Prizm in Color

Panini Prizm's Baseball offering is colorful fun without logos. 

 

Panini's MLB sets always come with two strikes against them. The lack of MLB license (no logos) is the most obvious thing, but there's always been the mentality that Topps, with their uninterrupted run at baseball cards since 1952 (ish), is the one true brand to collect. That mentality is about to tested in the Fanatics era, of course. It will be interesting to see how history looks back at baseball cards from other brands that aren't Topps once Topps stops making cards (unless, of course, Topps is purchased and does the overlord's bidding.)

In any case, I like Prizm baseball. It's come a long way from the 2012 set (actually released in 2013.) The early Prizm sets are seriously ugly, even the ones where Panini held a proper license. I bought into a couple of breaks over at Rip City Cards for a reasonable price and feel like I did pretty well for myself. Let's check out some of the goods.

Much like the third-class citizen that it's treated like, the baseball version of Prizm always gets a leftover design. This is the same design as last year's NFL and NBA sets. In some other brands where designs are shared across sports, baseball leads the way, but that's not the case with Prizm.

I'm happy with any set that continues to casually toss in an Ozzie Smith base card in 2021. Someone at Panini loves The Wizard, because he's in a ton of their sets.

Prizm tries a little harder with their inserts than, say, Topps Chrome. I know that it's not completely fair to compare Topps Chrome to Panini Prizm, because Donruss Optic is a closer analogy as long as you consider Donruss to be Panini's flagship baseball set. (Is it?)

Here's the classic non-MLB license player photo. There isn't really a logo to hide here.

Here's Paul Goldschmidt, star player of the 46ers.

Okay, that's just weird.

I did pretty well with the colorful parallels in these breaks. This is a snaky snakeskin parallel of the Cardinals rookie, numbered to just 50. I pulled a rookie year Zac Gallen snakeskin parallel from last year's Prizm set which I think I might have hung on to. Gallen was a Cardinals draft pick originally that was dealt to the Diamondbacks, making his snakeskin version much more appropriate.

Here's a basic blue parallel, Flaherty syle.

And here's a red one. I don't really know the rhyme or reason or distribution odds for most of the Prizm parallels, except that they are numerous and attract only a certain type of collector. I don't think I have it in me, personally, to chase a "rainbow" of any particular card (...or do I?)

This KK "blue mojo" parallel has the same look as the Bowman "megabox" exclusive parallels that people also call "mojo". Who decided this was to be called "mojo" and who came up with this pattern first?

This is another rookie year numbered parallel. Woodford is at least temporarily in the Cards rotation again and has a big start ahead of him against the Mets tomorrow. He can do it! I believe in him.

Allen & Ginter is Alright

A #CrackinWaxMailDay look at the 2021 Allen & Ginter set from a @CrackinWax case break. 

 

I was feeling a bit underwhelmed when it came to last year's Allen & Ginter set. For whatever reason, I wasn't a big fan of the design, and it came out during a time last year when I was just beginning to accept that buying cards on the retail market wasn't going to be a viable option for me anymore. One year later, things have only gotten worse in terms of retail availability, but the latest Ginter offering at least brings something familiar to the table. It's comforting, I suppose. I do feel like the design is a bit of an improvement over last year's as well.

I bought into a case break over at Crackin' Wax, one of a number of Ginter-related happenings at the long time break-focused website. The big dance, of course, is CW's annual charity event where a lucky donor can win a prize pack that includes a bunch of cards, supplies and unopened wax. They're still taking donations through Monday (8/30) and it's for a good cause, so I highly encourage you to check it out.

As I said, the design is... not bad. This is the 16th edition of the set that originally paid tribute to an old line of tobacco cards. This means a lot of gold lettering this time around, but again... I feel like it works.

This Bob Gibson mini probably ended up being my best "pull" of the case as it's an unnumbered mini with a print run of just 50. How does everyone else feel about unnumbered low print run cards (versus serial number stamped cards or hand numbered cards?)

I think I ended up scanning more of the mini cards than the full sized base for this post, because they just end up filling out the card design a bit better. Both of the Cardinals Hall of Famers that passed on last year are represented on the Cardinals team checklist, along with Mark McGwire and some active players.

This one scanned a little darker as it's one of the silver foil "hot box" parallels. I believe there's usually one "hot box" allotted per case, but I believe this case actually had two. Because of this, I'm only two silver parallels short of the team set, which means an eBay visit isn't out of the question.

I love that they're still making David Freese cards in 2021. This is one of the more common inserts from the set. We've seen very similar insert concepts in the Topps flagship set before, so this doesn't seem like anything novel. Still, it's a 2021 Freese card!

The black border mini design looks as bougie as ever.

Full-sized relic cards in Allen & Ginter are kind of a bore, but at least this KK jersey swatch is powder blue to spice things up a bit.

Big Mac shows up on the insert checklist as well, with a card commemorating that fateful HR chase. One of the interesting things about that chase for me was seeing an out-of-playoff-contention Cardinals team show up on national TV almost every night for awhile. FOX even put some of the games on its main network in prime time. Joe Buck was there! You guys like Joe Buck, don't you?!

Since I'm never going to end up owning even 50% of all of the Ozzie Smith cards ever made, I can always give a thumbs up to more cards of the Wizard. This was from the time where folks were implored to "go crazy" by Joe Buck's dad.

Might this be some sort of alternate Allen & Ginter design? This is one of the box toppers, which uses the same portrait photo as the base cards. These are pretty nice looking even if they likely have nothing to do with the original tobacco card concept.

This is what the same photo looks like in color, of course.

I will be collecting this set... well, more like slowly accumulating it. I managed to buy a couple of blasters from Target's website and, assuming availability, I could see me picking up a couple more at some point.

It's April, so... Merry Christmas?!

My Secret Santa gifts from @GeoffCards are right on time. 

 

No, I can't blame the postal service for severe mail delays. I am still very behind in catching up on sorting and posting about the stuff I've received from people lately. There's actually a pretty good chance that I will catch up relatively soon, however, as my mailbox in 2021 has been pretty quiet. I entered a Secret Santa type group with some fellow Crackin' Wax break regulars and ended up with some pretty nice stuff.

Payton Pritchard's cards haven't quite gotten the attention than Justin Herbert's football cards have, of course, but I'm still seeking them out whenever I can find them. This is my first signed card of the guard who was a four year starter for the Ducks, running the point even as a freshman on the team that made it to the Final Four back in 2017.

There are actually two Pritchard cards in this Prizm Draft Picks base set, and I still need to track down a copy of the other one -- it looks like the green parallel at the top of this post.

The gift package wasn't all Pritchard and the Ducks, however. A few choice Cardinals were included as well, like this Tommy Pham black insert numbered parallel from a few years back.

There was also a KK auto from last year's Panini Absolute, a set that mostly escaped me, probably due to the cost.

Lastly, there was a Project 2020 card of the late, great Bob Gibson, shown here with the full stash of cards in the package from this photo that I put out on Twitter shortly after receiving the goods. This is actually the second Project 2020 card that crossed my desk last year, both of which were a complete surprise. I've since re-gifted the other card since it wasn't a fit for my collection, but a Gibby card clearly must be.

I'll say this much. There's so much about Project 2020 and other similar offerings that Topps has produced of late that embodies exactly what I don't want as a card collector. And yet... now I will forever own an actual piece of cardboard history from the craziness that was (and pretty much still continues to be) 2020. For a better look at the card, you can check this out from Topps.

Problematic Heritage

The High Numbers are finally here on this #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax (who else?) 

 

If you've had a chance to check out 2020 Topps Heritage High Numbers, you've probably found or at least heard about the massive quality control issues. The scratches and off-centered cards won't really show up here in the scans, but the base cards in this set are by and large in pretty rough shape coming out of the packs, especially when compared to Heritage sets of the past. On top of this, the entire retail line was canceled after a lengthy delay that pushed the release out until the end of the year. This makes it significantly more difficult for someone with a budget like mine to put together the complete set. Heritage is usually pretty plentiful on the retail side, so it was disappointing to hear. (I should point out that a number of online checklists still list retail exclusives like megabox chrome cards, Bazooka inserts and scratch-off inserts that will never be found unless they enter the market through unscrupulous ways.)

That aside, I did pretty well on my half case break with Crackin' Wax.

Heritage High Numbers could also be called Bench Guys and Leftover Rookies. Brad Miller played a more significant role than expected with the Cardinals during the abbreviated 2020 season due to a hot bat to start and the expanded DH rule (is there a vaccine for the DH rule?)

Here you do see some of the centering issues. Nearly every player in this set is making this same pose or a slight variation on it.

 

KK opted for the over-the-shoulder look. Good for him. He was a fun pitcher to watch in what barely counted for a season, and I'm hoping for bigger things from him this year.

As always, I love the Clubhouse Collection design that's used for the game-used memorabilia. This time around they went with black borders and a background instead of the white that they used for the regular series.

The black is actually a bit washed out compared to the base cards, however. Still, they look nice, and I'm glad that I ended up with both jersey cards as they're pretty big names.

I also had the A's in the break as my randomly assigned team in the half case break. If you need any, I have tons of extras. I also ended up with two Chrome parallels of someone named Sheldon Neuse?

I also finally got ahold of some Topps UK by way of another CW break. The White Sox were unavailable for purchase and were randomly assigned to me, which added another card to my unintentionally growing Luis Robert rookie collection.

I did snag all of the Cardinals team set (sans Tommy Edman) along with this blue Yadi parallel, which is numbered to just 75. I have a feeling that the print run for this set was pretty small, but I'm not sure if there's a ton of demand to see the Topps base design yet again, only with a UK flag on it.

The Finest

A #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax flashes back to The Finest and more. 

Before I get into things, I want to throw out a disclaimer for the days going forward. I'm going to try and not talk about the 2020 MLB season like it's a season any longer, for reasons that are beyond obvious. If it was up to me, all sports would have been cancelled through the rest of 2020 for everyone's safety. But baseball tried to start things up anyway and toyed with my emotions, and is now on the brink of collapse again. (Also, the rule changes suck and suck some more, but that's not really my point here.) Obviously, the Cardinals are now center stage in what seems headed to an awkward shut down any day now (I've felt this coming since last Monday, of course.) I am still doing the card thing, though, but I'll try to talk about the past when I talk about the players.

I'm glad that's off my chest now! Let's say hello to some brand new cards acquired through some breaks at Crackin' Wax. First up is a new Topps product that pays tribute to the original Topps Finest design from 1993. I couldn't afford Topps Finest then and I can't really afford it now, but one of the things I appreciate about Crackin' Wax is how this stuff wasn't marked up a whole lot just because the prices shot up a whole lot after he bought the boxes.

You probably know the design, and it looks nice here.

I ended up with 3 out of the 7 cards from the base set, so I'll probably start hunting down the rest unless there's another secret stash of reasonable priced boxes of this stuff still to be opened (ha!)

More brand new stuff! This is my first look at Panini's 2020 Donruss Optic. It looks like what you would expect it to look like as it's basically Donruss Chrome.

I was able to pull (by proxy) a numbered parallel of the Cardinals only significant offseason signing in KK.

This one is a silver/holo/Prizm parallel of good ol' Matt Carpenter. It looks like a miniature red baseball is about to hit him in the gut.

I signed up for some older stuff, too. I'm almost always in right now whenever it's a 2018 or 2014 product, for a chance to pick up a Jack Flaherty rookie year or first pro year card. I was fortunate enough to land one I didn't have here with this red and yellow parallel.

And throwing things back to 2014, I picked up an Allen Craig refractor. Craig was excellent during the Matheny years, but he fizzled out even before his manager did.

To top things off, I also picked up a light blue refractor of Kolten Wong's rookie card, numbered to 199. I like it!