Random Wax: 2022 Stadium Club Blaster

2022 Stadium Club:  Stadium Club is always fun as is Bo Jackson.  Love this photo of him and his 1989 All-Star Game trophy.  Great smile and love remembering how good he was.

We love the photos, right?  We don't get the stock photos we're used with other sets and these are too cool like that Freddie Freeman.

Even simple photos like this pop more on Stadium Club.

Lars Nootbaar is the standout amongst these three.  He batted .276 and had 14 home runs for the second year in a row. 

That CJ Abrams is a Black & White parallel.  Not that excited about either of the two inserts.

The inserts actually feel out of place in this set.  This Power Zone has a nice look to it.

These Master Photos don't do anything for me.

Red Parallel.

Love seeing Dansby Swanson in a Braves uni.  Still not fun knowing he's a Cub.

What a photo!

The inclusion of retired greats is one of the reasons to love this set.  This was a fun box.  Good pull and plenty to enjoy.

BREAKDOWN:

40 – Total Cards

7 - RC

7 – Retired Greats

3 – Red Parallel

1 – Dynasty

1 – Power Zone

1 – Master Photo

1 – Team of the Future

1 – Black & White Parallel

Random Wax: 1994 Ted Williams Roger Staubach's NFL 3 Packs

1994 Staubach:  Showing off more of this really cool set.  Dick Butkus passed away in October.  He's remembered as a hard hitter but also had a pretty good run in television and movies.  A member of two All-Decade teams he was also a five-time All-Pro.

These cards are so much fun.  So many greats who older generations grew up with.  The memories alone make this set so much fun.  I loved Steve Largent as a kid.  Archie Manning was someone I liked as well but I rarely got to see him play.  Largent was of course a Hall of Famer and his teams did make it to the playoffs four times during his career.

Nice Sonny Jurgensen card in that old Redskins uni.  Interesting that the photo in the background has him in the more familiar Redskins helmet.  Favre and O'Donnell were featured in the Dawning of a Legacy inserts.

Great quarterbacks keep on coming.  Sammy Baugh was ahead of his time as a passer and led the league in so many categories throughout his career while setting a ton of records.  He also won two championships as the Washington QB.  One of those was in his rookie year.  He played 16 seasons for the Redskins.  He also played defensive back and finished with 31 interceptions for his career. Must see NFL Hall of Fame video can be seen here (2 minutes).

A couple of coaching greats and one of the first running stars of the game, Red Grange.

Putting pogs on a card was a stroke of genius.  Love it.

Some defensive greatness and one of the top runners in the history of the league.  This set is so much fun.

BREAKDOWN:
30 – Cards
3 – Pogs
3 – Golden Arms
3 – Dawning of a Legacy
2 – Chalkboard Legends
1 – Checklist
1 – Path to Greatness

Justice Society: World War II

JSA WW II:  This was one of the two DC animated movies I received for Christmas.  Good movie. It went in a different direction than I expected but I had no real knowledge of the movie prior to watching it.  Based on the JSA helping fend off the Nazis in World War II there is much more to his movie.  The cover hints to that.  I really like the JSA and it's fun to see them on the screen in animated form.  DC does a really good job with their animated films and this one should be watched by anyone with a thought to do so.  

2000-2001 Upper Deck Victory Basketball

2000-2001 Victory:  This is a pack I purchased on eBay in 2022.  We'll kick it off with John Stockton.  Nineteen seasons with the Utah Jazz he was nothing short of great.  An 11X All-Pro selection, 5X All-Defensive selection.  Led the league in assists nine times total in nine straight years and the league in steals twice.  He was so much fun to watch because he was just so consistently great at what he did.

I wasn't familiar with this set prior to opening this pack.  I really like the design.  The colors, logo, player position, player number and good photos all work for me.  There are 330 total cards in the set.  I thought my pull was great. 

There are three subsets - Rookies, Leaders, and Fly Kobe Bryant/Fly Kevin Garnett.  Desmond Mason is easy to overlook but averaged a solid 12 PPG for his career.  McDyess led Denver in scoring and rebounding in the1999-2000 season.  Kobe and Garnett had 25 cards each in their Fly subset.  Nice looking Kobe card and one of the few around the rim photos you'll find in the set.  Maybe my only knock on the set.

The backs are nice showing off career stats, team record from the previous season  and a little color.  I love the All-Time Team Record Holders section at the bottom.  And look at those stats of Hakeem's.

This was a fun pack and I'll look for more in the future.  We get a nice Ty Lue appearance of the future NBA coach.  We'll end it with more greatness in Hakeem.

BREAKDOWN:

12 – Total Cards

1 - Rookies

1 – Leaders

1 – Fly2Kobe Bryant

Random Wax: 1990 Donruss (3 Packs)

1990 Donruss:  Nolan Ryan is a legend.  We'll never see anything like him again.  Twenty-seven years.  5700+ strikeouts.  Seven no-hitters.

A couple more Hall of Fame players and one in Sweet Lou who some think should be one.

Just a small snippet of Ryan's greatness.  

More players who did really good in this era of baseball.  I really like my pull in these three packs.

Zane Smith is a favorite player of mine while Tewksbury and Plesac were good at what they did.  Who knows how old Julio Franco was on this really cool All-Star card.  Really enjoy showing off these cards and all the memories they bring up.

BREAKDOWN:
45 – Total Cards (3 Packs)
3 – Puzzle
1 – All-Star

Panini Harry Potter Welcome to Hogwarts Trading Cards

Welcome to Hogwarts:  Found these recently and wanted to grab some for myself and my daughter who is a huge fan.  I'm really glad I did.  These are pretty cool.  Lots to show off and we'll kick it off with the star himself.

I'm a fan of the books and the movies but not a mega fan.  Just really like these cards.  Pretty much covers the gamut of the movies with lots of fun memories and cool looking cards.

You'll see most of the primary characters but not all.  It does feel like we don't get a few fan favorites.

Ticket to Hogwarts.  The base set is 216 cards with two insert sets having nine cards each.  Those inserts aren't named.  A couple of checklists are here and here.

Any of the Panini sets that are done overseas, like this one, are soooooo tough to find information about.  You can find checklists but finding information on what kind of boxes are released and what they contain is impossible to find.  I ordered two display boxes (48 packs) on eBay but received eight smaller boxes with seven packs each which meant I actually got more cards out of the deal.  But I don't know if maybe the boxes had something else in them.  Still, I'm happy but it's maddening not being able to find specifics.  And the eBay listing was in German.

I really like the art or movie poster cards.  The Harry and Voldemort card is pretty cool.  Among the base cards are Holographic and Rainbow cards.  They have some shiny effects to them but aren't in the realm of a Prizm card like we're used to.

I'll be showing off all the cards over time.  I'll do four packs/24 cards each post. I do like the variety of photos including press or non-screen time photos like that first one.

If I had any beef with the cards themselves, it would be that we don't get wider photo shots.  They are somewhat zoomed in.  Sometimes we get something a bit different but they still don't feel like a full screen shot.  That middle card is an XXL insert (no it isn't larger than the others) but they aren't named.  It's a foil card and really don't feel special.

So these are cool.  Not game changers but Harry Potter fans will enjoy them.  They aren't cheap per se either but won't break the bank either.  I do like how the small "icon" at the bottom front of the card changes depending on the movie the photo is from.

BREAKDOWN:

24 – Total Cards

4 – Holgraphic

3 – Rainbow

1 – XXL

2023-2024 Donruss Basketball Mega Box

23-24 Donruss:  The NBA All-Star game is tonight and Donruss hit the shelves locally within the last few days.  We get to see players in their new uniforms in Donruss like seeing Dame as a Buck.  Milwaukee has "struggled" this year leading to Doc Rivers taking over as coach.

Wow, what a pull.  I think it was one of my last three packs where I pulled a Nokic, LeBron and either Kawhi or Giannis.  There are 150 cards in these boxes so in theory you should do well.  Approximately 250 base cards including rookies based on last year's set (no checklist for this set yet).

Keyonte George is having a solid rookie season for Utah averaging 11 PPG and 4 APG.  Nice draft pick at #16 in the first round.

Who doesn't hope for a Wembanyama?  He's doing great averaging 20/10/3 this year and you have to assume he'll get better.  Portland still isn't seeing the franchise part of Scoot Henderson yet but hopefully that'll happen sometime soon.  Thompson is averaging 8 PPG and 6 RPG for Detroit.

LeBron hot pack.  No complaints from me.  I like the Magicians and Franchise Features inserts.  Bomb Squad is okay.

Holo Green and Red Laser parallels are exclusive to Mega Boxes.  No red for me which was a disappointment.  The green is a great match on this Jaylen Brown card though.  The front design isn't great to me.  I first saw it with 2023 Donruss Football and didn't like the design there either.  The backs are blah but par for the course.

Donovan Mitchell is having another great season while Paulo Banchero is even better in year two being named Rookie of the Year in his first season.  I'm not a Kyrie guy but he can fill up the stat sheet.  Dallas has figured something out of late winning 7 of 9 including 6 straight.

More greats in the league.  Tons of base cards.  It feels like some more inserts would be appropriate in the packs and boxes.

Clippers showing out.  Los Angeles is another team that has figured it out.  I think they are as dangerous as any in the Western Conference.  Definitely a fun box and we'll end it with another Milwaukee Buck.

BREAKDOWN:

 150 – Total Cards

21 – Rated Rookie

10 – Holo Green Laser Parallel

3 – Franchise Features

2 – Bomb Squad

2 – Great X-Pectations

1 – The Rookies

1 – Complete Players