2023 Mosaic Football

2023 Mosaic:  Joey Bosa is one of the great push rushers in the league.  Injuries robbed him of too much playing time but he is a 5X Pro Bowl selection and has registered 10+ sacks in four seasons.

Some running back love.  Jonathan Taylor is having a crazy good year.  He leads the league in most rushing categories.  Austin Ekeler, on that Silver Parallel (I think), is with the Commanders now while Josh Jacobs is in Green Bay.

Myles Murphy is a sometime starter with the Bengals while Forbes is now with the Rams and having his best season in the pros.

I like the Elevate design and I'm always a fan of Hall of Fame cards and retired greats including Michael Vick on this Epic Performers card.

More retired greats including LT on a Green Parallel.  Fun pack that I somehow never got around to sharing until today.

BREAKDOWN:
15 – Total Cards
5 – Retired Greats
3 – RC
3 – Camo Pink Parallel
1 – Elevate
1 – Hall of Fame
1 – Green Parallel
1 – Epic Performers
1 – Silver Parallel

2024 Mosaic Football

2024 Mosaic:  Maxx Crosby was limited to 12 games this season but still registered 7 1/2 sacks. 

These have been on the shelves for a while so I finally bit.  Not a bad design for shiny cards.  Keenan Allen didn't have one of his best seasons but the Bears' youngster at QB is still figuring things out.

A mix of team unis and college unis on these rookie offerings.  Neither player did much in their debut seasons.  And yep, Luke is Christian's brother and son of Ed McCaffrey.

Here we have a Camo Pink Mosaic Parallel and Green Mosaic Parallel.  You get three of the pinks in a pack.

My inserts.  I like the National Pride cards.  Notoriety is one I like as well. I'm still thinking on the Elevate card.

Backs are good and colorful.  But off course we all want to see more stats.

These two cards are something different, as in they are different parallels, but heck if I can figure out what they are.  Panini parallels can be that way for me.  Drives me crazy.  Won't grab more of these but it was a fun look at Mosaic football cards which I hadn't done in some time.

BREAKDOWN:
15 – Total Cards
4 – RC
3 – Camo Pink Mosaic Parallel
1 - Elevate
1 - Notoriety
1 – National Pride
1 – Green Mosaic Parallel

2023-2024 Mosaic Basketball Blaster

23-24 Mosaic: Jimmy Butler no longer has the great hair.  Still his Basketball-Reference page has the hair he came out with as a joke for picture prior to the 2022-2023 season.  Classic.

Here we have two City Edition cards which makes up 20 of the 300-card base set.  That LeBron is a Green Mosaic Parallel while the Step Curry is a base card.  It scans darker but that is almost all silver.  You can see those blue lines in spots and that's where the color is.  Jalen Brunson shows up on a   Orange Fluorescent Mosaic #/25.  Great start to the box.

Brandin Podziemski looks like a steal at the 19th pick of the 2023 NBA Draft for Golden State.  Scoot Henderson, the #3 pick in that draft had an uneven season but showed some promise down the stretch.

Three Thunder Road inserts.  The first is a Silver Parallel, then a standard issue, and then a Green Mosaic Parallel.  Can't complain about pulling two Shai cards.

Not sure about the Elevate inserts.  That Green Parallel is appropriate for NBA Champion Al Horford, a favorite of mine.  

The backs are fine.  We get some decent color and commentary.  Not a shiny card guy, but I lean towards this brand amongst that genre of cards.  This year's design maybe isn't my favorite, but we'll see if it grows on me.  Would have liked to see more color on the fronts.

I can see me grabbing another box of these but only time will tell.  There are a total of 10 all-time greats making up the last 10 cards of the set.  Always fun seeing the retired greats and I do like Timmy.

BREAKDOWN:
36 – Total Cards
4 – City Edition
4 – Green Mosaic Parallel
3 – RC
3 – Thunder Road
1 – Elevate
1 – NBA Greats
1 – Silver Parallel
1 - Orange Fluorescent Mosaic #/25

Random Wax: 2020-2021 Mosaic Basketball

2020-2021 Mosaic:  This random pack of Mosaic showed up in my local Wal-Mart so I said what the heck.  If you're going to pull a green parallel Larry Bird is about as good a match for green as it gets.  Wasn't a big fan until after he retired but I'm all in on Larry Legend now.

Not a bad pull but definitely not one of my better ones from basketball packs.  Without Larry Bird I'd probably be a bit more disappointed.  The design is okay to me but not my favorite Mosaic.

James Wiseman is the most successful of these three but after being injured all last season he's got some work to do to find consistent minutes with the Warriors.

Don't ask me how this pink looking parallel is a "Camo Prizm" but they are.  Three come with these packs. Maybe camo has a definition I'm not aware of but I'm not looking it up.

Good pack of cards.  I won't seek these out but a random pack in my store seemed like something I couldn't pass up.  We'll end it with another hall of famer.  The inclusion of retired greats makes these that much more fun.

BREAKDOWN:

15 – Total Cards

4 – RC

3 – Camo Prizm

2 – All-Time Greats

1 – Elevate

1 – Green Parallel

  

2021 Mosaic Football

2021 Mosaic Football:  Found some new football on the shelves which was a nice surprise. I didn't find any last year which was the first year Mosaic football was offered.  The Price point is higher than other brands and these are no longer on my shelves so this is probably my last pack.  We'll kick it off with Zeke.  He's now sharing the rushing load with Tony Pollard but he still hit 1000 yards while averaging just over four yards per carry.

The design isn't too bad for a shiny card.  It pretty much mirrors the 2020-2021 basketball offering.  The cards labeled NFC, AFC, NFL Debut, and Super Bowl MVPs are subsets within the base set.  The NFC and AFC subsets are labeled as variations.  The rookies are also a subset making up the last 100 cards.

You'll see a few rookies in the packs and I pulled some who had good first seasons.  Bateman had a good year with 46 receptions and over 500 yards for the Ravens while Smith had 64 receptions and over 900 yards for Philadelphia.

The backs are okay.  You get a portion of the front photo in full color.  It is a colorful back which is good.  Love seeing retired greats in this brand.

Not 100% sure what parallel this green actually is as there is no plain green parallel and the only green I found was numbered which this is not.  Mosaic always gives me issues trying to figure out at least one parallel.  Nice Barry Sanders appearance.

Camo Pink parallels.  Not sure why pink is so popular as a parallel but it actually works here.  Not a bad pack and I'm glad I picked it up.

BREAKDOWN:

15 – Total Cards

3 - RC

3 – Retired Greats

3 – Mosaic Camo Pink Parallel

1 – Holo Fame

1 – Green Parallel

1 – Touchdown Masters

2020-2021 Mosaic Basketball Hanger Box

 2020-2021 Mosaic Basketball: I passed on a blaster of these earlier in the month due to the thirty something (I think $38) price tag.  I did bite on this hanger box which was $20 but it'll be my last.  Just too expensive.  I won't say my pull was great but this Jimmy Butler helped it salvage it a bit.  He's a favorite of mine.  

For a shiny card, which aren't my thing per se, the design is okay.  Can't really see it in the scan but the large hexagon shape in the background is colored in team colors.

About a third of the pack is rookie cards.  Desmond Bane is having a really good year averaging 17 points per game while shooting 41% from deep.  Been a nice addition to my fantasy team.

The Jason Kid HoloFame insert on the left is a base design while I'm pretty sure the one on the right is a Mosaic parallel.  Confusing to have Mosaic parallels when that is the name of the brand.  And what the heck is "Mosaic" supposed to mean?  If the parallel isn't obvious when you look at the card you shouldn't do it.  Kinda bummed to get a duplicate as well.

There were also green and Reactive Orange Prizm parallels in the box.  The latter are exclusive to hangers.

Not the best box in the world but I knew what I was getting into.  I left plenty for others who may appreciate these more.

BREAKDOWN:
20 – Total Cards
6 – RC
4 – Reactive Orange Prizm Parallels
2 - HoloFame
1 – National Pride
1 – Green Parallel
1 – HoloFame Mosaic Parallel

Random Wax: 2019-2020 Mosaic Basketball

 2019-2020 Mosaic Basketball:  Don't get excited.  This post has been gathering dust for some time. This green parallel was the highlight of a very strong pack. Luka Doncic is so exciting to watch.  He has amazing court vision and can play ball with the best of them.  He's definitely a top five player in the league right now and maybe top three.

This green parallel works really well for Tacko Fall and the Celtics green.   I really enjoy having Sir Charles on cards again.  I liked him as a player but I really enjoy him as an analyst. 

Nikola Jokic continues to get better and this year is he is #3 in the league in assists with just over nine a game.  Amazing.  Blake Griffin really fell off this year.  No idea what happened to him but I was counting on him as a late round find for my fantasy team.  That didn't end well...

I'm a huge Domantas Sabonis fan.  Loved his dad, Arvydas as well, who played for the Trail Blazers .  He's another of those big guys who has good hands and I expect he'll make the all-star team again this year.  He's also hitting the three really consistently now.  Anthony Davis finishes this pack on a high note.  Fun pull and pack.

BREAKDOWN:

15 – Total Cards

3 – RC

3 – Pink Camo

2 – NBA Debut

2 – Green Parallel

1 – Got Game

1 – Hall of Fame

1 – Will to Win

 

 

Random Wax: 2019-2020 Mosaic Basketball

 2019-2020 Mosaic Basketball: Don't get too excited this pack has been hanging around for a while.  Decent pull here starting with Zion here who everyone went crazy for in last year's basketball collecting season.  He and the Pelicans have had a good start to the season so far so collectors will be even more excited.  I can't wait for new basketball cards to hit the shelf.  Been so long.

Glad to pull a McCollum and Jokic is always a good pull.  He showed off how good he was in the bubble last year after Denver made it to the Western Conference Finals.

Devonte' Graham is looking over his shoulder with LaMelo ball on the team now. Graham's having a tough shooting year but the season is still young.  He is a solid young player for the Hornets.  Jrue Holiday is now a Buck still finding his way on a really good Milwaukee team.  

Chris Paul is a part of the the Suns.  Big things are expected from Phoenix this year.  Fun pack that is capped off by this Steph Curry parallel.  I have more packs of these in reserve so you'll see those in the future. 

BREAKDOWN:
15 – Total Cards
3 – Pink Camo 
2 – RC
2 – Will to Win
1 – Green