2023 Christmas Goodies

Christmas is always fun and Santa Claus blessed me more than I deserve.  For maybe the first time ever, everything I received was on my list.  I was really excited to receive all these.  I've opened the random cards and watched the Justice Society: World War II animated movie while I've started reading volume 1 of Justice League.  Boba Fett's ship (Micro GalaxyZ) came from my grandsons and it'll be added to my modest Boba Fett collection once I receive the custom stand I ordered.  Shirts are always appreciated and Kawhi is my favorite NBA player.  Motley Crue is a favorite band of mine and the Dr. Feelgood album is my favorite of theirs.  Just lots of silly fun stuff .  It's more enjoyable watching everyone else open their gifts but also seeing the joy they get from giving.  Everyone have a fun New Year's Eve!

Kawhi Leonard 56 Card Lot

Picked up this 56 card Kawhi Leonard lot off eBay last week for just under $20.  The price was right as was the variety of cards.  We'll kick it off with this 2018-2019 Contenders which is a nice looking card.  

Kawhi's my favorite player in the league today.  Unfortunately, he continually deals with injuries but when he's healthy he's one of the best in the league.

I'm not great at looking for these types of card lots but if you are patient they can present themselves.

The call him The Claw for his large hands and they are shown off on that last Prizm card.

I'll let the rest of the cards speak for themselves.  No regrets picking these up.  Plenty of good-looking cards.

2019 Panini Toronto Raptors NBA Champions Basketball Cards

2018-2019 NBA Champions Toronto Raptors Set:   The blasters for these contain a complete 30 card set of the 2018-2019 NBA Champs Toronto Raptors.  I've always been curious about these and being a Kawhi Leonard fan I grabbed this box when I did a Dave & Adams purchase recently.  I think the 2017-2018 Warriors were the first team Panini did this with.  Speaking of the man this photo has him with the Championship Trophy as well as the trophy he took home for being the NBA Finals MVP.

  Most of the photos were taken just after the series ended though there are a few in game photos as well.  While static photos aren't usually a preference seeing players with the trophy after winning the Championship is pretty cool.

The design is basic but I like it.  The basketball texture look at the bottom is pretty cool.  

This was a fun series.  I didn't have a dog in the fight but it was hard not to root for Toronto who had never won a Championship.  Aside from Kawhi Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam were huge factors in them winning a championship and really stepped up their games. 

Fred VanVleet, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Danny Green also were key to Toronto taking home the Gold.  The backs had write-ups specific to each player and showed these were "limited" sets.  How they came up with 49,286 I'll never know.  These are pretty affordable and I'm really glad I picked one up. Maybe I'll track down one of the Warriors sets.  I love the NBA and have no issues being excited for players I like or different teams when they win it all.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards
15 - Player Cards (with Trophy)
8 - Highlight Cards
3 - Celebration Shots Cards
1 - Raptors Team Logo Card
1 - Raptors Team Card
1 - Nick Nurse Head Coach Card
1 - Kawhi Leonard MVP Card