Friday, January 18, 2019

Wal-Mart Combo: 1991 Fleer Ultra Baseball Card Pack

Pack #2 from the Wal-Mart Ultimate Combo purchase is a pack of 1991 Ultra Fleer baseball.  This pack came with 14 cards and one sticker.  I think I had a great pull with three hall of famers and Barry Bonds.  John Smoltz is a personal collection guy and Atlanta Brave so I was very happy to grab this card - even if the look on his face is not one he wants to remember.    
More stars with Barry Bonds and hall of famers Ryne Sandberg and Lee Smith.  The cards have a very simple design and while I don't prefer gray as the main color for cards the inclusion in this minimal design is OK.  
  More notables from this pack - all players folks familiar with the era will remember.  The Denny Neagle Prospect card was a nice pull.  Prospects are never a sure thing but Neagle definitely had a good career finishing up with 124 wins.





BREAKDOWN:
14 – Total Cards + 1 Sticker
1 – Team Fleer
1 – Prospect

Wal-Mart Combo: 2006 Topps Baseball Rack Pack

This will be my first post on those packs from the Wal-Mart 50 Pack Combo purchase.  I've never opened, or to my knowledge owned, any 2006 Topps baseball until this rack pack that came as part of the combo.  This Ken Griffey Jr. card highlighted the pack which included three hall of famers and a World Series winning manager.  The rack packs have a total of 21 cards.  Eighteen of those are 2006 Topps and three cards from past Topps sets.  My three were from the eighties though none were notable players.  
  The cards themselves have a good design and the wording in foil isn't as hard to read as it appears in the scans.  I like the different shots of the players even if they weren't all action shots.  Jeff Bagwell during introductions is a cool card though again it isn't an action photo.  I like the look on Ivan  Rodiguez's face in his Up The Middle card with Carlos Guillen.  
Team cards are part of the base set while the Hit Parade inserts highlight hitting accomplishments.  This was a really fun pack to break as it was my first time seeing this set.  It was a very cool inclusion in my combo by.

BREAKDOWN:
21 – Total Cards
2 – Rookie Card
1 – Manager
1 – Checklist
1 – Team Card
1 – Hit Parade
1 – Up the Middle
1 – 1981 Topps
1 – 1986 Topps
1 – 1987 Topps

Monday, January 14, 2019

2017 Topps WWE Women’s Division Wrestling Cards Blaster w/Relic

I was so happy with the 2018 WWE Women's Division Women's Wrestling cards that I grabbed this 2017 WWE Women's Division Women's Wrestling blaster with my recent baseball combo pack order from Wal-Mart.  I'm again very happy with my cards which totaled 81 including a shirt relic.  These are basically divided into NXT, WWE, and roster cards.  Each divide those among major events in the series.  There were quite a few Charlotte Flair cards which made me happy but it also had plenty of great photos from all the big lady stars of the WWE.  The design is great as it doesn't take away from the photos which are really good.  The backs are simple with a nice write-up and some basic color.  The information is providing the background to the event/photo on the front of the card.  The roster cards are a bit more plain but still look really nice and have a great mix of Superstar, Announcer, Ring Announcer, and Legend cards (great legends too).  I call this a win.  I'd love to pick up more in the future of both the 2017 and 2018 cards.  I think these are just fun sets and as always very easy on the eyes. 




WWE 

NXT


Roster Cards







BREAKDOWN:
81 – Total Cards
38 – Base Roster
  -- 23 - Superstar
  -- 11 – Legends
  -- 3 – Announcer
  -- 1 – Ring Announcer
  -- 1 - Manager
24 – NXT
18 – WWE
1 – Shirt Relic #/199

Sunday, January 13, 2019

2015 Score Football All-Time Franchise Insert Set

This All-Time Franchise insert set is from the 2015 Score hobby box I opened last month.  I really liked the looks, especially of this Walter Payton card, and decided to search out the entire set.  A quick trip to eBay and DONE!  Nice simple design, great photos, all-time greats and I'm happy.
There are only eight cards in the set but they are packed with stars.  We get two 49ers which at first I wondered about but who can argue with either.  
A great quarterback trio including, maybe my all-time favorite gun slinger, John Elway.




Roger Staubach was the only player who starred in the seventies but I'll take a Staubach card any day, especially in those blue unis.  Just a fun little set which cost next to nothing and I'm really glad I picked it up.

Friday, January 11, 2019

Random Wax: 2018-2019 Hoops

Finally had a 2018-2019 Hoops pack that delivered.  Kevin Durant highlighted this pack that had plenty of star power.  Durant is such a great player whose story probably gets a little lost in the fact that one, he played during the LeBron era, and two moved to an established championship team much to the chagrin of many fans and media members.  Still this guy is an elite player who in my opinion, only has one player who is better than him currently in the league.
  Donovan Mitchell is still struggling but to his credit, I think, he is trying to shoot his way out of his malaise.  A nice hall of famer and Maverick rookie Luke Doncic whom Dallas hopes is another Dirk Nowitzki in that he will have a long hall of fame career with the team.  Doncic is doing well so far averaging 18 PPG, 6 RPG and almost 5 APG and should be the league rookie of the year.
A nice blue parallel of KAT and the Trae Young rookie.  Traded for Doncic during the draft, my Hawks are hoping Young can be the franchise moving forward.  I don't doubt his skills but his shooting is another thing.  That HAS to get better for him to succeed in the NBA otherwise I see him as another Ricky Rubio - great ball handling skills but no consistent shot.
A couple of stars of the league and De'Aaron Fox who has stepped it up in his second year in the league.  I really like him.
Nice photo of Jerami Grant and I pulled personal collection guy DeMar DeRozan.  This was a fun pack for sure with great variety and plenty of stars.  I learned something.  The retired legends I've listed prior are actually part of the Hoops Tribute subset making up the final 20 cards of the base set.  I pulled Bill Russell this pack but I've pulled him before and showed him off in that post.  There are some great players in this subset so I'll definitely be on the lookout for those.

BREAKDOWN:
30 - Total Cards
2 - RC
1 - Blue Parallel
1 - The Pulse
1 - Faces of the Future
1 - Lights Camera Action
1 - Hoops Tribute (Retired Legend)

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Wal-Mart MLB Baseball's Ultimate Collector's 50 Pack Combo

I ran across this Wal-Mart MLB Baseball's Ultimate Collector's 50 Pack Combo online and was intrigued.  For the price ($19.97) and some of the packs shown I thought this can't be that bad a deal.  With 50 packs I figured there would be a minimum of 250 cards and while I wouldn't be surprised to see junk wax I made the leap.  I went in with my eyes wide open and I am happy with my cards.  The 50 packs I received are detailed out below and totaled 352 cards.  The highlights for me were the five packs of  2015 Topps Archives and the 2006 Topps Series 2 rack pack.  I hadn't seen either of these sets before and my pull from the Archives packs was great in my opinion.  I'll start throwing up posts on the cards I pulled but just wanted to throw this out there for folks to see. It is a relatively inexpensive option to grab some "random" packs which may appeal to others. This is all about the fun as you probably won't find autos or relics here.  I purchased the combo with another item that put me into the free shipping category by the way (orders over $35). 


BREAKDOWN:
352 – Total Cards
1988 Donruss (2 Packs – 30 cards)
1989 Donruss (4 Packs – 60)
1990 Donruss (2 Packs – 32)
1991 Ultra Fleer (1 Pack - 14)
2006 Topps Series 2 Rack Pack (1 Pack - 18 + 3 Vintage – 1 – 87 Topps, 1 – 86 Topps, 1 – 81 Topps)
2015 Topps Series 1 (5 Packs – 25)
2015 Topps Series Update (5 Packs – 25)
2015 Topps Archives (5 Packs – 20)
2016 Topps Series 2 (5 Packs – 25)
2017 Topps Series 1 (5 Packs – 25)
2017 Topps Series 2 (5 Packs – 25)
2017 Topps Update (5 Packs – 25)
2018 Topps Series 1 (5 Packs – 25)  

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

2018-2019 Contenders Basketball Case Break - Portland Trail Blazers

I see guys purchasing their teams for a box or case break so I was very excited to purchase the Portland Trail Blazers for a case break (12 boxes) of the 2018-2019 Contenders basketball.  While I originally wanted the Atlanta Hawks the prices were well over $100 before those auctions were done.   The Trail Blazers were still over my budget but I got caught up in the frenzy of the last minute bidding and grabbed them for $32.  I pulled both a Rookie Ticket base auto and a Rookie Ticket premium auto of Anfernee Simons.  Simons hasn't really stood out to this point but they are some nice cards.  Premium parallels are shiny versions of the base card.   
I've done enough research on breaks so I know how they work and what terms to watch for.  This one was pretty straight forward and for my money I received all the Trail Blazer cards pulled during the case break.  The checklist for this set came out real late and I hadn't looked at it and it may not have been out when the break took place.  When I watched the break I quickly figured out that there were only three base cards for Portland.  So I was basically betting on grabbing some good parallels, relics or autos. 
 For me it isn't all about the relics and autos in a break but I did do well pulling two autographs.  I do have a ton of the base cards of Nurkic, Lillard and McCollum and also received two premium Nurkic cards as well of a Playing the Numbers Game insert.  This was a fun break and the seller showed the break live via YouTube which is exciting to watch.  Whoever purchased the Los Angeles Lakers was the big winner.  They pulled four Lakers autographs and a 1/1 LeBron James Championship parallel.  Wow.  



BREAKDOWN:
45 – Total Cards
15 – Jusof Nurkic (2 – Premium)
14 – C.J. McCollum
13 – Damian Lillard
2 – Rookie Ticket Autographs (1 – Premium)
1 – Playing the Numbers Game