This Week's Pickups

Got a couple cards in the email from EBay this week. Here's my latest additions to my collection

15-16 Luxe Karl Anthony Rookie Jerseys Prime #23/25

Luxe sucked as a box break, but this is a pretty awesome Patch card of the reigning Rookie Of The Year. Love that it's part of the nameplate. Great addition to my small KAT collection

15-16 Spectra Kristaps Porzingis Autograph Jersey Rookie Card
 
My 4th Porzingis Auto Rookie, but first I haven't personally pulled. I really like the look of Spectra, but the price point per box is outrageous. This didn't cost even close to what it costs for a box of Spectra. Great looking card!

15-16 Prizm Emergent Kristaps Porzingis

This was a nice little bonus. The seller of the Porzingis auto threw this in as well. It's not worth much, but hey I'll take a free Porzingis rookie insert any day!

Box Breaks: 3 Boxes 15-16 Panini Preferred Basketball

 

So this will be probably be my last box break in a while since A)I've basically caught up and broken all the product I've wanted in 15-16 Basketball and B) Looking at upcoming products, Preferred was really the only product I've been looking forward to opening probably until the new basketball season. Preferred one of Panini's more popular yet riskier products. It's the pure definition of hit or miss. The big draws to this products are the Silhouettes ( Jersey or Patch on card auto cards that have been a staple of this product from the beginning) and the NBA Finals Booklets (cards that contain swatches of jerseys from the teams in the NBA Finals the previous season, with the HUGE moneymakers being the 1/1 Finals Patch Logomans). It's very pricey and I know the risks, but decided to rip 3 boxes and hope for the best. Here's what I got..

Box 1

Trending Upward Quad Jersey (#53/199)
DeAngelo Russell
Anthony Brown
Larry Nance Jr.
Marcelo Huertas

Crown Royal Purple Auto
Deangelo Russell Redemption (# to 49)



Rookie Playbook Prime
Cameron Payne (#5/5)

Rookie Silhouettes
Cameron Payne (#57/99)


Box 2

Stat Line Jersey
Damian Lillard (#122/149)


Unparalleled Autograph
Bill Walton (#27/50)
Justice Winslow (#10/50)

Rookie Playbook Jerseys
Rakeem Christmas (#66/199)

Box 3

Crazy Eights Jerseys (#101/149)
Curry/Klay/Draymond/Barnes/Bogut/Livingston/Iguodala/Ezeli

Preferred Signatures
Gordon Hayward (#50/60)

One on One Dual Jersey
Kevin Durant vs Kobe Bryant (#51/99)

Unparalleled Autographs
Julius Randle Redemption (# to 50)

Overall Thoughts: Disappointment, frustration, doesn't even begin to describe it. The cards themselves, I like them. I know people criticize the booklets but I'm a fan of them. My problems are these. First of all the best two hits (Silhouettes and Prime Patch) were of the SAME PLAYER and of course it was the SAME PACK and it was of....Cameron Payne...ugh. My best hit overall was a redemption (which sucks) of Deangelo Russell, which could be nice...if it gets made. I pulled ANOTHER redemption for a Julius Randle auto (blah) so 2 of my hits in 3 boxes were redemptions. I've seen a ton of this product busted with people getting 5 to 6 Silos a box. I only got one, now granted it's sort of a small sample size,(it's still almost half a case) but still, I've seen 2 box breaks with a Silo per box and I just saw a case break (8 boxes) where the guy hit 7 (with 4 of those being Prime!!). Unfortunately even though some of these cards look like "paper hits" at the price point Preferred is, this was an ugly bloodbath. Like my Luxe break times 1000. If I were to sell (which I'm not planning to because I like the cards) I'd be lucky to maybe recoup I dunno 20-30% of my money back. The Unparalleled Autos are really nice and are on card, and I mean I did pull a Hall Of Famer in Bill Walton, and also a nice rookie auto in Justice Winslow who could be someone to keep an eye on next season in Miami. The Crazy 8 of the Warriors is cool, as is the Stat Line book of Damian Lillard which ties to a specific game. Problem is you're looking at a $20-$40 at most for the Warriors card and the Lillard is probably a $10 hit. Then you get junk like Rakeem Christmas..you get 4 hits and one of your hits it's Rakeem friggin Christmas...that card is probably a $1 card if that. I've learned my lesson the hardway and I will never buy boxes of high end Panini product again (in reality, this isn't even THAT high end for Panini, there's plenty of other products that are above this price point!). If Luxe opened my eyes to the overpriced crap that Panini puts out, than Preferred definitely hit me over the head with it. Don't do what I did, stick to singles of this product. It's not worth the the shitty sick to your stomach feeling you get after breaking this. Ironically my best hit of this 5 box break...came from the lowest end product of the break. Irony's a bitch sometimes....here are the pics of the cards

 

Trending Upward Booklet...I like these types of cards

 

2nd card I pulled and it was a redemption. At the time of the pull, I was actually happy, thinking "well this is a good start". It ended up being the best pull of the break

 

Again, 1st box, 1st Silo so thinking maybe I'll pull at least one more. Player sucks but they all can't be winners.

 

And of course because it's my luck and Panini, this had to be an all Cameron Payne pack and I get a card that's numbered to 5 and just has to of him. It's nice looking though, but definitely not worth much.

 

Huge fan of the Stat Line cards and getting Lillard is great. Too bad even Stat Line jerseys aren't worth much.

 

Nice large on card sig of Bill Walton. The Unparalleled autos are really nice 

 

What a waste of hit. I get you can't put monster hits in every box but does Panini REALLY need to include players like this in their higher end products? This is seriously a dollar card (If that!!)

 

Maybe this card will be look better with the Heat looking like an entirely different team next year. Here's the problem, look at that break..at $220 a box, I totally realize most boxes will NOT break even and even LESS boxes you actually come ahead, but to consistently fall below 50% a box and typically have 20%-30% is just crazy. Shitty way to realize something I already knew.

 

Sweet Crazy 8 book of the Warriors. Again, this isn't even a $50 card though

 

The definition of bla and boring...Gordon Hayward

 

Again, love the design, love the large jersey swatches, and the combo is one of the best...but of course because jersey cards don't mean jack..this is at best a $30 card

 

And what a kick in the nuts anti-climatic finish...a redemption for a solid but unspectacular young NBA player. Worst...break...ever

Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1- 2016 Topps Tribute Superfractor Autograph Alex Gordon (#1/1)
#2- 2016 Topps Tribute Milestone Relic Game Used Ball Kris Bryant (#5/10)
#3-15-16 Limited Gold Spotlight Dual Signatures Kristaps Porzingis/Jerian Grant (#8/10)
#4-15-16 Gold Standard Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch (#12/25)
#5-15-16 Excalibur Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey

 

 

Box Breaks: 2015-16 Totally Certified

 

Totally Certified is the kind of mid end product that I would never break at it's original retail price, but when it went down to around $60 it's worth shot. Here's the results

Rookies
Delon Wright
Walter Tavares

Mirror Red
Bradley Beal (#121/149)


Certified Skills
James Harden (#79/199)

Mirror Blue
Chris Bosh (#80/99)
Richaun Holmes (#50/99)


Rookies Fabric Of The Game Blue
Sam Dekker (#29/99)


Certified Materials Blue
Rudy Gay (#39/99)


Rookie Roll Call Auto Blue
Frank Kaminsky (#91/99)

Totally Certified Materials Camo
Yao Ming Patch (#20/25)

Overall Thoughts: Yep, just a box. Not great, not terrible. Cards are cool looking, I like the mirror parallels and the Yao looks great, but in all honesty it's not a memorable set really. With so many products that Panini pumps out, it's kind of lost in the shuffle. Here's some pics of the cards

 

A look at the base cards. I like the design of these 

 

Certified Skills Insert

 

Red Mirror Parallel numbered to 149

 

Blue Mirror Parallel numbered to 99

 

Fabric Of The Game Rookie Jersey

 

Rudy Gay Blue Certified Materials # to 99

 

Rookie Roll Call Blue Autograph of Frank Kaminsky numbered to 99

 

Definitely the best looking and best card of the break. Yao patch numbered to 25

Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1- 2016 Topps Tribute Superfractor Autograph Alex Gordon (#1/1)
#2- 2016 Topps Tribute Milestone Relic Game Used Ball Kris Bryant (#5/10)
#3-15-16 Limited Gold Spotlight Dual Signatures Kristaps Porzingis/Jerian Grant (#8/10)
#4-15-16 Gold Standard Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch (#12/25)
#5-15-16 Excalibur Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey

Box Breaks: 15-16 Revolution Basketball

 

Sometimes it's the low end boxes that provide the biggest surprises. Revolution is kind of a throwback set, reminds me of Pacific Prizm sets of the past. What makes it fun and unique is how to decipher what the parallels look like. Each parallel has a distinctive background pattern and I had to go to Beckett to see what was what since although it's easy to tell the parallels apart from the base set, nowhere on the card does it say the name of the parallel, so it's hard to actually tell what you have. Also what makes it a throwback set is the difficulty of hits. You aren't guaranteed anything in Revolution. Autographs are about 2 per case I believe and there are no memorabilia cards. It's really refreshing actually, that this set focuses on inserts and parallels and makes autograph cards so hard to pull, that it feels like a special pull. At around 40 bucks a box for 8 packs, I felt at the very least I'll get some cool base without losing much money. How did I do? Here's the results!

Rookies
Karl Anthony Towns
Justice Winslow
Kelly Oubre Jr
Kevin Looney



Icons
Dikembe Mutombo

New Wave
Gary Harris
Nerlens Noel


Rookie Revolution
Emmanuel Mudiay


Infinite
Richaun Holmes
Walter Tavares
Evan Turner

Nova
Tyreke Evans
Tyus Jones


Angular
DeAndre Jordan

Cosmic
Kyrie Irving (#83/100)


Autograph
Tracy McGrady!!

Overall Thoughts: So yeah...this was definitely a success. Like I said, pulling a TMac auto (on card on top of that) is great, but it feels even better when the odds of pulling any autograph are 1 out of 69 packs. Combines that with a sweet Kyrie parallel numbered to 100 and a KAT rookie and this was definitely a solid box! I love distinctive cards, so the base set is great with the various vivid and sparkly backgrounds. My favorite insert set is definitely the Icons set because of the die cut of course! These boxes are super cheap, and if you're looking for a fun basketball fix this product is highly recommended!! Here are pics of the hits!

 

Kat Base RC. Base cards are differentiated by the sparkly background

 

Nova Parallels have the circle background pattern

 

Infinite Parallels have the maze background

 

Angular parallels have a linear type background

 

Rookie Revolution Insert

New Wave Insert

 

Icons Die Cut Insert

 

Kyrie Irving Cosmic Parallel...Cosmics are # to 100 and have blue foil

 

TMac Auto!! Nice and on card!! Odds of autographs are tough at 1:69 Packs

Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1- 2016 Topps Tribute Superfractor Autograph Alex Gordon (#1/1)
#2- 2016 Topps Tribute Milestone Relic Game Used Ball Kris Bryant (#5/10)
#3-15-16 Limited Gold Spotlight Dual Signatures Kristaps Porzingis/Jerian Grant (#8/10)
#4-15-16 Gold Standard Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch (#12/25)
#5-15-16 Excalibur Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey

2016 Topps National Baseball Card Day Cards

 

Last Saturday was National Baseball Card Day and Topps decided to celebrate it with a National Baseball Card Day Set in which they sent card shops packs to give away for the occasion. I placed an order with the Baseball Card King in Chicago and for ordering they gave me a pack of these special edition cards. I really like the idea, I think it's really cool and a good way to promote the hobby. The set is 50 cards, but card #50 which is of Kris Bryant isn't available in the packs. Instead, if you purchase $10 more at these shops, they give you the Bryant in a one touch top loader. I did receive the Bryant as well, which is shown above. The other cool thing about this set, is Topps randomly inserted autographs into the packs. Of course superstars like Ichiro are super shortprinted to 15, still for free, it's a nice incentive and cool little bonus. You get 6 cards per pack, and no I didn't pull an auto, but still got base cards if Mike Trout and Ichiro to go along with my Kris Bryant. Here's a look at the rest of cards I pulled. Free cards are always good cards in my book!

 

 

 

 

 

Box Breaks: 2 Boxes of 2015 Prizm Football Jumbo

 

My very first box break I did when I got back into collecting was Prizm Basketball. To me, Prizm is a perfect mid end product to bust and it doesn't hurt that it's the closest brand to Topps Chrome there is. I had fun opening basketball, so I decided to give football a try. The price seemed right and I so I decided to try a couple boxes. Here's the results

Box 1

Air Marshals
Matthew Stafford
Colin Kaepernick

Helmets
Dez Bryant


Rookie Revolution
Phillip Dorsett

Intros
Richard Sherman
DeSean Jackson

Intros Prizms
Ben Roethlisberger

Prizms
Emmitt Smith
Roger Staubach
Duron Carter
Brent Celek
Terrell Davis

Red Prizms
Antonio Gates
Kwon Alexander
Demarcus Ware

Mojo Red
Brandon Marshall (#40/99)

Blue Prizms
Walter Payton
Ameer Abdullah

Purple Prizms
Victor Cruz
Vic Beasley Jr.

Green Prizms
Vincent Jackson

Tie Dye Prizms
Andre Ellington (#11/25)


Autograph
Stephone Anthony


Prizm Autograph
Jesse James (#350/350)


Green Prizm Autograph
Danny Shelton (#37/99)

Violet Mosiac Autograph
Marcus Murphy (#01/50)

Box 2


Air Marshals
Cam Newton
Peyton Manning


Intros
Larry Fitzgerald
DeSean Jackson

Intros Prizms
Richard Sherman

Helmets
DeMarco Murray
Bryce Petty

Prizms
Todd Gurley
Johnny Manziel
Ronnie Lott
Tamba Hali
Eli Manning

Purple Prizms
Josh Shaw
Cris Carter


Red Prizms
Latavius Murray
Marshall Faulk
Clive Walford

Green Prizms
Andre Johnson
Kwon Alexander

Green Crystals Prizm
Mark Ingram (#72/75)

Blue Prizms
Antwan Goodley
Patrick Peterson

Blue Wave Prizm
Eli Manning (#45/150)

Autographs
Jalen Collins

Violet Prizms Autographs
Kwon Alexander

Red Prizm Autograph
Owamagbe Odighizuwa (#109/299)

Green Crystal Prizm Autograph
Paul Dawson (#8/50)

Overall Thoughts: Very fun break. I'm an insert guy and I don't care if an insert is 1:3 packs or 1:360 packs, I want them to stand out somehow. I really love the die cut inserts in this set. All the insert sets are die cut, and they look great to me. Getting prizm versions like I did with a couple of the Intros make them pop even more. Speaking of Prizms, there's a ton of color in these boxes. I believe there are 12 parallels and though that seems like extreme overkill, I don't mind it one bit. I got a pretty good variety of colors whether it be with the base cards or autographs, which I'll get to in a sec. Rookies seemed to fall 3 per pack, but the rookie checklist is huge so the best base rookie I pulled was Marcus Mariotta, though I did pull a Todd Gurley prizm. No Jameis though, which was disappointing. So the autographs....you get 4 a box, but the odds are...they're going to be basically irrelevant. Why? The rookie autograph checklist is 100 players alone, which is more than likely what you'll get. At least in basketball you'll pull someone who's actually still in the league, or if you do pull a rookie the checklist is like 40 players. To be honest of the 8 autographs, I'd heard of maybe half of them. Now it's nice to pull auto prizm parallels, but if it's guys who are 3rd stringers or practice squad fodder than it's pointless. I understand football is a different beast, and I've seen a ton of box breaks of all products football and with the abundance of rookies in the league, there's a ton of lameduck hits. I was disappointed, not because I didn't pull a big auto, I just was hoping out of two boxes, one of the 8 autographs would be RELAVTIVELY decent. Basically they were just a filler, and though the prizm parallels make them stand out, it's not enough to overcome to player on the card. Like Stadium Club baseball, I'd go with assumption that autographs are going to be underwhelming, so if you do end up pulling a decent one, it will be a pleasant surprise. Overall though, for a mid end break, it's very fun. Prizm parallels galore, cool looking inserts, and a chance at some good autographs, it's definitely worth busting if you need a football fix but don't want to blow a ton of cash. Here's pics of the hits


A look at the base cards

 
A regular prizm, glad it was Emmitt!!

 
Red Prizm, which along with the regular prizm, Blue Prizms, Green Prizms, and Violet Prizms aren't numbered

 
Green Prizm

 
Purple Prizms, which are Jumbo Box exclusives

 
Blue Prizm, really love this card of Sweetness

 
Tie Dye Prizm # to 25

Mojo Red Prizm numbered to 99

 
Blue Wave Prizm numbered to 150
 
Green Cracked Ice Prizm numbered to 75

 
Todd Gurley Rookie Prizm

 
Air Marshals Insert

 
Helmets Insert

 
Rookie Revolution Insert

 
Intros Prizm Parallel Insert, there are also regular Intros without the Prizm finish

 


The Base Rookie Autos

 
Red Auto Parallel numbered to 299

 
Purple Prizm Parallel Auto-Jumbo Exclusive, Not Numbered



Cracked Ice Auto Parallel Numbered to 50


Purple Mosiac Autograph Parallel numbered to 50


Prizm Auto Parallel numbered to 350


Green Auto Parallel numbered to 99

Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1- 2016 Topps Tribute Superfractor Autograph Alex Gordon (#1/1)
#2- 2016 Topps Tribute Milestone Relic Game Used Ball Kris Bryant (#5/10)
#3-15-16 Limited Gold Spotlight Dual Signatures Kristaps Porzingis/Jerian Grant (#8/10)
#4-15-16 Gold Standard Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch (#12/25)
#5-15-16 Excalibur Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey