of the base cards were rookies.

The big base card is the rookie cover dude here.

An idiot and a Kiwi walk into a bar... there's probably a joke here, somewhere.

A couple of rookies here. Josh Green (boring name!) and Isaiah Joe (two first names!)

RJ Barrett is here on the apparently rare Courtside design along with superstar Luka.

Each hanger box promises some exclusive red, white and orange "shimmer" parallels. I was fortunate enough that two of these are team collection needs, including this rookie Elleby card.

This is the first Norman Powell card that's headed for my Blazers binders.

The third exclusive "shimmer" parallel was none other than Kristaps Prozingis.

Midseason Pacers acquisition Caris LeVert rounds out the group of shimmers.

Here's some bonus Luka!

The last two cards were color base parallels.

The blue Prizm parallel shows off the retail exclusive design a lot better than the non-Prizm cards.

Enjoy the games tonight... and the season!

An Unboxing

Look at this! A true Mystery Box from Sportscards.com includes nothing but surprises. 

Subscription boxes have been a big hit across a wide selection of people's interests, as they generally cater to people who are interested in things. It turns out that a lot of people are interested in things. Many of these people are interested in opening boxes of things they might be interested in, in fact. You'd be hard pressed to find many humans on this planet who don't enjoy a good present, and boxes like this are kind of like the best kinds of presents, as long as you pretend that you didn't pay money for it.

It turns out I didn't actually pay for this box from Sportscards.com. The website was kind enough to provide this box to me for, let's say, evaluation purposes. It's a super cool deal, and if you like what you see you can head on over to their site to check out some of their products. The box was very professionally presented, with branded packaging and even branded tissue paper, like a true present. Also, I'm sure I could be talked out of parting ways with most of this stuff since it mostly doesn't fit into my own personally collection.

Sportscards.com slabbed this card with a "Verified Vintage" sticker, and this 1976 Topps Rod Carew also looks to be in really nice shape. I am interested in learning more about their verification process, as this could be a nice and affordable alternative to some of the shady practices going on in the graded card industry as a whole.

This is definitely the highlight of the box. Buck Leonard was a longtime Negro League star and is also a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I am not familiar with this particular set at all (1978 Grand Slam), but my curiosity about it is definitely piqued. The card isn't graded for condition, but the autograph is authenticated by Beckett. Interestingly, the card is slabbed with an inner sleeve. Is this normal, or just common for the oddball size of the card? (I am not terribly familiar with grading cards as a whole as you might suspect, but there's been some fascinating reading material on the subject of late.)

Here's a peak at the back of the card, since this isn't a set you see every day.

This one has the Sportscards.com logo on it and it comes with a sticker that states that it's factory sealed.

So what is this exactly? It looks like the website is creating their own cut auto cards here, although I suspect my copy is a sample/evaluation copy since there's just a "sample" stamp. The paid monthly subscriptions look to come in multiple tiers, and I'm guessing something like this (only for real) is possible in one of the higher tiers. In any case, the card design seems solid for something like this, and reminds me of some of the higher end Upper Deck cards I couldn't afford back when they were a thing (in baseball.)

Keeping in line with the variety and mystery of it all, this Marc Gasol triple jersey card came in its own Sportscards.com top loader. It was one of those semi-rigid large top holders usually used for submitting graded cards, or so I've heard. (I primarily use them for sending cheap stuff through the mail in letters.) This card is from the fancy 2016-17 Panini Spectra set and is numbered to 149.

To polish it all off, there was also a pack inside. This is the latest Leaf football set.

I was hoping for a Ducks player, but I'm not sure that any Ducks this year made it into any of the draft style base sets. I think there might be a few autographed cards out there, but it wasn't a big year for Oregon in the draft.

The box also included a "redemption card", which is sort of like a punchcard for repeated purchases that gets you a future bonus if you accumulate enough of them. I'll hang on to mine in case I look at picking up a box on my own in the future.

I did sign up for a free account at the site, and I plan on checking out their newly launched pricing tool for collectors which was recently made available for free. This is an area that is sorely lacking/confusing to many, as you pretty much need to have a knack for navigating completed auction listings manually and weigh that against other listings of things for sale to get a ballpark range for card value these days. (Plus, you'll probably have to talk your weird uncle out of relying solely on dog-eared "price guides" that have been sitting around his basement for years when he thinks about putting his stuff up on Craigslist.)

Thanks again to Sportscards.com! I appreciate the opportunity to do something like this, and mystery boxes are always fun.

PPBBB: Panini Prizm Basketball Blaster Break

It's the last day of fall. Why not check out a new box of hoopsters and hoops stars? 

I was a big fan of last year's Prizm NBA set, stopping just short of actually trying to put together a set of basketball cards for the first time in decades. I was prepared to not like this year's version as much, but I really can't find anything negative to say about it. Chrome'd up cards just look really nice to me these days, that's all there is to it. They are still way too expensive for their own good, but they make nice trade fodder.

I bought a box during some holiday time shopping excursion and it comes with a guaranteed, per box, on average, autograph or memorabilia card. That could be fun?

Pack 1:

1 - Ben Simmons - Simmons was the first overall pick, and in grand recent Sixers tradition went out and broke something so he's been out for awhile.

142 - Nikola Vucevic

238 - Kyle Anderson Prizm Green - This is a Prizm parallel and a green one at that. Don't say the 'R' word.

263 - Andrew Wiggins - The back of the card features the same photo as the front, but without the effect that dims the background and focuses on the player.

Pack 2:

10 - Nik Stauskas

199 - Tim Frazier - Frazier used to reside at the end of the Blazers bench, but since catching on with the Pelicans he's elevated his game as a max effort guy who also happens to be incredibly annoying.

122 - Derrick Rose Prizm - Panini went big this season with the "guy posing with his new jersey" look rather than showing players in their old uniforms with a new logo in the corner.

221 - James Harden - Harden and his beard are trying to play both guard positions simultaneously this season, which is putting the famed flopper on pace to lead the league in assists and break the all-time league record for most turnovers in a season.

Pack 3:

68 - Wade Baldwin IV - Did Wade Baldwins I-III also hoop?

157 - Seth Curry - Steph's lil' bro.

179 - Will Barton Prizm - Ex-Blazer lost in the ill-fated Arron Afflalo deal.

278 - Al-Farouq Aminu - Nice to pull a Blazer here. The Chief has been injured for much of this season, contributing to Portland's league worst defense. They're 3-0 in games I've attended this year, however, so maybe I just need to go to more games.

Pack 4:

26 - Robin Lopez

115 - Malachi Richardson - He looks like he won a contest to be an NBA player for a day.

42 - Luol Deng Orange Wave Prizm Auto (2/25) - Here's the hit, and I suppose I could have done worse (memorabilia card?) Deng is pictured with the Heat but is now with the Lakers. While he's still a starter, he's averaging career lows in every noticeable category including minutes.

 235 - LaMarcus Aldridge

 Pack 5:

83 - Josh Richardson

172 - Kenneth Faried - It's the so-called Manimal.

3 - Paul George Explosion Prizm - It's a parallel version of an insert card. George is really good.

259 - Mitch McGary

Pack 6:

40 - Mo Williams

129 - Marshall Plumlee - Yes, it's another Plumlee. This just might be the last of them, for awhile at least.

16 - Blake Griffin Explosion - The regular version of the Explosion insert.

217 - Norman Powell - I started to type "Normal Powell" for some reason.

And there we have it. Like any of the cards you see here? Interested in receiving the occasional package of basketball cards? Got any Blazers you don't need? Let me know!