Random Wax: 2024 Topps Baseball Blaster

2024 Topps:  Aaron Judge won his 3rd MVP in 2025.  Doesn't seem like he is 33 already.  His 53 home runs bring him to 368 for his career.  Last season he hit .331 with a .457 OBP, .688 SLG, 1.144 OPS, all tops in the league.  But he's still a Yankee...just saying.

This is a design I like.  Emmanual Clase has since been implicated in rigging pitches for betting purposes.  That is after I purchased this box in May of 2024.  The scandal is a big hit for the Indians and MLB.

Great photo.

That Reid Detmers is a Holiday Parallel.

Pretty cool Easter Rabbit Parallel which falls 1:56 packs and includes Elly De La Cruz on this Checklist card.

Gavin Williams and Bryan Woo have turned into an excellent starters in Cleveland and Seattle, respectively.

Fun photo on this Checklist card.

All good photos here.

Another Holiday Parallel on this Yankees Team Cad.

I don't hear Christopher Morel's name as much as Anthony Volpe, but he does have more home runs.  I'm not saying he's a better player.  I just seem to hear Volpe come up a lot and wasn't familiar with Morel.

I'm a fan of 2025 Silver Slugger winner Corbin Carroll who has led the league in triples for three straight years.

Nice Chas McCormick photo with the leap, what looks like the catch and it happening against a baseball graphic.

League Leader cards are always fun.  2023 was the year the Atlanta Braves offense went off.  Like historically good.  And then fizzled in the playoffs against the Phillies.

Some really nice inserts.  I like the look of the 2023 Greatest Hits card and Elly De La Cruz of course helps.  And we get Buster Posey looking all retro on the 1989 Topps Baseball card.

2023 was Miguel Cabrera's final season.  Great hitter and a very likable guy.  2X MVP.  Triple Crown winner.  4X batting titles.  7X Silver Slugger.  World Series Champion.  

We'll end it with some good Stars of MLB pulls as well as our retired great on a Grand Gamers insert.  I wish we got more retired greats in Topps cards.

BREAKDOWN:
84 – Cards
14 – RC
7 – Stars of MLB
5 – Team Cards
4 – Checklist
3 – Future Stars
3 – League Leaders
2 – Holiday Parallel
1 – Retired Great
1 – Grand Gamers
1 – Royal Blue Parallel
1 – 2023 Greatest Hits
1 – 1989 Topps Baseball
1 – Rainbow Foil Parallel
1 – Home Run Challenge
1 – Topps All-Star Rookie Cup
1 –Easter Rabbit Parallel (1:56 Packs)

1990 Topps Football

 1990 Topps:  Bruce Smith was about as dominant defensive player as it gets.  Multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards, 8X All-Pro, All-1980s and 1990s Teams and is the all-time leader in sacks with 200.

1990 Topps isn't the best Topps design but it's fine.  I've always like the 1000 Yard Club card for receivers and running backs.  Hall of Famer Roger Craig won 3 Super Bowls and was a member of the All-1980s team.  So good and rushing and catching the ball.

Plenty of young players in these packs.  You always believed anything was possible when he was returning a kick.

The backs are plain but give us plenty of stats which is always great.  Can you guess which card had the gum against it?

Rich Camarillo was a 1X All-Pro and 5X Pro Bowl selectee in his 16-year career.  I like the Topps All-Pro designations.  Not sure if they align with the actual All-Pro designees, but I'm good with it.  And if anyone deserved it was Rod Woodson who was a 6X All-Pro selectee.  

BREAKDOWN:
15 – Total Cards
2 – Topps Super Rookie
1 – Topps All-Pro
1 – 1000 Yard Club
1 – 1990 Draft Pick
Gum

Random Wax: 1990-1991 SkyBox Basketball Series II

SkyBox Series II:  When you look at Mark Eaton's career stats of 6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, it doesn't come close to doing him justice.  Starting his career at age 26 he was twice the Defensive Player of the Year, a 5X All-Defensive selection and 4X block champion in his 11 seasons in the NBA.  He once averaged almost 6 blocks per game in a season.

I could have easily started this post with Scottie Pippen.  Also, a defensive standout, 10X All-Defensive Team, 1X Steals champ, he had a great all-around game and of course won 6 championships with the Chicago Bulls.  Larry Nance made the All-Defensive Team 3X while Ricky Pierce was a 2X Sixth Man of the Year award winner.

We get coaches in Series II which is great.  One of my favorite all-time subsets are these Team Checklists with the team logos.  Love 'em.  Series II also had some good rookies that included Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Vlade Divac, Drazen Petrovic and Glen Rice.

90-91 SkyBox had these great backs.  The stats are different but work and we're in because of those photos.

Rik Smits had a great nickname - The Dunking Dutchman.  We'll end this pack with another team checklist and one of the great logos of all-time.  Seattle seems to be tops on the list of teams who will get an expansion team when the NBA is ready.  Can't wait to see the Supersonics again.

BREAKDOWN:
15 – Total Cards
2 – Coaches
2 – Team Checklists

Random Wax: 1994 Ted Williams Baseball 4 Packs

1994 Ted Williams:  Mike Schmidt is probably the best third baseman of all-time.  10X Gold Glove winner, 3X MVP, 6X Silver Slugger, 12X All-Star, Hall of Fame, World Series Champion and World Series MVP.  He also led the league in home runs 8X.  Strong mustache game as well.

Hall of Famer Rod Carew was an 18X All-Star team member, tied for Yaz for 5th most all-time.  He also had 7 batting titles in his Hall of Fame career in which he batted .323 with a .393 OBP (5X league leader).  He was also the 1977 MVP when he led the league in WAR, runs, hits, triples, hitting (.388), OBP (.449), and OPS (1.019).  We don't hear near enough about this great hitter in MLB history.  

Jose Silva went 25-28 over 7 MLB seasons.  He best season was 11 wins with the Pirates in 2000.

Going North cards focus on players as they transitioned to the major leagues. Vada Pinson had 2,757 hits in 18 seasons batting .286.

Fun inclusions in this set include Negro League and Women of Baseball. Newt Allen played 20 seasons ending his career with a .288 average.

The backs highlight the five best seasons in a player's career and were a fun look back at their careers.  Poor Alma was "The Hitless Wonder".  Not sure why they didn't highlight her pitching stats.

These are the last of these packs from an eBay purchase.  Speaking of strong mustache game, Phil Garner is no slouch.  Garner played 16 seasons winning a championship with the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.  That team made We Are Family a rallying cry.  That was a fun team.

500 Club, Swinging for the Fences and this Ted Williams insert.  Ted Williams was a 2X Triple Crown winner and 2X MVP amongst so many mother accolades.  

3B Eddie Yost led the league in walks 6X.  I'll miss showing off these cards.  They've been so much fun and a great look back at greats of the game.

BREAKDOWN:
48 – Total Cards
6 – The Campaign
6 – Negro Leagues
4 – Checklist
3 – Goin’ North
2 – Women of Baseball
2 – Swinging for the Fences
1 – 500 Club 
1 – Misc Insert (LP1)

John Elway Card Lot

I picked up this John Elway card lot last year and it had some really cool cards including this great 2013 Topps Magic card.  Elway ended his career as a 2X Super Bowl champion, MVP, Super Bowl MVP, All-1990s Team, Walter Payton award winner and 9X Pro Bowl selectee.  

I've made no secret that John Elway is my favorite football player of all-time.  That 1999 Upper Deck MVP card is really cool because of the photo.  Unfortunately, it was a culmination of Broncos defeating my Falcons soundly in the Super Bowl.  But what a way to end your career.  Two straight Super Bowl victories.  That first Score photos is nice as well.

The art on those Upper Deck cards have always been a favorite of mine.  There are so many 90s football sets I don't remember like these Bowman and Donruss sets.  Lots like these allow me to go back and look at those sets.  

And we have Pinnacle.  So much variety.  This was a 35-card lot I picked up on eBay.

Upper Deck, Pinnacle, Topps.  I really like those old Denver unis.  I grew up with those of course, but they really did look good.

John Elway played in 5 Super Bowls.  Three of those did not go as planned but it is still a great accomplishment to quarterback a team to that many championship games.  Shannon Sharpe really was a great combo with John Elway.  He was a 4X All-Pro with the Broncos and really revolutionized the tight end position.

I like the Select '95 with the muted background.  Makes those colors and photo pop.

I was surprised by how the photos didn't feel repetitive to me.  I thought I'd really just get the classic Elway look right before throwing but I'm very happy with all the different looks which are helped by so much variety in designs amongst the sets.

That Topps Season Highlights card is one of my favorites from the lot.

A nice look at Elway as a Stanford quarterback.

I'd never seen that Goodwin Champions card before and I like it.  That Fleer Ultra is also a favorite of mine.  It is that classic look, but I like how that photo is framed really well.  It was fun sharing these and reliving so many memories watching Elway in his career.