Anyone for Cribbage?

I've got the deck!

I pulled two of the Aces, the rarest portion of this insert set, while doing the set build, so I figured "Why not complete it?".

So now I have a far more expensive version of something I could have picked up for $1. May I make wiser purchasing decisions in 2019.

PWE Chronicles

I have a much larger envelope from Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams that also needs to be worked through over several posts, but this Sunday morning seems just perfect for PWEs from Condition Sensitive and This Way to the Clubhouse.

Nothing beats knocking a card off of the most-wanted lists. With more to come! While Gift did get a base card in Heritage High Numbers with Toronto, I'm more interested in this and his Ginter card which saluted him as the first player born in Africa to reach the majors.

CS included a bunch of base cards from Update as well, but the highlight among those was this "How did I not have this already?" base card of 2/14 baby Tyler Clippard.

Mark at TWTTC may no longer be blogging, but is still trading. I've been sending extra Bills, Mets, Celtics and NY Rangers his way. The return envelope showed up this week. I don't have many options for adding Miguel Montero to my Jays collection. Just his Update card and its parallels. And this is one of the parallels! It is a black parallel, oddly numbered to /66.

For an example of a set I'd completely forgotten about, 2016 Prime Cuts!

Daniel Norris' time with the big club was short-lived, with only 10 appearances before being sent to Detroit in the David Price trade.

I thought for a second that this might be a dupe, since I'd previously acquired a Chrome auto of Devon Travis in a group break of this product. Nope! That was the base version, and this is the /499 refractor. Devon is the second straight guy in this post with ties to a trade with Detroit, moving here in a trade for Anthony Gose.

Aside from appearances in Chronicles, I guess Optic has replaced Prizm as the go-to option for those that want shiny baseball cards but don't care about licensing.

I've reloaded envelopes for both, and should have mailers ready to go out in the new year.

There you have it!

All About the Titanium

My final box of Black Friday - almost a month after they showed up.

Trapezoid power!

This does have one of my favourite base designs for a mid-range product of the past little while, mainly because I love when the team logos are used when the actual background is erased.

This is a base card, and it is a contender for best card in the break. These are considered true rookies, and are numbered to the player's respective jersey number. And he's still in the league! Bonus!

To start the hits, here's John Vanbiesbrouck's favourite player.

Another single swatch, but it appears alongside one of the Blues' great mid 80's jersey.

An ebay 1/1! Alas, the Mike Knuble portion of this guarantees an appearance in a future mailer to Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams,

Here's the autograph, and it is a nice veteran's auto.

If my pick for the best hit of the box goes to a relic over an autograph, it better be a pretty nice swatch. And this one certainly is. I don't think this is from the mountain logo, but instead from the shoulder patch of a yeti's foot that they sported at the time. That's something different!

And now, I'm finally caught up!

For that. I still have some Boxing Day stuff and more incoming mail to get to.

Back to 2013

My most recent trip back to the year 2013 and its questionable rookie class resulted in a far better break than one would expect on paper. What would happen with this? It's the retail version, so I wasn't expecting much, but at least there will be some nice die-cut cards.

The base cards in retail have more of a bronze thing going with the borders, while the hobby version are silver.

Each pack had a parallel in it as well, and the bronze holofoil ones are also retail exclusive.

As are these red ones. It is interesting creating a set where the retail and the hobby versions contain entirely different card.

The Panini's Choice inserts definitely look unique, but they're really easy to drop when you pick up the pile of cards.

Here's the autograph in the box. Like all the cards in this post, another retail exclusive. It isn't a good sign for the player when he's pictured on a different team that he's listed with on a rookie card. He's bounced around the league the past few season since this release.

The guaranteed relic card is one of the rookie silhouettes. Even if the player's NFL career wasn't the best, at least it is one of my favourite designs for relic cards.

And there you have it. One more box to go, and then maybe I can finally do the Boxing Day boxes.

Wrestling Day on Boxing Day

Another box break from Black Friday goes today, and I've still got a couple left to show off. I fail to understand why you'd advertise that the box was a hot box on the outside of the package, but I'm not one to question it, and that's the box that was in my shipment. So, bring on the numbered parallels. Unless I write otherwise, all the cards are /99.

On a post over the Christmas season, perhaps The Prince of Darkness isn't the best way to start things off. But this was the card on top in the box. All 5 cards come toploaded, so that does at least save me that.

When it comes to penmanship, Butch Reed might have been the winner in this box. This particular drawing looks like it is from his time in Mid-South as Hacksaw Butch Reed.

Now, I shift over to the ladies side of this. The former diva search winner is also the first of the two cards in this limited to /10. The sketches in this can be pretty good, but much like with my Victoria Day post, I really don't see much of a resemblance. Her head can't be that small, can it?

At least this looks a lot more like the subject. It is a shame that Torrie's sig implodes as she starts her last name.

And the big pull, an autograph of one of the two on the cover. This parallel is numbered 9/10, which makes it an ebay 1/1 for the 9th Wonder of the World. I am very conflicted with this one. Of the folks I landed cards of in this, she was probably the one I was least a fan of. Still, I feel creepy selling a card with an on-card autograph of someone who has passed away. Incredibly, looking at the checklist, she appears to be the only one on the checklist who has passed.

That's a bummer of a way to end this post.

Some Christmas NBA

Since I already did a major Raptors post not that long ago recapping some group break scores, I might as well do a box from my Black Friday/Cyber Monday stuff today. I didn't scan the box beforehand, so I'll have to say off the bat that this isn't regular Optic, but Fast Break Optic. The difference? The latter has different parallels, a couple more base cards and different autos, though both were one-per-box. These were also a little cheaper. Hence this choice.

I've probably already shown off the Raptors base content in a previous post. Probably. So here's the first card numerically, #2 Dennis Schröder. Umlaut power! Team-wise, the collation was pretty good, as I got at least a single card for every team but Oklahoma City.

The top 2 draft picks also made appearances in base form.

Each pack had at least one insert or a parallel. Here's the collection of inserts, except for the autograph which I'll show off at the end. While the easy winner here is the new Jamal Murray insert for the PC, the Retro series of Dave Bing is also pretty nice.

More Retro series as the parallels start, and they are available throughout the base and insert sets. A nice shiny card of the greatest champion in NBA history is a beautiful choice as the only silver parallel.

The Holo parallels were exclusive to the Fast Break box. One Raptors card is enough for me to call this portion worthwhile.

Numbered holo parallels were also a thing, although the numbering seems odd. The orange parallels are /193.

Purples are to a slightly more normal /155. These are probably my favourite of the coloured parallels, mainly because on this card, it works with the team colours.

And the red parallels are /85. There were also blue (/50), pink (/20), gold (/10) and black (/1), but this was as low numbered as my box went. As for the autograph...

I'll be waiting a bit to have it in hand.

But even though I'm not a fan of his, it will be worth the wait for a legend's auto.

And there you have it!