Random Wax: 2021 Bowman

2021 Bowman: Let's do some baseball today.  Bowman is always hit and miss for me.  I'm not all about the prospects so these can be tough.  Gerrit Cole is a good place to start with this pack though.

Vilade only has six at bats at the major league level.  Royce Lewis only had 40 at bats in his first season but gave Twins fans hope as he batted .300 with two home runs.  These are Bowman Chrome inserts.

Tyler Stephenson is batting a really good .296 across three seasons with the Reds.

When I opened this pack two years ago I had no idea Jeremy Pena would be a World Series MVP in his first season for the Houston Astros.

Some more veterans as well as Corbin Carroll on a Bowman Scout's Top 100 insert.  He batted .260 in 104 at bats last season.  Fun when you can look back at these and find guys doing well.

BREAKDOWN:
19 – Total Cards
5 – Bowman Chrome
3 – RC
3 – 1st Bowman
1 – Bowman Top 100

 

2021-2022 Select Basketball

21-22 Select Basketball:  I rarely pick up Select Basketball but found a pack as opposed to a blaster so I grabbed one.  We'll kick it off with Donovan Mitchell who has been great with the Cavaliers this season.

A couple more greats from the game today.  There are 300 cards across different levels within the set.  These are from the Base Concourse cards which are numbered 1-100 and most commonly pulled.  The design is pretty good.  Needs a team logo though.

A couple of rookies including a Blue Prizm parallel.

The backs are kind of boring.  We like our stats and it's hard when they aren't there.

Another Blue Prizm parallel. 

A Rookie Revolution insert.  Not that exciting of an insert but overall a good pack of cards.  We'll end it with an Anthony Davis Base Premier Level card which is found in numbers 101-200.  Notice the different design.  Base Courtside is the final level of cards and are numbered 201-300 but I didn't pull any of those.  Enjoy your Sunday.

BREAKDOWN:
15 – Total Cards
6 – RC
2 – Blue Prizm
1 – Base Premier
1 – Rookie Revolution

Random Wax: 2021 Topps Baseball Mike Trout Tin

2021 Topps:  Surprised I hadn't shown this one off yet.  I'm a sucker for these sometimes and this was one I picked up two years ago.  My second Mike Trout tin as I also picked up his 2020 Topps Tin.  I also grabbed a 2021 Ronald Acuna Jr. tin which I showed off here.

This 1952 Topps Redux is the highlight of the pack. I like this design and of course having Ohtani on it always helps.  I'd love to see him stay with the Angels but no matter how hard they try in L.A. the team still struggles.  Will be interesting to see how that plays out as this is his last year under contract.

There were big hopes for Jo Adell two years ago.  he can still turn it around but so far his career has not lived up to expectations.

Machado has done well for the Padres since arriving in San Diego via trade in 2018.  Rumor is he'll opt out of his contract after 2023.  He'll be 30 at that time but will probably get more than the $32M per year he is on contract for now.

Never cared for the '86 card design but somehow I like it in these newer sets.  Nice Trout pull too.

Another Ohtani!  I'm digging my pull.

Fun team card.

A couple of greats from the game.  Never get tired of pulling either of these guys.

I really hope Tatis Jr. can bounce back from his suspension and get back on the good side of the baseball gods.  I became of fan of his when he was mic'd up during an all-star game a few years back.  He screwed up, no doubt, but I'm still rooting for him.  Same for Mookie even in a Dodger uni.

That Devers is a 70 Years of Topps Blue Parallel.

Anderson had no idea he'd be a World Champion by year's end.  He had a down year last season but was really good in '20 and '21 including the playoffs.

I paid $14.99 for this tin in '21 and I think it's a good deal.  Can't say I really know what to do with teh tins after the fact but hey I'll figure it out. Happy Friday!

BREAKDOWN:

75 – Cards

10 – RC

6 – 1952 Redux

3 – League Leaders

1 – Team

1 – Chrome

1 – Future Stars

1 – World Series

1 – Chrome 1952 Redux

1 – Chrome 70 Years of Topps

1 – 70 Years of Topps Blue Parallel

1 - 1986 Topps Baseball 35th Anniversary

Random Wax: 2022-2023 Hoops Winter Basketball Blaster

22-23 Hoops:  These winter blasters hit the shelves shortly after the non-winter variety did.  We'll kick this off with De'Aaron Fox.  Don't sleep on this guy.  He's in Sacramento so many haven't heard of him but he's good.  Really good.  The Kings are doing well this season and hopefully a playoff appearance is in the cards for them.

The design is the same as what we've already seen from Hoops this year with some snow added.  They could have gone a little more heavy on the snow.  If you are going to do a themed set, go all out like the Topps holiday versions.  Still, this is better than some designs from years past when you could barely see the snow.

Jaden Ivey is averaging 15 ppg for the Pistons while top rookie Paolo Banchero is averaging 20/6/3 for the Magic.  He's slowed down a bit as the season has gone on but he's still shown he was worthy of the top pick in the draft.

Some nice photos in the set.

The rookie sweater relic.  Watson isn't really seeing any court time yet for the Nuggets.

Some greats of the league on the inserts.  Frequent Flyers is a design I like while the jury is still out on Pure Players and Skyview.

More youngsters.  All three of these guys are having solid rookie seasons averaging seven to eight points per game.

Some solid small forwards in the league.  I'm a DeRozan fan and he's an All-Star again this year.  Harris and Middleton will need to do more for their teams.  Both have been inconsistent at best this season.

Duren is averaging almost nine points and almost nine rebounds per game this year.  He's doing better than this design.  Need more something in all that blank space in the background.

Just showing off some of fun guards in the league.  That Klay photo is great.  Easy to make up a great ending to a game with that one.

Many folks really like this Hoops Tribute design to include myself.  They have that Hoops vibe to them.  Can't wait to see how Luka and Kyrie do in Dallas.  I'm not an Irving fan but there's no denying his talent.  Can Dallas make it work?  Should be interesting to watch to say the least.

BREAKDOWN:
90 – Total Cards
13 – RC
5 – Hoops Tribute
3 – Arriving Now
3 – Purple Parallel
2 – Rookie Greetings
1 – Skyview
1 – Pure Players
1 – Frequent Flyers
1 – Rookie Sweaters Relic

Random Wax: 2022 Donruss NASCAR Hobby Box (Post #2)

2022 Donruss NASCAR:  The 2023 NASCAR season starts at Daytona today so we'll do some NASCAR.  This is my second post of my 2022 hobby box.  There are so many cards that I wanted to show off more.  Rusty Wallace is my favorite all-time driver.  I'm not a fan of this retro '81 Donruss design but I do like this card of Wallace's.  Wallace won 55 races and one championship.

Plenty of star power in this sets as well as young talent from the lower tiers of NASCAR.  Larson and Harvick are NASCAR champions while Hailie Deegan is a driver in the trucker series.

This design from Donruss was horrible.  Just saying.  Still Jeffrey Earnhardt saves with that look on his card.

Retired greats.  I don't care for the black and white photos but they aren't entirely bad.  Gives the card a certain feel.

A red parallel #/299 of my favorite current driver.  He moves to Richard Childress Racing this year.

Twenty-six of the 192 cards in the box are optic.  Chase Elliott is another favorite driver of mine.

These Championship Drive cards are really colorful and I like the look.

That Truex is #/199.  The Round of 16 inserts highlight the drivers who make the playoffs.  Another Rusty showing.

All three of these inserts have good looks to them with Action Packed one of my favorites.

We need to see the brakes glowing in these photos set at night.

Jimmie Johnson, numbered to 299 and retired for a few years, will run some races this year.  The other driver I like, Bubba Wallace, had a good 2022 season but a tough end to the regular season as he wrecked Kyle Larson and was suspended for one race for his actions.  He has to keep his emotions under wrap.  That blue parallel works great with Chase.  We'll end it with The King, Richard Petty.  Looking forward to the NASCAR season and today's race!

BREAKDOWN:
192 – Total Cards
44 – Retired Greats
26 – Optic
19 – Race Kings
12 – Rated Rookie
8 – Cars
8 – Silver Parallel
5 – Under the Lights
5 – Red Parallel #/299
4 - Elite
4 – Round of 16
4 – Action Packed
4 – Blue Parallel #/199
2 - Contenders
2 – Victory Laps
2 – Green Parallel #/99
2 – Championship Drive
1 – Base Optic Auto
1 – Race Day Relic
1 – Retro 1981 Relic
1 – Purple Parallel #/49
1 – Holographic Parallel #/199
1 – Signature Series Auto Red Parallel #25