Random Wax: 1990 Donruss (3 Packs)

 1990 Donruss:  This card is one of my favorites.  I love the Diamond Kings from this era and this one hits all the marks.  I love the Dave Stewart smile/art and 1990 Donruss is a favorite of mine as is Stewart.

Dave Winfield and Roberto Alomar Jr. are both Hall of Famers who also won a World Series together in 1992 as members of the Toronto Blue Jays.  I am a big fan of this set even though there is no team logo.

I didn't realize Ozzie had been voted as high as #2 for MVP in any year.  I like the career highlights Donruss cards gave us on these backs.

The MVP cards are the one misstep in this set.  That bland green MVP background does nothing for me.  We do get another good Dave Stewart card.

Lots of memories and great players in these packs.  Ozzie wound up with over 2400 hits in his Hall of Fame career playing for San Diego and the Cardinals for 19 seasons.  Looking at these is a fun way to spend an offseason day.

BREAKDOWN:

45 – Total Cards (3 Packs)

3 – Puzzle

3 – MVP

3 – Diamond Kings

2 – Rated Rookie

1 – All-Star

1 - Checklist

Random Wax: 2021 Chronicles Football Hanger Pack

2021 Chronicles:  Ja'Marr Chase and the Bengals offense are having a great year.  Great year.   Six games of 33 or more points but they keep falling short.  If their defense ever gets figured out this team could be amazing.

Finally posting this one after picking it up in September, 2022.  It's a fun set with variety and a focus on youngsters.

Here we have Luminance, a base Chronicles card and Panini Football card.  DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle have done really well as receivers in the league.

Here we have Playoff, Legacy and Clear Vision.  The Kyle Trask and Mac Jones are acetate cards.  

A pretty simple Gridiron Kings design but I like it.  I like the focus on the players without helmets.  I'd want to see more of this with veterans on them.

Stars & Stripes.  I like them but I do feel they could be better.  Change up the logo in the bottom left and add a team logo maybe?

Fun pack of cards.  Not all the young players have made a big impact but there are plenty of veteran stars as well.

BREAKDOWN:
30 – Total Cards
9 – RC
4 – Stars & Stripes
4 – Gridiron Kings
3 – Green Parallel2 – Panini
2 - Luminance
1 – Legacy
1 – Clear Vision
1 – Playoff Momentum Rookies

Damsel (2024)

Damsel is a fairly lighthearted action-adventure movie starring Millie Bobby Brown.  Damsel is a fantasy movie that sees a princess get married and then things go horribly wrong.  I won't give anything away but I'll say it wasn't as good as it could be.  It wasn't bad, and there was lots of promise but it felt like they didn't pressy any boundaries or give us anything that different with the storytelling.  I like Millie Bobby Brown, but this movie fell short for me.  This can be an easy watch if anyone wants to watch it.  I watched Damsel earlier this year and have no regrets giving it a shot.

 

Random Wax: 2023-2024 Haunted Hoops (20 Packs)

23-24 Haunted Hoops:  It is Friday the 13th so I'll show off more of this fun set.  Wemby is having a great sophomore season averaging 23 PPG, 10 RPG and 3 BPG.  He's again one of the early favorites to win Defensive Player of the Year.  I would like to see him play down low more.  He's virtually unstoppable in the paint on offense.  This is one of the Rising Stars cards highlighting rookies and is also a Slime Parallel.

These are really fun.  I like the design and the haunted accents added to the cards.  Lots of star power here as well.  Giannis and the Bucks are playing much better lately while Kawhi hasn't played yet due to injury.  Luka and the Mavs are having a really good start to their year though Doncic has had to deal with injuries.  The Leonard card is an Orange Parallel.

All three of these have had really good starts to their career, though Miller is a notch above averaging over 21 PPG this season.

Some big man love.  Each Haunted Hoops Bundle comes with 40 packs with 3 cards in each pack.  

The backs get the Haunted treatment as well.  There are 300 cards in this set.

Trae Young and the Hawks have been on a tear of late.  I'm not sure where its come from but it is nice to see them playing well.

BREAKDOWN:
60 – Total Cards (20 Packs)
15 – Orange
11 – RC
6 – Slime
4 – Rising Stars

Random Wax: 2021 Big League Baseball

2021 BLB:  The forty-one year-old Justin Verlander struggled through 2024.  I haven't heard of any plans for him to step away from playing and has one more year at $35M on his contract with Houston.  With 262 wins, a career 3.30 ERA, 3 Cy Youngs, League MVP and Triple Crown winner he's an easy first ballot hall of famer.

After the 2024 season, Charlie Blackmon hung up his spikes after 14 seasons in the big leagues, all with Colorado.  He had 1800+ hits to go along with a .293 batting average.

Verlander has also won two World Series titles with the Astros.

Shane McClanahan has been a really good starter for the Rays with a 33-16 record and 3.02 ERA.

The back of a League Leader card.  2020 was of course a shortened season (60 games) due to the pandemic so the numbers are not what we expect in a normal season.

Some inserts.  I really like the look of the Wanted cards.  Defensive Wizards isn't bad either.  

It's so easy to forget about Ryan Braun and how good he was.  2020 was his last season but he was a Rookie of the Year, MVP, 6X All-Star and 5X Silver Slugger.

The design on this set is good.  Maybe not great but it's good for what they are which are cards on the lower end of the price spectrum.

Kyle Seager would play one more season, totaling 11 years with Seattle.

These are fun cards and a set I look forward to every year.

BREAKOUT:
36 – Total Cards
7 – RC
3 – League Leaders
3 – Orange Parallel
1 - Wanted
1 – Souvenirs
1 – Defensive Wizards
1 – Award Winners

Random Wax: 1991 Upper Deck Football (3 Packs)

1991 UD:  Alway hurts remembering Brett Favre was an Atlanta Falcon for a hot moment.  He was third on the QB chart in 1991 behind starter Chris Miller and Billy Joe Tolliver.  Obviously the 10-6 1991 Atlanta Falcons didn't know what they had on the bench.  Atlanta had some really good receivers in Andre Rison, Michael Haynes, and Mike Pritchard.  I would have loved to see what he could have done with them.  And for years to come.  Favre, legend.  

Just a great set that I love.  Leslie O'Neal is 14th all-time in sacks and 20th on the unoffical all-time sacks list.  Both are seen here.  Henry Ellard had just over 800 receptions and Gary Clark 699 over storied excellent careers.  

Steve DeBerg played 17 seasons, never was an All-Pro or Pro Bowl selection but everyone remembers him fondly as do I.  Greg Townsend had 109.5 sacks on his career.

Howie Long had 84 career sacks but seems so much more iconic.  His post playing days on TV have helped quite a bit, but he was so good on the field.  And had a great hair game.

Tim McKyer won three Super Bowl rings.  1988 and 1988 with the 49ers and 1997 with the Broncos.

I've had better pulls in packs but there are so many great players and memories here.  Zero complaints.  Who didn't like Reggie Roby and that high leg kick?  One of the best in the business (3X Pro-Bowl, 2X All-Pro, All-1980s Team). 

BREAKDOWN:
36 – Total Cards
3 – Team MVP
3 – Star Rookie

1998 DuoCards Happy Days Collection

1998 Happy Days: Who didn't love Pat Morita as Arnold?  Him shaking his head at the antics of the gang of teenagers who hung out at Arnold's.

Can't be many better cards in the set aside from this one.  Fonzie and the boys were the stars of the shows.  I feel Happy Days gets forgotten some.  I get it may not be as funny nowadays, but it was one of the best in its era lasting 11 seasons.  

I watched it so much in syndication and I know it's been on some retro channels like ME TV.  The backs are okay.  The write-up here is fine but I'd enjoyed more show facts.  But otherwise I like it.

The screen grabs bring back a ton of memories.  I'd love to watch it again someday.  Not sure I'll ever get around to it though.  Fonzie in that iconic jacket.  What boy in the day wasn't envious of his look, the way he talked and his action.  And skill with the ladies.  And we all loved saying "Ayyyyy" and hitting a juke box hoping it'd come on with a song.

I do like both of these write-ups.  Great information on the episode and the show itself.  The series, like many, ran a few seasons long and coined "Jumped the Shark" as a way of saying a series or movie has gone too far.  But that doesn't tarnish the series for me.

These cards are pretty cool.  Just full color photos letting them do all the talking.  Lots of memories, whether it's the screen grabs or promotional photos.  Happy Days was a favorite of mine growing up and it'll always hold a fond spot in TV fandom.

BREADOWN:
7 - Total Cards

Random Wax: 2017-2018 Contenders Basketball

17-18 Contenders:  This is the second time I've pulled this Kobe Bryant die-cut card.  The last time was six years ago.  The link to the post is here.  What are the odds?  I threw this one up on eBay and it sold quickly for $43.  There's even more to this story which I'll detail below.

I like this set, and I think I grabbed it as part of a bigger BlowoutCards.com order.  The funny part is I missed the pack when I opened the box and completely whiffed on the fact I'd ordered it.  It wasn't until a month later that I found it while breaking down the box.  When is Porzingas coming back?  My fantasy team really needs the help.

I really like the Most Valuable Contenders inserts and this one brought backs lots of memories when the Warriors were on that run with KD.  I've always had pretty good luck with packs or blasters from this set.  You can see all my posts from this set here (same as the first link in this post).

For an eight-card pack, this was a big win.  Great pull obviously.  And this Steph Curry card?  The second I've pulled.  I pulled one from a fat pack in 2024. Lots of fun here with the story and the cards.

BREAKDOWN:
8 – Total Cards
1 – Superstar Die-Cut
1 – Most Valuable Contenders